Recent revelations suggest that a billionaire member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has allegedly held the position of the second-largest foreign landowner in the United States for nearly a decade, unbeknownst to many.
Carlos Gimenez, currently serving as a Representative in the U.S. Congress for Florida’s 28th district, voiced his concerns about this issue. He said, "Agents from the Communist Party of China have NO BUSINESS owning land in the United States of America!" Gimenez replaced former U.S Congress member Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in 2021.
The individual at the center of these allegations is Chen Tianqiao, a 50-year-old co-founder of Shanda Interactive Entertainment. According to an article from the New York Post, Chen purchased roughly 200,000 acres of farmland in Oregon in 2015 for $85 million. This transaction is not listed on government records tracking land ownership by foreign investors. Beyond this Oregon property, Chen also owns a $39 million Manhattan townhouse and a $26 million estate in Los Angeles.
Representative Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chairman of the Select Committee on the CCP, addressed this issue during an interview with Fox News on X platform. Gallagher stated, "When it comes to land purchases, this is absolutely something that we can fix in Congress right now." He continued by emphasizing his commitment to action: "I have a bipartisan bill that would address this. The time for action is now; we cannot waste the next year when it comes to legislating on critical issues like preventing CCP land purchases near military bases and preventing the outflow of US capital to China to prop up their military-industrial complex. It's time to act."
In July, according to a press release from Gallagher's committee, it was announced that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) will now oversee all land acquisitions made by foreign entities near "sensitive" sites within the United States. The legislation, driven by national security interests, designates certain sites such as those owned by the U.S. military, agricultural land, and telecom networks as protected areas.
Gallagher and Representative Mike Thompson (R-Calif.), along with several other representatives, introduced H.R. 4577, titled "Protecting U.S. Farmland and Sensitive Sites From Foreign Adversaries Act." This proposed legislation—the first major amendment to the CFIUS in five years—includes various provisions. Among these are expanding the definition of sites sensitive to national security concerns and requiring foreign entities to seek CFIUS approval when acquiring land near these sites. According to a press release from Gallagher's committee, the bill also advocates for granting the Secretary of Agriculture a vote in CFIUS reviews related to farmland transactions, among other measures designed to enhance oversight and protection.
