January 5, 2023
Joe Biden’s decision to allow a Chinese company “to own 370 acres of land within 12 miles of Grand Forks Air Force Base in Grand Forks, North Dakota” portends dire consequences for America.
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According to Gordon Chang,
China will be able to use a proposed $700 million corn milling plant on the site to spy on military communications and even disrupt them. In Beijing, they must be shaking their heads in disbelief at the inability of the U.S. to protect some of its most sensitive communications.
Consequently,
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Fufeng USA, a subsidiary of a Shandong province-based agribusiness giant, is, at least for the moment, free to build its wet corn milling and biofermentation plant in Grand Forks.
Moreover, “[t]he Chinese will now have the ability to conduct passive, persistent surveillance of both signals controlling experimental drones that are routinely tested at that USAF facility as well as signals that are routinely beamed to and from sensitive U.S. military satellites[.]”
If that were not alarming enough, consider the fact that “[s]hould the U.S. and China end up in a shooting war over, say, Taiwan, Fufeng’s property near the Air Force base could be used to send malicious signals to jam passing satellites or disrupt the operation of drones. We have made ourselves vulnerable on our own territory.”
So while the American military establishment worries about which pronouns to use, our enemies cannot believe their good fortune. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has already doubled its nuclear stockpile in just two years. Moreover, in its arsenal of weaponry, China has declared “a people’s war” on the United States by using investments to undermine American strength.
According to Texas Scorecard, the CCP is doggedly pursuing the American agriculture infrastructure.
Agricultural land, and the oftentimes attached food processing, serves a vital function in the insulation of any nation from foreign powers.
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Now, with an ongoing military conflict in eastern Europe, the need to be agriculturally independent is gaining deserved attention.
Yet, “as is the case with energy, foreign companies and individuals have a foot in the door and remain ready to take advantage of the beachheads they’ve established in the past two decades.”
For example,
Based in Smithfield, Virginia, Smithfield Foods was acquired in 2013 by the China-based company Shuanghui. Renamed WH Group, Shuanghui not only owns meat operations stateside, but it is the top meat processor in China.
WH Group’s acquisition of Smithfield made it the largest hog producer in the United States. But their reach does not end there. Filings with the SEC in 2016 lists Texas among the states with facilities owned or leased by WH Group.
In August of 2022, Congressman Ralph Norman noted that “China owns and controls almost 192,000 acres of farmland right here in the United States.”
It is critical to note that “[f]oreign investors from China are under the total and absolute control of the communist Chinese government.” Whether it be military threats, cyber-attacks, or outright theft of intellectual property, the CCP is in a race to outmaneuver the United States. The CCP’s malevolence knows no end.
From a homeland security standpoint, we cannot find ourselves in a situation where a squabble with China could trigger a decrease in production from the U.S. farms they control.
Congressman Norman co-sponsored “H.R. 7892, which would prohibit the sale of U.S. farmland to anyone associated with the communist Chinese government.” Additionally, he co-sponsored H.R. 5490, which “requires the USDA to conduct a detailed analysis of the extent of foreign influences in the agricultural industry.”
Land grabbing is when a government, company, or other entity purchases large swathes of land in another country — [which] can affect local land rights and agricultural production, sometimes putting local food security at risk.
Foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land doubled from 2009 to 2019, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) records, and policymakers have become increasingly concerned about foreign control of the U.S. food supply.
And if you are like me and wondering why pecans are hardly on the grocery shelves anymore, the Chinese are involved with this as well. Over the past decade, China has massively disrupted the pecan market.
Equally alarming is that “young and aspiring farmers say access to land is their largest barrier to starting a successful farm business. With an aging U.S. farmer population and not enough new farmers able to enter the industry, more land will inevitably be converted to other uses or sold to foreign and domestic investors unless policies are put in place to support the next generation of farmers.”
Then there is the concern with the electric grid and other critical infrastructure.
In August of 2021, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act. The purpose was to “[p]revent business entities associated with ‘hostile nations’ from accessing the Texas electricity grid and other pieces of ‘critical infrastructure,’ including computer networks and waste treatment systems.”
In fact, “it was a direct response to one Chinese billionaire and his plans to build a wind farm in southwest Texas.”
Since 2016, a company owned by Xinjiang-based real estate tycoon Sun Guangxin had spent an estimated $110 million buying up land in Texas’ Val Verde County. Located on the Mexico border, Val Verde is home to about 50,000 people, the small town of Del Rio, family-owned hunting ranches—and Laughlin Air Force Base, a training ground for military pilots.
In less than two years Sun bought up roughly 140,000 acres in the county through subsidiaries he controls. He set aside 15,000 acres of that land for his company GH America Energy LLC to oversee the construction of a wind farm that could feed into Texas’ electricity grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).
But “Texas … seems to have been slow to react, considering the lack of enforcement of the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act, and the loopholes in said law.”
In fact, the issue of land-grabbing is front and center as the new year begins. The Chinese Communist Party continues to make incursions by “absorbing Texas soil for strategic geopolitical ends.” Unfortunately, while most Americans presume that American soil is reserved for our citizens and businesses, this is clearly not the case.
Texas Scorecard has investigated the CCP’s infiltration of Texas’ educational apparatus as well as the CCP’s infiltration of Texas agricultural land and while many dismiss these concerns, a “review of adversarial countries’ actions suggests that land holdings are strategic [moves] and could undermine national and resource security.
Both Republicans and Democrats have warned of the national security implications of such ownership of U.S.-based assets.
While American troops complain about the injection of Critical Race Theory and woke ideology, the Chinese Communist Party absolutely sees its ongoing struggle with America as a wartime engagement.
The commander of U.S. Strategic Command, Adm. Charles Richard, has stated that “we are witnessing one of the largest shifts in global geostrategic power the world has ever witnessed.”
Our military hardware is outdated. We are surrendering our land. We are leaving our food needs and electric grid vulnerable. We are weakening our security and ability to defend ourselves. Listen to this chilling 16-minute audio here.
According to Gordon Chang, “President Joe Biden can use his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers act of 1977 to block the sale of the Grand Forks land and the building of the milling facility.”
The question is, will this compromised president use his authority to block the sale, or will China get an even greater foothold on America? Will anyone with power stand up to this existential threat to America?
Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com.
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