Two years ago, I was surprised to learn the extent to which foreign governments were buying up American land near strategic American military bases and other critical national security infrastructure. The U.S. Air Force reported that a Chinese firm’s plan to develop 300 acres of land only 12 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota “presented a significant threat to national security.” Luckily, the Grand Forks City Council unanimously rejected the Fufeng Group’s plan to develop land near where the Air Force conducts military communications and top-secret drone programs.
Whether it’s flying spy balloons across our country or scooping up critical plots of U.S. real estate, China has stepped up its efforts to spy on our country. Other hostile nations, such as Russia, Iran, Syria, and North Korea, could try the same surveillance tactics unless we do something to stop them. Totalitarian nations do not see any difference between one of their citizens’ companies and the government itself.
Last year, the Maine congressional delegation asked the Department of Justice for help stopping nearly 300 illegal marijuana operations tied to the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP even set up secret police stations in the U.S. to track and harass Chinese dissidents who thought they had escaped the Chinese police state when they came to America.
There is an emerging bipartisan consensus that espionage from hostile foreign nations threatens our national security. That is why I’ve been working to block hostile foreign powers from buying land in our state that could be used to spy on New Hampshire’s national security infrastructure. Senate Bill 162 would prohibit China, Russia, Iran, Syria, and North Korea, or their puppet businesses, from purchasing property within 10 miles of six protected facilities, including Pease Air National Guard Base, the New Boston Space Force Station, and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
This bill does not limit the rights of people who have escaped those despotic regimes from fully living the American dream, including owning a house or building a business. It does not prevent foreign students from coming to New Hampshire to earn a college degree. It targets foreign nationalists of hostile nations and prevents them from spying on us on our own soil. We should join states including Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Oklahoma, which have recognized this growing threat of foreign surveillance operations.
We cannot stand idly by while our adversaries buy U.S. land near our critical military bases where they can steal our national security intelligence and secrets. We have worked very hard on this bill to create a fair process that will help keep New Hampshire safe. Russia, China, and their ruthless allies are open about their hostility to America. We should not make it easy for them to gather intelligence on our military and infrastructure facilities in the Granite State.
SB 162 passed the Senate overwhelmingly and is now under consideration in the House Commerce Committee. I hope that we can coalesce the same bipartisan support in preventing foreign spies from buying up New Hampshire land.
