Ron DeSantis Vindicated in Crackdown on China's Campus Espionage

Now we know why DeSantis moved to enact new laws to restrict Chinese espionage on Florida campuses. It turns out that the Department of Justice has investigated and plans to indict Chinese nationals employed or studying at the University of Florida for running an illegal campus smuggling ring, which, for seven years, shipped dangerous drugs and toxins to China, against university and federal regulations.

One of the students involved in the smuggling ring is Nongnong “Leticia” Zheng, a senior marketing major in the business school, who happens to be president of UF’s Chinese Students and Scholars Association, a group that was actively involved in protests against DeSantis’s law blocking Chinese nationals from certain research positions. Last Friday, Zheng admitted that she had been informed by the Justice Department that she was the target of a grand jury investigation. She has been assigned a federal public defender. The next day, UF banned her from campus for three years.

The other Chinese students, listed as co-conspirators in prosecution documents, have not been named. The ringleader was Pen “Ben” Yu, a 51-year-old UF employee who worked in the stockroom of a university bioresearch lab. He pleaded guilty last week to diverting biochemical products to China with false documents and wire fraud. He faces up to 20 years in prison.