Donald Trump has accused China of many things this past week, and he’s absolutely correct to do so. I hope he continues to stick it to them. It’s beyond time to hold that country accountable, instead of rolling over and letting them do what they want. China lies, steals, and cheats to get its way, and it’s impacting business owners and citizens in the United States.
It’s even impacting farmers, food, and agriculture. And I’m not just talking about how they’re buying up U.S. farmland. Chinese nationals are coming along at night and digging up cultivated seeds and shipping them back to China, so that they can steal and recreate our unique varieties of crops, and negating years and millions of dollars of research and production that went into creating these products.
Indiana farmer:
“We were producing seeds for buyers. Chinese nationals were coming out at night, digging up the pure parent lines of the seed that we was producing on our farm, only to be taken to Chicago O’Hare put in a warehouse, and then shipped back to China” pic.twitter.com/bDCLkR7kMa
— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) April 9, 2025
Apparently, this isn’t new. I did a little digging and found out it’s been going on for years. As far back as 2013, Chinese nationals were digging up corn seeds in Iowa and shipping them back to China. And, apparently, it’s not unique to the Midwest.
When asked about that during an interview with Florida’s Voice last week, Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said he hears stories like this “all the time” in the Sunshine State.
WATCH: Florida Agriculture Commissioner @WiltonSimpson reacts to reports that Chinese nationals were digging up planted seeds under cover of night, and transporting them back to China to steal uniquely cultivated crop varieties pic.twitter.com/FdKQ3xrMwT
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) April 9, 2025
Simpson said it’s beyond time for the federal government to do something about China’s impact on our agriculture. Many states, such as Florida, have passed laws preventing or limiting Chinese nationals’ ability to buy farmland and land near sensitive areas, including military bases, in the United States. However, there are limitations on what individual states can do, and many are calling on Congress to make this a federal priority ASAP.
Simpson likened the Chinese impact on our food and agriculture systems to the same national security concerns that come with having an open border. He said that the U.S. is no longer a net exporter of food, but a net importer instead, something that’s changed just in the last five to eight years because China and other foreign countries are coming in and taking over. As one example, he pointed to the fact that Smithfield Foods is owned by a Chinese company.
“There’s a very good example of why that’s happened… We’ve got a lot of agriculture now that’s controlled by really foreigners and foreign enemies of this country. And, you know, in Florida, we’ve done what we can do, but clearly, the legislature in Washington, D.C. need to take care of that and get rid of them as owning our farmland and agriculture companies,” he told Florida’s Voice.
Of course, it’s not just seeds. China has been stealing intellectual property (IP) from the United States for quite some time. In 2017, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative estimates that Chinese theft of American IP costs between $225 billion and $600 billion annually. That’s one reason that people such as billionaire Kevin O’Leary have been calling on Trump to stand strong against the Communist nation in recent days.
Tariffs alone aren’t enough. China’s been gaming the system for years, stealing IP and crushing entrepreneurs. Shut it down until they come to the table and play by the rules. I’m not anti-China — I’m anti-cheating. Let’s fix this. pic.twitter.com/ZcL6t9MRkr
— Kevin O’Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) April 12, 2025
O’Leary is correct. Let’s fix this indeed.
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