How One State Is Taking on the Chinese Communist Party: Oklahoma’s Gov. Kevin Stitt

[RUSH TRANSCRIPT BELOW] In this episode, I sit down with the 28th governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, to learn about how he’s reducing his state’s vulnerabilities and dependency on communist China.

We also dive into Oklahoma’s push toward critical-mineral production and the governor’s mission to promote economic development and reignite the American Dream.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

Jan Jekielek:

Governor Kevin Stitt, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.

Governor Kevin Stitt:

Thanks so much for having me here. It’s an honor to be with you.

Mr. Jekielek:

I want to talk about your activities countering the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese regime. But before we go there, I want to talk about your interest in gardening. I’ve noticed that people who are involved with the land tend to be more on the grounded side. Tell us about the gardening aspect of your life.

Governor Stitt:

Sure, absolutely. Well, my granddad had an eighth-grade education and was a dairy farmer from the northeast part of Oklahoma. So I loved going up and hanging out on the ranch and on the farm with granddad. And he always had a big garden. As a little kid, I didn’t really appreciate it as much because he was having me help weed it and that kind of stuff. But as an adult now, it’s just so fun to raise vegetables and be out there and show your children how to plant seeds and grow crops. And it’s not a big garden, but it’s, man, you’d be surprised how many tomatoes and potatoes and onions and corn you can grow. 

And so then I just started posting it as governor, and everybody seems to like it. It’s hard, even the Democrats like it, Republicans. It’s hard to complain about someone who’s out there making Oklahoma healthy again. Then I was honored when Secretary Kennedy came to Oklahoma as we launched some health initiatives in our state. He had seen it, so he wanted to go to my garden. And so it was fun having Bobby Kennedy there helping me dig up potatoes, and then we posted that. And it’s just a lot of fun, and then we’re just encouraging, you know, being more healthy in our state. And I think that’s something that, as leaders, I just want to try to do, and it’s something I like to do.

Mr. Jekielek:

Using this moniker, to make America healthy again, or make Oklahoma healthy again, does this mean you’re part of the approach that Secretary Kennedy is promoting?

Governor Stitt:

Yes. One of the things that we thought of, we asked for a waiver from the USDA on SNAP benefits, where Oklahoma spends about $2 billion on food insecurity. We wanted that to go towards more nutritional food and not for sugary drinks like sodas and candy. And so, she’s going to sign that waiver, we believe. And then more money will go further to actually, you know, provide more nutritional value to our citizens of Oklahoma. 

So, we’re doing things like that. Obviously, we are promoting exercise. I do the marathon every single year and I do a relay team, and we’re just promoting health in the state of Oklahoma. So that’s basically the purpose. 

We did pull out food dyes from state-sponsored meals, like meals going into our education system, our K-12, and into our correctional facilities. We’re trying to cook more farm-to-table type stuff and not put all the artificial dyes in there. We think that’s something we’re taking from Robert Kennedy and what he’s pushing nationally.

Mr. Jekielek:

You passed an executive order in 2024, countering CCP malign influence and preparing for the Indo-Pacific conflict. It’s somewhat unusual, and also comprehensive. Give us a sense of why you did this for Oklahoma. 

Governor Stitt:

I was the governor during COVID, and we saw this supply chain disruption, and we saw a lot of problems and backlogs. I think that put on everybody’s radar what society looks like if we can’t get some of the things that we rely on on a daily basis. I’ve got advisors that have done some research, and they’re looking at some of the potential conflicts, to your point, with China. If there is some kind of conflict between Taiwan and China, it could make the COVID pandemic times 20 as far as supply chains. 

We were trying to ask all of our state agencies to do a deep dive to see what it would take, and what would happen with the state government if we did lose some of that supply chain due to some kind of conflict over there? So that was the purpose of it. We just wanted people to be aware. We wanted to start unplugging. 

I think that also helps us nationally. It’s a national defense issue. It’s a national interest for us to bring the supply chain closer to home. It also helps us target certain things and promote economic development in our state. We just landed the largest aluminum smelting company that’s going to be built in the state of Oklahoma. They haven’t built a new smelter for 45 years. 

We’re leaning into critical minerals in our state. We want Oklahoma to be the critical mineral capital of the United States. We’ve got tons of companies that are moving here for new processes. And things that Americans take for granted, we have to bring that supply chain closer to home, whether it’s batteries or magnets and the things that go into every part of our life, chips, all those kinds of things. 

Mr. Jekielek:

You’re also divesting state assets and pension holdings that might be compromised by a future Pacific conflict. There’s also the state procurement supply chains themselves that you’re looking at. There are a lot of elements here.

Governor Stitt:

That’s right. When we’re asking those state agencies to really look at their procurement and who they’re buying from and what that looks like to make sure that we can source from other sources, even if that’s maybe the best deal right now, we have to have backups. We’re just trying to think ahead. You can’t start that process if there was some kind of conflict. 

Mr. Jekielek:

How hard is it to enact or how hard was it or is it to enact this actually? Because it’s one thing to say it, but it’s another thing to get the system to actually do it. 

Governor Stitt:

If you don’t have to deal with the legislature and you don’t have to pass laws, it makes it a little easier on the executive branch. So the agencies that we can control, and when a governor puts an executive order in place, then those agencies that become something that they have got to do. It becomes kind of a law for them to focus on. Now, the problem with executive orders versus legislation is that the next governor, if he doesn’t continue that executive order, it goes away. That’s the problem that you deal with. 

So obviously, I am always encouraging my legislature to codify some of these sensible executive orders that I’ve put in place. But for speed, we’re always trying to do things quicker. I come from the business world. We want Oklahoma to move at the speed of business. And sometimes, you know, democracy and the debating of bills, and writing bills, and then you’ve got all the detractors, and you’ve got lobbyists trying to kill the bill that is going to affect them. But as an executive, we know how to make Oklahoma top 10 and how to protect Oklahoma in the future. And we’re trying to get that done quickly and efficiently.

Mr. Jekielek:

It’s interesting that you said top 10. When you look at state-level legislation and executive orders and cybersecurity initiatives, Oklahoma actually fits into the top 10. 

Governor Stitt:

We try to be top 10 in everything we do, so I’m glad you noticed that.

Mr. Jekielek:

Oklahoma has a special relationship with Taiwan. How does that impact your decision-making?

Governor Stitt:

Yes, they are obviously great allies of the U.S., and we have a lot of trade back and forth.

Mr. Jekielek:

You have been a sister state of Taiwan since 1980.

Governor Stitt:

Yes, we share ideas. I actually just took a trip over to Taiwan and had a great time. I also went to Japan and South Korea, very important trading partners. I’ve signed MOUs [Memorandum of Understanding] with Taiwan, the UK, and multiple other countries. They’re going to the states now because Congress is so dysfunctional. It’s so political, it’s so partisan that they’re literally coming directly to the states. I have an international strategy where I’ve met with 80 different ambassadors to put Oklahoma on their radar. 

So in other words, if you want a U.S. presence, if you’re looking for a new manufacturing facility, distribution facility, if you want to get into the U.S. market, you’ve got to look at Oklahoma. Because for distribution purposes, cost of living, quality of life, and labor cost, what I found is sometimes companies, all they watch is Hollywood, so all they know is New York or L.A., and I’m like that’s the worst place to set up a business. You come to a place that’s most business-friendly, and that’s Oklahoma. And so I love my strategy internationally.

Mr. Jekielek:

But I’m sure that Communist China has also come calling to your office. You’ve got legislation now to restrict the use of farmland. Was that actually a big problem before that legislation was passed and signed by you into law?

Governor Stitt:

It was, and basically it came out from the medical marijuana industry. So we had a state question before I got elected that authorized marijuana as a medicine. But really what happened, anybody with a hangnail can get a medical marijuana card, so it’s really turned into recreational. You have to have a card, but it’s so simple to get that. 

So what we saw is we saw some of the Chinese nationals coming in, buying land, and setting up these marijuana farms. And so we’ve really had to crack down on that because the industry popped up overnight after a state question. And it took a while to get the regulations in control and to be able to do the secret shoppers and to be able to make sure that we have control over that industry. So we’ve had to crack down heavily on that. 

When you think about buying farmland around some of our critical infrastructure, we have Tinker Air Force Base, which is the largest maintenance and repair facility in the entire world. So it maintains all the Air Force fleet. It’s right there in Oklahoma City. We need to be, you know, eyes wide open with some of our adversaries buying land around some of these critical infrastructures. Then you think about our energy grid. This was exacerbated after Biden’s open border policies, and Trump has shut that down. When you look and talk to his cabinet about how many people came into the country illegally, it can be concerning.

Mr. Jekielek:

This is a way of the Chinese Communist Party conducting drug warfare against America, using all these tools to basically get rid of military-aged males in America. 

Governor Stitt:

You don’t want to be too much of a conspiracy theorist, but when you play the long game and fentanyl is destroying our country, it absolutely could be a strategy of those folks to try to get young men addicted to this stuff. It’s horrible. I hate the marijuana industry. I’m sure there are certain cases where it’s maybe helping someone from a pain management standpoint. But it’s certainly overused in my state, and I’m sure it is in others as well.

Mr. Jekielek:

The marijuana of today is a completely different thing than the marijuana of 30 years ago. It’s a highly potent drug that causes psychosis. It’s a whole different breed. Are you aware of the CCP trying to influence you or other people in government or various industries in America?

Governor Stitt:

Not me, I’ve shut them down. They don’t reach out to me. We’ve heard about some of the things in our universities. We take a deep dive and make sure that’s not in Oklahoma, but we’ve seen that pop up in other states. Listen, our economy is so much better than theirs. We’ve got them on the ropes. We don’t need to give them a lifeline. We don’t need to continue allowing them to buy and develop land, especially around some of our critical infrastructure.

Mr. Jekielek:

On your trip to Asia, you mentioned Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. Was part of the discussion trying to deal with some of these vulnerabilities?

Governor Stitt:

Yes, part of it was. It’s a trade mission. How can we trade more together? How can they unplug from their reliance on China, whether it’s energy oil and gas, or agricultural products? So, yes. Oklahoma obviously is a huge natural gas state. So with liquified natural gas [LNG], how do we get that? How do we get more LNG to you? I think they’re buying from Russia right now. They’ve got a contract that’s expiring. Since we’ve left, they’ve signed some more agreements with the U.S. 

But obviously, the proximity to China over there, that’s the big 800-pound gorilla for them. And they need to know that they’ve got an ally that they can support. You saw President Biden pause LNG exports. Well, guys, that only hurts our allies, and it drives them into the arms of China and Russia and people that maybe don’t like us very much, and it enriches them. And so our allies need to know that we’re there for them. 

And so that’s part of the reason we make those trips, to see how we can help, what their needs are, and then also how we do educational exchanges, have our students go and do some exchanges on maybe studying abroad and inviting their students to come to Oklahoma State or the University of Oklahoma. A key thing that needs to happen in my view to do this—let’s call it decoupling or reducing the dependency, or however you want to describe it, on Communist China—is the re-industrialization. 

Mr. Jekielek:

You mentioned building a smelter here in Oklahoma. How are Oklahoma policies encouraging that process right now?

Governor Stitt:

I’m glad you’re bringing that up because the United States is the one that has developed a lot of these processes, mineral to magnet processes. So how did we lose that? We lost all this manufacturing expertise, critical mineral manufacturing, over to China because, you know, we said it was maybe too dirty or messy or whatever. And so now we know the mistake of that, and we’re trying to bring that back. 

So the way Oklahoma approaches this is that if you’re the most business-friendly state and you deregulate, and you make sure that you have sensible regulations and you’re not playing gotcha with companies, then they’re going to show up in your state. So we have companies like USA Rare Earth, Green Li-ion, and Blue Whale. We’ve got all the battery companies coming. We’ve got new battery companies that are making lithium and phosphorus type materials that are going to go into the new type of batteries instead of the cobalt-nickel type stuff. 

So they’re coming to Oklahoma because our Department of Environmental Quality is going to give them a permit quicker. We’re not going to beat them up on those things. You see other states that are really driving businesses away by over-regulating and over-taxing, and we take the opposite approach. 

If you have a business coming to your state, investing capital, building buildings, and hiring people, that’s good for your economy. That helps education, infrastructure, and healthcare. Everything happens when we get investments coming to our state. So we want to reward entrepreneurs. We want to thank them for coming, and they’re finding great quality of life in our state. That’s our approach. 

The critical mineral thing is a huge deal. I wrote an article about how we should have a critical mineral stockpile in the U.S. We should be developing relationships with mines in Africa and South America. China is doing those kinds of things. And we have to develop those relationships to make sure we can keep up with the demands of the next century.

Mr. Jekielek:

To your point, we know for a fact that they’re using their stranglehold on rare earths right now as leverage against the U.S.

Governor Stitt:

Absolutely. They’re flooding the market. They’re price-fixing on their side. And so a normal commercial user is going where the cheaper price is, right, to build their products. Whether it’s the Biden administration or the Trump administration, the DOD recognizes that, and they’re trying to subsidize to get some of these industries started. China, with their price manipulation, is making it difficult to mine nickel and cobalt. and some of the different critical minerals. But we do have the DOD saying that we have a goal to get this purchased in the U.S. or our allies versus some of our adversaries.

Mr. Jekielek:

The ability to dump below cost has basically been a CCP strategy, whether it’s through Huawei, high tech, or cellular infrastructure. If they can make it at half the price because it’s part of their national security strategy, that’s a different game, isn’t it?

Governor Stitt:

Absolutely, yes. You’re 100 percent right.

Mr. Jekielek:

Are you planning more action to protect the state from the Chinese Communist Party? 

Governor Stitt:

Trump’s policies are really helping states push back and now getting control of who is in our state. I think all of that is working to the benefit of the American people, so I really want to give Trump credit. He’s taken a lot of bullets for that, but securing our border and making this immigration an issue is so, so important for us. I’ll talk to our team, and if there are further things that we’re doing or if we see them getting more aggressive, then sure. I want to be the first governor that acts on these make-sense policies.

Mr. Jekielek:

Governor, this has been a wonderful interview. A final thought as we finish?

Governor Stitt:

We’re here at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs at the National Governor’s Association, and my initiative as the chairman is the American dream, reigniting the American dream. And I think we cannot lose sight of the fact that we have the greatest country in the world, and we have something different here and unique that it doesn’t matter where you’re born or who you’re born to or the circumstances of your birth. You can chase your American dream. You can accomplish anything that your imagination will allow you to as long as you’re willing to work hard for it. 

And so we want to teach that to the next generation. And a lot of that has to do with education, but also energy, security, reliability, and affordability, and then a free market economy. And it’s the exact opposite of communist-controlled China. And so we need to teach our young people the difference. There’s no such thing as equal outcomes. We want equal opportunities. We want everybody to chase their American dream. And everybody’s dream is different. 

I’m going to be telling these American dream stories over the next year. I’ve lived the American dream, starting a business with $1,000 and a computer, growing it to a nationwide company with over 1,000 employees, and then running for governor. We want to teach those young people in the next generation that the American dream is alive and well for another 250 years. 

Mr. Jekielek:

The founders of The Epoch Times were Chinese Americans who escaped communist China, came to America, and built this company out of nothing with no help. They actually had a lot of interference from the Chinese regime all the way along, yet they still built one of the largest media companies in America. So I hope you could include them.

Governor Stitt:

I need their contact info, because those are the stories we are going to tell. We interviewed Mark Cuban and we want to interview Arnold Schwarzenegger. I love the stories of people, including immigrants coming here, chasing their American dream. In Europe, you don’t have that ability. It’s more of a class system, right? Who are your parents? It’s hard to break out. But in America, it doesn’t matter who you’re born to. You can achieve your American dream.

Mr. Jekielek:

Governor Stitt, it’s such a pleasure to have you on the show.

Governor Stitt:

Absolutely. Thank you so much.

This interview has been partially edited for clarity and brevity.