A Chinese national was detained at a Texas airport after allegedly attempting to smuggle sensitive cancer research data to China, according to U.S. authorities. Yunhai Li, a 35-year-old researcher employed by the MD Anderson Cancer Center since 2022, was intercepted on July 9 by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents during an inspection of his belongings.
Court documents reveal that Li’s actions involved accessing confidential medical information funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. Authorities discovered he had uploaded sensitive data to both a personal Google Drive account and a file-hosting service based on a Chinese server. When confronted by MD Anderson, Li deleted the files but allegedly retained copies through the overseas platform.
Li faces charges of theft of trade secrets and tampering with a government record, which could result in 2 to 10 years in prison and fines up to $10,000. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare emphasized the severity of the crime, stating, “That intellectual property stays with us, so we can save lives.”
This case follows another recent incident involving a Chinese national accused of hacking U.S. universities to steal COVID-19 research. Xu Zewei, charged in a Texas indictment, is alleged to have targeted institutions conducting vaccine and treatment studies between 2020 and 2021. A second individual, Zhang Yu, remains at large.
U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei condemned the actions as an “attack on American scientific innovation,” highlighting the broader implications for national security and research integrity.