On Wednesday, Congresswoman Ashley Hinson (R-IA-02) delivered opening remarks during the Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party’s bipartisan roundtable discussion with Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL-08) on the CCP’s agricultural technology theft in Dysart, Iowa. Her prepared remarks are below. Watch the livestream here.
“Thank you, Chairman Gallagher and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi for traveling to Tama County for this important discussion about the CCP’s efforts to undermine American agriculture and control the global food supply through persistent IP theft, supply chain chokeholds, and deceptive trade practices.
I also want to thank our witnesses who are providing their invaluable first hand perspective and knowledge to our committee as we develop the policy solutions to compete with the CCP and protect both our food and national security.
Former U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Demers said, “China wants the fruits of America’s brain power to harvest the seeds of its planned economic dominance.”
That can be interpreted literally here in Iowa.
Nearly a decade ago, right here in Tama County, a man who would later be identified as Mo Hailong was spotted on his hands and knees digging up seeds in an unmarked field.
Not just any seeds – these hybrid seeds were the product of millions of dollars of research and development of DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto seed, now Corteva and Bayer.
These high tech seeds are among the most tightly guarded trade secrets in the industry. Mo had his eyes on the prize, as did his employer, DBN group – a Chinese ag conglomerate.
Stealing these parent seeds was stealing from every single farmer who paid for the research and innovation that went into them, and that they planted for their own harvest.
This wasn’t an isolated incident, it was part of a massive conspiracy led by Mo to steal ag trade secrets and send this valuable information – including the seeds themselves – to be reverse engineered in China.
According to federal prosecutors, Chinese Communist Party officials made it clear there was a “serious need for a national hero” to steal this knowhow from the US for China’s benefit.
We must be clear-eyed: there is no such thing as a private company in China. Every company in China is viewed by the party as a “national hero” – as a means to their end goal of overtaking the U.S. as the world’s pre-eminent superpower on the backs of American innovators, and as we will learn more about here today, on the backs of American farmers.
Let me close by saying in Iowa, our land is sacred. Feeding and fueling the world is engrained in who we are. We cannot allow the CCP to continue stealing our intellectual property, buying up our farmland, and ripping off our farmers and rural manufacturers.
While Mo’s seed conspiracy is one of the most brazen examples of the CCP’s ag IP theft, it is just one piece of their plot to undermine American agriculture and control the global food supply.
We’re talking about America’s most finite and sacred resource – our land – and the food we put on our tables. Why are we letting our most serious adversary have the upper hand? Why are we letting the CCP take advantage of our farmers and manufacturers?
We cannot sit idly by any longer. The status quo is too dangerous to maintain.
I look forward to today’s conversation and working together to stand up for American farmers and protect our national security.“
