Curbing Chinese ownership of farmland has become a popular rallying cry for lawmakers looking to prove their tough-on-Beijing chops ahead of November elections. But some subsidiaries of Chinese agriculture companies are fighting back, warning lawmakers against sweeping legislation that could harm their businesses and the US economy.
Seed company Syngenta, owned by Chinese state-owned enterprise Sinochem, has been trying to discourage lawmakers from interfering on their land ownership. Its affiliated political action committee has already spent $355,150 this election cycle, including on re-election bids for some of the very members publicly pushing to ban adversaries’ ownership of American farms. That’s ...