Michigan National Guard Major General Paul Rogers warned lawmakers Wednesday about a “constant probing” of the state’s military properties by Chinese nationals.
While most Michiganders are aware of the five University of Michigan students from China who were busted as they photographed classified equipment and operations during a training exercise with Taiwanese soldiers at Camp Grayling in 2021, there have been several other incidents that suggest it’s all part of a broader organized espionage operation, he said.
“This is not unusual. It’s happening everywhere,” Rogers said of the Camp Graying case. “And I think folks would probably be a little shocked to see how frequently that’s going on.”
Rogers pointed to attempts by two Chinese nationals to gain access to Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County last year, when they tried to convince guards they only wanted to visit a military air museum on the base.
The duo were turned away, he said, but returned three days later to try again.
“The fact that those same two individuals showed up three days later at the same gate hoping to find a guard that would not be doing their due diligence and tried to gain access again using the exact same excuse – it’s a constant probing,” Rogers said. “And it’s a little cat and mouse and they’re not breaking any laws, right? So there’s nothing that can be done about it. But, you know, it’s not with good intent.”
Rogers’ testimony in the House Committee on Homeland Security and Foreign Influence came just a day before federal officials charged three more Chinese nationals at the University of Michigan with crimes related to smuggling biological materials into the U.S., and lying to investigators about it.
The charges bring the total number of Chinese nationals tied to UM charged with smuggling biological materials over the last year to seven, including some charged with smuggling a biological pathogen that scientific literature refers to as a potential agroterrorism weapon.
In the Camp Grayling case, “tracking activities” coordinated between federal, state, and local agencies helped officials identify the suspects, Rogers said.
The students fled the U.S. after graduation in May 2024, but have outstanding warrants in the U.S.
Other concerning incidents involving Chinese nationals have been exposed in other ways.
Haoxiang Gao, a 20-year-old UM student, cast an illegal ballot in October 2024 that was counted in the election, then attempted unsuccessfully to retrieve it. Gao surrendered a Chinese passport to face state charges, but used a second passport to board a plane to Shanghai in January, according to the federal criminal complaint cited by The Detroit News.
In September, Heritage Foundation researcher Paul Larkin testified before the U.S. House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight about evidence China is wrapping its “tentacles” around Michigan’s marijuana industry.
The subcommittee highlighted multiple recent busts of massive marijuana grow operations in Michigan tied to multi-layered networks in China.
“I think when people think of drug problems, they think of Mexico,” Larkin said in testimony cited by MLive. “They don’t realize the full extent of the tentacles that China has extended into the United States.
“The public needs to know this,” he said.
In June, four Chinese nationals were arrested at a massive illegal marijuana grow in Iosco County’s Alabaster Township, where Michigan State Police recovered 5,057 plants with a street value of more than $5 million, WJRT reports.
All four lived in an apartment on the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base, and three of the four were in the country illegally.
“There (is evidence) that that is part of a criminal organization,” Iosco County Prosecutor James Bacarella told MLive. “Everything was going straight from Michigan to New York. I don’t know what happens to it after it goes to New York.”
A month after the bust in Alabaster Township, state police seized more than 13,400 marijuana plants and hundreds of pounds of dry flower from another illegal grow operation in Lake County, where they arrested nine people from China. Police estimated the street value at $10 million.
Some of the suspects were American citizens, while others held green cards or an asylum status.
