Postcards: Beware the Snakes Selling America...
A Chinese Communist Party member bought 200,000 acres of American farmland... and the U.S. government didn't even record the transaction. What's next?
Dear Fellow Expat:
Chen Tianqiao had a sweet tooth.
The Chinese online gaming billionaire moved to California in 2017.
He overcame what he described as a sugar addiction.
Chen wore braces (that helps?).
He quit alcohol and sugar.
He even threw a “sugar-quitting ceremony” with his children, swearing off sweets.
Birthday cake no longer tempted him.
What did?
California weather. A $26 million L.A. mansion. Silicon startups.
And a $39 million mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
But Chen also coveted another thing: American Timberland.
Chen purchased 200,000 acres of timberland in Oregon in 2015.
He paid $85 million.
But the news was only reported last week.
His buy never appeared in government records of land ownership by foreign investors.
He’s now the second-largest foreign owner of U.S. land.
Oh…
Did we mention he joined the Chinese Communist Party at 18?
How is This a Thing?
It’s unclear what Oregon regulators - and the United States are thinking…
Today, Chinese interests own 384,000 a…
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