Global China in the American heartland: Chinese investment, populist coalitions, and the new red scare

Abstract

A specter is haunting the American heartland — the specter of global China. As US-China geopolitical tensions rise, China-related investments in US land have become ground zero for anti-China populist expressions. This article analyzes the role of Chinese land investment in the reconfiguration of local, inter-regional, and national politics. It examines geopolitical imaginaries of Chinese investment through a case study of Fufeng USA's agricultural land purchase in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The specter of a Chinese-owned corporation in the Upper Midwest ignited fears of economic statecraft and espionage among residents, interregional coalitions, and national politicians alike. In this context, the circulation of anti-China red scare discourses served to unify politically disparate actors across networked scales. The article intervenes by analyzing an anti-China red scare within an agricultural region and extending global China conceptual frameworks to Global North contexts through regional and scalar analyses. This red scare articulates as a land-based formation wherein anti-China discourse circulates in response to fears over the loss of agricultural space and sovereignty to foreign powers, in effect disciplining transnational capital. The analysis, furthermore, illuminates the undersized role of Chinese investment in US agriculture, thereby demystifying perceptions of threat embodied in geopolitical imaginaries of Chinese investment.