Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has unveiled a sweeping proposal to block U.S. land ownership by foreign adversaries, following her veto of a Republican-backed bill that targeted land purchases by entities linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Hobbs, a Democrat, vetoed Senate Bill 1109, which would have sharply restricted Chinese ownership of land in Arizona, on June 2. In her veto message, she criticized the bill as being too narrow in scope and failing to provide clear criteria for implementation.
Her new proposal, formally titled the Blocking Adversarial Nations Act, was announced on June 9. The legislation expands restrictions beyond China to include all nations designated as foreign adversaries, such as Russia, North Korea, and Iran, while also authorizing the state to call in the FBI to investigate land purchases suspected to involve espionage….