Chinese scientist pleads guilty in US smuggling case and will be quickly deported

A Chinese scientist accused in Michigan of smuggling biological materials has pleaded guilty. But Yunqing Jian received no additional prison time beyond the five months she had already spent in detention. Jian was a temporary researcher in a laboratory at the University of Michigan. She will be expelled quickly. A judge calls this case “very strange”. Jian was arrested in June and accused of conspiring with her boyfriend to study and cure a toxic mushroom in a campus laboratory. Jian did not have a permit for this equipment. She apologized but said her work was about protecting crops and not harming anyone.