Jeff Zymeri writes for National Review Online about Republican governors’ response to Chinese land acquisitions.

Republican governors including Kristi Noem of South Dakota are coming out strong against the Chinese Communist Party and its attempts to buy land in the United States. Appearing on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, the governor explained that she is being proactive in preventing the Chinese government from buying up valuable farmland in strategically important South Dakota locations.

According to Noem, after the Chinese spy balloon debacle and the White House’s inaction, South Dakota has had to be very aggressive. “They’re purchasing our land so they can have a foothold right here in the center of the United States of America to conduct surveillance on our defense systems. It’s alarming,” she said. “And it’s very strange for South Dakota to have to be this aggressive, but when you have a lack of leadership in the White House, we have to do what we can do to protect our people.”

Noem pointed to the Grand Forks Air Force base and the unsuccessful recent attempt of a Chinese company to buy land near that base. The Air Force said its proximity would have posed a national security risk.

The South Dakota governor explained that she has been following the issue of Chinese investment since she was in Congress. “I recognized and saw them buying up our fertilizer companies, our chemical companies, buying our processing systems. They’re buying our food supply so they can control us,” Noem said, broadening out to say that China is also manipulating its currency and stealing America’s intellectual property.

For Noem, this is part of a larger strategy for China to assert itself as a global superpower at America’s expense. “The goal is to control us and to destroy us. China recognizes that the only way that they can have world dominance is to take out the United States of America,” she explained.