Soybean imports from the United States have carried seeds of foreign plants into Chinese ports, with some of those weeds later establishing populations beyond the places where they were first detected. One of the clearest examples is Palmer amaranth ( Amaranthus palmeri ), a weed that is native to the Americas and has become an agricultural problem in parts of China. A 2026 study in the Journal of Integrative Agriculture traced populations of the weed in China and found evidence that linked repeated introductions to imported soybean shipments.
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