This week’s revelation that a Chinese billionaire and member of its Communist Party is the second-largest foreign owner of farmland in the United States sparked outrage among politicians, who want to know why Chen Tianqiao’s $85 million purchase was a secret for almost a decade.
Chen, co-founder of Shanda Interactive Entertainment, purchased nearly 200,000 acres of farmland in Oregon in 2015 for about $430 an acre, according to Land Report, a magazine that focuses on private land ownership in the United States.
However, his purchase of the acreage does not appear in government records on land ownership by foreign investors, the Daily Mail reported on Saturday.
New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik told The Post on Saturday that the Biden administration had “dropped the ball” on protecting American farmland from being grabbed by “foreign adversaries.”
Chen Tianqiao, co-founder of Shanda Interactive Entertainment, purchased nearly 200,000 acres of farmland in Oregon in 2015 at a price of $430 an acre. Alamy Stock Photo
“Communist China is purchasing American farmland to subvert our sovereignty, undermine our agricultural industry, invade our military installations, and disrupt America’s rural communities,” Stefanik said.
Chen’s land ownership only came to light this week after the state publicly named one of his companies as the beneficial owner of the property, the Daily Caller first reported.
Chen, 50, also owns a $39 million townhouse in Manhattan and a $26 million property in Los Angeles, where he resides. He joined the PCC when he was 18 and rose through the party’s executive ranks, according to reports.
Chen owns nearly 200,000 acres of farmland in Oregon. Mason & Morse Ranch/Ranchland.com
Last year, Stefanik and other members of Congress sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, urging the agency to increase its oversight of foreign ownership of farmland.
“Food security is national security,” he wrote.
Chen owns land in the Bull Springs Sky Line Forest in Oregon. Mason & Morse Ranch/Ranchland.com
Montana farmer and Sen. Jon Tester on Friday renewed his demands for Congress to protect America’s territorial security.
“While we learn more about the specific details of this developing situation, this highlights the need for Congress to do more to protect American farm security,” the Democrat said in a statement this week.
Stefanik was among a group of bipartisan lawmakers who wrote to Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack to protest what they say is the federal government’s lax oversight of foreign land purchases.
Chen Tianqiao is the second-largest foreign owner of American farmland, but his 2015 purchase of nearly 200,000 acres in Oregon was not disclosed until this week. fake images
It is unclear why Chen’s purchase does not appear in government records. The Foreign Agricultural Investment Disclosure Act requires foreign investors to report any new interest in U.S. agricultural land to the Department of Agriculture within 90 days of the transaction.
The Irving family of Canada is the country’s largest foreign landowner, owning more than 1.2 million acres in Maine.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn