Days after two Chinese researchers were accused of smuggling a toxic fungus to the United States, Gordon G. Chang—a US-based expert on China—warned of ‘something worse than Covid’ hitting the US if the authorities are not careful.
Chang’s remarks came even as a fresh wave of Covid-19 is raising concerns among health experts.
Fusarium graminearum, the fungus feared to have been smuggled into the US is said to pose as an agroterrorism threat, an attack aimed at crops and livestock to disrupt the population’s economy and food supply.
Chang, the author of ‘China Is Going To War’, warned that if the US does not “sever relations with China’ then it will have to deal with severe consequences.
According to an FBI criminal complaint, 34-year-old Zunyong Liu, a researcher in China, brought the fungus into the US in July 2024 while visiting his girlfriend, 33-year-old Yunqing Jian.
“The only way to stop this is to sever relations with China. And I know people think that’s drastic, but we are being overwhelmed. We are going to get hit eventually. We are going to get hit really hard, not just with Covid, not just with fentanyl, but perhaps with something worse,” he was quoted as saying by Fox News.
Chang also added that China is waging war against the US.
The outbreak of Covid-19 was widely blamed on China as it was alleged that the virus had been engineered in the Wuhan lab. The outbreak had affected millions and had brought the world to a standstill.
Is the fungus really a threat?
Though Chang has flagged it as ‘something worse than Covid’, agricultural experts have a different take on it. According to them, the crop fungus has been existing in the US for over a century as it likely poses little risk to food safety.
Agro experts opine that it could be prevented by spraying pesticides and is only dangerous if ingested regularly in large quantities.
Meanwhile, a federal court in Detroit on Tuesday charged Jian with conspiracy to commit offence or to defraud the US by smuggling goods into the country, false statements and visa fraud. The court scheduled Jian’s bail hearing for June 13.
