The New Red Scare (Editorial)

Olivet’s facility in Bentonville (Michael Woods)

The state law prohibiting Chinese ownership of certain commercial properties in Arkansas is not necessarily a bad measure, but its implementation has, so far, been seriously flawed.

Arkansas Agriculture Secretary Wes Ward in July cast suspicion on a Walmart vendor, Olivet International Inc. of California, when he asked Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office to determine whether 4811 S. Zero Street LLC, an Olivet subsidiary, had ties to the Chinese government.

Three weeks later, Griffin cleared the company of any wrongdoing in its ownership of a 378,000-SF factory in Fort Smith. But as our Kyle Massey reported last week, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce CEO Randy Zook called the investigation “nearly a colossal screw-up.” 

Zook noted that some of the leaders of Olivet, including co-owner Lydia Hsu, are Americans of Taiwanese descent. “Taiwan is the sworn enemy of communist China … and was known for decades after World War II as ‘Free China,’” Massey reported. In fact, Zook described Olivet as a leader in “reshoring” manufacturing jobs from overseas to the U.S.

In addition, the reason for publicly announcing the investigation is a mystery. Law enforcement officers don’t typically announce the subjects of their investigations, so why this case? The most obvious answers are not flattering to state officials.