'We are not for sale' – politician blocks Chinese-owned company from buying land in Utah

Authored by James Xu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said on Tuesday that a Chinese-owned company has been blocked from purchasing state land as a result of legislation that bans land ownership from entities deemed adversarial.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaks with reporters at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Aug. 10, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Speaking during a press conference in Palmyra, Utah, Cox said Cirrus Aircraft is majority owned by the Avian Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a company identified by the Pentagon as having ties to the Chinese communist regime’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), thereby posing national security risks.

Cox said AVIC makes “fighter jets, helicopters, and drones for the Chinese military“ and that they ”appear on multiple federal watch lists and are banned from federal contracts, assistance, and benefits due to serious national security concerns.”

“Their proposed investment in Utah was millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs,” Cox said. “And I don’t care. We are not for sale.”

This sentiment was cemented into law in 2024 through the efforts of Rep. Candice Pierucci and other sponsors, who passed HB516, a bill that restricts land purchases by companies backed by foreign adversaries, namely China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia.

Under the new state law, companies have one year to sell the land. If they miss the deadline, the Division of Facilities Construction and Management may seize the property and deposit any remaining post-sale proceeds into the General Fund.

“So we really gave them an opportunity to either play nice or do it the hard way,” Pierucci said at the briefing on Tuesday.

Utah was one of the first states to pass legislation on foreign land ownership.

“Protecting our defense infrastructure and our agriculture is not just about military readiness,” Cox said. “It’s also about economic strength. These missions contribute $23 billion to Utah’s economy, support over 177,000 jobs, and represent nearly 10 percent of our state’s GDP.”

Cox said he also wanted to set the record straight on the degree of foreign ownership in Utah, addressing some “really dumb maps that keep floating around the internet.”

“Sadly, everyone believes those dumb maps that get made up, showing that millions of acres in Utah are owned by the Chinese government. That is absolutely not true,” he said.

China held a relatively small amount of U.S. agricultural land in 2021, about 0.9 percent of all foreign-held land, or 349,442 acres nationwide, according to the National Association of Counties. Utah ranked as the fourth-largest state for Chinese land ownership, with 32,447 acres in 2022.

Cox said most estimates show that 35,000 to 37,000 acres were previously owned by Chinese entities. He said that “35,000 acres of that has been divested and is no longer owned by the Chinese government.”

The remaining land is a “very, very, very small percentage,” Cox said. “We continue to investigate, and we will continue to make sure that we are enforcing the law.”

Pierucci also pointed out the shutdown of CCP-funded Confucius Institutes at Utah universities in 2022. They are “identified by the State Department and the FBI as Chinese propaganda outlets,” she said.

Cox stressed that policies aimed at the Chinese communist regime are not an attack on Chinese citizens.

“We have nothing against the Chinese people. They are good people, many of them are Americans who live here, who are our neighbours,” Cox said. “They are not the problem. It is the Chinese government, and we want to make that clear.”