I think you may be mistaken....
Smithfield has been a world wide business... It employs MANY folks here in the US... Just the majority ownership changed hands... Smithfield was owned world wide because it was, and still is, traded on stock markets...
The company had 46,050 employees in the United States, Mexico and Europe as of 2012, and an annual revenue of $13 billion. It raises 15.8 million pigs a year, producing 3.8 billion pounds of fresh pork and 2.7 billion pounds of packaged meat, sold as 50 brands of pork products and 200 gourmet foods.[sup]
[17][/sup] Along with specialty brands such as
Paula Deen Collection, and international brands such as Weight Watchers, the company's 12 core brands are Armour, Carando,
Cook's Ham, Curly's Foods, Eckrich, Farmland, Gwaltney, Healthy Ones, John Morrell, Kretschmar, Margherita, and Smithfield.[sup]
[18][/sup] The company also operates The Genuine Smithfield Ham Shoppe and a restaurant, Taste of Smithfield, both in Smithfield, Virginia.[sup]
[19][/sup]
On 29 May 2013,
Shuanghui Group, also known as the Shineway Group, the largest meat producer in China, announced a purchase of all of the stock of Smithfield Foods, Inc. for approximately $4.72 billion.[sup]
[20][/sup] It was also announced by Shuanghui that it would list Smithfield on the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange after completing the takeover.[sup]
[21][/sup] On 6 September 2013 the U.S. government approved Shuanghui International Holding’s purchase of Smithfield Food, Inc. The deal was valued approximately $7.1 billion. It since has been the largest stock acquisition by a Chinese company of an American company to date.[sup]
[22][/sup]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithfield_Foods