State leaders praise effort to stop foreign entities from owning land in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — Gov. Spencer Cox is sending a strong message about keeping Utah’s lands in U.S. hands. In a news conference with several Utah lawmakers on Tuesday, Cox addressed the efforts the state is making to safeguard Utah’s lands from foreign influence that could undermine state and national security.

“We will not allow adversarial foreign entities to buy up strategic lands in our state,” Cox said.

Gov. Cox was joined by several state lawmakers, including Rep. Candice Pierucci, who was the House sponsor behind the recent legislation passed that prevents foreign entities, like the Chinese government, from buying or owning land in Utah.

“Not only does the law prohibit the Chinese government from owning land, but also its subsidiaries, its shell companies, its majority-owned companies, and any company headquartered in China from owning land in our state,” Pierucci explained. 

Not only can they not buy Utah’s lands, but any land already owned by restricted foreign entities needs to be divested. Cox said in recent months, about 35,000 acres of Utah’s lands have been bought back.

Cox said an attempted purchase of land near the Provo Airport was recently stopped. He said this is a great example of how they are preventing foreign entities from impacting Utah’s agriculture, economy, and military operations.

“A Chinese, state-owned company tied to the People’s Liberation Army tried to purchase land near the Provo Airport very recently,” Cox explained. “The company, Cirrus Aircraft, is majority owned by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China which is also known as AVIC, a restricted foreign entity under Utah law with deep military ties to the Chinese government. AVIC makes fighter jets, helicopters and drones for the Chinese military. ”

Cox said that the company appears on several Utah watchlists and is banned from federal contracts because of national security concerns.

In line with Cox’s campaign to “Disagree Better,” he concluded Tuesday’s news conference by saying one of the biggest ways foreign adversaries try to influence U.S. operations is by keeping Americans divided.

“One of the greatest threats to our national security may not come from missiles or malware, but from division, and places like China and Russia understand this very, very well,” Cox said. “They don’t just want to out-compete us. They want to divide us … They know that if they can turn Americans against each other, they don’t need to lift a finger to win. We can’t let that happen.”