The purchase of $85million worth of US agricultural land by a Chinese billionaire and alleged Communist Party member has sparked outcry among lawmakers after it went largely unreported for eight years.
It emerged earlier this week that California-based online gaming pioneer Chen Tianqiao owns 198,000 acres of Oregon timberland, making him the second largest foreign owner of American land.
The sale went through in 2015, but only became widespread knowledge on Monday after Oregon tax records unveiled one of Chen’s companies as the beneficial owner.
The 50-year-old is a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has held executive roles in CCP-affiliated organizations and is an admirer of Chairman Mao, according to multiple Chinese media reports.
He also owns a $39million Manhattan mansion and a $25million Los Angeles estate, while his Oregon land grab makes him the largest Chinese owner of US real estate.
Chen Tianqiao built Shanda Interactive into China’s largest internet company within five years of founding it in 1999 thanks to the runaway success of games ‘The World of Legend’ and ‘Dungeons & Dragons Online’
A listing shows a 32,995-acre block of Chen’s Oregon timberland is now for sale for $95million. It is part of 198,000 acres of the billionaire bought in the state for $85million in 2015
Chen, who reportedly has extensive links to the Chinese Communist Party, also owns the Vanderbilt Mansion on East 69th Street in Manhattan
He and his wife, Chrissy Chen, paid $39million for the property in 2018
Yet it does not appear anywhere in government records of agricultural land ownership by foreign investors, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The revelation that a billionaire from a hostile nation has been able to own such a huge swathe of US land for eight years without it appearing in official reports intended to track such acquisitions has sparked consternation across the political divide.
Senators have accused the Biden administration of failing to keep tabs on Chinese investment, raising the prospect that its scale could be much larger than first thought.
House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik accused officials of ‘dropping the ball’ on the matter.
‘Food security is national security. We cannot protect our agricultural land from foreign adversaries if we do not know they are purchasing it,’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘The Biden Administration’s failure to perform due diligence is inexcusable.’
Increased Chinese ownership of US land has sparked a backlash from some lawmakers who have cited concerns over espionage and security.
Chinese firms own more than $2billion worth of US farmland, up from just $162million a decade ago, according to the latest US Department of Agriculture (USDA) figures.
Department data shows CCP-linked firms had a stake in 346,915 acres of American agricultural land as of December 2022.
But this does not include the 198,000 acres of Oregon timberland owned by Chen, which is almost double the amount of land owned by former People’s Liberation Army captain Sun Guangxin, previously thought to be the biggest Chinese owner of farmland in the US.
Chen was 18 when he joined the CCP, according to a 2007 article from Communist Youth Daily, the official newspaper for the Communist Youth League.
He has since repeatedly been identified as a CCP member by Chinese media outlets, as first reported by Daily Caller.
The father-of-two is also an admirer of Mao Zedong and his written works are prominently displayed in Chen’s corporate office, according to Chinese media.
Chinese firms own 346,915 acres of American agricultural land as of December 2022
Chen joined the CCP aged 18 and has held executive roles in affiliated organizations, according to Chinese media and government records. Pictured here displaying an award certificate during an economy elites award ceremony in February, 2005, in Shanghai, China
But his ownership of 198,000 acres of Oregon timberland does not appear anywhere in government records of agricultural land ownership by foreign investors
House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik warned that the US ‘cannot protect our agricultural land from foreign adversaries if we do not know they are purchasing it’
READ MORE: Texas mogul is branded ‘treacherous’ over ‘deal of the century’ which saw him sell 130,000 acres of farmland to Chinese billionaire
David Frankens sparked fury among Texan ranchers after he selling swathes of land to Sun Guangxin, a former captain in the Chinese military (pictured)
It is unclear why his ownership of almost 200,000 acres of Oregon timberland does not appear in US government records.
The Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) of 1978 requires foreign investors to report any new interest in American agricultural land to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) within 90 days of the transaction.
However, there are certain ‘ambiguities’ within the law that may mean some foreign buy ups do not have to be reported, according to Micah Rubin of the National Agricultural Law Center.
He said the absence of Chen’s landholdings in USDA records raised questions over the ‘clarity’ of current regulations.
David Ortega, associate professor at the Department of Agriculture at Michigan State University, said it highlighted the inadequacy of self-reporting and the fact that ‘there are likely missing transactions that are not being captured’.
Rep. Stefanik (R., NY) was one of a bipartisan group of 28 lawmakers who wrote to US Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack last year expressing ‘deep concern’ over his department’s lax oversight of foreign land purchases.
It came after the USDA revealed it had decided not to assess any penalties between 2015 and 2018 for foreign investors who failed to report purchases of US farmland.
The department said limited staffing and other priorities had led to the moratorium.
Investors who failed to report their transactions face a penalty of up to 25 percent of the market value of their land, but the USDA says fines are usually closer to 1 percent.
In 2021, Sun Guangxin’s Brazos Highland Properties LP was penalized after taking more than 20 years to disclose his purchase of more than 130,000 acres of ranchland along the southern border in Texas.
But the USDA downgraded the fine from $21million to $120,000, according to the penalty letter sent to the firm.
This was still the largest fine the department had imposed in 20 years.
Sun’s Texan land grab, which cost him $110million, was deemed a possible threat to national security by a report written by former CIA officials due to his close ties to the CCP and his plans to build a wind farm within 30 miles of a major US Air Force base.
Chen was listed by the Land Report this week as the second largest foreign owner of US land
Chen with his wife Chrissy, with whom he has two daughters aged 19 and 14
Similarly, the construction of a $700million corn mill near an Air Force base in Grand Forks, Minnesota, by the US branch of Chinese firm Fufeng Group, was blocked on national security grounds.
There are as yet no such concerns surrounding Chen’s timberland, but his hitherto unpublicized land purchase has nonetheless fueled calls to strengthen safeguards against possible infiltration.
Senator Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) called for the White House to ‘bolster the law’ to prevent China using ‘any loophole against us’.
She added that the USDA is ‘currently not fully able to enforce or police foreign investment’.
Congressman David Scott (D., Georgia), Ranking Member of the House Agriculture Committee, told said the current ‘record-keeping system is sorely in need of updating’, adding that the USDA ‘must do better’.
Senator Jon Tester (D., Montana), who has led calls to strengthen AFIDA, said the issue was a ‘no brainer’ and demanded his congressional colleagues ‘get on board’.
Meanwhile, Craig Singleton, senior fellow at the non-partisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies, called for an annual report to Congress ‘that assesses foreign investments in US agriculture, potential threats to agriculture production and supply chains, and espionage attempts targeting US agricultural interests’.
The USDA annual reports say that its record of Chinese investment in US agriculture ‘should be interpreted as a minimum’ given that in some cases the primary shareholding country cannot be determined in some cases.
Neither Mr Chen nor the USDA responded to requests for comment.
How Mao cheerleader who wanted to be the Chinese Walt Disney became a US land baron
The second largest foreign owner of US land is an alleged member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and admirer of Chairman Mao who once vowed to make his gaming company the ‘Disney of China’ before vanishing from the country following a spate of panic attacks.
Chen Tianqiao, who was named this week as the owner of almost 200,000 acres of Oregon timberland, joined the CCP aged 18 and has held executive roles in its affiliate organizations, according to Chinese media and government records.
Born in Zhejiang in 1973, he built Shanda Interactive into China’s largest internet company within five years of founding it in 1999 thanks to the runaway success of games ‘The World of Legend’ and ‘Dungeons & Dragons Online’.
Chen was more prominent than Alibaba’s Jack Ma for much of the 2000s, listing Shanda on the Nasdaq in the US in 2004 after raising $152million, then the largest IPO of a Chinese internet company in the US.
In 2009, he spun off the games unit Shanda Games Ltd. in a $1billion offering.
Chen (pictured left) collects an award for his work at his gaming company Shanda at a business ceremony in Shanghai in February, 2005. His extraordinary business success ran parallel with the extensive ties he reportedly forged with the CCP
As Chen carved out his business empire, he set about forging extensive ties with the CCP.
Chinese government records show that Chen served as a representative of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), according to Daily Caller.
CPPCC delegates ‘serve as proxies for CCP interests’ and ‘receive direction’ from the party on how to implement its policies at home and abroad, according to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
Chen has also held executive positions with the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), according to Chinese website Sohu.com.
ACFIC answers to the United Front Work Department (UFWD), a CCO agency whose operations are a ‘blend of engagement, influence activities and intelligence operations,’ according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.
But despite his extensive ties to party machinery and his runaway business success, Chen left China in 2010 and vanished from public view almost entirely.
Seven years later, he gave an interview to Bloomberg from his new headquarters in Singapore, where he had relocated his life and business.
There, he explained how stress-related panic attacks forced him to take a step back from his business.
The devout Buddhist moved with his wife, Chrissy, and two young daughters, now 19 and 14, to work on his mental health, which ultimately led the couple to donate $115million to the California Institute of Technology to establish the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience.
Chen and his wife Chrissy gave $115million to the California Institute of Technology to establish the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience (pictured)
Now based in the Golden State, Chen has purchased several landmark US properties, according to Land Report, including the Vanderbilt Mansion on East 69th Street in Manhattan, which he and his wife paid $39million for in 2018.
Three years later the couple bought the Seeley Mudd Estate in the Los Angeles suburb of San Marino for $25million.
The 1934 American Colonial-style mansion had served as the official residence of presidents of the University of Southern California for more than four decades, but now provides the Chens with access to their neuroscience institute.
The entrepreneur is looking to offload a 32,995-acre block of his Oregon timberland, Bull Springs Skyline Forest, for $95million, according to a listing by Robb Van Pelt of Mason Morse Ranch Company.
The sum would more than recoup his entire expenditure for all 198,000 acres of his land in the state.
Located west of the mountain town of Bend, Bull Springs is recognized as a prime development and conservation project.
In addition to his US holdings, Chen also owns approximately 500,000 acres of timberland in Ontario, Canada.
His ownership of 700,000 acres of North American timberland is briefly referenced by the 2017 Bloomberg article.
As of 2024, Forbes has Chen’s net worth pegged at $1billion — down from its peak of $1.5billion a decade ago.