EXCLUSIVE: Republican Attorney General Urges Biden Admin To Restrict Foreign Land Ownership Near Major Military Base

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey called on the Biden administration to restrict foreign land ownership near a U.S. Air Force Base this week, according to a letter shared exclusively with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Bailey sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department on Monday requesting that it add Whiteman Air Force Base to its list of protected military facilities, which would ban “foreign interests,” such as Chinese nationals, from owning land within a 99-mile radius of the base “absent Treasury Department approval.” Lawmakers in multiple states, including Missouri, have recently taken legislative and executive action to limit ownership of U.S. land by Chinese nationals, following reports of land purchases by Chinese government-tied individuals and entities in North Dakota, Michigan, Kansas, Oregon and other states. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: RNC Resolution Condemns Biden Admin’s ‘Systematic Illegal Alien Invasion,’ Cites Chinese ‘Sabotage Risk’)

“It is imperative that the Treasury Department add Whiteman Air Force Base to the current list of protected facilities,” Bailey’s letter states. “Inclusion in this list would ensure that foreign interests could not own ‘covered real estate’ or make ‘covered real estate transactions’ absent Treasury approval within the 99 mile protective boundary of the base.”

Whiteman Air Force Base is located approximately 70 miles from a proposed manufacturing facility outside Kansas City that is being built by Cnano Technology USA Inc. (Cnano USA), whose Chinese parent company has extensive Chinese government ties, the DCNF reported in December 2023 after reviewing and expanding upon research conducted by The Heritage Foundation Oversight Project and Heritage Action.

Whiteman Air Force Base is the home of the “509th Bomb Wing and its fleet of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers,” which plays a “key” role in U.S. Global Strike Command’s “strategic deterrence efforts,” according to Bailey’s petition.

“These bombers are capable of deploying to forward operating installations across the globe, yet their only permanent base is here in Missouri,” Bailey wrote. “Such is the capability of this powerful heavy stealth bomber that they have routinely flown around the globe, resupplied by air-to-air refueling, and have returned to Whiteman without the need to touch down on foreign soil.”

Bailey’s petition requests that the Treasury Department add Whiteman Air Force Base to a preexisting list of U.S. Treasury Department military installations by amending the Code of Federal Regulations to either include all Missouri Air Force bases or all Air Force Bases “home to strategic heavy bombing capabilities.”

If adopted, Bailey’s petition would expand upon recent legislative action in his state as well as calls from Republican lawmakers to investigate Cnano USA’s intended Kansas manufacturing plant for liquid conductive paste.

Cnano USA’s Chinese parent company, Cnano Jiangsu Technology Co., Ltd. employs several dozen Chinese Communist Party members and has also participated in Chinese government initiatives, including one program that the U.S. Director of National Intelligence warned utilizes clandestine methods to acquire foreign technologies, the DCNF reported in December 2023.

Subsequently, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson issued an executive order in January 2024 banning individuals and groups tied to China from purchasing agricultural land within 10 miles of any “critical military facilities” in Missouri.

Kansas Republican Rep. Jake LaTurner as well as House and Senate Republicans led by Missouri Rep. Mark Alford have also sent letters to the Treasury Department and the Department of Defense asking for Cnano USA to be investigated following the DCNF’s report.

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