New Delhi, June 8 -- Days after two Chinese researchers were charged with smuggling a crop-killing fungus into the United States, America's top expert on China warned that if the country is not careful, it could be "something worse" than COVID-19. He also suggested that the US government should sever relations with China.

Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu were charged with conspiracy, smuggling, making false statements and visa fraud for allegedly bringing the fungus Fusarium graminearum into the US, describing it as a potential agricultural terrorism weapon.

The fungus causes Fusarium head blight, usually known as "scab," and often infects wheat, barley and other grains on farms during rainy years.

According to the FBI, Liu had small baggi...