Thread by @MatthewFoldi

NEW (and a first) from me @PirateWires

We're seeing China is treating us as the next country in its global Belt and Road

Learn what #NDAL @RepArmstrongND, #FL06 @michaelgwaltz, #VAGOV @GlennYoungkin, #MI05 @RepWalberg are more are doing about it

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(1/xx)

First, here's @micsolana's take on the CCP's strategic investments in America:

"A uniquely strong tradition of individual liberty — instantiated in everything from free speech to free association — has always been America’s greatest strength...

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(2/xx)

...But in conflict with an authoritarian country, liberty also presents a significant surface area for attack. For example, in the case of risk from China, our relatively free market has enabled a hostile, authoritarian foreign power...

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(3/xx)

...to set about literally purchasing vital American industry and resources.

I’m not yet prepared to sacrifice our freedoms conceptually, and I don’t agree every single act of business with China should be considered suspiciously...

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(4/xx)

...let alone prohibited. But I do think there’s value in stepping back, and taking in the degree to which the CCP has set to dominating our country one purchase at a time." @micsolana

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(5/xx)

To the article!

China’s spy balloons thrust its adversarial relationship with the United States back into the spotlight, but airborne espionage isn’t the only way the communist nation is leveraging the openness of our society to its advantage.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(6/xx)

Across the world, China is implementing its Belt and Road Initiative, where it takes advantage of developing countries by luring them into deals that seem too good to be true — because with China, there is always fine print.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(7/xx)

We see this with how Communist China plunders copper mines in Africa to how its Confucius Institutes in America offer free Chinese instruction in exchange for Beijing-approved curricula.

wsj.com/articles/after…

(8/xx)

More recently, China’s attempts, both successful and stymied, to purchase key areas of America’s supply chain suggest America is becoming another country in which China is trying to implement its Belt and Road-style policies.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(9/xx)

When we look at China's investments in America, we see that they range from purchasing the military academy Donald Trump attended to to attempting to spy on the nation’s capital city, and everything in between.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(10/xx)

🚨 As if the coronavirus pandemic wasn’t enough to demonstrate the risks of relying on Chinese-anchored supply chains, in some cases, it’s too late to make adjustments or change course. 🚨

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(11/xx)

To start, firms directly tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) bought the military academy attended by former president Donald Trump, which has a Junior ROTC program; these programs are designed to shape the future leaders of our military.

freebeacon.com/national-secur…

(12/xx)

As @ChuckRossDC reported @FreeBeacon, “in 2015, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which serves as the Chinese Communist Party's political advisory board, purchased Donald Trump's alma mater...

freebeacon.com/national-secur…

(13/xx)

...the New York Military Academy, for $16 million dollars. Conference member Mo Tianquan secured the purchase after a bidding war with another Chinese conglomerate.”

freebeacon.com/national-secur…

(14/xx)

The People’s Daily, a Chinese state-owned propaganda outlet, celebrated Mo’s purchase. “It is reported that the investors are intending to have the school, whose graduates include Donald Trump, remain as a high school,” it wrote.

facebook.com/PeoplesDaily/p…

(15/xx)

Mo does more than just pay lip service to the CCP; he’s said he was "very honored" to be in the CPPCC, which he confirmed works “under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.”

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(16/xx)

Mo hasn’t hesitated in putting his Chinese business partners on the military academy’s board of trustees either, @ChuckRossDC reported @FreeBeacon.

freebeacon.com/national-secur…

(17/xx)

It’s not just Trump’s alma mater that CCP-connected individuals purchased. Beyond the New York Military Academy, CCP-tied entities have purchased the Florida Preparatory Academy which is owned by a subsidiary of the Chongqing-based Newopen Group

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(18/xx)

The group's chairman has participated in the Chinese Entrepreneurs Association, which is sponsored by the CCP. Like Trump’s alma mater, the Florida Preparatory Academy has a JROTC program.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(19/xx)

While China buying up American military academies should be a major red flag for our future military preparedness, we don’t know just how deep the problem of CCP ownership of junior military academies goes.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(20/xx)

#FL06's @michaelgwaltz has a short term solution to the problem of CCP-tied businesses buying Junior ROTC programs, which is to first figure out how many they’ve acquired.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(21/xx)

Last month, @michaelgwaltz wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin requesting an audit of all JROTC programs at private schools to see if they "are owned by a subsidiary of a foreign company, and the name of the subsidiary of a foreign company."

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(22/xx)

Turning from military academies to Congress, one of the few “must pass” bills this year is the annual Farm Bill. A question that lawmakers will have to confront is how to address China buying up American farmland.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(23/xx)

A pair of Republicans from Washington State, #WA05 @cathymcmorris and #WA04 @RepNewhouse introduced legislation that would do just that.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(24/xx)

The Prohibition of Agricultural Land for the People’s Republic of China Act would “prohibit the purchase of public or private agricultural land...by foreign nationals associated with the [PRC].” However, it is not yet law.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(25/xx)

While the @cathymcmorris-@RepNewhouse bill waits for final passage, which supporters say is likely in the House, there have been other ways that China’s purchases have been forcibly halted, albeit on a more case-by-case basis.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(26/xx)

In 2021, a Chinese company, called Fufeng Group, bought 300 acres of land for just over $2 million in Grand Forks, North Dakota, with plans to pump in another $700 million to open up a corn mill.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(27/xx)

This huge cash and jobs infusion into a small town sounds too good to be true, right?

That’s exactly the case — it is too good to be true, and bipartisan concerns ground Fufeng’s plans to a halt.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(28/xx)

The main reason? The large swath of land it bought is conveniently located just 12 miles from an Air Force base housing top secret drone technology, and key components of both our early warning and detection network for ballistic missile threats!

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(29/xx)

Both of North Dakota’s Republican senators, #NDSEN @SenJohnHoeven and @SenKevinCramer, forcefully opposed the purchase.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(30/xx)

#NDSEN @SenJohnHoeven's office released a letter written to him by Air Force Assistant Secretary Andrew Hunter, in which Hunter said that this deal is unacceptable on grounds of national security.

hoeven.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…

(31/xx)

“The Department’s view is unambiguous: the proposed project presents a significant threat to national security with both near- and long-term risks of significant impacts to our operations in the area,” Hunter wrote.

piratewires.com/p/china-strate…

(32/xx)

This concern was echoed by @maphumanintent, who laid out how China planned to pillage North Dakota’s corn in an article fittingly titled “Belt and Road Comes to the Heartland: The Peculiar Story of Fufeng Group and Grand Forks.”

fortisanalysis.substack.com/p/belt-and-roa…

(33/xx)

@maphumanintent In his piece, @maphumanintent laid out two particularly interesting claims: one, that the CEO of Fufeng is a bona fide CCP member, and that the deal wouldn’t have been worth making for the American side, even were it not for natsec concerns.

fortisanalysis.substack.com/p/belt-and-roa…

(34/xx)

What @maphumanintent reports here is insane, and it shows how the CCP uses its nodes as part of its investments around the globe.

Read this whole graf

fortisanalysis.substack.com/p/belt-and-roa…

(35/xx)

Even if the Fufeng plant weren’t spitting distance from an Air Force base, @maphumanintent's reporting argues that making deals like these with China are still suspect, because the terms will always skew towards China.

fortisanalysis.substack.com/p/belt-and-roa…

(36/xx)