CHINA'S PATH TO US CITIZENSHIP

How wealthy Chinese nationals, many with links to the ruling Communist Party, are gaining U.S. residency via projects in rural Arkansas through America's EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program

- BY DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW

NEW STEEL AND SOLAR PLANTS AND A TRANSPORT TERMINAL have become a godsend for the Mississippi River town of Osceola, now long past its heyday as a timber and grain hub where steamboats once called and blues music echoed.

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 each 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 6,400 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.

There is no indication of wrongdoing on the part of the Chinese and American companies or individuals involved, but the scale of the immigration pipeline from the country described by U.S. security agencies as America's main global adversary has raised concerns among some serving and former U.S. officials. As well as potential security risks from the arrival of hundreds of new residents, there are also worries over the level of Chinese involvement in industrial centers of potential strategic importance.