Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks during a campaign rally for former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 4, 2024. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2023, the state ordered Syngenta Seeds, whose parent company is a Chinese conglomerate, to divest farmland used for seed production.
The company said that "the suggestion that China is using Syngenta to purchase land or conduct operations for any purpose other than supporting the company's commercial business in North America is simply false." But the state fined the company $280,000 for not initially disclosing its foreign ownership by the deadline.
"Syngenta is foreign-owned — ultimately by the Chinese Communist Party," said Arkansas Attorney General Tim Miller in announcing the penalty.
"This serves as a warning to all other Chinese state-owned companies operating in Arkansas."
REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS CAN'T WAIT FOR TRUMP TO UNLEASH PROSPERITY IN THE STATES
"Agriculture is the number one industry here in the state of Arkansas and so protecting our agricultural security and protecting the components that make it so strong, are one of the things that are really important," says Sanders.
Two other firms are being investigated for possible ties to China, but in December a Federal Judge issued a preliminary injunction to halt the probe of one of them.
At least 22 states have enacted some form of restrictions on Chinese-owned companies.
"The CCP has aggressive intent and has become more aggressive and threatening, both at home as well as abroad, and we need to be aware of these threats," says Congressman John Moolenaar, (R) Michigan, Chairman of House Select Committee on the CCP. He says more states should follow Sanders' lead.
"She is taking a leadership role and protecting farmland and green spaces in Arkansas and making sure the CCP doesn't gain a foothold in Arkansas. We want to see more states taking this kind of action," he says.
Michael Pillsbury, Senior Fellow and Director for Chinese Strategy, Hudson Institute, on FutureSocieties during the final day of Web Summit 2019 at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal. (Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images)
The five Chinese students were charged last fall with lying to the FBI after they claimed to be observing meteor showers at midnight at the base, but instead were found to have taken photos of the installation. The FBI said all five graduated last spring from the University of Michigan, and were part of a joint program between the university and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China.
This is exactly the type of suspicious scenario Sanders is trying to address.
"We know that so often China is looking for any way possible into and developing a relationship for the purpose of exploiting it, and for the purpose of taking that information back and using it against us," she says. "We want to make sure that we are protecting against that."
China's embassy in Washington has accused the U.S. of "politicizing and weaponizing economic and trade issues." Embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu says U.S. officials "deliberately obstruct normal economic and trade exchange for (a) political agenda."
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But critics charge that is exactly what the CCP is doing under the guise of commerce and friendship.
"We need to be proactive," warns Rep. Moolenaar. "We need to not so much look for a smoking gun, we need to look for a loaded gun that is actually a threat to America."
Eric Shawn, a New York-based anchor and senior correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC), joined the network when it launched in 1996. He is currently the co-anchor of FOX News Live. Shawn is also the host of Riddle: The Search for James R. Hoffa on FOX Nation, FNC's on-demand subscription-based streaming service, which is based upon his extensive reporting into the appearance of notorious Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.
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