Judge says 3 months in jail are enough for Chinese scientist in US smuggling case
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/09/2025 (387 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
DETROIT (AP) — A young Chinese scientist interrogated for hours after an international flight to Detroit and held in jail for three months was sentenced to time served Wednesday for illegally shipping biological material to the U.S. that nonetheless wasn’t a threat to the public.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Leitman acknowledged that federal agents have a critical role in stopping “bad actors” from trying to get “bad stuff” into the country. But he also noted that Chengxuan Han, who was headed to a one-year job at a University of Michigan lab, doesn’t appear to fit that category.
“That’s the appropriate balance to strike here,” the judge said in declining to keep Han locked up for another three months as the government had suggested.
Han cried as she spoke to the judge in Mandarin and expressed regret for a “very painful” lesson. She said her career will be “destroyed” when she soon returns to China.
“Government agents are doing their duties here. … I really have no intention to harm anybody and create a security hazard,” Han said through a translator.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit has used unflattering language in promoting the case against Han, even referring to her as an “alien from Wuhan,” a Chinese city that became notorious as the possible source for the global spread of COVID-19.
Han is “not some sort of Chinese operative,” defense attorney Sara Garber said in a court filing, describing her as a “nerdy, kind and polite academic.”
Han, who is in her late 20s, pleaded no contest to smuggling and making false statements. Before her arrival in the U.S., authorities said she made three shipments to someone in Ann Arbor, Michigan, including a book with a hidden envelope that contained filter paper with 28 shapes containing plasmids, which are found naturally in bacteria.
“Hello! This is a fun letter with interesting patterns. I hope you can enjoy the pleasure within it,” Han wrote.
Han was also accused of sending petri dishes that contained nematode worms, known as C. Elegans. Authorities said the packages were not properly labeled and that Han didn’t have approval to ship them.
“C. Elegans is easy to obtain, easy to study, nonharmful,” Garber said.
She said Han’s research focuses on how organisms detect light, touch and temperature.
“This is not a case of smuggling in some sort of virus or a crop-destroying something or other,” the judge said. “From what I can tell, this material was not a threat at all.”
Han’s case is one of two involving Chinese scientists and the University of Michigan. Yunqing Jian is charged with conspiring with her boyfriend, another scientist from China, to bring a toxic fungus into the U.S. Fusarium graminearum can attack wheat, barley, maize and rice.
It is already found in the East and Upper Midwest, and scientists have been studying it for decades. Jian’s case is pending.
