A friend of mine sent me a link regarding this political ad showing Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn destroying fortune cookies. It was posted on her YouTube channel on July 8th – not sure where it was aired/streamed. It would be pretty ridiculous and very laughable if it weren’t from a U.S. Senator:
“In one shot, a piece of paper can be seen poking out from a broken cookie, reading: “Marsha Blackburn will fight to protect Tennessee land from China.” Another shot shows a slip of paper that reads: “Marsha Blackburn will close loopholes and hunt down communists.”
…
“It doesn’t take a fortune cookie to figure it out,” she says at the end. “Here in Tennessee, we’re going to stop communist China and protect Tennessee land.””
I’ve never visited or have ever lived Tennessee. If I did, I would be concerned about the language – especially about “hunt down” – as I can imagine this ad increasing Asian hate crimes in Tennessee and beyond. Ironically, fortune cookies were invented by Japanese Americans and adapted by Chinese restaurants in America.
Now as this Newsweek article outlines the legitimate concern:
“Concerns about Chinese purchases of U.S. land have become part of that wider debate. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data, foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land doubled between 2009 and 2019, sparking concerns about the security of America’s food supply.
In 2019, foreign investors owned at least 35.2 million acres of U.S. agricultural land, which equates to 2.7 percent of U.S. farmland, an area almost the size of Iowa, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan, nonprofit research organization.
While Chinese entities own only a small share of foreign-held U.S. agricultural land—about 277,000 acres, according to the most recent USDA data—the country’s purchases of U.S. land have also been found to be near important U.S. defense sites, such as Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas, Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and Francis E. Warren National Nuclear Base in Wyoming, according to the outlet Modern Diplomacy. That has heightened concern as some of these bases house American nuclear ballistic missiles.”
I think Americans should be concerned about any land purchased near any sensitive military and civilian sites (like power stations, government offices, etc.). Security threats are not only foreign (consider the Oklahoma City bombing was perpetrated born-and-bred American Timothy McVeigh).
