In 2018, a cluster of buildings resembling a Silicon Valley corporate campus popped up in the middle of Chongzhou County, a farming region in southwest China. Owned and operated by Syngenta Group, one of the world’s largest agribusiness conglomerates, the buildings house something called a Modern Agriculture Platform (MAP), and inside, Syngenta employees encourage local farmers to accelerate “modernization and rural revitalization in China.”
In various MAP hubs across the country — complete with scientific labs, high-tech greenhouses, and classrooms splashed with the words “In Science We Trust” on their walls — Syngenta staffers run soil samples, suggest suitable crops for individual plots of land and provide crop protection advice, digital imaging and drone services. They also sell seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. The idea, as Syngenta chief executive J. Erik Fyrwald told Chinese state media, is to deliver a “full service solution center for farmers.”
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Ten years ago, as Steve Wynn expanded his gambling empire in Macau, his company made a $50 million payment to two mysterious businessmen, raising eyebrows on both sides of the Pacific. But scrutiny of the deal eventually died down, and Wynn Resorts' Macau operations went on to constitute an astonishing 75 percent of the company's revenue. Now, an investigation by The Wire has uncovered new evidence about the identities of Wynn's Macau partners, and the discovery sheds light on the often impenetrable universe of high stakes dealmaking in Macau, one of the world’s biggest gambling hubs.
The journalist talks about her new book; reporting on Russia, China and North Korea; and how past wars have become such a dominant presence in the politics of those countries.
