The companies lobbying against the bill include TikTok, drone manufacturer DJI, Alibaba, Smithfield Foods, and the pesticide-maker Syngenta.
Several major Chinese companies converged on Nebraska to lobby against legislation designed to counter threats from the Chinese Communist Party, according to the bill’s author.
The companies lobbying against the bill include TikTok, drone manufacturer DJI, Alibaba, Smithfield Foods, and Syngenta, the Chinese-owned pesticides firm, Nebraska Senator Eliot Bostar, the author of the bill, told National Review. Representatives from those firms met with Nebraska lawmakers as part of their effort.
Nebraska’s unicameral legislature recently passed Bostar’s bill to create a register of individuals working for entities from adversary nations and require that they disclose a wide-ranging set of activities to the state’s attorney general. The law would also require agents of terrorist organizations to file disclosures.
The proposal is modeled on the federal government’s Foreign Agents Registration Act. Governor Jim Pillen will host a ceremonial signing today, though he officially signed it in May.
Bostar described the unsuccessful lobbying campaign, in comments yesterday during an event hosted by State Armor, a nonprofit that combats Chinese influence and is asking lawmakers across multiple states to take up the legislation.
“There was a steady stream of them flying into Nebraska to have meetings both with me to try to convince me to not advance my legislation, but with other members of the legislature and work to, if they couldn’t defeat the legislation outright, try to create carve outs for their own interests and other mechanisms to try to weaken the bill to allow for foreign activity to be conducted on behalf of our adversaries, without having to be reported, without having to register,” Bostar said.
Despite lobbying from the Chinese firms, and from in-state lobbying outfits that Bostar believes likely have some foreign clients, Nebraska’s senate passed the bill on May 30.
He explained that while TikTok and some of the other firms might not necessarily have lobbying campaigns to conduct in the state currently, “they themselves, if they were to lobby in Nebraska or their hired contract lobbyist under the bill, would have to register as foreign agents.”
The companies would have to disclose all their communications with more than two people and make full disclosures of all of their agents and vendors, Bostar added.
The firms he listed would all be subject to that legislation because they are all Chinese. Syngenta, for example, is owned by China’s state-owned chemical company.
DJI’s PR team denied that it had lobbied against the bill, in a statement to NR after this story was first published: “DJI did not retain any government relations agencies in Nebraska during the 109th Legislature, nor did we engage in any conversations with lawmakers regarding Nebraska’s LB644.”
Smithfield, which is the U.S. subsidiary of the Chinese meat processing giant WH Group, confirmed that it opposed the bill, in a statement provided after this article was first published.
“Our opposition was based on certain definitions in the bill that made it apply to our company, one that has been vetted by the federal government through CFIUS and authorized to conduct business in the country and state. We would have preferred narrowing the bill to companies whose actions and conduct are nefarious or otherwise pose a threat to the state and country. It’s noteworthy that other Nebraska legislation focused on foreign ownership of real estate included a CFIUS exemption,” a Smithfield spokesperson said.
None of the other firms responded to National Review’s request for comment.
“Currently foreign adversarial interests can operate within our policy creation environment without anyone knowing. They can represent themselves as anything and make any claim they want, push any policy they want without really even anyone understanding where it’s coming from,” Bostar said.
The fight in Nebraska is one example of the battle now occurring in multiple legislatures across the country, as state-level officials, often with the support of State Armor, begin to advance counter-China initiatives. Governors are also taking steps to address threats posed by China.
“I have always taken seriously the threat our country faces from foreign adversaries,” Pillen told National Review in a statement.
“The Chinese Government is a foreign adversary and has been for decades. We need to stop being duped. That’s why my administration is leading the nation when it comes to keeping Chinese owned companies from receiving state tax credits, lobbying officials and taking health data from Nebraskans,” the governor added.
In recent months, Nebraska has also passed bills to bar foreign adversaries from purchasing land in the state and to mandate a review of telecom and infrastructure vulnerability in the event of a war with China.
State law enforcement offices are starting to ramp up investigations into Chinese products that have been fraudulently labeled to obscure their country of origin, said Michael Lucci, the CEO of State Armor.
Florida attorney general James Uthmeier recently launched a probe into a Chinese firm that makes a healthcare monitor, alleging that it sends data back to China.
“I think that those are kind of tip of the iceberg that there is growing awareness and appetite from law enforcement to start really just enforcing laws that are already on the books about material non disclosures, about back doors and products that consumers don’t know about,” Lucci added.