After reports that Chinese businessmen have spent billions of dollars purchasing American farmland and other real estate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a warning about China’s nefarious influence on the Sunshine State.
According to DeSantis, who referred to China as the United States’ “No. 1 adversary,” corporations affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) shouldn’t be permitted to own real estate in the United States.
“I don’t think they should be able to do it. I think the problem is these companies have ties to the CCP, and it’s not always apparent on the face of whatever a company is doing—but I think it’s a huge problem,” he said.
According to a recent survey from the National Association of Realtors, foreign purchasers from China spent $6.1 billion, more than from any other foreign country, on U.S. properties from April 2021 to March.
Chinese investors spent more than $1 million on each transaction, an increase from the $710,400 average from the previous year. California was the most popular location for their purchases (31 percent), followed by New York (10 percent), Indiana (7 percent), Florida (7 percent), Oklahoma (5 percent) and Missouri (5 percent).
58 percent of Chinese buyers made all-cash transactions, ranking third highest behind Canadians (69 percent) and Colombians (69 percent), according to the survey (65 percent).
Chinese investors now also own a larger portion of American farms. 13,720 acres in the United States were owned by Chinese investors as of the end of 2010, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Through December 31, 2020, that number rose to 194,179 acres.
Additionally, DeSantis claimed that he has taken action to counteract some of China’s influence in Florida.
He declared, “I’ve signed legislation to crack down on undue influence from rogue states, including the CCP… So for example, we ban Confucius Institutes in the state of Florida—they try to go in higher education, and they try to spread the propaganda.”
In June 2021, DeSantis signed legislation that outlawed Confucius Institutes supported by Beijing and made trade secret theft a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in jail.
According to DeSantis, Florida has “the most robust protections against CCP influence that any state’s done so far.”
On July 1st, 2021, the two pieces of legislation came into force.
In September 2019, Florida’s final Confucius Institute was shut down. As of June 21, there were a total of 18 Confucius Institutes throughout the United States, according to the National Association of Scholars, a body that advocates for education.
DeSantis stated in January that Osceola County and Valencia College had received nearly $10 million from the Florida Job Growth Grand Fund to encourage semiconductor and other sophisticated technology industries. This was another move against the CCP.
In a statement announcing the investment, he added, “The strategic investments we are making today will help bring microchip and semiconductor manufacturing back to our state at a time when the supply chains are more fragile than ever… Certainly, we cannot allow this important industry to become captive by the Chinese Communist Party.”
DeSantis also unveiled legislation to retaliate against China in March. One of the ideas would mandate that any donation from a foreign government worth at least $50,000 be disclosed by state agencies, political subdivisions, and public institutions of higher learning.
He said to Fox News that his next focus would be on the issue with his state’s pension funds.
“We’re also probably going to do legislation next legislative session about our pension investments, with things that may be linked to the CCP,” he said. “We don’t necessarily have a lot of it, but we want to make sure that we’re cutting ties so that we’re not funding our No. 1 adversary.”