Recently, a series of incidents involving Chinese international students have occurred at the University of Michigan between 2023 and 2025, including espionage activities and smuggling of biological materials. Federal Representative Elise Stefanik (Republican from New York) urged the University of Michigan President to strengthen oversight during a hearing on March 26th.
During the hearing, Stefanik repeatedly questioned the University of Michigan President, Domenico Grasso, about the Chinese international students, calling for enhanced management and scrutiny at the university. Stefanik asked why Chinese citizens at the University of Michigan were accused of engaging in espionage activities without the university conducting an audit of potential national security vulnerabilities in their research.
Last year, under pressure from Congress, the University of Michigan terminated its partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Five Chinese students were found engaging in espionage activities at Camp Grayling, a remote location in Michigan, where they illegally took photos of U.S. military exercises and equipment at night.
Stefanik mentioned that the students lied to U.S. law enforcement about their motives and conspired to use WeChat, a Chinese-controlled messaging app, to delete photos and evidence from their phones and cameras. This case occurred in August 2023 and led to formal charges in October 2024. The five students involved, all Chinese nationals, faced charges of conspiracy, making false statements, and tampering with evidence.
Stefanik questioned if the university had conducted a comprehensive audit to determine any damage to intellectual property or federally funded research. President Grasso responded that the espionage activities took place off-campus. Stefanik pressed further, asking if an audit had been conducted, emphasizing the need for a thorough examination despite the incidents occurring off-campus.
Grasso admitted that the University of Michigan had not conducted audits for undergraduate students. He assured Stefanik that improvements had been made and would continue in conducting background checks on all incoming researchers and students. He emphasized the importance of closer collaboration with federal intelligence agencies to ensure thorough screening of students before issuing visas.
In 2024, Chinese international student Haoxiang Gao, who was studying at the University of Michigan, was criminally charged for allegedly illegally voting in the 2024 U.S. elections. A judge ordered Gao to surrender his Chinese passport and remain in Michigan. However, he fled the United States in January 2025 using another passport.
Three Chinese visiting scholars at the University of Michigan, Xu Bai, Fengfan Zhang, and Zhiyong Zhang, were charged by the U.S. Department of Justice for conspiring to smuggle biological materials and making false statements to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in 2024 and 2025.
In 2025, two Chinese scholars were charged for smuggling the dangerous bioagent Fusarium graminearum. Yunqing Jian, a postdoctoral researcher in molecular plant-microbe interactions lab at the University of Michigan, and her boyfriend Zunyong Liu, a researcher at Zhejiang University, were implicated in the case.
This case has shocked the American public and policymakers. On June 5, 2025, Michael Sobolik, a senior researcher at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., an expert on China issues, shared in a video interview that “the CCP is an enemy of the United States” and has been exploiting U.S. open policies to harm the country.