Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has released a new batch of documents showing that U.S. Customs and Border Protection intercepted undeclared biological materials tied to a network of American and Chinese coronavirus researchers as early as 2018, more than a year before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged.
The records include a Department of Homeland Security intelligence report and Slack messages detailing communications between researchers. The network is centered around University of Minnesota virologist Fang Li, whose lab received funding from the National Institutes of Health. Paul released the documents through his public archive, "The Reading Room," as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
What the Right Is Saying
Paul and Republican colleagues say the documents reveal a pattern of attempts to avoid regulatory scrutiny amid rising U.S.–China tensions. The senator pointed to communications in which Fang Li advised against transporting antibodies through students due to "current tension between the USA and China," suggesting awareness of sensitivity around such transfers.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who chairs the House Oversight Committee, has called for additional CBP records and testimony from Customs officials involved in the interceptions. Republicans argue that the shipments warrant further investigation into whether U.S. research institutions adequately vetted international collaborators with ties to China's military-linked academic institutions.
Conservative commentators have highlighted that one researcher involved, Qibin Geng, earned a degree from an institution affiliated with China's People's Liberation Army but did not disclose any military affiliation on his visa application. They argue this raises questions about vetting procedures for foreign researchers in U.S. biosecurity labs.
What the Left Is Saying
Democratic lawmakers have urged caution in interpreting the documents, noting that intercepting undeclared biological materials does not constitute evidence of wrongdoing or prove a link to the pandemic's origin. Some have pointed out that researchers regularly transport biological samples across borders for legitimate scientific collaboration.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., has previously stated that investigations into COVID origins should rely on verified intelligence rather than leaked documents that lack context. Senate Democrats have argued that focusing on research shipment protocols risks diverting attention from broader public health preparedness efforts.
Progressive advocacy groups aligned with scientific institutions have emphasized that U.S.-China research collaborations, including those involving NIH funding, operate under established safety and reporting frameworks. They argue that intercepted shipments may reflect paperwork lapses rather than deliberate concealment of dangerous materials.
What the Numbers Show
The documents detail three specific interception incidents spanning nearly three years: three undeclared vials intercepted in November 2018 at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, concealed in paper towels and wax film; 132 vials intercepted from the same courier in June 2021, which CBP reported likely contained a species of fly commonly used as a model organism in biological research.
The communications show that in October 2018, Geng offered to send live PEDV—a swine coronavirus—along with a growth protocol to Ralph Baric, a prominent American coronavirus researcher at the University of North Carolina. Zhengli Shi of the Wuhan Institute of Virology requested antibody shipments for SARS research from Fang Li's lab in April 2018.
The courier identified as Yusen Zhou was affiliated with China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences and was stopped carrying not only biological materials but also a laptop issued by a U.S. research institution, along with login credentials belonging to another individual.
The Bottom Line
The documents add to the public record surrounding debates over COVID-19's origins and U.S.–China scientific collaboration oversight. CBP confirmed that interceptions of undeclared biological materials occurred as described in the records released by Paul.
What remains unclear from the documents is whether the intercepted materials were ultimately delivered through other means, or what specific research they were intended to support. The Biden administration had ordered an intelligence review of COVID origins, which remained inconclusive between natural spillover and laboratory leak hypotheses.
Paul has previously released documents showing that authors of the "Proximal Origin" paper—a key early scientific analysis on COVID's origins—expressed private doubts about their conclusions. He has pledged additional releases from his committee's investigation into pandemic preparedness and biosecurity oversight.