ANN ARBOR, MI - Five University of Michigan graduates from China have been charged in a federal countersurveillance probe at the Camp Grayling military facility.
An FBI complaint filed Oct. 1 charged Zhekai Xu, Renxiang Guan, Haoming Zhu, Jingzhe Tao and Yi Liang with conspiracy, making false statements to investigators and destroying records during the federal investigation.
The 28-page complaint details how the five students were seen at Camp Grayling, the training facility for the Michigan Army National Guard in northern Michigan. They were found with cameras near military vehicles and classified communications equipment during the Northern Strike training exercise in August 2023.
Related: In Northern Michigan military exercise, Whitmer sees economic opportunities
The complaint does not list ages or hometowns for Chinese students. All graduated from the University of Michigan in May 2024 and were in a joint program with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, court records show.
MLive/The Ann Arbor News verified each students’ affiliation with the University of Michigan.
It is not clear if the students are in custody. Messages left with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit were not returned. University of Michigan spokespeople directed any questions to the FBI Office in Detroit.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is commander-in-chief of the Michigan National Guard, salutes troops as they pass officers at Camp Grayling during the 2023 Memorial Pass in Review Ceremony on June 16, 2023.
The students were found at Bear Lake on the camp’s property after midnight on Aug. 13, 2023, records show. About 7,000 military officials, including some from Taiwan, were participating in live firing exercises, records show.
China has consistently challenged Taiwan’s sovereignty, according to the Associated Press. The complaint mentions how Taiwanese participation was made public prior to Northern Strike.
A U.S. sergeant major found the students taking photos near classified equipment and soldiers sleeping in tents, records show.
One of the students told the sergeant major they were Chinese media members, records show. The sergeant major told them to leave, which they quickly did, records show.
Local police later found the students in a Super 8 motel in Grayling, records show. Further investigation of financial transactions showed they were close associates and Xu booked the room one week before the Aug. 13 encounter at Bear Lake, records show.
Guan was stopped in mid-December at Detroit Metropolitan Airport before a flight to Shanghai, records show. Customs agents searched his luggage and found evidence in Guan’s external hard drive of two photos of military vehicles at Camp Grayling, records show.
Guan told investigators he did not have interactions with U.S. military, government or police in northern Michigan, records show.
When Xu, Tao, Zhu and Liang arrived at Chicago O’Hare International Airport in March, FBI agents detained them for interrogation, records show. The four students told investigators they traveled to the Upper Peninsula to see a meteor shower, then northern Michigan for clearer skies, records show.
“They realized that the weather conditions were more favorable (in the Lower Peninsula) and drove to a nearby campground to view the stars and take pictures,” according to the complaint.
The four students admitted to taking photos at Camp Grayling and interacting with a soldier, records show.
The students had conflicting answers about whether they saw military activity at the camp and who planned the trip, records show. They said they were too tired to drive back to Ann Arbor and searched for the Super 8 Motel at the last second, records show.
This contradicted financial records that showed Xu booked the room more than a week before the encounter, records show. Other contradictions included denials about taking pictures of military vehicles despite investigators having evidence to the contrary, records show.
Investigators found messages on the Chinese messaging app WeChat that showed the group discussing the trip to Camp Grayling. Tao discussed the interaction with the sergeant major, while Liang and Guan discussed deleting photos and messages to avoid agents from thinking “we are colluding,” records show.
“The subjects discussed their encounter with the (sergeant major) at Bear Lake, attempted to coordinate their accounts of what happened so that the stories would match if any of them were questioned in the future and deleted potentially incriminating photos from their phones and cameras to preclude law enforcement from finding them,” according to the complaint.
The complaint states that the students departed the United States after graduation in May 2024, records show.
The criminal complaint also summarizes how two University of Michigan students from China in 2020 were caught photographing military and naval infrastructure at Naval Air Station Key West in Florida. They were convicted of illegally photographing military installations and sentenced to prison, records show.
Related: University of Michigan students accused of taking photos on restricted naval base
If you would like more reporting like this delivered free to your inbox, click here and signup for our weekly newsletter: Michigan Schools.
Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page or sign up for the free “3@3 Ann Arbor” daily newsletter.
Stories by Samuel Dodge
- Gunman threatens University of Michigan Jewish student gathering
- Your A to Z guide to Michigan football’s road trip to Washington
- 5 proposed demolitions coming to the University of Michigan campus in the next 25 years
- Tony winner Gavin Creel, 48, was a Broadway star from the University of Michigan
- 5 fans ejected from Michigan Stadium during Wolverines’ win over Minnesota