China media rage at Arkansas forcing Chinese companies to give up land

Chinese state media have reacted furiously to the news that China-owned agricultural firms will be forced to sell land in northeastern Arkansas under new legislation.

On Tuesday, Arkansas ordered the subsidiary of a China-owned company to give up 160 acres of agricultural land over concerns of foreign ownership of farmland. It is the first such action under a wave of new U.S. laws regarding the restriction of foreign farmland ownership.

“This is another daily absurdity from American conservative politicians,” wrote The Global Times, a nationalistic English-language tabloid published by the propaganda department of the ruling Communist Party. Its views do not always reflect official policy.

“Arkansas’ latest move shows that the American investment environment is awful, completely driven by politics, and not worthy of trust,” said the article. “Worse, it proves that American politicians are incapable of driving local development, but are good at orchestrating political farces.”

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said Northrup King Seed Co. has two years to divest the property in Craighead County due to legislation passed by the majority-GOP legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year. Northrup is a subsidiary of Syngenta Seeds, a company owned by China National Chemical Company, a Chinese state-owned business. Syngenta primarily trades in pesticides and seeds.

“Seeds are technology,” Sanders said at a press conference. “Chinese state-owned corporations filter that technology back to their homeland, stealing American research and telling our enemies how to target American farms. That is a clear threat to our national security.”

“For too long, in the name of tolerance, we’ve let these dangerous governments infiltrate our country,” she added.

Sanders noted that Beijing enacted a law in 2017 that compels Chinese nationals living abroad to cooperate with its intelligence apparatus. “This is not about where you come from,” she said. “We welcome Chinese Americans.”

According to the Associated Press, Syngenta said in a statement: “Our people in Arkansas are Americans led by Americans who care deeply about serving Arkansas farmers. This action hurts Arkansas farmers more than anyone else.”

Newsweek has contacted Governor Sanders for comment via phone.

The Global Times article, published on Thursday and titled “Arkansas’ land sale farce a daily absurdity of incapable US politicians,” said the enactment of the legislation in Arkansas does not reflect what is happening elsewhere across the U.S. despite the fact that 24 states have similar legislation prohibiting or restricting foreign ownership and investments in private farmland.

“The reason for the lack of practical move in other parts of the country is that, after all, how does farming harm US’ national security exactly?” the article reads. “So far, no convincing reason has been given.”

The article went on to say Sanders “knows all too well how to escape a scandal” due to her former role as White House press secretary under then President Donald Trump. The piece quotes Shen Yi, a professor at Fudan University, who said “Sanders is skilled at using rhetoric to make her words sound more appealing.”

“For example, she claimed that ‘seeds are technology,’ connecting the 160 acres of farmland to the US-China tech war,” the article said.

It also drew attention to a recent “scandal” involving Governor Sanders. NPR reported last week that a whistleblower accused her office of covering up the spending after her office had purchased a $19,000 lectern.

“In the long run, a vicious circle has taken shape—local politicians become increasingly conservative and fatuous, and local development stagnates,” the article reads. “The rhetoric and policies of politicians like Sanders are not only undignified, but also expose their lack of confidence. More importantly, they deal a blow to the image and reputation of the US in global economic activities.”

There have been growing concerns in the U.S. about China’s influence on the economy, with an acute focus on the farming industry. National security fears were brought up earlier this year over a parcel of land 12 miles from the Grand Forks Air Force base in North Dakota, held by the Binzhou-headquartered Fufeng Group, where the company hoped to build a wet corn milling plant. In May, Florida introduced a new law banning Chinese nationals from buying land within a 5-mile radius of the state’s military installations.