NATHAN HALVERSON:

The Treasury Department approved the deal last September. A special committee, which meets behind closed doors to evaluate foreign purchases of American companies, reviewed the acquisition to assess whether it posed a threat to national security, focusing on military defense.

Since Treasury's final report is classified, the Center for Investigative Reporting spent four months determining if the Chinese government played a role in the takeover.

Carl Sanchez, the American lawyer who brokered the deal for Shuanghui, says the Chinese government's bank, the Bank of China, approved the $4 billion loan to buy Smithfield in a single day.

Bank of China is — it's owned by the government. So if the government has an initiative, and they want to go forward with it, the advantage is, is that they can support that.

CARL SANCHEZ, Lawyer for Shuanghui: Sure. We had our financing all lined up. We were ready to roll. We were ready to sign that agreement. We were ready to provide commitment letters from the banks for about $5 billion in financing altogether.