The Treasury Department is expanding the review process for land purchases around more than 60 military bases following a land-buying spree by Chinese entities.
The department announced the new rule on Nov. 1, saying it “significantly expands its ability to review certain real estate transactions by foreign persons near more than 60 military bases and installations across 30 states.”
As chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the treasurer has the authority to recommend that the president block or undo certain real estate deals deemed to negatively impact national security.
“The Biden-Harris Administration will continue to use our strong investment screening tools to advance America’s national security and protect our military installations from external threats,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an associated statement.
A 2018 law grants CFIUS jurisdiction over real estate transactions dealing with the foreign purchase of U.S. land in close proximity to military installations.
The new rule expands that jurisdiction, allowing CFIUS to review purchases anywhere within a one-mile radius of 40 military sites and anywhere within a 100-mile radius of 27 others.
The purchase of large amounts of farmland near U.S. military bases by Chinese entities has spooked members of the U.S. national security establishment in recent years.
Chinese holdings of U.S. agricultural lands reached more than 352,000 acres in 2020, more than 25 times the 14,000 acres owned in 2010, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates.
States with the largest Chinese holdings include Texas at 159,640 acres, North Carolina at 44,776 acres, Missouri at 43,071 acres, Utah at 32,447 acres, and Virginia at 14,382 acres.
The Chinese landholdings represent just 1 percent of all the foreign-owned land in the United States. Still, there is now a fear that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could use access to these parcels to collect intelligence or otherwise compromise U.S. military readiness and national security.
“Certain real estate transactions near military ranges owned by each of the Armed Forces could reasonably provide a foreign person the ability to collect intelligence, perform surveillance, or otherwise expose national security activities at such installations,” the final rule reads.
The rule also comes amid another concerning trend of recent years, in which Chinese nationals have attempted to enter U.S. military bases without authorization, sometimes going so far as to attempt to drive at blistering speed through the front gate.
U.S. Navy Adm. Daryl Caudle said in May that the Navy alone now faced such incidents multiple times a week. House Oversight Committee leaders have subsequently urged the Government Accountability Office to review how the Department of Justice investigates instances of foreign nationals probing sensitive U.S. facilities.
Some Chinese nationals have likewise been prosecuted and convicted for their efforts to illegally gain access to U.S. military bases.
Numerous states are now seeking to bar the CCP and other potentially hostile entities from purchasing U.S. land. In 2023, there were some 53 related measures considered in 23 states across the nation.
Enforcement remains a key problem with any state-level legislation, however. Many local governments don’t have the resources to independently vet every land purchase near military sites in their state, particularly if the site is near a population center.
To that end, the new rule is aimed at helping to shore up a critical national security risk and decrease the ease with which foreign powers might collect information on key U.S. sites.
“This final rule will significantly increase the ability of CFIUS to thoroughly review real estate transactions near bases and will allow us to deter and stop foreign adversaries from threatening our Armed Forces, including through intelligence gathering,” Yellen said.
The new rule will go into effect in approximately 30 days.
