China has bought up farmland near 19 U.S. military bases in the U.S. and two of them here in Florida, that’s according to the New York Post.
Those bases include MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and Patrick Space Force Base along the Space Coast, which also includes NASA.
The post displayed a map of Chinese billionaires and companies tied to the communist party that has been purchasing farmland in the state.
Military analysts are raising concerns over national security involving potential espionage and sabotage.
The Post interviewed some former military officers who pointed out that the Chinese Government, under the disguise of farming, could perform reconnaissance sights, install tracking technology, use radar and infrared scanning to view bases or attempt to fly drones over these bases to surveil the military sites.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that over the last several years, U.S. officials caught Chinese nationals trespassing onto military facilities. One of those events had scuba divers spotted near a government rocket-launch site in Florida.
Another indecent that raised concerns involved Chinese nationals using drones for video surveillance in Key West. Chinese individuals posing as tourists where were found swimming near a military facility and snapping photos near an intelligence center.
The Department of Homeland Security says there has been an increase of Chinese spies coming over illegally into the U.S. at the southern border.
Customs and Border Patrol Protection officials caught over 24,000 Chinese individuals at the southern border. The increase is staggering considering that a year earlier 1,970 were arrested.
As of 2022, the latest analysis from the Farm Service Agency of the USDA, says Chinese investors owned just under 350,000 thousand acres of U.S. farmland in the country.
Florida has already passed legislation to deal with this issue. In 2023, Gov. DeSantis signed the law, prohibiting citizens of China and some other countries from purchasing property in large area’s of Florida. It applies to properties within 10 miles of military installations and other critical infrastructure. The law also applies to agricultural land.
