The Scientist and the Spy by Mara Hvistendahl

Author:Mara Hvistendahl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-02-03T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-EIGHT

WINTER 2013–2014

The day after Robert Mo’s arrest, The Des Moines Register and USA Today carried the news. From there it hit The Wall Street Journal and the Chinese press. Most of the American coverage centered on one image: a man in a suit in a cornfield with fully grown corn. In Iowa, meanwhile, commentators had a more immediate concern: that the arrest of Robert Mo could jeopardize the state’s lucrative relationship with China.

Xi Jinping’s visit to the World Food Prize Hall the year before had cemented Iowa’s dependence on Chinese agricultural imports. In the wake of Xi’s sojourn, officials in Hebei province had announced plans to construct what they called the China-U.S. Friendship Farm—a full replica of the farm that the Chinese leader had visited in Maxwell, Iowa. At a ceremony held just two months before Robert’s arrest, Iowa companies signed twenty cooperative trade agreements with Chinese counterparts, covering some $1 billion worth of goods.

Now Governor Terry Branstad was confronted by the fact that as he shook hands with Chinese dignitaries the year before, an accused criminal had watched from the audience. In his weekly news conference, journalists questioned Branstad about Robert’s arrest. “I believe it may present some additional challenges in terms of our relationship, but this is a particular incident,” he said. “I don’t think this should prevent us from continuing to work together.”

In fact, the same day that Robert was arrested, the FBI apprehended a second Chinese agricultural researcher in an unconnected case in Kansas. Weiqiang Zhang was a rice breeder with the biopharmaceutical company Ventria Bioscience, which uses rice seeds to develop specialized medicines. Zhang was accused of filching hundreds of these souped-up seeds from his employer, stashing them in his freezer and his bedroom closet, and passing them off to a delegation of visiting Chinese crop scientists. His case bore enough similarities to Robert’s—the visiting agricultural delegation, the seeds stashed in luggage—for the FBI to suggest that agricultural espionage was, to use the bureau’s phrasing, a growing threat.

Kevin was at the America Seed Trade Association’s annual meeting in Chicago when his FBI handler called him to inform him that Robert was in custody. Two years earlier, Robert had formally hired him at the conference. The year before, he had met Robert there for a tense discussion about DBN’s seed-breeding plans. This year, he learned that his strange stint as an FBI informant was over. He was happy to no longer be carrying secrets, whether for DBN or the FBI.

After he arrived home, Kevin opened Facebook to unburden himself. “This may be the strangest post you will ever see on my wall,” he began. Linking to an article on Robert’s arrest, he went on to detail the events of the previous two years:

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