Should someone representing Russia or China be able to buy land near sensitive military sites in New Hampshire?
Senate Majority Leader Regina Birdsell (R-Hampstead) doesn’t think so, and she’s proposed legislation to prevent agents of America’s most determined adversaries from doing just that. Her legislation, SB 162, would add New Hampshire to a growing list of states trying to prevent countries like China from gobbling up property as a means of potentially spying on American defense centers.
“We are protecting Granite Staters by preventing enemies of the United States from setting up shop here,” Birdsell said in her testimony in support of SB 162. “We cannot allow foreign governments to buy up land near our military bases.
“New Hampshire is home to countless organizations that supply our military, and they should not have to worry about foreign intrusion near their base of operations.”
The bill identifies a list of “protected facilities,” including the New Hampshire Army National Guard headquarters in Concord, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and the New Boston Space Force Station. The new law would bar “ownership, controlling, and occupancy interests in real property” by businesses headquartered in “foreign countries of concern.”
The nations blacklisted in the bill include China, Russia, Iran, Syria, and North Korea. China owns around 350,000 acres of farmland across 27 states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Thaddeus Dickinson, an anti-terrorism project manager who works at the New Boston Space Force (formerly Air Force) Station, testified before the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday in support of the bill.
“We carry out a vital mission to command and win in space, the new fourth dimension of a war – which although has not started, the new undercurrents are certainly moving,” Dickinson said. “We face constant daily threats from our adversaries.
“Our success is vital to our way of life, and that is not an overstatement,” Dickinson said.
A day earlier, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the Water Production Facility, part of an ongoing upgrade of the facility. Its mission is the overhaul, repair and modernization of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet — a mission that’s risen in importance along with the threat from China.
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) speaks at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on February 10, 2025.
(U.S. Navy photo by Branden Bourque)
A similar bill filed last year by Birdsell earned unanimous Senate bipartisan support only to wind up in a study committee over potential unintended consequences and concerns it would hurt businesses. According to Birdsell, those concerns have since been addressed through input from the state Attorney General’s Office and New Hampshire’s top lumber association, among others.
Businesses and individuals buying or leasing property located within a 10-mile radius of a “protected facility” would be required to fill out a form attesting they are not a “foreign principal or agent of a foreign principal” associated with any of the five identified nations.
“The buyer is responsible for completing the affidavit, not the real estate agent,” Birdsell specified in her testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee. “Only thing the real estate agent has to do is give them the paperwork and ship it to the Attorney General’s Office.”
Birdsell added that her proposal has Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s support.
Assistant Attorney General Chris Bond told committee members his office has reviewed the bill.
“I know people get very nervous about property forfeitures, but the current legislation on forfeiture would only be available when there is a criminal conviction from violation,” he said. “I think from a due process perspective, we’re in pretty good shape.”
In Washington, U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.) have proposed the Not One More Inch or Acre Act to accomplish the same goal.
“For decades, the Chinese Communist Party has been gobbling up American farmland and real estate,” Cotton said in a statement. We can’t allow Chinese citizens, or anyone affiliated with the CCP, to own one more inch of American soil. And any American land exploited by current Chinese ownership should be sold.”
Stateside land grabs by China-based businesses created a stir in 2022 when a food additive company headquartered in Qingdao announced plans to build a plant near Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. Less than a year later, a Chinese spy balloon made headlines when it crossed over Alaska and the continental U.S. before being shot down over the Atlantic.
Closer to New Hampshire, Chinese nationals in Maine have tried to establish marijuana grow houses — including one situated less than a mile from a U.S. Army Reserve training site.
Last spring, GOP lawmakers in Maine tried and failed to advance a bill that would bar Chinese nationals and citizens from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Russia from purchasing land in the state.
The legislation introduced by Birdsell, however, is specifically tied to property located near “protected facilities” (see the full list here).
The only pushback to Birdsell’s bill came from the New Hampshire Association of Realtors. Chris Norwood, NHAR vice chairman, stressed in his testimony that the association is concerned about how the law would apply to leasing.
“If you look at a 10-mile ring around the so-called protected facilities, every building in downtown Concord falls within that protected facility range,” Norwood pointed out. “Every building in downtown Manchester. Every building in downtown Portsmouth.
“What about all the apartments?”
Norwood said the bill in its current form could include the issuing of certified “warning maps” to realtors.
“I don’t want to leave this room with anyone thinking we’re in full support of the CCP or any of the other entities listed,” Norwood said. “I grew up right around the corner from the New Boston Air Force tracking station.
“I certainly respect the gravity of the situation we’re talking about.”
Lily Tang Williams testifies before the N.H. Senate Commerce Committee, February 11, 2025.
Lily Tang Williams, a Weare resident who fled China and settled in the U.S. in 1988, told committee members about her experience living under Chinese Communist Party rule.
“We in America have been naive and a very open and free society for them to come here and take advantage of us,” Tang Williams said. “And the bigger picture here for us is on communist regimes like China — it is a one-party dictatorship country, and the CCP.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a private company, you have to turn over all your data in the name of national security.”
Tang Williams, a GOP activist who came up short in the race to succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster last fall, said she’s testified in other states in support of similar bills.
“Ever since the Berlin Wall fell, the CCP learned the lesson – we do not want that happening to us, and we want to keep our power,” Tang Williams said about her native China. “We want to stick to socialism and communism, but aggressively push for an international extension.”
