Johnson Questions CCP Involvement in Global Food Sector
Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) participated in the first hearing held by the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to address the CCP’s threat to America.
Johnson’s line of questioning focused on the CCP’s increase of ownership of American farmland and agriculture processing facilities, along with the growing influence the CCP has over farmland globally.
Click here or on the video above to watch Johnson’s full line of questioning
Johnson’s Line of Questioning:
Johnson: “I fear that too many Americans view the Chinese Communist Party as a threat over there, when in reality it is a threat here.
“That’s why I was so grateful to hear General McMaster say tonight, ‘It is a real mistake to give an adversary coercive power over your economy.’
“And I was so grateful to hear Mr. Paul say, ‘We need tighter controls over CCP investment in this country, particularly in critical sectors.’
“So, with that, Mr. Pottinger and others, I want to draw our attention to what is most assuredly a critical sector, and that is food. Food security is national security. We know that in recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has increased its holdings of farmland outside of China by one thousand percent. During that same time frame, they have acquired 1,300 agricultural processing facilities. This is a deliberate and focused attempt.
“Mr. Pottinger to you, do we know to what extent those efforts by the CCP are motivated by their desire to gain the kind of coercive power that the General was talking about?
Mr. Pottinger: “One of the reasons that we should be extremely careful about permitting purchases of farmland in the United States by companies that are beholden to the Chinese Communist Party is that sometimes the farmland is an proximity to sensitive installations, nuclear facilities or other military bases. There may be more at play as well. It certainly bears close scrutiny.
“Why has there been such a significant increase in Chinese purchases and farmland? I think that with the Committee for Foreign Investment in The United States (CFIUS), there should be closer scrutiny on these purchases, but we’ve seen some purchases go through even recently that were relatively close proximity to military bases. I’m not sure why they chose not to scrutinize that particular deal. They’ve had a trend of not exercising its ability to actually block and instead they frequently try to mitigate, but the mitigation measures are usually hollow and don’t actually protect our national security
Johnson: “So with regards to the domestic investment, there are many in Congress, myself, Mr. Newhouse and others that have legislation that would address that. Let’s focus on Chinese investments in food supply elsewhere. I think about the southern globe, Africa, South America, southeast Asia. To what extent should that investment concern Americans?
Pottinger: “I think the Communist Party’s actions to try to lock up major supplies of commodities and goods probably including figurative, but also certainly rare earth material, cobalt, and things that go into everything from regular consumer products to military goods is part of a grand strategy. It’s not just haphazard. It’s not just about making a buck.
Johnson: “That bears repeating—this is part of a grand strategy. It is something we want to be focused, thoughtful, and deliberate about as we work to strategically decouple from the Chinese Communist Party. There’s an opportunity there for us to draw our allies in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere closer. That’s going to give us a great opportunity to protect freedom. It’s not just in food security that this investment has the potential to create coercive power. I have a letter here, Mr. Chairman from when many within the communications industry talking about the importance of the Rip and Replace Regime regarding Huawei and other Chinese in telecommunications infrastructure. I would ask for unanimous consent to enter it into the record.
Pottinger: “Thanks to enterprising reporting a few years ago by the Wall Street Journal, we know that Huawei was working with a couple of African governments to surveil political opponents in those countries and in some cases those political opponents and activists were arrested and in jailed. So, Beijing is exporting all of the tools that you would need to run a totalitarian system.
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When the time comes, the CCP could poison virtually everyone in the US with a coordinated attack by putting Fentenyl in all food produced by them.