Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) and state Attorney General Tim Griffin are ordering a Chinese-owned company to sell their farmland. According to THV11, they announced the order during a press conference on Tuesday.
Arkansas passed a law earlier this year banning businesses controlled by foreign entities from owning land in the state. According to KARK, state officials say Syngenta Seeds is owned by a Chinese company called ChemChina.
The Department of Defense included ChemChina on a list of Chinese military companies they consider to be threats to national security. Arkansas officials expressed concern that the Chinese government is using Syngenta Seeds to steal American secrets.
“Seeds are technology. Chinese state-owned corporations filter that technology back to their homeland, stealing American research and telling our enemies how to target American farms,” Sanders said, according to Axios.
The state is ordering Syngenta Seeds to sell 160 acres of land in Craighead County. Griffin said he will also impose the maximum fine of $280,000 for failing to disclose ownership of the land by the proper deadline, KARK reports.
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According to Axios, Syngenta Seeds has two years to divest the land.
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