Dependence on Chinese Sugar Alternatives a Serious Threat to Our Food Security

America’s growing dependence on Chinese production of sugar alternatives aligns perilously with Beijing’s unrestricted warfare.

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

Commentary

In 1999, two colonels of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army published “Unrestricted Warfare,” a military strategy book advocating that modern conflict transcends traditional battlefields, extending into economic, legal, informational, and technological domains. The authors argued that countries could—and should—use every tool available, including economic leverage and unconventional tactics, to gain an advantage over an adversary.

This doctrine reinforces much of China’s approach to global competition today, raising a stark warning for American policymakers and consumers: relying on China for critical food ingredients—including sugar alternatives—fosters strategic vulnerability.

America’s growing dependence on Chinese production of sugar alternatives aligns perilously with unrestricted warfare. As China consolidates control over these ingredients—used ubiquitously in everything from diet soft drinks to products American children consume daily—we risk ceding our sovereignty over our health, food safety, and economic autonomy.

Sugar Solutions

Americans love sugar but grapple with its health downsides, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver disease, and tooth decay. High-intensity sweeteners such as sucralose, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), as well as plant-based alternatives, such as stevia and monk fruit, also come mainly from China.

Newer entrants, such as plant-based allulose and tagatose, offer more cane sugar-like taste and cookability and have no known negative health effects—actually only positive health benefits—but the China threat looms. As Americans pivot from traditional sugar, they must trust these alternatives are safe and secure. That trust is misplaced when nearly all originate in China, some carrying inherent health concerns.

China’s History of Deadly Adulteration

China’s troubled food safety record is infamous. The 2007 melamine scandal, in which Chinese exporters adulterated wheat gluten and rice protein with melamine, caused the deaths of more than 13,000 dogs and cats in the United States alone.

Even worse, in 2008, tainted infant formula made headlines worldwide when melamine contamination in China resulted in widespread sickness and infant fatalities. Recent reports of Chinese nationals smuggling agricultural toxins into the United States, possibly as state-directed sabotage, heighten concerns.

China’s Ascendance in Allulose Production and Economic Coercion

Adding a new layer to the landscape, China is rapidly increasing the industrial production of allulose, a “rare sugar” touted as a healthier, low-calorie sweetener. Chinese companies have invested heavily to dominate global allulose supply, likely with government subsidies. While allulose holds promise as a healthier sugar alternative (if unadulterated), America’s reliance on Chinese imports heightens risks related to supply disruptions, intellectual property, and safety oversight.

The concept of unrestricted warfare helps clarify why this matters beyond mere food safety.

China’s willingness to export substances with recklessly lethal consequences, such as fentanyl and its precursors, reinforces concerns about Chinese supply chains for food ingredients.

The unknown effects of this dependency and the opacity of production in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) should have raised food safety alarm bells years ago.

Protecting Innovation: The Case for American Tagatose

Bonumose (Charlottesville, Virginia) is pioneering a sustainable, large-volume method of making tagatose, a sweet plant material with prebiotic benefits and negligible glycemic impact. Like allulose, tagatose avoids links to metabolic or cardiovascular risks seen with sugar, artificial sweeteners, and some sugar alcohols. Most people who eat tagatose cannot taste the difference between it and cane sugar.

Chinese state actors, however, have aggressively attempted to unlawfully copy Bonumose’s proprietary tagatose technology and have flooded scientific journals with a fabricated history that they—rather than Bonumose—invented the scalable, low-cost method. Most prominent is the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Technology (Tianjin, China), which, like its affiliate—the Wuhan Institute of Virology (of COVID-19 infamy)—is part of the PRC regime-controlled Chinese Academy of Sciences under the influence of the People’s Liberation Army.

Onshoring Is Vital

The parallels between sugar alternatives and other critical supply chains—such as vitamins, amino acid feed additives, and active pharmaceutical ingredients—are striking.

Supporting domestic production of healthy sugar alternatives is both an economic and strategic imperative. It safeguards American consumers from health risks within foreign supply chains, ensures control over vital food ingredient technologies, and revitalizes rural economies through expanded agricultural demand.

Additionally, repurposing corn-processing facilities transitioning away from high-fructose corn syrup to produce tagatose and similar alternatives could provide a rapid, scalable, and cost-effective means to reestablish food supply chain resilience.

The doctrine of unrestricted warfare is the key driver of China’s hegemonic goals for global supply chains and reinforces China’s proxy platform–the Belt and Road Initiative. The PRC’s control over essential food ingredients is a strategic weapon.

The current administration should prioritize a bold national initiative to onshore production of sugar alternatives and other strategic food ingredients, anchored in American agriculture and innovation.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.