DeSantis Eyes Ban on China-Based Entities From Purchasing Florida Property

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis contemplates a move to prohibit Chinese entities purchasing property in the State. This is because of the economic security and security risks. China’s communist regime.

“If you look at the Chinese Communist Party, they’ve been very active throughout the Western Hemisphere in gobbling up land and investing in different things,” DeSantis During a Jan. 10 press conference

“And, you know, when they have interests that are opposed to ours, and you’ve seen how they’ve wielded their authority … it is not in the best interests of Florida to have the Chinese Communist Party owning farmland, owning land close to military bases.”

The following remarks are included Warnings According to lawmakers and security experts, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a terrorist organization.CCPChina (ruled by a single-party government) wants to buy strategic parcels of land in the United States, so that it can spy on or otherwise threaten U.S. security interests.

The recent Chinese land purchase of Texas and North Dakota from Chinese citizens has raised alarm among both locals and policymakers in the federal and state governments.

DeSantis claimed that the CCP has “taken a much more Marxist–Leninist turn” Xi Jinping, the current Party leader, suggested that communist China was now a reality. “hostile nation.”

“We do not need to have CCP influence in Florida’s economy,” He stated.

China spends billions every year on US Land

Chinese investors purchased more than $6 billion in U.S. real estate between March 2021 and March 2022, according to the National Association of Realtors, making it the largest foreign buyer in terms of dollars spent.

Florida has been at the center of that purchasing binge, with 24 percent of all foreign property purchases in the nation occurring there. The state with the next highest amount of foreign purchases was California, which accounted for 11 percent.

DeSantis described the CCP’s influence in U.S. society as “very insidious” and, to that end, said that he’s not only concerned with the CCP seeking out farmland but that he also wanted to terminate its access to residential properties.

“Why would you want them buying residential developments and things like that?” he said. “I don’t want them owning subdivisions and things like that.”

While outrage over the issue has been widespread in recent months, there have been relatively few concrete actions taken to curb the buying of U.S. land by CCP-aligned organizations.

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) introduced legislation in November 2022 that would “prohibit the purchase of public or private agricultural land in the United States by foreign nationals associated with the Government of the People’s Republic of China.”

Likewise, Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) introduced legislation to improve national security by “preventing foreign adversaries from taking any ownership or control of the United States agriculture industry.”

There may be some movement on the issue. The House voted this week to establish a select committee to investigate issues related to the strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. That effort could also help to shed light on the risk posed by CCP front companies that seek to scoop up U.S. land.

Still, there’s the problem of identifying which companies are acting on behalf of the CCP, an issue that DeSantis said would need to be addressed to make any ban effective and fair.

“The issue is going to be, obviously, if someone comes in and buys, it’s not the CCP that’s signing that,” DeSantis said. “These are holding companies. … So you have to structure that in a way that will effectively police it.”

Andrew Thornebrooke is a reporter for The Epoch Times covering China-related issues with a focus on defense, military affairs, and national security. He holds a master’s in military history from Norwich University.

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