Reports reveal that Republican and Democrat congressional representatives, alongside state and local officials, are working together to prevent more sales of China purchasing United States agricultural land.
Efforts to prevent China from acquiring more land in the U.S. have gained traction in the Senate, where a few weeks ago, Republican and Democrat Senators voted 91-7 to prevent China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran from purchasing U.S. farmland, reports Foreign Desk News.
According to reports, the law was passed as an amendment to the annual defense budget bill, requiring the President to review farmland transactions from the designated countries, blocking any deals that would allow a foreign entity from any of the countries to “control” American farmland and waive those that do not.
In June of last year, Florida joined states including Virginia, North Dakota, Montana, and Arkansas, to pass bills to protect America’s agricultural resources, military bases, and other critical installations.
In May, Florida signed a bill preventing citizens from “foreign countries of concern” from purchasing land on or within 10 miles of any “military installation or critical infrastructure facility,” including seaports, airports, and power plants.
According to state officials, the “foreign countries of concern” include China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, and Iran, and agencies and governments operating on their behalf.
Virginia and Montana also signed similar laws applying them to “foreign adversaries” as designated by the U.S. Commerce Department, which includes China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
In North Dakota, an American subsidiary of Chinese company Fufeng Group tried to build a wet corn milling plant that would have been close to a U.S. Air Force Base, posing what officials at the U.S. Air Force described as a “significant threat to national security.”
Texas is also considering a bill to prevent hostile regimes like China from purchasing agricultural land.
In Michigan, residents of the idyllic Green Charter Township near Lake Michigan recently won a victory after a Chinese-owned industrial firm Gotion backed out of buying local farmland.
Gotion is a company that has “pledged allegiance” to the CCP and completed the purchase of 260 acres—about the total floor space of the Pentagon—of derelict industrial land in the area and 10 acres—about half the area of Chicago’s Millennium Park—of disused farmland several days ago. Residents told reporters they were “bullied” into accepting the takeover but refused to do so and rallied together to prevent it from occurring.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, Gotion confirmed the purchase of 270 acres of land, saying it had “listened to the concerns of residents and decided not to purchase two large parcels of land zoned for agriculture use at this time.”