For too long, the United States has allowed China’s self-serving influence to spill over its borders and permeate the world. The ongoing pandemic is only the latest example of what the Chinese Communist Party is capable of when permitted to behave with impunity.
In response, the U.S. must act accordingly.
Last week, my colleagues and I had a serious discussion about how to counter China and hold its communist regime accountable for not only COVID-19, but also the wide range of destructive practices it has executed for decades.
There is no single solution to dismantling China’s wide-reaching, nefarious apparatus. But U.S. agriculture can be used proactively to counter the Chinese Communist Party. A multilateral struggle for power and influence is taking place in a global theater, and it is time to take the offensive, both at home and abroad.
The U.S. is the world’s leading agricultural producer, having leveraged research and technology to increase output and productivity to unprecedented levels. As such, U.S. agriculture can be used as a tool for strengthening our engagement overseas. New trade deals represent a vital first step for furthering partnerships with other nations as well as supporting and expanding our own robust farming operations.
We should aggressively be seeking deals that incorporate strong agricultural components and make American products the most sought-after in the world. Currently, we have an excellent opportunity to bolster our trade relationship with the United Kingdom, but we should also actively be pursuing agreements in Latin America, Africa, South Asia, and the European Union. We cannot sit back and allow China to pitch itself as the greater global trade partner when our agriculture industry can produce with unmatched power and sophistication.
The strengthening of our agricultural sector also means protecting it from foreign threats. The Chinese Communist Party has been stealing proprietary research and technological advancements from our agriculture for years. Not only does this undermine our nation’s competitiveness in the global market, but it allows for China to support their authoritarian regime by stealing American ingenuity.
Certain steps need to be taken to safeguard the hard work and diligent research that goes into creating the world’s largest and most abundant food supply. The U.S. needs to improve the way that it collects, analyzes, and uses agriculture-related intelligence. We must also synchronize the efforts of the agricultural community with our broader security and defense goals. The Department of Agriculture, for example, could serve as a member on the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States and establish a more robust intelligence component within the agency responsible for collecting and analyzing information.
Additionally, we must work to protect the academic integrity and agricultural research of American institutions from China’s attempts to infiltrate and influence college campuses.
My home district in eastern Arkansas is all too familiar with such illicit attempts to steal valuable agriculture research, but the threat is widespread and leaves every campus vulnerable. We should be limiting research visas, prohibiting foreign sources of funding for public and land-grant universities and professors, and conducting regular screening to ensure academics are not engaging with foreign colleagues and governments in ways that could undermine security. We must take the necessary steps to guard our agriculture industry and view it as the critical asset to our national security.
Finally, the U.S. is failing to counter China’s heavy role in agricultural inputs aggressively. Fertilizer and other chemicals used in farm production are often produced in China. Not only does this put money in the Chinese Communist Party’s pocket, but it furthers our dependence on an unreliable and malicious partner.
China has proven time and time again that it cannot be trusted to maintain quality standards and open supply chains. We should shift production for these materials to regions such as Latin America. Not only would this decrease our dependence on China, it would fund economic development in the entire region and strengthen our partnerships with our neighbors in the Western Hemisphere.
China’s influence might be strong, but ours is stronger. We must play to our strengths and use tools such as agriculture to undermine the Chinese Communists Party’s efforts both at home and globally. Over 130,000 people in the U.S. have lost their lives due to COVID-19, but the greater threat posed by China’s expanding global power could result in even more loss.
It is time to hold China accountable and demand it play by the rules. The U.S. cannot allow its regime to operate without consequence. The good news is we are already equipped, right here at home, with the tools to stifle its influence. We just have to learn how to use them.
Rick Crawford, a Republican, represents Arkansas’s first district in the U.S. House of Representatives.
