Upper Delta News

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has allegedly used taxpayer money to help Chinese companies set up shop in the state while his law firm is reportedly earning money by legally representing them, according to Conduit News co-founder.

"Giving Arkansas taxpayer dollars to Communist Chinese companies is a double slap to the people of Arkansas,” said Brenda Vassuar Taylor, co-founder of Conduit for Action.  “Not only are Arkansans incrementally losing our freedoms and values to the Communist Chinese, but we are also paying the Communist Chinese to take our freedoms and values.”

Gov. Hutchinson’s firm specializes in international business and immigration law and if it operates like other law firms, it bills clients based on an agreement and the client pays the agreed invoice without disclosing them publicly.

“When Communist Chinese companies pay their legal fees to the Asa Hutchinson Law Group, we have no way of knowing whether they used the money they received from Asa Hutchinson as Governor through his Quick Action Closing Fund or other money since money is fungible,” Taylor told Upper Delta News. “If an elected official would want to avoid the perception of self-dealing and corruption, as Governor, he should avoid giving money to the clients of his law firm.”

While Gov. Hutchinson’s website identifies law offices in Arkansas, Washington, D.C. and Madrid, Spain, he announced in mid-March that he would tap into the state’s Quick Action Closing Fund to support small businesses, child care providers and nonprofits that are struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a statement online.

“Everyone knows of Asa’s years of work and experience in Washington, D.C. where there are apparently many close ties to China and dealings with lobbyists,” said Taylor who published an in-depth article about it on Conduit News. “I am not saying it is related but it is my understanding that Asa’s brother, Tim, and his wife are still lobbyists in D.C.”

Arkansas Congressman Rick Crawford (R-Jonesboro) has voiced similar concerns about Chinese investments in America, including three in his district. He told Talk Business & Politics in September 2019 that the Chinese attempt to steal everything they can and that five researchers had been indicted in the state of Arkansas just over a year ago for stealing rice research from the Rice Research and Extension Center. 

“The FBI has been warning small business owners for at least the past few years of illegal conduct against small businesses by the Chinese in our state,” said Taylor in an interview. “I have spoken with different small business owners in the state, in the timber industry for example, who have told me personally that they have lost their businesses due to the Chinese take-over of their market.”

Two weeks ago, Simon Saw-Teong Ang, 63, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, was arrested on Friday, May 8, 2020, on charges that he had close ties with the Chinese government and Chinese companies, and failed to disclose those ties when required in order to receive grant money from NASA, resulting in various wires being sent and received in an alleged scheme to defraud, according to the Department of Justice. 

“The latest Covid-19 crisis may only be the tip of the iceberg if the American people do not wake up against this threat and that should certainly begin at the state and local government levels,” said Taylor. “To their credit, the alarms are being sounded by U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and U.S. Congressman Rick Crawford.”

As recently as February 7, 2020, Sen. Cotton called on the DOJ to investigate news organization China Daily, which is allegedly supported by the Chinese Communist Party, for possible Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations, according to a statement online. 

“It is obvious that there are more promises than actual long-term benefits,” Taylor said. “With most of our current tax incentive giveaways, there seems to be a lack of follow-up and accountability. If Gov. Hutchinson’s son’s client received Arkansas taxpayer dollars from the Governor, one can hardly say that the taxpayers did not pay the expenses.”

Hutchinson reached deals with four Chinese companies in the last few years, totaling $1.4 billion in investment and an estimated 1,500 jobs in Arkansas.