But crucial to the financing of the burgeoning industrial cluster in this rural northeastern corner of Arkansas, one of America’s poorest states, is a surprising set of investors: Chinese citizens who have secured residency in the United States—and potentially a path to citizenship—through an investment visa scheme that has been bringing in thousands of people a year, by far the biggest group of whom are from China.
A Newsweek investigation has revealed how the entry of potentially hundreds of Chinese citizens to the U.S. via this struggling town of around 6,800 is being facilitated by Chinese companies with links to the ruling Communist Party that market their ability to buy entry to the United States. Also involved is the immigration investment subsidiary of a nonprofit economic development corporation in Little Rock.
