WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today introduced the Exposing China’s Belt and Road Investment in America Act of 2021 to review investments that businesses controlled by the Chinese Communist Party make on U.S. soil. China routinely makes such “greenfield” investments while buying land, building factories and taking advantage of state and local tax breaks in America to expand China’s influence.

“The Chinese communist regime uses greenfield investments to gain leverage over the U.S. economy and our job market. We can’t be blind to the ways Beijing is gaming our system to take American assets, real estate and innovation away from U.S. businesses. The Exposing China’s Belt and Road Investment in America Act of 2021 is a key step forward in countering the threat China poses to America’s economy and national security,” said Kennedy.

Greenfield projects are the most common way that Chinese companies enter the American market. They are quickly becoming Beijing’s preferred method for expanding influence under its Belt and Road Initiative, the international infrastructure plan meant to increase the regime’s global power. At the same time, the Chinese government keeps its domestic markets largely insulated from foreign influence.

China’s state-operated enterprises use the greenfield model to siphon intellectual property, influence and other assets away from U.S. businesses.

The Exposing China’s Belt and Road Investment in America Act of 2021 would put Chinese greenfield initiatives under the review of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The legislation would also require greenfield investments to file a declaration with CFIUS if China’s government controls or has a substantial interest in the investment. CFIUS would review these investments for national security purposes.

Specifically, the bill would require a CFIUS review for any investment that is made by a foreign person that both:

• involves the acquisition of real estate in the U.S. and the establishment of a U.S. business on such real estate, and
• results in China’s direct or indirect control of that U.S. business.

Text of the Exposing China’s Belt and Road Investment in America Act of 2021 is available here.