Nearly 400 Chinese people with Washington-issued study permits traveled ahead of schedule to the United States at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak last year, indicating they already knew about the disease in China, American media reported.

They are reportedly under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Intelligence for suspected spying and for any possible influence on the U.S. pandemic situation.

The FBI identified the 396 people, who had changed their flight dates and returned early to the U.S. in January last year, out of a total of 58,000 inbound Chinese holders of student and exchange visitor visas, Washington Free Beacon reported, citing a government document circulating among national defense and law enforcement agencies.

FBI authorities had not yet concluded whether the monitored students were spies, said the Free Beacon, an American conservative political news website.

Their change of plan suggested that many Chinese were aware of the seriousness of COVID-19 in their country and decided to go back to the U.S. earlier to avoid a travel ban, even as the authorities were still insisting that the outbreak was controllable, the report said.

Beijing on Jan. 21, 2020, confirmed for the first time that the coronavirus was capable of spreading from person to person. On the same day, the U.S. recorded its first case, in a Chinese engineer who had entered Seattle from Wuhan a week earlier.

China ordered a lockdown of the entire city of Wuhan in Hubei province two days later. Then on Jan. 31, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency and Washington closed the doors on non-U.S. residents and visitors from China.

Way before the pandemic, U.S. intelligence officials had been warning local academic and research institutes about the threat of Chinese espionage efforts.

The U.S. in recent years has been hosting 340,000 students from China, accounting for about 30% of all foreign students. In September last year, Washington revoked the student and research visas of more than 1,000 Chinese students over their alleged links to the People’s Liberation Army of China.

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