Chinese Scientist Arrested for 'Stealing US Breast Cancer Vaccine Secrets' at Houston Airport

In a story that sounds like it's ripped from a spy novel, a Chinese scientist has been apprehended in Houston, accused of attempting to smuggle crucial American research out of the country.

A cancer specialist from China faces accusations of trying to obtain protected research from a US lab illegally. Yunhai Li, 35, was apprehended by border authorities at Houston Airport on 9 July, as he was about to catch a flight home to China.

The Arrest: A 'Spy Novel' in Real Life

Authorities found research on a breast cancer vaccine he was developing on his laptop. While he was initially let go, Li was taken into custody on Friday. The Harris County District Attorney's Office has now charged him with a felony for the theft of trade secrets, as well as tampering with a government record.

Li had been living in the US on a scholar visa and working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Research lab in Houston since 2022. The National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defence had funded the vaccine research, meaning Li was considered a government employee.

When he joined the lab, Li had signed a non-disclosure agreement and claimed he had no foreign research affiliations or funding. However, the affidavit claims that he was receiving money from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and secretly conducting research for Chongqing Medical University.

A Personal Confession: 'I Had a Right to It'

After being taken into custody, Li admitted to police in a sworn statement that he stole the research because it was 'going to waste', according to the affidavit, per Daily Mail. He stood by his claim that the research 'is a product of my efforts over the last three years. I believe I have a right to possess and retain this data'.

According to Li, he downloaded 90 gigabytes of research when the project was approximately 70 percent complete, and transferred it to the Chinese cloud service Baidu. He then managed to convince the Houston lab administrators he had deleted the data, while secretly keeping it on the Baidu server.

The researcher then abruptly resigned on 1 July and began preparing to return to China to continue the project at Chongqing Medical University. Li claimed his supervisor had contacted officials at both the NIH and MD Anderson seeking authorisation for him to carry on the project in China, but had not yet heard back.

Li wrote that he feared the request would be turned down, so he took the data. The affidavit also said that 'Li added that he was hoping that CBP would not discover this information on his electronics'.

Unfinished Business: What Happens Now?

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said Li could face additional charges. The two current counts were intended to stop him from fleeing to China, according to Teare. 'We were able to detain him as he was trying to get on a flight to China', he said.

'There was a pretty good chance that he was going to get deported or leave the country, so we needed to file something. We needed to make sure that he was going to stay here, the information was going to stay here, and he was going to be held accountable'.

'We're not done with the investigation in this case. We know we have enough to get past probable cause, but we have a lot of avenues we have to go down to make sure that everyone involved is held accountable'.

According to the affidavit, Li is also under federal investigation and could be charged with wire fraud, theft of federal funds, and abuse of official capacity. The state felony charge, on its own, could result in a two- to 10-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $10,000 (£7,423.96), with the misdemeanour charge adding another year to his sentence.