China’s agricultural espionage should be taken extremely seriously, especially as the communist country plots a possible invasion of Taiwan, GOP Representative Mike Gallagher said.
Gallagher, chair of the Chinese Communist Party’s House Select Committee, will lead a roundtable on Thursday in Dysart, Iowa, to discuss the rise of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) agricultural technology theft with local farmers and stakeholders.
“I want to hear from Iowa farmers and other stakeholders about the impact of the Chinese Communist Party’s vicious tactics to undermine American agriculture,” Gallagher told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview ahead of the event.
He pointed to an incident in 2011 when a field manager in Iowa saw a man digging in his fields, which had been planted with “special” seeds from DuPont Pioneer.
Chinese Communist Party House Select Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher sent letters obtained by DailyMail.com to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Alfred University President Mark Zupan
The FBI then got involved and discovered that there was a massive Chinese “seed smuggling ring” and the man was identified as Chinese national Mo Hailong. The Justice Department eventually sentenced Hailong to prison in 2016 for conspiracy to steal trade secrets.
“We have now had a series of high-profile incidents of economic espionage going back at least to 2011,” says Gallagher, R-Wis.
He said allegations of economic espionage require evidence that activities are “intended to benefit a foreign government or a foreign agent, in this case the CCP.”
The chairman hopes to talk to the farmers about their sense of the CCP’s threat level and then “tease” why the CCP keeps doing it.
He said he sees it as part of a “wider effort” to address China’s “food insecurity” as it prepares for potential conflict with the West, which should be taken very seriously.
Ranking Members Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, will also participate in the round table on Thursday afternoon.
“In Iowa, our land is sacred. Feeding and fueling the world is embedded in who we are,” Hinson told DailyMail.com
“We cannot allow the CCP to continue stealing our intellectual property, buying up our farmland, and ripping off our farmers and rural manufacturers. Today, the Select Committee will go straight to the source and listen to Iowa farmers so we can develop meaningful, bipartisan policies to protect American agriculture from the CCP’s underhanded tactics.”
Particularly concerning to Gallagher is how China is buying up farmland near key US military bases as a way to “spy” on US tactical operations.
He said China was trying to buy land near Travis Air Force Base in Northern California, a “critical hub for military logistics” that would be “essential” to the United States’ ability to power the Indo-Pacific. foreseen’ if we should find ourselves. in a confrontation with China, about Taiwan.’
The chairman is pushing for a bipartisan bill that would protect US farmland and sensitive sites – including military bases – from the threat of adversaries.
Gallagher said that for certain countries, including China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela, there would be a “presumption of refusal to purchase.”
The Senate recently passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2024 that would prohibit China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from buying up US farmland.
Chinese President Xi Jinping
Two Fufeng Group employees visit Grand Fork, ND, on a site visit before the company purchases 300 acres of farmland
The legislation was pushed forward after the Chinese company Fufeng Group bought 300 acres of farmland in North Dakota in 2022, near a US air force base.
After the Fufeng Group bought the North Dakota land for $2.6 million, Air Force Major Jeremy Fox wrote a memo in April characterizing the move as symbolic of China’s efforts to install close to sensitive US defense installations.
As for the next steps his committee plans to take once Congress is back in Washington, D.C., after the August recess, the chairman said he hopes to finalize a series of policy recommendations on US competition with China.
“We hope to have a range of policies, approvals and recommendations related to economic statecraft and economic and technological competition by the end of the year.”
And he’s ready for the sprint to the finish line to get “as many good solid, strong bipartisan recommendations as possible.”