One of former President Donald Trump's top allies, former chief of staff Ric Grenell, had a warning for voters about the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to buy up U.S. farmland.
“We’re doing this event in Pennsylvania, because what we’ve seen from the Communist Chinese government over the last 10 years is a very aggressive strategy to infiltrate into the United States” in a variety of ways, Grenell said in a Breitbart News Saturday interview.
Grenell, formerly the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, said that it's not only federally, but at the state and local level that China is seeking "leverage."
“Into our local politics, into our state politics. They really took advantage of us during COVID. We know the supply chain problems, but what’s beginning to happen is they are buying up land. They are leveraging our farmers in terms of prices, and it’s impacting the way that the United States is able to feed our own people,” he said.
“It’s beginning to be this aggressive strategy, and there’s no question that the Chinese will begin to leverage their power. We know they do that. I’ve spent eight years at the U.N. inside the Security Council, watching how the Chinese slowly and methodically begin to leverage their power. They did this specific example at the U.N. by slowly taking over jobs at the U.N.,” he said.
China has been seeking power for years through the U.N., Grenell said.
“They had their people, Communist Chinese, beginning to take over different offices at the U.N. They did it really under the radar, and then once they have control, then they start flexing their power. This is exactly what they’re doing with land in America."
Grenell has been active in foreign relations for the Trump campaign, with the Washington Post accusing him of running a "shadow" foreign policy for Trump.
According to the New York Times, Grenell wants to be secretary of state in a future Trump administration, but for now, he's attempting to expose China's activities.
“They’re doing this to farmers in America. They’re doing it with price controls. And what we need to be able to be clear-eyed about is this strategy,” he said, calling it "methodical."
For the event, he invited farmers from Pennsylvania to speak about what they see happening with their land "in the last five or ten years."
“You know, there’s no one better to speak about this than the actual people impacted, who are farmers growing our food, helping raise cattle and pigs so that we can have enough food to eat. And so this is a — this is a very personal thing to me,” Grenell said, noting that he has farmers in his own family.
“I understand the hard work that farmers put into trying to make a living, and we’ve got to be very clear-eyed about what’s happening in the Midwest with our farmers. And that’s what this event is all about,” he added.
Back in 2023, a Republican bill was introduced to ban China from buying farmland in the U.S., but it has not been passed.
