South Dakota’s trade with China has more than quadrupled since its lowest point at the height of the U.S.-China trade war in 2018. The $1.2 billion worth of goods exported to China in 2021 marked a significant increase from the 2008-2017 average of $712 million. Almost a third of the state’s global goods exports is going to China, a primary export market for South Dakota. Beyond agriculture, businesses in South Dakota are eyeing the Chinese market for potential export expansion, especially around manufacturing. Smithfield, acquired for close to $5 billion in 2013 by Chinese company Shuanghui, is the second-largest employer in South Dakota. It continues to contribute significantly to the local economy as well as South Dakota’s export of pork, the main animal protein consumed in China. But shifts in political attitudes are taking hold. In 2021, Senator John Thune from South Dakota helped introduce a bill targeting China in an anti-dumping law. In addition, in August of 2022, Senator Mike Rounds proposed a bill banning China and three other countries from purchasing or investing in agricultural lands in the U.S. Though the Chinese American population is small in the state, the history of early thriving Chinese American communities in the Black Hills is still celebrated each Chinese New Year. 

China is an incredibly vital market for South Dakota as the largest importer of the state’s soybeans. South Dakota counts China as its primary goods export market, with an impressive 29% of South Dakota’s global goods exports going to China, over double the Heartland region’s average of 12%. South Dakota’s total goods exporting to China in 2021 of $1.2 billion represents a significant increase from the 2008-2017 average of $712 million. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, service exports from South Dakota to China fell by -28%.

Trade exports between South Dakota and China have managed to stabilize at levels approximate to those South Dakota enjoyed prior to the trade war; such that South Dakota’s trade with China has surged by a factor of 400% since its lowest point in 2018. The effects of the trade war hit the state with particular severity due to the agricultural tariffs and subsequent slowing of soybean sales to China, given that oilseeds and grains account for 90% of South Dakota’s total exporting to China. In fact, the Dakotas were hit the hardest by the trade war of any Heartland states as a result of the soybean cutoff, with both states’ total exporting taking a 70% loss from 2017 to 2018.

For further illustration, South Dakota shipped a value of $1.1 billion worth of oilseeds and grains in 2021 compared to just $188 million in 2018. At the time, there existed a growing concern amongst soybean exporters that the relationship might not recover, as China sought out new partners in South America; that South Dakota’s soybean trade with China has not only renewed, but that it has in fact exceeded previous measures allays these fears, and is a portent of continued commerce between the two.

Despite renewed trade, the political landscape in recent years has been rocky; in 2021 a South Dakota Senator helped introduce a bill to Congress targeting China in an anti-dumping law. The bill has currently not made progress. In addition, another South Dakota Senator proposed in August of 2022 a bill banning China and three other countries from purchasing or investing in agricultural land in the U.S., joining a recent wave of anti-Chinese land legislation in the Heartland.

China ranks as South Dakota’s fourth leading place of origin for international students in 2022, dropping from third place in 2021, with an estimated 85 students in attendance. This marks an estimated -31% decrease in enrollment of Chinese students from 2021 to 2022, and a -46% decrease from 2020 to 2022.

This data and content is updated periodically. The most recent update was January 2023.