Kansas legislature passes bill banning Chinese land purchases near military sites after DCNF investigation

The Kansas legislature passed a bill Tuesday that will prevent companies from China or other adversarial countries from buying land near military sites.

The state House passed SB 172 by an 86-39 vote on Monday before the state Senate passed the bill by a 24-14 vote on Tuesday, according to The Kansas City Star. The bill was partly in response to efforts by Cnano Technology USA, a subsidiary of a Chinese company planning to invest in a massive factory in the state.

The Daily Caller News Foundation first reported that Cnano Technology USA’s parent company had extensive ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). That investigation was aided by research conducted by The Heritage Foundation Oversight Project and Heritage Action.

The bill now heads to the desk of Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly.

While there are some rare exceptions, the bill will ban citizens and corporations — or subsidiaries — from China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea from purchasing non-residential land within 100 miles of a military site if it becomes state law.

WATCH:@RepLaTurner asked @PLMattis if US subsidiaries of Chinese firms, like Cnano USA, can be “completely divorced”

“I’m not sure of any company that I know has been very closely tied to the Party-state and its objectives that you can separate off” – Mattis pic.twitter.com/J6P1NUbXT3

— Philip Lenczycki 蔡岳 (@LenczyckiPhilip) April 17, 2024

Cnano Technology USA plans to build a massive facility in Johnson County, Kansas, that will produce components for electric vehicle batteries and other products within about 35 miles of Fort Leavenworth, and 70 miles from Whiteman Air Force Base.

Cnano USA is a subsidiary of C-Nano Technology Co., Ltd., a company that China-based Cnano Jiangsu Technology Co. set up in the British Virgin Islands, according to Cnano Jiangsu’s 2022 annual report.

Cnano Jiangsu’s 2022 social responsibility report states that the company employs several dozen members of the CCP. Furthermore, the company’s English-language website says that the firm has “undertaken a number of national 863” initiatives, a reference to a Chinese government-backed program that the U.S. has accused of trying to steal American technology.

Other corporate materials reviewed by the DCNF revealed that the number of CCP members working for Cnano Jiangsu has increased in recent years and that the firm explicitly promotes the CCP’s ideology.

“Just ask yourself the question: can Americans buy land in China near its military bases? Of course, the answer is no,” then-Chair of the Select Committee on the CCP Mike Gallagher previously told the DCNF. “It is a bad, bad idea to let the CCP or CCP-affiliated entities buy land near military bases in the U.S. We cannot allow the CCP to collect valuable intelligence here at home that they might leverage in the event of a crisis.”

Representatives for Cnano Technology USA and its Chinese parent company did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

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