Last month, Kansas lawmakers passed Senate Bill 172 to ban businesses from adversarial countries from purchasing land near military sites.

The countries listed as ‘adversarial’ include:

  • China
  • Russia
  • Iran
  • North Korea
  • Venezuela

“The state House approved SB 172 with an 86-39 vote on Monday, and the state Senate followed, passing the bill 24-14 on Tuesday, as reported by The Kansas City Star. The legislation was partially prompted by plans from Cnano Technology USA, a subsidiary of a Chinese firm, to develop a large factory in the state,” Chuck Callesto wrote.

"Gov. Laura Kelly condemned a land property bill stemming from Republican fear of foreign country intrusion as overly broad and unconstitutional," Kansas Reflector reports.

From the Kansas Reflector:

Kelly on Friday vetoed Senate Bill 172, which attempted to restrict “foreign adversary” companies’ real estate ownership in Kansas. The legislation would have blocked people and businesses from “countries of concern,” such as China and Iran, from acquiring nonresidential property within a 100-mile radius of Kansas military installations. Those already in the state would have to register with the attorney general and divest of the property unless granted an exemption.

“While I agree that it is important for our state to implement stronger protections against foreign adversaries, this legislation contains multiple provisions that are likely unconstitutional and cause unintended consequences,” Kelly said.

“Additionally, the retroactive nature of this legislation raises further serious constitutional concerns,” she said. “I am not willing to sign a bill that has the potential to hurt the state’s future prosperity and economic development.”

The bill was passed by the Legislature late into the session, following alarm over Cnano Technology USA, and increasing rhetoric against foreign companies on Kansas soil. The China-based company plans to locate a $94.7 million manufacturing plant in Johnson County to make liquid conductive paste used in products such as cellphones and vehicle batteries.

“I remain committed to protecting our military installations and ensuring that the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign adversaries do not compromise Kansas’s safety,” state Rep. Blake Carpenter (R-Derby) said.

"The Democratic governor called the bill ‘overly broad’ and ‘not narrowly tailored’ to protect Kansas from bad actors," The Epoch Times stated.

The Epoch Times reports:

Similar legislation has been introduced in several states, including Georgia, Iowa, Utah, and Oklahoma. The South Carolina Senate passed a bill in March that will partly ban companies or citizens of foreign adversaries from acquiring real property in the state.

Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition aimed at ending discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, has condemned the measure and said it could stoke “xenophobia” among Asian American communities.

“These land ban laws label our communities as untrustworthy, blame them for the actions of another country’s government, and stoke the flames of racism, xenophobia, and hate,” Cynthia Choi, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, said in a statement after Georgia’s passage of the bill.

As of December 2021, China accounted for 383,935 acres of the 40 million acres of U.S. agricultural land owned by foreign investors, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
While the acreage under Chinese ownership is slightly less than 1 percent of all foreign-held agricultural land, it represents a nearly 30-fold leap from 13,720 acres in 2010, according to a U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report.

https://100percentfedup.com/democrat-governor-vetoes-legislation-prevent-land-ownership-foreign/