Washington, DC – Many commentators credit Chinese investors with causing real estate booms throughout North America. However, the American public is increasingly concerned that the vast majority of those assets belong to the affiliates of the Chinese communist party.
This concern is exacerbated by the abundance of online information about communist officials engaging in shady business deals in Asia, Australia, and Africa to claim large tracts of land. Some media sources assert that communist China’s land holdings in Africa exceed the total area of the American state of Texas. Land and environmental activists in Africa and South America are concerned about how these transactions will affect regional economies, the environment, and natural resource consumption patterns.
American leaders such as Sajid Tarar, the founder of American Muslims for Trump, and Dr. Tara Chand, president of the US-based Baloch American Congress, share the concerns of fellow Americans regarding China’s long-term economic and strategic objectives. Their concerns stem from firsthand knowledge of what Chinese communists have done to their home countries.
According to Dr. Chand, the Chinese have destroyed the fishing hubs on which the local Baloch rely for subsistence. The Chinese also pollute local drinking water sources through excessive mineral extraction. Locals in many parts of Balochistan have been forced to leave their ancestral villages for the safety of Chinese workers.
According to Advocate Ishaq Sharif, president of the US-based Jammu Gilgit American Council, the Pakistani military collaborates with the Chinese to seize valuable natural resources in Muzaffarabad and Gilgit-Baltistan. Furthermore, the Pakistani government has taken over pastures in Ghizer and Astore to create national parks. The locals think that Chinese companies will eventually be granted access to these so-called protected lands for farming and mineral exploitation. He said that the locals are being uprooted by Chinese actions, leading to the extinction of languages and cultures. The Chinese are establishing ghettos and no-go zones throughout Pakistan, which challenge cultural ethics and the long-term survival of locals.
In mainland China, a large number of Hans are using state apparatus to claim farmland in Tibet, Xinjiang, Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and Guangxi-Zhuang, thereby reducing ethnic populations to a minority in their ancestral homelands. Recent videos show authorities arresting and destroying Chinese farmers’ banana and vegetable plantations, as well as orchards, for refusing to grow sugarcane.
The state’s control over farming preferences is causing food shortages and livestock deaths in many areas. Tibetans are forced to abandon or sell livestock due to feed shortages as Chinese mining companies seize their pastures. Without viable alternatives for sustainable living, many farmers and cattle owners are resorting to daily wage work in urban areas.
According to a recent New York Times article that referenced Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission’s findings, the Chinese government interfered in certain races in Canada’s 2021 general election, targeting politicians perceived as anti-Chinese. The Canadian politicians who testified at the parliamentary hearing claimed they had angered the Chinese government by criticizing its human rights record and questionable business dealings.
Furthermore, the intelligence report shows that the Chinese media campaign persuaded voters to support Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal Party candidates rather than the Conservative Party. Erin O’Toole, who led the Conservative Party in 2021, stated that foreign meddling cost the Conservatives five to nine districts. Despite the Conservatives’ victory in the popular vote in the 2021 election, Mr. Trudeau’s party managed to garner enough seats to form a minority government.
In North America, Chinese immigrants are exploiting constitutional loopholes to rapidly increase their real estate inventory. According to a podcast by The Globe and Mail in October 2023, such loopholes have allowed Chinese immigrants to illegally acquire tens of thousands of acres of land, making them the largest private landowners in Canada’s Kings County. Furthermore, the Chinese from mainland China are leveraging Buddhist institutions on Prince Edward Island to increase their stake in real estate markets. The situation could eventually strain Canada-Taiwan relations.
The podcast explains that international donations are a black hole in Canada that cannot be traced, and China is exploiting this loophole to dominate the Canadian political framework. These Chinese are forming networks with immigrants from friendly countries such as Pakistan, Venezuela, and Syria to advance economic and strategic goals. A greater focus is required to investigate collaborations between the Chinese, Khalistanis, and Islamists on American soil.
A China Daily article from August 2016 states that although Chinese farmers are not permitted to own land in China, Canada is reshaping their destiny by allowing them to do so. However, this new phenomenon is raising the cost of land to the point where local residents can no longer afford to own it. The actions of affluent Chinese immigrants have a direct impact on Canadian identity.
Taking advantage of Canadian agricultural tax breaks, Chinese buyers have purchased nearly all of the large protected farms and roughly half of the small ones near Vancouver. In contrast to the national farmland average price of $2,460 per acre, a Chinese investor paid $573,000 per acre for a 4.5-acre farm in 2015.
Rural property values have consequently surged, with many sales generating profits 100 times higher than the typical price of an acre of land. At the same time, it has resulted in a fifty percent drop in agricultural produce prices compared to what local growers received a few years ago. Land prices are rising, but farmers are not becoming rich.
According to China Daily, unspecified foreign nationals made up 18 percent of sales in Richmond, home to one of British Columbia’s most affluent Chinese communities. However, politicians from Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal Party who are sympathetic to the Chinese communists, such as British Columbia’s agriculture minister Norm Letnick, dismiss conspiracy theories about Chinese threats and argue that Chinese investors benefit the Canadian economy.
Raising the alarm, prominent US Congress members who see Chinese communists purchasing land in the United States as an attack on American sovereignty have embarked on a mission to expose and end Chinese nefarious plans through stringent legislation. Many reports claim that hundreds of Chinese communists illegally crossed the southern border in recent months, endangering the safety of US citizens.
Senator Rubio has repeatedly opposed Chinese companies purchasing land near American strategic assets. National security concerns have grown since Fufeng Group, a Chinese food manufacturer with alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party, purchased about 370 acres of land near North Dakota’s Grand Forks Air Force Base.
Incidents like this prompted Senators Rubio and Ted Cruz to introduce a bipartisan bill that would prohibit China and other adversaries from purchasing land near US military installations. On a different occasion, Senator Rubio also introduced legislation to deny Chinese communist party members the right to seek asylum in the United States. According to reports, wealthy Chinese communist immigrants, similar to those in Canada, have influence over US organizations, including educational boards in several counties.
Both the United States and Canada must prioritize their people over Chinese investors. American voters should elect leaders who can see beyond the apparent short-term monetary benefits of Chinese investments on American soil.
In addition, Chinese Hans threaten the ethnic communities in Tibet, Xinjiang, Gilgit, and Balochistan by encroaching on their lands, and Americans should support these communities wholeheartedly.
Senge Sering
Senge Sering is a native of Pakistan-occupied-Gilgit-Baltistan and runs the Washington DC based Gilgit Baltistan Studies
