China’s Growing Control Over U.S. Agriculture and Food Supplies: Tiffany Meier | Crossroads

For those of you who have never seen China in Focus, fantastic show. Tiffany Meyer is the host of it. She does a great job. She really breaks down a lot of what's really happening in China, really pulling down the curtain, covering what the CCP is up to. Tiffany and I, of course, during the early days of the pandemic were two of the big journalists, really covering China constantly. Tiffany, awesome having you on. Thanks for being here. Thanks so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Tiffany and I, you might remember January 6, too. She and I were once co-hosting on January 6. Remember, it was freezing cold. We were there since 4 a.m., I remember, waiting for Trump to speak and marched over to the Capitol building. It was interesting. Tiffany, you just did this big feature on the Chinese Communist Party and how it's gaining control of a lot of U.S. agriculture. Tell us just briefly, give us an overall picture, what does China control in U.S. agriculture? What are we looking at here? It's interesting because it seems like agriculture is often overlooked. Fundamentally, the three things everyone needs is food, water, and energy. Right now, a lot of the focus is on military. For instance, I was speaking with the Iowa State Senator Jim Carlin, and he just found out that China produces 80% of the fertilizer used in his state of Iowa. Because they control so much of the market there, the prices for fertilizer went up 200% just the last year. China could effectively shut down agriculture in that state, which is wild. That's on one part of it. Obviously, China's been buying up a lot of land, up to about $2 billion worth of land in the U.S. If you own the land, you don't just grow crops on it. You can also own the water rights and the timber rights. That's starting to cause concern for a lot of lawmakers. You also have literally cases of Chinese nationals being caught plodding through these unmarked fields of corn to dig up seeds. Sounds kind of funny, but these are genetically modified seeds. From Monsanto, for instance, there was a case in 2013 where the Chinese national pleaded guilty. These seeds seem kind of wild, but they're basically little genetic computers because that's just how much data they have in them. It takes Monsanto about eight years and over $1.4 billion to produce that one seed. If China can just steal it, that saves them a lot of money. Then they can reverse engineer it and use it in their country. There's just a lot of concerns in a lot of areas. One thing a lot of people don't know is that corn in the U.S., this is a GDP product. Actually, American rice is one of the best types of rice you can get. We export a lot of it to Japan and stuff. That fancy Japanese rice, that's American rice a lot of times. When you're dealing with Monsanto, I'm personally not a fan of GMO, but I understand the value of it, which is that in areas where you have lack of water, arid areas, places where crops normally can't grow, they have these modified seeds that can grow there. For China, that's really important because they're having deserts moving into the cities. The black soil region, which is where they grow most of their crops, the soil is becoming thinner and thinner, and so they're losing arable land, which gives them a lot of incentive to move into Latin America, move into Africa, and move into the U.S., as you're noting, Tiffany. I guess, what does this mean for security? Because as you were saying, there's three things we need to survive. It's pretty much land, food, and water, essentially. What does this mean for us? On one part, right now, I'm sure everyone feels the effects of inflation. Everything's really expensive. With China coming in and buying all this land and cornering part of the market, there are concerns those prices could go up even higher. Then on the national security part you were speaking of, there have been concerns about where this land is being purchased. For instance, in Texas, there's the case where about 140,000 acres were purchased by the Del Rio border in Texas, and that's close to one of the Air Force bases there. That's not just one example. There's also in North Dakota, Ross Kennedy, he's the founder of Fortis Analysis. He's been researching this Fufeng Group, which is trying to, it's a China base trying to buy this plot of land and build a property. Everyone's like, okay, yeah, sure, that's fine. But then they started noticing that this property is just 13 miles from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, which is where all of the U.S.'s highest level intelligence passes through. Even if all of that information is encrypted, Kennedy's like, just because you're right there, it's like holding a teacup under a waterfall. You're going to get some data. Even if you just know where it's coming from or who maybe made the call, you don't know what the call's about, but just seeing how long it is, they can gain a lot of information that way. There's a lot of concerns that that property could now be used for surveillance and monitoring either the personnel or the weapons. A lot of our drones are there. Those are a lot of the concerns on the national security front. Also, I know the Chinese Communist Party, they're doing a lot with 5G. One of the big concerns with 5G and high-tech sensors is that you're working with basically electromagnetic spectrum, is what 5G works on. It's fifth-generation electromagnetic spectrum technology, fifth-generation telecommunications technology. Really, you're getting into extremely high and extremely low frequencies, which get close to military frequencies, which is why 5G is seen as kind of a national security issue, especially when it comes to China. If they own the land, they can easily install a Huawei 5G tower or whatever if they want to and possibly intercept stuff as well. Typically, there's another part to all this, which is these meat processing facilities. I know China owns, what is it? I believe Smithfield and Tyson. What do you know about these? They own both of those, right? What do we know about those? It's interesting. Like you mentioned, they do own Smithfield. The W.H. Group, the Chinese company, bought it back in 2014 for a whopping $4.72 billion in cash. It's like, can't turn down all that cash. If you go to Smithfield's website, they're like, oh, no, no, we don't import or buy products from China. We're all American-made. But just because they're owned by a Chinese company, there's a lot of concern there about what maybe could happen because some of the concern is maybe just the packaging is from China and then who knows what's in the packaging. I mean, if you see all these videos coming out of China during the virus and the COVID lockdowns, you have Chinese officials testing the packages. It's like, who knows what they're testing there? So that's one major area of concern. It seems like a lot of people enjoy bacon in China. And then if you look at... Pork's one of the staple meats there. And then if you look at in China, they have a lot of issues there. Like they have the swine flu and now avian flu. So a lot of their livestock is being decimated. And so now they're really buying up products and land and now companies in other countries so that they can feed their own people. But it's interesting because sometimes they don't even feed their own people. They use it as a bargaining chip for other countries that they're trying to strike deals with. They're like, hey, we have all this food that you want. You have to be nice to us, and then we'll give you some. Meanwhile, their own people are starving. So it's an interesting scenario that's happening there. I want to talk to you about that in a minute. But there's a couple interesting patterns we're seeing. One is, I mean, going back to, I think, 2010 or 2012, I can't remember the year, China actually relinquished its policy for grain self-sufficiency. And part of that was because they don't have clean water and they don't have a lot of arable land. And so they decided they're going to import the grain and then move to livestock, because you don't really need arable land to have livestock. You just feed them corn or whatever else, and you can have as many as you want. Then they started having problems with swine flu and avian flu. And so they had to cull a lot of the populations, and a lot of them were dying in addition to that. And so the issue now you have is twofold. One is they're losing their livestock because of swine flu and avian flu. And number two, they don't have enough grain. And then three, you have the war with Russia and Ukraine, and so they can't even import it from there. Meaning, well, where are they getting it from? And I know they've been buying up a lot of farms. China's buying the farm. They're buying up farms in Africa, buying up farms in Latin America. And part of the One Belt, One Road initiative is they're going into these countries and saying, yeah, we'll build you a freeway, but you've got to give us control of your minerals and your arable land and stuff like that. And this is raising the issue of, if we do have a real famine, who gets the food? Which country gets the food if we have a real crisis? And if some smaller country decides to not give China the food through that agreement, they can attack them. And this is kind of the concerning future I think we're moving into. I mean, Tiffany, what are your thoughts on this in terms of how the Chinese Communist Party typically operates with these types of things? Well, yeah, as you mentioned, China's been buying up a lot of land in other countries. So the USDA found that from 2009 to 2018, China's purchases of land in other nations, like not just the U.S., has gone up tenfold. So like you mentioned, what are they doing with that? And so I'm sure a lot of people know the Belt and Road Initiative, China's global infrastructure plan, like you mentioned, building bridges and airports. But China can also do that in terms of agriculture. So they come in, right, you have that case of the national stealing this one singular GMO seed, right? They can then go into these countries, say Africa, for instance. They're like, you have a lot of land, you have really great, hardworking people, but you just don't have the seeds you need to grow prosperous, you know, plots of land. So they're like, we can give you that. But the thing with these seeds is a lot of them only grow for like one year, like their annual crops. So then it's not like you then use what's grown and then stick it back in the seed. Like you need a new seed to put into the soil the next year. So China can literally come back the next year and be like, oh, we don't like the way you're doing things. We're not going to give you this seed. And so like people there would feel the impacts a lot faster and more immediately than, say, with a bridge where, you know, it takes decades to build and then even longer to start generating revenue, whereas with agriculture, it's like that's people's food, right? You feel that right away. So that's a lot of leverage that's, you know, China's gaining in these ways. And then also part of that is it's ruining America's diplomacy around the world, because usually America will come in and be like, oh, here's a bunch of bags of wheat. And China's like, look, America's coming in. They're only giving you wheat. We're not going to give you a fish. We're going to teach you how to fish, right? But then it's like it comes with all these things, because now they're like, oh, well, you need us. You're now reliant on us. So that gives them a whole lot of leverage in all sorts of areas. Yeah, not to mention some of these seeds, not all of them, but some of these seeds, these GMO seeds, if you plant them, the soil is basically dependent on that from then on too, because you might need an additional chemical fertilizer provided only by that one company as well that makes that seed grow. And if you don't have that, you're not going to be able to grow it. And number two, it ruins the soil. So you can only grow that going forward. And so even from the stance of the arable land, it ruins the land unless you keep buying from that country. And so you're subjugated to the wills of that country afterwards. Monsanto does it too. I'm not trying to say that they don't mess things up too. That's why I'm not a fan of these types of products. We also saw them do this in New Zealand as well, where I think China bought up the dairy industry. And this is where we get into, I think, the bigger picture with this. As you mentioned, the CCP is using this for diplomacy. They're using this to challenge the U.S. diplomacy. And when you get to the higher-tier form of war, which is how the CCP views it, they view it as the China model against the U.S. model. They view this as China hegemony, the rising power, and the U.S. hegemony, the fading power. That's how they view it. And they're trying to push the U.S. out of the global stage, essentially. Now, when they go into countries like this, it plays into this classic communist model, which I think I've mentioned previously. It sees the means of production. What are the means of production? Well, in Soviet Russia, that was the farmland. In Cambodia, that was the farmland. In more developed countries, that is the factories. And factories, when you get into industrial warfare, means resources, means logistics, means markets and advertising and research and development. And they're stealing or buying every single part of this entire system. Who owns the factories? Who owns the land? Who owns the resources? Well, China, mostly. And it seems like they're conquering the world right under our noses, in a sense. Now, Tiffany, in terms of how the Chinese Communist Party is thinking on this, have you seen any documents on how the CCP is actually viewing these things or any high, maybe leadership-level stuff on how they're viewing these types of things? Well, it is interesting, because on the note of GMOs, it's frowned upon in the country. But in 2014, Xi Jinping secretly told his higher-level officials, like, oh, we need to steal this technology to gain that cutting edge, even though the whole country is against them because of the science and the modifications and stuff. So then you have these cases of Chinese nationals stealing singular seeds of corn in U.S. fields. And it's interesting, because on the U.S. side, to protect it, because there's been a lot of concern about how to protect it. Like, oh, maybe you need certain fences. And Monsanto is literally like, no, no, just put them in unmarked fields so it's harder to see. And then you have cases of Chinese nationals in unmarked fields. Or maybe have our universities do joint research projects with them. Maybe something like that will solve the problem. Well, that's usually how it starts, because these nationals, this one, Mo Hailong, was part of this academy. Like, how would you know which unmarked field to go in, right? So it's like, you have some partnerships, you know some people, and then you can start feeding your way into these fields. But it's interesting, because in China itself, right, China has a peculiar relationship with food security. I'm sure a lot of people know about the famines that happened there. And so there's a recent USCC— Which, it's important to note, people alive today would have lived through that. It was not that long ago. Right, but it is interesting because the younger generation, a lot of them don't know about it and stuff. So obviously the older ones feel the effects. A lot of the party official leaders very much know about it, and it's part of, like, back of their mind there. And so with that, there's a recent USCC report that kind of notes China's interests in US agriculture and all of that. And it lists two main ways China can solve its issue for domestic production. So one is to just boost its own domestic production, which is where these stealing the seeds and all that comes from. And then secondly is to purchase land abroad, which as we've covered earlier, China's been doing quite a lot of. And then basically you then own that land and the crops. And then you can just be like, well, even if my own country's land fails, like I have all these plots of land elsewhere, I'll be fine. I can feed my people. And then it goes back to the fundamentals, you know, food, water, and energy. So they're really trying to make sure they have all the means necessary, because right now China really imports the most. And so they're really vulnerable and dependent on the US, which they're not a fan of. And so they're doing everything they can to really not have that vulnerability. Yeah, well, and as Americans now are starting to pay more for their food, I mean, 10%, 20%, depending on the product, some even more. You know, we're seeing some really interesting things, which is, again, I mentioned previously during the pandemic, and I think I'm surprised this didn't get more play in the media. Like the news came out and it just died. Like everyone just immediately forgot about it. Look, these Chinese-owned meat companies were saying there was going to be meat shortages in the United States. They were saying they had to close because there was going to be meat shortages because people were getting sick and they couldn't staff their factories. That's what they were telling Americans. The ones owned by China, they were telling Americans that. But secretly, they were making record shipments of meat to China. And that raises, I think, the biggest piece with all this is that, okay, fine, Chinese companies buying up American assets. Look, there's no such thing as a Chinese company independent of the Chinese Communist Party. If you're in China, you play by their game. If the Chinese Communist Party says, hey, comrade, how about you shut down local distribution and start sending it to China? Honor your motherland or your family's going to go to the gulag. But if you listen to us, we'll give you some financial benefits. They're going to do it. They don't have a choice. They violate Chinese law if they don't do it. And who's to say they won't do it? Well, look, they did during the early days of the pandemic. Tiffany, when it comes to these companies, I mean, you mentioned even fertilizer. Even fertilizer they control in some parts of the U.S. And not to mention even some U.S. companies have joint ventures in China. I guess just on this kind of big picture, you know, in terms of what you found, what's the big picture of China buying up or controlling re-energy, food, and water around the world? I mean, I think a lot of it goes back to, as you were mentioning earlier, the big picture. So this is just one tiny piece, right? China's not just going after the agriculture. It's every single sector. I think you've mentioned it before. China has their unrestricted warfare. So they're really trying to cripple a country from within without even needing to come in with their military might. So you have a lot of intellectual property theft. I think the U.S. loses about $250 to $600 billion each year just through IP theft to China. And then you also have, I mean, currently in the headlines a lot is TikTok, right? So there's Trump trying to ban it. Biden was like, oh, no, it's not going to pose a threat because it's, you know, American. And then the parent company is Chinese. So the BuzzFeed just had an article out being like all of that American user data is going back to China. And there's about 140 million monthly active users in the U.S. And most of those are teenagers. So a lot of them are like, oh, who cares if, you know, the Chinese regime has my data? They're like, we're not government officials. We don't work in intelligence. But the thing is, like, if you have an opinion they don't like, like, for instance, there's cases where people are like, oh, Twitter shadow banning people. Right. So it's like if you vote for a candidate or someone that the Chinese regime doesn't like, they're going to start limiting your reach. So your friends don't see your post. So it's like it really does affect every single person, even if they don't realize it. So it's really this like top down approach where they target every single sector, every part, and every person in society without them realizing it. It goes back to the whole unrestricted warfare. And as you mentioned, China wants to be the hegemon and watch the U.S. fade. So it kind of all ties into that. Tiffany, thank you. Again, folks, Tiffany Meyer, if you haven't watched her show, check it out. It's China in Focus. She's on Epic TV. She's on YouTube. Really, I think the best source you can get on China news. And they get a lot of news nobody else gets. So, Tiffany, always a pleasure. Thanks for being on. Thanks so much for having me.