As China buys American farmland, Pompeo says it is “greatest threat”

Mike Pompeo, former U.S. secretary of state and Kansas congressman, is warning that the Chinese Communist Party is buying American farmland, with much of it near military bases, according to Fox News.

Pompeo tweeted this week, “CCP-controlled entities are now buying up American farmland, much of which is near U.S. military bases. Yet our diplomats in China can’t even go to the grocery store without someone following them. We have to take this seriously. Let me be clear. China, under the rule of the CCP, is the greatest threat to the U.S. in our history. It touches every facet of American life: military, education, the private sector, our government and more. It will take real, unified effort in each for America to stay on top.”

In May, Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., introduced the Prohibition of Agricultural Land for the People’s Republic of China Act, which would bar foreign nationals associated with the CCP from buying public or private agricultural land in the United States. “China’s American agricultural land holdings have increased over tenfold in the last decade, and at the beginning of 2020, investments from China held $2 billion of American agricultural land,” he said.

Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Dakota and Oklahoma have barred foreign ownership of farmland, but Newhouse pointed out that Chinese investors can get around those restrictions if they purchase U.S. corporations that own agricultural land.

This spring, the Chinese food manufacturer Fufeng Group bought 300 acres of land near Grand Forks, N.D., roughly 20 minutes from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, where some of the United States’ most sensitive military drone technology is based. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission noted “the location of the land close to the base is particularly convenient for monitoring air traffic flows in and out of the base, among other security related concerns.”

Florida GOP senator Marco Rubio said, “It is dangerous foolish, and shortsighted to allow the Chinese Communist Party and its proxies to purchase land near U.S. military installations. This is something we must address.”

–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice