A statement from 51 Republican lawmakers to several of President Biden’s Cabinet officials warns about a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) business’ attempts to acquire acreage close to a North Dakota Air Force base.
The GOP members alert this poses a threat to the country’s security.
The message to secretaries Lloyd Austin, Janet Yellen, and Tom Vilsack regarding the Fufeng Group’s land purchases close to Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota was written by Rep. Carlos Gimenez, along with 50 of his peers.
Republicans: “This is alarming.”
The letter, which Fox News Digital was able to get first, is addressed to the three secretaries.
It expresses concern over the “alarming developments” for American national security that would result from permitting the Fufeng Group to buy the land so near to the facility.
“The risk from the Chinese Communist Party symbolizes the most fundamental and consequential international hazard the U.S. faces,” said Garrett Bess, vice president of Heritage Action, to Fox News Digital.
“CCP acquisition of land, especially near U.S. military structures, is an apparent menace to America’s nationwide defense.”
When is Congress going to start probing the mass purchasing of farmland by Bill Gates and China?
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) July 20, 2022
“Removing this danger necessitates a powerful strategy to prevent and punish shady land usage that jeopardizes American interests,” according to Bess.
“We commend Representative Gimenez for pushing the Biden administration to take a much more robust stance against the CCP by posing them difficult queries.”
Setting a Dangerous Precedent
Republicans added they were “particularly apprehensive about the custom these land sales will designate and their prospect to act as the standard for our adversaries to intrude on American protection.”
That’s especially through buying agricultural land in our congressional districts that are home to a few military installations, like Homestead Air Reserve Base (HARB), in Gimenez’s Sunshine State district.
The document says, “At a juncture when the country and China are entangled in a great power battle, we must utilize every mechanism at our discretion.”
“We must safeguard and maintain the credibility of our national defense protection, preserve military supremacy, and optimize our global combat powers.”
I led 51 of my colleagues in raising concerns over the #CCP purchasing farmland near U.S. military installations.#China actively augments its ability to spy on and disrupt our military. The Biden admin’s inaction jeopardizes our national security.https://t.co/7Adr42Rjyg
— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) September 27, 2022
The congressmembers further cautioned that purchases “of this scale” not only “convey a threat” to national security, but also to the “food production” of the United States.
Per the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), overseas investors have an interest in about 37.6 million acres of American farmland at the start of 2021, they stated in their report.
This, together with the USDA’s lack of a permanent seat on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), expresses concern.
The department ought to have some authority over the assessment of agricultural land purchases that raise issues of national security.
The supervisors were urged by Gimenez and his colleagues to “take immediate efforts in fixing the important national security threats that seem to derive” from the procurement.
This article appeared in The Patriot Brief and has been published here with permission.
