Garlic, a common condiment, has unexpectedly become a hot topic in China-United States relations. On December 11, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025, as it prohibits the sale of garlic from the People's Republic of China in U.S. military commissaries.

"Garlic could never have imagined it would pose such a 'great threat' to the United States," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning joked at a regular press conference the following day. Mao also advised certain U.S. politicians to exercise more common sense and rationality to avoid becoming a laughingstock.

The situation left many Chinese puzzled as to why garlic was singled out in such an important U.S. legislative bill. Well, based on Western legends, only vampires are afraid of garlic.

Florida Senator Rick Scott, a leading advocate for the current garlic ban, opposes Chinese garlic mainly because he suspects that it is fertilized with human feces, a practice he believes threatens U.S. national security, public health and economic prosperity. He also argues that the use of "slave and child labor" in Chinese garlic production allows it to be sold at artificially low prices in the U.S.

However, Scott has yet to provide evidence to support these claims. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, China has produced about 23 million tons of garlic annually since 2019, accounting for about 76 percent of global output. Garlic cultivation in China relies on strong industrial capabilities, while garlic grown using traditional methods would be unlikely to survive a journey to the U.S. and would rarely be exported. Such garlic, cultivated with natural fertilizers, is typically sold at several times the price of mass-produced varieties in the Chinese market.

This brings us to the heart of the issue. In recent years, an increasing number of baseless threats attributed to China have been spread by U.S. politicians. The most recent of these rather wild assertions is that Chinese garlic could make U.S. soldiers sick. Such statements have grown increasingly absurd and detached from reason. Yet, these speculative claims continue to be enshrined in bills and policies, shaping public discourse and negatively affecting not only U.S. society, but also China-U.S. relations—and, by extension, the global community.

What is even more alarming is that if garlic can be labeled a national security threat, then what product from China is safe from demonization?

One has to ask: Where and when does this end? When everything is treated as a potential threat, it becomes harder to distinguish between real dangers and manufactured fears—ultimately jeopardizing both national security and global stability. 

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon

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