China denied responsibility for packages of unidentified seeds that have been mailed to people in more than two dozen states, saying that the postage labels are fraudulent.
“After verification with China Post, those address labels turned out to be fake ones with erroneous layouts and entries,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Tuesday.
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The unidentified seeds have arrived at numerous American households in recent weeks, sometimes labeled as earrings or some similar item. State agriculture officials across the country are warning recipients to hand over the seeds to local officials rather than plant them.
“Unsolicited seeds could be invasive species, could introduce diseases to local plants, or could be harmful to livestock,” the Kansas Department of Agriculture warned in a bulletin. “Invasive species wreak havoc on the environment, displace or destroy native plants and insects and severely damage crops.”
An international agreement governing the Universal Postal Union, the United Nations agency that helps to coordinate between different national postal services, places restrictions on the shipment of seeds between countries. The Chinese official insisted that “China Post strictly follows” those regulations and offered to coordinate with the U.S. Postal Service to identify the origin of the shipments.
“China Post has contacted USPS, asking it to send those fake packages to China for investigation,” Wang said.
