The US will subject real estate transactions near eight domestic military bases to increased scrutiny following a controversy over a Chinese company’s effort to purchase a wet-corn milling plant near an Air Force base in North Dakota.
(Bloomberg) — The US will subject real estate transactions near eight domestic military bases to increased scrutiny following a controversy over a Chinese company’s effort to purchase a wet-corn milling plant near an Air Force base in North Dakota.
The Treasury Department is proposing that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US add the bases to its list of “sensitive facilities” over which it has jurisdiction, according to a person familiar with the matter. The panel reviews whether foreign transactions pose risks to US national security.
The installations, which are primarily Air Force bases, are located in California, Texas, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa and Arizona. If the regulations are approved, Cfius jurisdiction will expand to real estate transactions within 100 miles (161 kilometers) of 40 bases. The new proposed regulations were reported earlier by the Associated Press.
The proposed expansion comes after North Dakota’s Republican senators, John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, criticized the purchase by a Chinese food manufacturer of 370 acres near Grand Forks for a wet-corn milling plant. Such facilities produce starch, syrup, oil, sugar and byproducts from milling.
The Air Force said in a Jan. 27 letter to the senators that the project “presents a significant threat to national security with both near- and long-term risks of significant impacts to our operations in the area.”
The letter from Air Force Assistant Secretary Andrew Hunter said that Cfius considered an October 2022 filing about the purchase by the Fufeng Group but concluded it didn’t have jurisdiction.
The expanded rules come amid a push by a number lawmakers to subject real estate transactions in the US by foreign firms to greater scrutiny, particularly those near military bases or other sensitive government installations.
A bipartisan pair of senators — Republican Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Democrat Jon Tester of Montana — have also proposed blacklisting certain foreign companies from purchasing US farmland and agricultural businesses. The countries listed in the proposed legislation include China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
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