China - USA Land Grab - By Laurence F. Sanford
By Laurence F. Sanford, ASCF Senior Analyst
Published August 19, 2022, UPDATED 3/7/2023
Why does the United States allow China to buy US farmland and other strategic assets when China does not reciprocate? It is illegal for Americans to buy farmland in China.
As of 2020, China owned 352,000 acres of farmland in America, but this number is suspect because the Chinese own other land assets that are not classified as farmland or have been purchased through shell companies and thus hidden from public view.
Retired Chinese Army officer Sun Guangxin’s firm, Guanghui Energy, purchased over 200 square miles, or 130,000 acres, of Texas ranch land for $110 million near Laughlin Air Force base, one of the largest military training bases in America. Such close proximity to a sensitive military installation is a high-security risk. Electronic warfare, both passive and active, performance mapping of all aircraft flying in and out of the base, and other clandestine acts can easily be conducted from its wind farm, which could include 700-foot towers. The ranch, named Morning Star (the Biblical name for Lucifer is Morning Star), is near the Mexican border, where there isn’t much wind. However, the windmill farm will give China the ability to plug into the Texas electric grid system. The ranch’s 4000-foot airplane runway is expanding to a military-grade 10,000 feet. The land was purchased through Guanghui Energy-owned Brazos Highland, and Harvest Texas, both incorporated in the U.S. Newbridge Capital of Texas had previously invested over $300 million in Guanghui Energy projects. The Texas legislature recently passed the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act law prohibiting foreign-owned entities from tying into the grid. Guanghui Energy is evaluating its options.
The Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota is another target for China. The Fufeng Group planned to build a $700 million corn milling plant on 300 acres purchased for $2.6 million near the base, which houses sensitive communications equipment and is the backbone of U.S. military communications around the globe. Chinese electronic receiving equipment could easily intercept sensitive drone and space-based communications. Fortunately, local citizens, Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Kramer, and Air Force Assistant Secretary Andrew Hunter opposed the project, and it was halted. Grand Forks Mayor Brandon Bochenski voiced concerns that this action could open questions on nearby Chinese ownership of Cirrus Aircraft and Chinese students/professors at the University of North Dakota. Let us hope it does lead to questions of Chinese intellectual theft at universities and corporations.
Chinese assurances that no espionage activities will take place are worthless. Articles 7 and 14 of China’s National Intelligence Law of 2017 require every Chinese entity to commit acts of espionage if the regime demands it. Every Chinese company with over 50 employees must have a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) political officer embedded in it. One can never trust a communist. Ask a Hong Kong resident how Beijing’s word of autonomy has worked out. How has China’s President Xi’s word to President Obama on not militarizing the South China Sea worked out? How has China’s introduction and origin coverup of the Wuhan Virus (Covid 19) worked out?
In 2021, Chinese investors purchased $6.1 billion worth of property in the US. Total foreign property purchases were $59 billion. Other top foreign buyers are Canada with $5.5 billion, India with $3.6 billion, and Mexico with $2.9 billion.
Not only are the Chinese buying US assets near strategic infrastructure and military bases, but they are controlling strategic assets by selling technology installed on American-owned assets. Chinese telecommunications giants, Huawei and ZTE, have sold cell tower equipment and routers, often at a loss, to small, rural telecommunication providers who just happen to be near land-based nuclear missile bases in the American heartland. The Chinese equipment presents real-time threats in communications intelligence, offensive signals jamming, and internet jamming. Many cell towers have installed cameras that can monitor traffic around U.S. military installations. After the FBI had warned of the threat and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned U.S. telecoms from using Chinese equipment, Congress in 2020 appropriated $1.9 billion to rip out and replace approximately 24,000 pieces of Huawei and ZTE equipment. To date, none have been removed as the carriers insist the federal government is $3 billion short of covering all costs.
More recently, cyber security issues have been raised on Chinese-manufactured ship-to-shore port cranes by Congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida. Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry cranes dominate shipping ports throughout the world, including the U.S. Software on the cranes could be used for nefarious purposes such as tracking military shipments and disrupting port activities.
Chinese conglomerates have been buying stakes in U.S. companies and real estate for years:
Forbes Magazine - Integrated Whale Media owns the controlling stake.
AMC - The nation's largest movie theater chain is owned by the Dalian Wanda Group
Smithfield Foods - The world's largest pork producer and owner of 140,000 acres in
Missouri was purchased by the WH Group. During the Wuhan Virus supply
disruptions, Smithfield increased pork exports to China to the detriment of the U.S.
GE Appliance Division - Owned by Qingdao Haier
IBM Personal Computers - Merged with Lenovo
Waldorf Astoria Hotel - Owned by Anabang Insurance Group
Blackstone Luxury Hotels - Sold to Anabang
Ingram Micro - Distributes high-tech equipment. Bought by HNA Group for $6 billion
Motorola Mobility - Sold to Lenovo, making it the world's third-largest smartphone maker
The EB-5 visa program is an employment-based Investor Visa Program created in 1990. It provides a method for eligible immigrant investors to become lawful permanent U.S. residents or “green card” holders if they invest at least $500,000 in a U.S. business.
By 2016, federal scrutiny of the EB-5 program revealed numerous cases of fraud, discovered individuals with ties to Chinese and Iranian intelligence, and learned that international fugitives with laundered money had infiltrated the program. In that year, Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a longtime critic of EB-5, described the program as one that had "long been riddled with corruption and national security vulnerabilities.” Chinese land grabs utilizing EB-5 include New York City’s Atlantic Yards; a $1.5 billion development deal in Oakland, California; and 40% of the General Motors building in New York City.
Summary - Do Unto Others As They Do Unto You
From sea to shining sea, China is buying up America acre by acre, business by business, politician by politician, businessman by businessman. Our food supply, national security, and very existence as a nation are at risk. Free market capitalism and the rule of law are being played by totalitarian communist China, which has only one rule - power.
The solution is simple - do unto others as they do unto you. If China prohibits America from buying land or businesses, imposes impossible-to-meet regulations or tariffs, or steals intellectual property - do unto them as they do unto us.
Peace Through Strength
Laurence F. Sanford
Senior Analyst
American Security Council Foundation
www.ascf.us
