Evil Foreign Governments Should Not be our Neighbors
By: Governor Kristi Noem
March 22, 2024
When you think of South Dakota, you might think about rolling fields of corn and soybeans and hills full of cattle, the Black Hills, or Mount Rushmore. You probably don’t think of the Chinese Communist Party. And that’s a good thing – we don’t want evil foreign governments for our neighbors. We don’t want nations that hate us to be part of our way of life.
The Chinese Communist Party is trying to infiltrate every aspect of our way of life. Sadly, we have a President and an administration here in Washington that has no interest in stopping them.
I have been involved in ag policy for 30 years. Throughout that time, I have watched China systematically take over more and more of our food supply chain. For years, they’ve been buying up our chemical, fertilizer companies, and food processing companies. Now, they’re trying to buy up our land.
The Chinese Communist Party are not our friends. They should not be free to purchase our precious ag land. Unfortunately, that has been allowed to take place. Between 2010 and 2020, the Chinese Communist Party’s holdings of US agricultural land increased by 5,300%. They now own more than 350,000 acres of US ag land valued at about $2 billion.
Recent media reporting indicates that the largest Chinese holder of American ag land is shipping food and medical supplies to China, where it is being stockpiled by the Chinese military. The Chinese Communist Party are using our ag land to steal from the American people.
The entire nation noticed when China purchased land in North Dakota that they claimed was for a corn processing plant. But there were two details about this purchase that raised suspicions. There wasn’t enough corn around to support that kind of a facility, and it was just a few miles from a US Air Force base.
I was determined to prevent a similar story in South Dakota. Ellsworth Air Force Base is home to the B-1 bomber. We house the MQ-9 Reaper drone. Very soon, we will be the first ever home of the brand-new state-of-the-art B-21 bomber. China wants intelligence on that bomber – but they will not get it by buying our ag land. Not in South Dakota.
For almost two years, I worked with our legislature, our ag community, and our business community to stop China and five other Evil Foreign Governments from buying ag land in South Dakota. Now, we’ve banned them.
We were not willing to wait for the federal government to take action. The Biden Administration has not stood up to this Chinese Communist threat.
States like South Dakota will step up where we can. But now that we’ve acted, the executive branch to do their duty. It is primarily the job of the federal government to keep our people safe.
It is time for the Congress and the Biden Administration to act to stop China and other nations that hate us from buying our ag land. Our security depends on it. And the Freedom of our kids and our grandkids depends on it.
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Why are we allowing any foreign buyers of land in South Dakota? The United States goes through friends faster than a knife fight in a phone booth. With the political turmoil in DC, it is only going to get worse, friend today, enemy tomorrow.
Smithfield foods (the largest meatpacker in the state) is wholely owned by the chinese. I guess thats ok as long as they make the right monetary political payoffs.
Thank you. Why is China owning the land bad but owning THE ENTIRE MEANS OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION good? Make it make sense.