The threat of Chinese Activity in Arkansas was chief among the crime fighting efforts addressed in a roundtable discussion that brought together FBI Director Kash Patel, along with the state’s two U.S. senators and Arkansas’ Attorney General.
Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, January 31, 2026, at the state capitol, Senator Tom Cotton described the Chinese threat as pressing and urgent. “From threatening our critical infrastructure and conducting economic espionage, buying up farmland, flooding our communities with deadly fentanyl, Communist China has taken the fight on the frontlines to us here in Arkansas.”
Sen. Cotton also said Arkansas Act 636 of 2023 has proven critical in removing Chinese influence from the state. The measure banned foreign-party-controlled-business from holding public or private land in the state. In fact, Sen. Cotton has sponsored a similar proposal on a national level. It is Senate Bill 176, also known as the “Not One More Inch or Acre Act.” Patel praised both Sen. Cotton and senior Arkansas Senator John Boozman for their work in helping protect national security.
Patel also took the opportunity to highlight the crime fighting efforts of the Trump administration. “This administration, in its first year, has seen a 20% reduction in the murder rate from coast to coast. That is a record for the modern era since 1900. This administration has seized, this FBI has seized enough fentanyl to kill 140-million Americans. That’s a 31% increase. This FBI has arrested six of the top ten most wanted fugitives in the world, to include individuals wanted in states across this country for heinous crimes.”
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said his office has focused on the fight against human trafficking and fentanyl production stemming from China. “What we have found as we raid these illicit sexual massage parlors, what we find is that they’re all, every single one of them, tied to mainland China. Chinese currency, Chinese wire transfers, Chinese nationals working in them. In rural Arkansas, stacks of Chinese currency.”
'Operation Obscured Vision,' launched by Griffin’s office in January 2025, led to the execution of search warrants at 13 locations across Arkansas. Those raids led to 7 arrests and the identification of 23 trafficking victims, all of whom were Chinese nationals.
During the news conference, Griffin once again reiterated his characterization of China’s multi-pronged activities in Arkansas as nothing short of low-level warfare, specifically ‘gray zone warfare.’ The Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan, Washington D.C.-based think tank defines it as a subversive, ‘under the radar’ strategy with the objective of destabilizing or weakening an opponent internally, without crossing the threshold into overt military action.
Protestors were also on hand during Patel’s visit to Arkansas, to voice their anger with activities involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in Arkansas, Minnesota & elsewhere. Some demonstrators stood outside the capitol building, while others managed to make it inside the building, where they attempted to disrupt Patel’s visit.
