Most shocking examples of Chinese espionage uncovered by the US this year: 'Just the tip of the iceberg'
A string of Chinese-linked espionage cases made public in 2025 spans toxin smuggling, U.S. troop recruitment and hacking that hit both the public and private sectors.
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This year has had no shortage of alarming Chinese espionage efforts targeting the United States that were uncovered by government officials.
2025 saw the conviction of a former active-duty military member accused of selling Navy secrets to Chinese intelligence, the arrests of Chinese nationals accused of trying to recruit active-duty service members as intelligence assets and smuggle dangerous toxins into the United States, the disruption of a Chinese "Hacker-for-Hire" ecosystem, and more.
"President Trump is not afraid of the Chinese," Gatestone Institute senior Fellow Gordon Chang said on Fox Business' "Mornings with Maria" following a new arms sale to Taiwan. However, Chang lamented that Trump was ambivalent to the "information war" with China, noting that "the Chinese are able to tar him and tell the rest of the world that Trump is afraid of the Chinese … but when you look at the reality, President Trump is going after China across the board," Chang argued.
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One of the alarming Chinese espionage headlines to hit the news this year was an effort by several Chinese nationals to smuggle a pathogen described by the government as a "potential agroterrorism weapon" into the United States in 2024. A complaint against the suspects was unsealed by federal officials this year, leading the case to make headlines nationwide.
Flag flies in front of the embassy of China in Berlin, Germany, Monday, April 22, 2024. (Hannes P. Albert/dpa via AP, File)
One of those individuals complicit in the case, Yunqing Jian, 33, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and a researcher employed at the University of Michigan, was allegedly receiving money from the Chinese government for her work on the pathogen the suspects were trying to smuggle. Meanwhile, her boyfriend, who worked at a Chinese university conducting research on that same pathogen, initially lied but then admitted to smuggling it through the Detroit airport so it could be taken to the University of Michigan laboratory where his girlfriend worked.
Jian eventually pleaded guilty. She was later sentenced to time served and then deported back to China. Her boyfriend was immediately deported to China when he was caught at the Detroit airport trying to bring the toxin into the United States.
Just this month, a separate Chinese researcher from Indiana University was also accused by the of trying to smuggle a dangerous toxin into the country, this time Escherichia coli (E. coli). The FBI identified the smuggling suspect as post-doctoral researcher Youhuang Xiang, who also allegedly made false statements to law enforcement.
