Chinese military scientist sent coronavirus vials to US in 2018, died mysteriously in 2020: Report

Freshly declassified U.S. Senate documents have reignited the debate over the origins of COVID-19, alleging that a Chinese military scientist secretly sent coronavirus-related vials to a laboratory in the United States more than a year before the pandemic began.

According to The Washington Times, citing declassified documents released by a Senate committee, Yusen Zhou, a researcher linked to China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), arranged for three virus-related vials to be delivered to University of Minnesota professor Li Fang in November 2018 through a courier.

Coronavirus vials intercepted at US airport

The report states that the shipment came to light after a courier carrying the samples was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.


Authorities reportedly found the vials wrapped in a paper towel and sealed with wax inside the traveler's carry-on luggage. The samples were later transferred to the FBI for forensic examination.

According to the documents, FBI scientists determined the vials contained precursor mRNA and a partial spike protein from porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), a coronavirus that causes severe disease in pigs.

The research was funded through grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Senate documents raise national security concerns

The declassified Department of Homeland Security report also alleges that several collaborators of Professor Li had links to China's People's Liberation Army and the controversial Thousand Talents Program, a Beijing-backed initiative created to recruit overseas scientists.

The report further notes that the same courier was intercepted again in 2021, this time allegedly transporting 132 undeclared biological research vials from the United States to China.

The documents also draw comparisons to the case of former Canadian government scientist Qiu Xiangguo, who was dismissed after arranging shipments of Ebola and Nipah virus samples to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Yusen Zhou, the Chinese military scientist identified in the documents, died in 2020 at the age of 54 under circumstances that have drawn public attention. According to previous Senate findings, he worked closely with researchers linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Fauci refuses to answer Senate questions

The release of the documents coincided with a heated Senate hearing involving former top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci.

Fauci, 85, declined to answer more than 100 questions before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The hearing was led by Republican Senator Rand Paul, a longtime critic of Fauci, who accused the former health official of misleading the public during the pandemic.

Paul argued that Fauci could not rely on the Fifth Amendment in the circumstances and announced that the committee is expected to vote next week on holding him in contempt of Congress.

Fauci, who retired in 2022 after leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for nearly four decades, accused Paul of conducting an "unhinged" campaign against him.

President Donald Trump also weighed in before the hearing, writing on social media that Fauci's "ideas were CRAZY!"

COVID-19 origins remain disputed

The origin of COVID-19 continues to divide U.S. intelligence agencies and scientists.

The FBI concluded in 2023 that a laboratory leak from Wuhan was the most likely source of the pandemic. In January 2025, the CIA also assessed that a lab leak was the more likely explanation, although it expressed only low confidence in that conclusion.

However, four other U.S. intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council continue to assess that the virus most likely emerged through natural transmission from animals to humans.

Meanwhile, Senator Paul has released more than 1,100 pages of Fauci's pandemic-era diary entries, arguing that they challenge the official narrative surrounding the government's response to COVID-19.

Fauci's representatives maintain that the diary entries are consistent with his public statements and emphasize that he has repeatedly said he has remained open to both the laboratory leak and natural origin theories.

In a separate move, the Trump administration this week announced a new policy prohibiting federal funding for what it described as dangerous gain-of-function research, a controversial area of scientific study that has remained at the center of debates over the pandemic's origins.