Thread by @s_webber

The Chinese Communist Party has a key ally in Missouri Republicans.

As people die & the economy crashes due to Republican failures, Repubs turn to one of the few plays they have left: xenophobia.

GOP outrage is convience, not conviction.

Let’s check the receipts⬇️
(It’s WILD)

https://twitter.com/bryanlowry3/status/1252704551410565128

In 2010/11 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) adopted their 12th “Five Year Plan.”
(The most infamous of these 5 year plans was Mao Zedongs “Great Leap Forward” that resulted in the starvation of 30-55 million people.)

The Communist Plan directed government officials & state owned businesses to “leapfrog” agriculture growth through state supported “mergers and acquisitions.”

Translation: Go buy American agricultural companies.

Following this CCP order, the Shuanghui Group, the largest pork company in China, set its sights on acquiring America’s largest pork company Virginia based Smithfield Foods.

The deal looked finished in early 2013.

To make the deal happen the Bank of China, under the full control of the Chinese Communist Party, poured 4 BILLION dollars into Shuanghui.

It was clear this was an acquisition of an American Company by the Chinese Communist Party!

But there was a problem. Significant Smithfield assests are based in Missouri. And Missouri had a law against foreign ownership of our farmland.

The full acquisition of Smithfield by the Chinese couldn’t happen with this law.

On the last day of 2013 legislative session Republican legislators inserted language in a bill to repeal the ban on foreign ownership & pave the way for China’s takeover of Smithfield.

Credit @stltoday @kevinmcdermott for the story.

Democratic Governor @GovJayNixon subsequently vetoed the bill.

The veto of this legislation put the Chinese acquisition (and the communist 5-year plan) at risk.

Undaunted Missouri Republicans used their legislative supermajority to support the Chinese Shuanghui effort- on a nearly Party line vote Republicans overrode the Democratic veto.

House & Senate vote records are here -votesmart.org/bill/votes/462…

Missouri’s current Governor, Lt. Governor & Attorney General (who’s now making a show suing China) all voted to allow the Chinese take over to happen.

Two weeks later the Chinese acquisition was complete. It was the largest takeover of an American company by China in history.

With that the Chinese Communist Party gained control of a significant portion of America’s food supply.

The technology they obtained in the sale allowed them to “leapfrog” just as the CCP 5-year plan directed.

Shuanghui, now named WH, is the largest pork company in the world

One of these Shuanghui Plants in South Dakota is now a top coronavirus hotspot.

Safety decisions that literally result in American workers dying are being made with an eye to helping payback the Chinese Communist Party.
m.theepochtimes.com/pork-plant-at-…

In 2018 Missouri Democrats tried to fix the damage the GOP/CCP alliance caused.
Rep. @Martha4MO Stevens filed a bill to reinstate the ban on foreign ownership of farmland. Republicans in the #MoLeg refused to move it.

The GOP/CCP alliance was strong! missouridemocrats.org/press-release/…

Missouri Republicans don’t help the Chinese Communist Party because they’re communists.
They do it because they always side with big business (who love China) & they value their campaign donations, & power those bring, more than they value standing up for working Americans.

The GOP’s current squealing is to deflect from their complicity in empowering the CCP, as they desperately try to redirect anger toward “the others” ie “Wuhan virus” to distract from their massive failure to protect Americans from the Coronavirus.

The CCP is trash. Their murder of the Uyhgers is a modern holocaust.

#Mo Republicans go for headlines, but they won’t call out Trump for praising China & they won’t vote to hurt China. BECAUSE CHINA DRIVES BIG BUSINESS, & BIG BUSINESS DRIVES THE GOP. politico.com/amp/news/2020/…

Two addendums that didn’t fit anywhere else.

1. Part of the lawsuit the GOP filed included the CCP stifling of whistleblowers. OF COURSE the SAME republicans destroyed protections for Missouri whistleblowers. But that’s another story.

2. As @eyokley pointed out Missouri wasn’t the only state with this law. There was a coordinated effort around the country to open our land to the CCP.
The help of the Missouri Republicans was a necessary, but not sufficient condition, for the CCP purchase. Thread.