Experts warn of threat from China owning land next to 19 U.S. military bases!
Residents cheer after the Grand Forks, North Dakota, City Council voted to shut down a Chinese corn mill project on Monday. (@BrianEntin / Twitter screen shot)
There's Grand Forks Air Force Base, Hill AFB, Fort Irwin, Dugway Proving Ground, Fort Lewis, Camp Pendleton and Yuma Proving Ground.
All part of America's military infrastructure.
And those bases at Oahu, Hawaii, Camp Bullis, Whiteman AFB, Fort Leonard Wood, Wright Patterson AFB, Fort Moore, and MacDill AFB.
And a Maine Army National Guard base, Naval Station Norfolk, Fort Liberty, Fort Moore and Patrick Space Force Base.
Nineteen altogether, and a report from the New York Post explains of the "alarming" threat there is to America's security, because China owns land next to or near all of them.
The threats include espionage, or "even sabotage," the report describes.
The Post said it identified 19 bases "in close proximity to land bought up by Chinese entities and could be exploited by spies working for the communist nation."
They are in states ranging from Florida to California to North Dakota to Texas.
"It is concerning due to the proximity to strategic locations," warned Robert S. Spalding III, a retired United States Air Force brigadier general, in the report.
The sites, he said, could be used for intelligence collection.
He said a concern is that there are no laws preventing Chinese interests from buying up U.S. property.
The report said, "Under the guise of farming, the Chinese landowners could set up reconnaissance sights, install tracking technology, use radar and infra-red scanning to view bases or attempt to fly drones over them as ways to surveil military sites."
It was less than a year ago that the Wall Street Journal documented more than 100 attempts in recent years by Chinese intruders to breach perimeters and enter military locations.
The warning of Chinese spies slipping into the nation across the porous southern border already has been issued by the Department of Homeland Security.
That agency's threat assessment warned the intruders could deliver "economic espionage" or collect tech.
Joining the chorus of warnings was Morgan Lerette, who formerly worked with Blackwater, a military contractor.
"The Chinese are, or will, use this farmland to learn more about U.S. military capabilities, movements, and technology," he said, in the report.
"This will allow them to better understand how to transition their military from a defensive strategy to an expeditionary one," he said.
The report cited the Farm Service Agency of the USDA to estimate Chinese investors owned 349,442 acres of U.S. farmland as of December 31, 2022.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, recently told Forbes, "The Chinese Communist Party has demonstrated time and again they’re willing to invest billions of dollars to expand their espionage capabilities and their global reach, including through land purchase schemes near military bases."
And the report said the FBI has previously warned: "The Chinese government is engaged in a broad, diverse campaign of theft and malign influence without regard to laws or international norms that the FBI will not tolerate."
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