JOE BIDEN'S MAKE RED CHINA GREATER
Few former senior government officials have closer ties to the CCP than Baucus, who runs a consulting firm for Chinese companies and serves on the board of Alibaba, a Chinese tech company. Baucus was a vocal critic of Trump's policies toward China, even appearing on Chinese state television to bash the administration's policies. While vice president, Biden advocated for Baucus's appointment as ambassador to China, likely prompting Baucus to endorse Biden's 2020 presidential bid.
Nat’l Black Farmers Assn. Pres.: Biden Hasn’t Been Strong Enough on China Buying Farmland
On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends First,” National Black Farmers Association President John Boyd Jr. stated that President Joe Biden “hasn’t taken a firm enough stance against China” and stated that China “has been doing more than flying balloons, they’re buying farmland,” and called for the practice to be banned.
Boyd stated, “Farmers are facing — especially members of our organization — we’re facing extinction. And…China has been doing more than flying balloons, they’re buying farmland, American farmland. It should be illegal for China to buy farmland in the United States. But we’re faced with high costs of inflation, such as diesel fuel that has doubled, fertilizer that has tripled to $1,500 a ton, the high cost of seed. All of these things have to be paid for upfront as we prepare to put our planters — corn planters in the field next month. And this administration, as I listened to the President’s State of the Union address, didn’t say [anything] about how to advance farming and agriculture here at home in America. We have aid for everybody, for Ukrain[ian] farmers, we provided them with equipment and combines and this type of infrastructure is what’s needed right here in America for American farmers.”
He added, “At these auctions…it’s not American farmers buying these farms, it’s people like China that are buying up American farm ground. And the President hasn’t taken a firm enough stance against China to speak out against these type[s] of practices right here that are happening right now in America.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
'They Could Literally Starve Us': Republicans Push To Ban China From Purchasing US Farmland
Effort gains steam as lawmakers look to retaliate against Beijing over spy balloon
House Republicans are pushing to bar any person or business associated with the Chinese Communist Party from purchasing agricultural land in the United States, an effort gaining traction on the Hill as lawmakers look to retaliate against China over its spy-balloon incursion.
Reps. Dan Newhouse (R., Wash.) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R., Wash.), alongside more than 40 cosponsors, last week proposed legislation that would prohibit any purchase of public or private agricultural real estate in the United States and its territories by "nonresident aliens, foreign businesses, or any agent, trustee, or fiduciary associated with the Government of the People's Republic of China."
The legislation, known as the Prohibition of Agricultural Land for the People's Republic of China Act, would also bar those entities from involvement in Department of Agriculture programs.
Ownership of U.S. farmland by CCP-connected individuals and companies has risen more than 20-fold since 2010, Fox Business reported, accounting for at least 383,000 acres worth billions of dollars. Newhouse warned that China's investments in other countries' food supplies have enabled Beijing to exert control over those countries—a strategy China is likely pursuing in the United States.
"Imagine if the Chinese Communist Party had just one of the links of our food supply chain under their control, how quickly they could literally starve us," Newhouse told the Washington Free Beacon. "In other countries they make investments, build infrastructure, control sources of agricultural products. … We don't want to see that happen in the United States of America."
The legislation comes as House members on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution condemning the Chinese government's deployment of a spy balloon over America, calling it a "brazen violation of United States sovereignty." The high-profile instance of Chinese interference has prompted lawmakers in states such as Montana and North Dakota to consider resolutions to outlaw land purchases by foreign entities. In Washington, D.C., alarm over the spy balloon could put necessary steam behind the land purchase legislation, which Newhouse first proposed in May but which died in the last Congress.
The Senate is considering a similar bill, introduced last week by Sens. Mike Rounds (R., S.D.) and Jon Tester (D., Mont.), that would ban China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran from owning U.S. farmland.
While China owns just a fraction of all U.S. farmland, Republicans warn that Beijing can still wreak havoc by controlling key segments of the U.S. food supply chain. For example, Virginia-based pork giant Smithfield Foods, which employs tens of thousands of Americans, is wholly owned by a Chinese conglomerate that is the largest meat producer in China.
China's purchase of U.S. farmland has also raised alarms among military leadership. The Chinese company Fufeng Group bought 370 acres of land 12 miles from an Air Force base in eastern North Dakota, a purchase that "presents a significant threat to national security," the Air Force last month told Sen. John Hoeven (R., N.D.). The Grand Fork City Council, citing the national security risk, on Monday voted unanimously to block the Chinese company from opening a corn mill on the property.
"To allow China, governed by the Chinese Communist Party, to acquire farmland near and around key military and otherwise strategic areas of the United States, is as dumb as it gets," said Rep. David Rouzer (R., N.C.), who cosponsored the Republican legislation.
In 2020, China Privately Told Biden Ally They Wanted Joe To Win
The Chinese Communist Party was pulling for Joe Biden to win the 2020 presidential election, according to former president Barack Obama's ambassador to China.
Max Baucus, who is on the payroll of several CCP-connected firms, said in an interview with Politico published Friday that CCP officials were optimistic about Biden softening relations between the United States and China.
"I had some very good Chinese friends—high up in the government—and I talked to them before the [2020] election, and they said they hoped Biden would win the election and not [Donald] Trump," Baucus said. "Why? Because they said, 'We could deal with Biden.' They thought because he's steeped in foreign policy and he was chairman of that Foreign Relations Committee, he's reasonable, whereas … you never know where Trump is going to go."
Few former senior government officials have closer ties to the CCP than Baucus, who runs a consulting firm for Chinese companies and serves on the board of Alibaba, a Chinese tech company. Baucus was a vocal critic of Trump's policies toward China, even appearing on Chinese state television to bash the administration's policies. While vice president, Biden advocated for Baucus's appointment as ambassador to China, likely prompting Baucus to endorse Biden's 2020 presidential bid.
Baucus told Politico that although Chinese government officials favored Biden during the 2020 campaign, they've now "changed their mind." Following Biden's win, Baucus said, the CCP concluded that "Biden's rhetoric isn't as anti-China as Trump's, but his policies are more anti-China than Trump's."
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