‘Sever ties with China’: Top expert warns of ‘something worse than COVID’ hitting US

A leading US-based expert on China has warned of a threat “worse than COVID” hitting the country after two Chinese nationals were arrested on charges of smuggling a toxic agricultural fungus into the US and has suggested a complete severing of ties with Beijing to avoid another humongous tragedy.

America’s top expert on Chinese affairs, Gordon G Chang was referring to the arrest of Yunqing Jian, 33, and her boyfriend Zunyong Liu, 34, for allegedly smuggling a fungus called ‘Fusarium graminearum’ that causes the ‘head blight’ disease in wheat, barley, maize, and rice, into the US and can pose a threat to America’s food security and public safety.

The US Justice Department said the fungal pathogen is classified in scientific literature as a “potential agroterrorism weapon” and causes losses worth billions of dollars every year. It causes vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock.

‘This was an attack on the United States’

“This was an attack on the United States. The only way to stop this is to sever relations with China,” Chang told Fox News and warned that the alleged plot points to a covert, prolonged campaign by China to destabilise the US from within.

Chang further warned that the plot is more than a stray biological smuggling case—it’s part of a broader “people’s war” strategy ingrained in Maoist doctrine to wear down and destabilise enemies politically, economically, and psychologically.

“If we don’t defend ourselves with urgency and resolve, we’re going to get hit really hard. And not just with COVID, not just with fentanyl—but perhaps with something worse,” added Chang, who analyses activities of the Chinese Communist Party.

“Xi Jinping talks about going to war all the time, and he is mobilising all of Chinese society to go to war. So we can lose our country, even though we are the far stronger nation because we are not defending ourselves with the vigour and the determination that is necessary.”

“In May 2019, the state media People’s Daily, the most authoritative publication in China, carried a landmark editorial that declared a people’s war on us. We are Americans, so we think we are entitled to ignore the propaganda of hostile regimes. But for a communist party, that phrase has great resonance. What they are doing with their strident anti-Americanism is creating a justification to strike our country,” Chang said.

“We have got to put this into context. In 2020, Americans in all 50 states received unsolicited seeds from China. I think that was an attempt to plant invasive species into the US. And then this year, Timu, the online Chinese retailer, sent seeds to Americans unsolicited," added Chang, the author of ‘China Is Going to War’. Chang has lived and worked in China and Hong Kong for almost two decades.

The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which caused the COVID-19 pandemic, remains highly controversial, as some experts allege that it was engineered in a Chinese laboratory.