Unexpected Defeat Stops Bid to Block China From Buying US Land

One of the efforts to crack down on China’s attempts to infiltrate and hurt the United States from within – a bid by South Dakota’s GOP governor to stop the Chinese from buying out American farmland, including near military bases – has been frustrated.

That comes after the intervention of special interest groups, a report reveals.

All Agriculture Industry Groups Opposed It

Enabled by the extremely liberal, open-door policies that federal, state, and local authorities have adopted in the United States over the past couple of decades, China has been massively taking advantage of the situation.

They’re doing it to infiltrate and undermine America and steal as many of its secrets as possible.

In a new regrettable development, the efforts of South Dakota’s Republican Governor Kristi Noem to prevent China from purchasing American farmland in the state hit a roadblock this week.

A supermajority in the state Senate rejected it, Breitbart News reported. Noem’s bill would have stopped entities from China from buying the state’s agricultural land, some of which is close to US military sites.

The proposed South Dakota version of the CFIUS – named CFIUS-SD – would have the power to review any proposed transactions involving foreign entities. It could block any sales that it might deem detrimental to the state or the nation – not just the Chinese buying up farmland.

The draft law – Senate Bill 185 – would have practically given the governor veto power over any purchase that the panel would review, the report noted.

The South Dakota Senate rejected the legislation 11-23 in a vote on Tuesday after it was opposed by “nearly every agriculture industry group” in testimonies to the state legislature, South Dakota Public Broadcasting reported.

The opposition from special interest groups had led the bill’s supporters to promise any issues with it would be fixed before it became law – but, apparently, to no avail.

Right Next to US National Security Infrastructure

According to the legislation’s opponents – among them state Senator David Wheeler, a Republican – the bill would have given the state’s executive branch “too much power.”

For the time being, it remains unclear how Governor Noem will proceed after her bill was rejected. In earlier comments, she made it clear the legislation she was proposing was a national security matter.

She was also aware there were “special interest groups” that wanted to prevent the passage of the bill.

Noem revealed that she took up the issue of Chinese buyouts of US farmland after a purchase in her state’s neighbor, North Dakota, where a company from China bought up land near a base of the US Air Force.

The Chinese “investors” claimed they wanted to build a corn-processing factor, but the deal came under scrutiny since the area doesn’t produce enough corn to sustain such industrial production.

Noem pointed out that South Dakota hosted the Ellsworth Air Force Base and “we all agree” the United States shouldn’t be allowing “our enemies” to acquire “a presence,” especially right next to “national security infrastructure.”

To top it all off, the Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota is set to host the new US Air Force warplanes, the B21s.

The GOP governor blasted the special interest groups opposing her law to stop the Chinese land buyouts over not providing specific reasons for their opposition.

This article appeared in The State Today and has been published here with permission.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR