In December 2023, Governor Sarah Sanders looked into a camera and told Arkansas that two companies in our state were "linked to the CCP" — the Chinese Communist Party. She made it sound like a national security emergency.

There was one problem. Her own people had already told her, in writing, that it wasn't true.

Hundreds of pages of emails and court records obtained this week by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette show that Sanders' own agriculture secretary, her own attorney general, and his staff all knew the main target of her attack — a machine-parts maker in Jonesboro called Risever Machinery — was following Arkansas law. They said so to each other for days. Then Sanders went on social media and smeared the company anyway.

The scary story

Back in December 2023, Sanders' administration sent referral letters to Attorney General Tim Griffin asking him to investigate two businesses. One was Risever Machinery in Jonesboro. The other was Jones Digital, a cryptocurrency miner in Arkansas County. Both leased their land. The state claimed they might violate Act 636, the 2023 law Sanders signed that bars foreign-controlled businesses from owning Arkansas farmland.

Sanders' office leaned in hard. Her team told the public the Jonesboro company was connected to China. She put out an official press release with the headline "Sanders Administration Holds China Accountable." And on December 21, 2023, she posted a video across X, Facebook, and Instagram with the kind of language that grabs headlines:

"Communist China is America's greatest threat, and I won't let them buy up and exploit Arkansas land. ... We simply can't trust those who pledge allegiance to a hostile foreign power."

It's a powerful message. It would be a fine message — if the companies she named had actually done something wrong.

Her own team already knew the case had collapsed

Here's what the court records show was happening behind the scenes while Sanders worked the cameras.

Act 636 only covers agricultural land — land outside city limits. Just two hours after the referrals went out, an investigator in the attorney general's office pulled a property map and pointed out that Risever sits inside Jonesboro city limits, on land owned by the city. By the law's own definition, it wasn't farmland at all.

It got worse for the state's case from there. Risever turned out to be a family-owned company based in Hefei, China — not a government operation. It makes machine parts for companies like Caterpillar, Volvo, and Komatsu. It was recruited to Arkansas years earlier by former Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson. And its lawyer — Hutchinson's own son — sent Griffin a deed proving the property was inside city limits and asked him to close the case.

Then Sanders' own appointees lined up and said the same thing to each other:

• Agriculture Secretary Wes Ward — Sanders' own appointee — said he believed Risever was "in compliance with Arkansas law."
• Attorney General Tim Griffin wrote to his staff: "Looks like no Chinese involvement." Two minutes later he added: "Looks like they were wrongly accused."
• Deputy Attorney General Alexandra Benton emailed a Sanders staffer to warn that Risever "is indeed compliant."

All of that happened before Sanders posted her video calling the company a Communist China threat. She had been told. She said it anyway.

"They're wanting to save face"

The most damning part isn't even the original mistake. It's what happened after the truth was clear.

The day after Sanders' video, Griffin's office was scrambling to put out a statement clearing Risever. According to the records, Sanders' press secretary at the time, Alexa Henning, called Griffin's spokesman and pushed him to make sure the statement still labeled Risever a "Chinese-owned company" — "even though they're not violating Arkansas law." Griffin's spokesman summed up the governor's office in four words: "They're wanting to save face."

On December 22, 2023, Griffin put out the statement anyway. He concluded that Risever "is not in violation of Arkansas's law regarding foreign ownership of real property." Other outlets reported the same thing: the company was found not to be violating the ban.

The case was over. The company was cleared. But the headline Sanders wanted was already out there, doing its work.

Real businesses, real harm

This isn't a victimless political stunt. Real companies and real people got hurt.

Risever paid back a state grant when it didn't hit its hiring targets — it was a business trying to operate by the rules, and it got branded a foreign enemy by its own governor. The other company Sanders named, Jones Digital — now called Jones Eagle — fought back in court. It's run by Qimin "Jimmy" Chen, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in China. He says the state targeted him unfairly, and a federal judge agreed enough to block Arkansas from enforcing these laws against him. That case is still grinding through the federal courts — on the taxpayers' dime.

Think about what that means. A U.S. citizen got painted as a threat to the country by the governor of his own state, and he's had to spend years in court clearing his name over a law the state may not even be allowed to enforce.

The same playbook, over and over

If this feels familiar, that's because it is. This is exactly how Sarah Sanders operates: sound the alarm, grab the headline, hide the details, and move on when the facts catch up.

She built her national career doing it. As White House press secretary, she admitted to federal investigators that she made up a claim about FBI agents losing faith in James Comey — she had no evidence for it. As governor, she bought a $19,000 lectern and tried to hide how it was paid for. She even tried to gut Arkansas's open-records law so we couldn't check up on her in the first place.

And she ran the exact same China play again less than a year later. In 2024, her office accused an American company buying a Fort Smith factory of being a Communist Chinese front — and her own attorney general's staff called that one a "comms stunt" with no proof behind it, too. The company was cleared. The pattern repeats because it works: the scary headline travels, the quiet correction doesn't.

The bottom line

Strip away the politics and here's what's left. Sarah Sanders accused a Jonesboro company of being tied to Communist China. Her own agriculture secretary said it was in compliance. Her own attorney general said it was "wrongly accused." Her own deputy attorney general warned that it was "indeed compliant." All of that was in writing, before she ever hit "post." She said the scary thing anyway, and her office pushed to keep the smear alive even after it was proven false — because they were "wanting to save face."

We don't need a governor who treats the truth as optional and law-abiding businesses as props for a press release. We're smart enough to see the con. We deserve better.

Source

This post is based on reporting by Neal Earley of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: "Staff for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, others knew company she vilified on social media in 2023 was 'wrongly accused'", June 25, 2026.