CV NEWS FEED // According to recent reports, Communist China has been buying farmland near many U.S. military bases in various states.
The New York Post reported Thursday that it “identified 19 bases across the US from Florida to Hawaii which are in close proximity to land bought up by Chinese entities.”
The Post characterized these plots of farmland as “strategically placed,” adding that they “could be exploited by spies working for the communist nation.”
According to The Post, American military bases close to Chinese-bought farmland include:
Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) in Fayetteville, North Carolina; Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood) in Killeen, Texas; Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California, and MacDill air force base in Tampa, Florida.
Retired Air Force brigadier general and China expert Robert Spalding told the Post that China’s land purchases are “concerning.”
“These locations can be used to set up intelligence collection sites and the owners can be influential in local politics as we have seen in the past,” he stated.
Spalding said it is “alarming” that there is an absence of “laws on the books that would prevent the Chinese from buying property in the US.”
Former military contractor Morgan Lerette agreed. “The Chinese are, or will, use this farmland to learn more about US military capabilities, movements, and technology,” Lerette told The Post. “This will allow them to better understand how to transition their military from a defensive strategy to an expeditionary one.”
He speculated that the decision to buy farmland near American military bases might aid China in their possible future quest of invading Taiwan.
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Again from The Post:
One of the biggest investors in Texas is secretive billionaire Sun Guangxin, who has deep ties to the communist party and spent an estimated $110 million buying up land next to Laughlin Air Force Base in Val Verde County, a training ground for military pilots.
…
Fufeng Group, a Shandong, China-based company that specializes in flavor enhancers and sugar substitutes, purchased 300 acres of farmland 40 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, in 2022.
Billionaire and Chinese Communist Party member Chen Tianqiao is the second-largest foreign owner of farmland in the US. He bought nearly 200,000 acres of farmland in Oregon in 2015 at about $430 an acre, according to the Land Report.
Last year, Forbes noted that “China owns roughly 384,000 acres of U.S. agricultural land, according to a 2021 report from the Department of Agriculture [USDA].”
“Of that, 195,000 acres, worth almost $2 billion when purchased, are owned by 85 Chinese investors, which could be individuals, companies or the government,” Forbes added. “The other 189,000 acres were worth $235 million when purchased and are owned by 62 U.S. corporations with Chinese shareholders.”
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Following the release of the USDA report in 2021, former Trump administration State Department Spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus analyzed the possible reason behind the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) investment in American farmland.
“We have two things that China doesn’t,” she said during a FOX News appearance in July 2021. “Energy security and food security.”
“They got a lot of people to feed,” Ortagus continued. She pointed out that China has historically bought a significant amount of pork and soybeans from the United States.
“When you look at Chinese ambitions around the world, they have a lot of people, a very big country, so they’re always looking for … where can we meet our energy demands and where can we meet our food security demands for all these people,” she continued.
“And because they buy so much pork and other agricultural goods from the United States, they’re looking here as well,” she concluded.
