By Chris Adams
A sizable portion of land in Val Verde County has been bought by a former general in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
This was recently highlighted on Fox Business News Tuesday, Dec. 8.
“The Chinese have recently purchased over 180,000 acres of Texas ranch land near the runway of the US’s largest pilot training base for the Air Force,” tweeted Kyle Bass, founder, and CIO of Dallas-based Hayman Capital Management, last week.
He said on Fox Business News Tuesday that the Chinese are gobbling up the acreage to construct major wind farms but he seems doubtful about the intent.
“Well, there’s not enough sustainable wind down there (Val Verde County) for wind farms. So that’s number one, suspect,” Bass told Maria Bartiromo on the Fox news program. “It’s not a wind corridor in Texas. The Panhandle, the northern part of Texas, is where the wind is.”
The former general is Sun Guangxin, one of the wealthiest citizens in communist China. According to Forbes, his net worth was $1.9 billion as of July 2020.
Technically, the land was purchased by GH America Energy, which is owned by Sun’s Guanghui Energy Company and part of the Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment Group based in Xinjiang. Xinjiang is an autonomous region that has been the subject of international outrage due to the internment of ethnic Muslim Uighurs there by the Chinese government.
Elected officials have also responded to the situation. In July, a letter was sent to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin from U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and John Cornyn (R-TX) and U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (TX-23) outlining their concerns about Sun’s proposed wind farm project reportedly being linked to the Chinese Communist Party and how close it would be to Laughlin Air Force Base.
“This ranch land also sits on the US border with Mexico and boasts a 30,000 sq ft lodge and a private runway which helps the Chinese owners ferry people and cargo in and out of the border region with limited to no oversight by US authorities,” Bass wrote in another Tweet posted last week. “This must STOP.”
One way to prohibit the acquisition of land by a foreign individual or entity is through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The interagency committee reviews specific real estate transactions and their potential impact on national security, according to the Treasury Department.
Sun’s real estate transaction was subject to review under the CFIUS Real Estate Instructions Part 802 due to its proximity — within 100 miles of any military installation — to Laughlin. The review determines if the real estate is proximate to any facility or base that is sensitive to national security reported a blog post authored by King&Wood Mallesons, an Asia-based firm specializing in international law.
“Even though Laughlin is the largest pilot training base in the US, it is not on the list of sensitive US facilities contained in the CFIUS,” the blog read. “To clear the deal, CFIUS must have concluded that the wind farm posed either no risk, or an acceptable risk to US national security.”
But whether it was a CFIUS determination or other factors, the outcome favored the Chinese general.
“It’s insane that we allow the Chinese, former PLA general, to go buy 200 square miles of land in the United States,” Bass said.
