Read Senator Johnson's Editorial on Critical Need to Protect Ohio Farms and Military Installations

COLUMBUS—The Columbus Dispatch recently printed an editorial by Senator Terry Johnson (R-McDermott) about the importance of protecting Ohio's farmland and property near military installations from being purchased by foreign adversaries.

You can read the column below or click here to read from the Dispatch website. Originally Published in the Columbus Dispatch September 12, 2023:

The Peoples Republic of China (PRC)—that’s Communist China for those of us who lived through the Cold War - is not our friend. Yes, virtually everyone can agree that that’s a massive understatement. In fact, they don’t mean to just outcompete America on every front, or even to dominate the world economy. Their true intent is to rule the world. China is on the march, just as were Nazi Germany, Italy, Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union before WWII. That era had Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo and Stalin, but we have today a singular “strongman” with similar intent: Xi Jinping. Every facet of the PRC’s governing apparatus answers to him, including the “all-seeing, all-knowing” Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). All that stands between Xi and his goals is one nation. The United States of America.
 
World leaders and just as importantly the general population were asleep on their watch in the 1930s as evil people prepared to set the world afire. Somehow, despite mountains of evidence building around us, we seem to be under a similar spell right now. By all objective measures, it is undeniable that China is already at war with us. We just don’t seem to be able to admit it. The PRC has been hammering us for decades with what they consider Unrestricted Warfare. Under this military rubric, they have won battle after battle. They are obliterating us on every front and have not fired a single shot - yet.
 
Overreaction? Be careful who you listen to on this matter, because while we have gone about our everyday American lives the people we trusted to look after our well-being sold us out. That includes our politicians, government agencies, big corporations, academia and the media. We thought we won the Cold War. Turns out that all we really did was put it on pause and gave Communist China the chance to rear its mighty head. The Cold War continues because it never really stopped and the PRC means to do to us what we did to the Soviet Iron Curtain. How? They are using every part of America’s economy, government, and culture against us. I urge you to read the book “Unrestricted Warfare” written by two PLA colonels in 1999. It’s spelled out there for all to see. It is the very playbook by which they are operating.
 
So, it was in the dark shadow of this barely veiled threat to our national existence that I proposed a modest first step for Ohio to begin to push back. I placed in our most recent budget a simple, straight forward amendment that would merely make it illegal for any foreign adversary of the United States, which definitely includes the PRC, to buy up our farmland and thereby threaten our food security. It also prevented our adversaries from buying any real property within 25 miles of our military bases or sensitive installations. Who could argue with that? My language was in the Senate version of the budget. It was a done deal and set to become law until our governor vetoed the language involving military facilities citing "possible unintended economic consequences." Really?
 
China is indeed on the march. We, as were our forebears in the 1930s, are napping during our watch on our walls. When the Cold War finally turns hot, China has no interest in losing the upcoming war. They will strike hard and fast. They will not hesitate to bring destruction directly to our homeland, killing our families and friends - possibly on a mass basis. So, is it really too much that I intended to keep them out ofour cornfields and away from places like Wright Patterson Air Force Base?
 
The veto happened. That’s reality. Here’s another reality:  My office is crafting the amendment into a freestanding bill. The legislature has a voice. It will not be silenced.
 
God bless.
 
Terry Johnson
Ohio State Senator, 14th District