Chavez-DeRemer urges Biden administration to review former Chinese Communist’s Oregon timberland, Skyline Forest purchase

(Update: Adding video, comments from Rep. Chavez-DeRemer, group who owns land, C.O. LandWatch)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- After new reporting uncovered that a Chinese billionaire previously associated with the Chinese Communist Party owns 198,000 acres of Oregon timberland -- including the vast Bull Springs Skyline Forest west of Bend -- Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (OR-05) is urging the Treasury Department to review the $85 million deal, completed in 2015.

DeRemer noted that according to a 2021 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, China owns approximately 384,000 acres of agricultural land in the U.S. – a number that jumped by 30 percent from 2019 to 2020. With 198,000 acres of forestland owned by a member of the CCP, Oregon is home to nearly half of all U.S. land owned by China. 

The purchase accounts for nearly half of all Chinese-owned farmland in the United States, according to data published in a 2021 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Chen Tianqiao, 50, is a Chinese nationalist who made his fortune from online gaming, according to the Bloomberg report.

Tianqiao is the founder, chairman and CEO of global investment firm Shanda Group, and owns around 33,000 acres of the Bull Springs Skyline Forest, just west of Bend in Chavez-DeRemer's 5th District. 

During an interview Thursday with NewsChannel 21, the congresswoman said, "If that was in 2015, with the last nine years, and we know what the Chinese Communist Party has been able and capable of doing, I want to ask that question again. I want another review process done."

At 33,000 acres, the Skyline Forest encompasses more land than its immediate neighbor to the east, the city of Bend.

"This land, or a portion of it, is in my district," Chavez-DeRemer said. "So I thought it was incumbent upon me to ask the questions."

In a letter Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who serves as chairwoman of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, Chavez-DeRemer raised concerns that the Oregon timberland transaction was approved despite the potential threat to U.S. national security interests.

In the letter to Yellen, Chavez-DeRemer outlined recent examples of similar transactions, including CCP farmland purchases in North Dakota and Kansas that were near military bases and installations. She asked CFIUS to commit to opening a new review process, warning that the Oregon transaction seems to be “another instance of an overlooked foreign adversarial purchase of American agricultural land.”

“Our adversaries are taking advantage of current loopholes in CFIUS’ jurisdiction to increase their ownership of U.S. agricultural land, strengthen their agricultural production, and weaken America’s agricultural supply chains,” Chavez-DeRemer wrote. “Foreign ownership of U.S. land has rightfully sparked unease among farmers, ranchers and foresters across the country, especially considering other current issues such as the high prices of land and lack of access to a domestic agricultural labor pool.”

Shanda Group, the investment firm which now owns the nearly 200,000 acres in farmland, confirmed the purchase went through when Tianqioa was a Chinese Communist Party member, but added that he left the party in 2017 when he moved to Menlo Park, California, or Silicon Valley.

After years of behind-the-scenes discussions by various parties hoping to find a means to protect the property, the land-use watchdog group Central Oregon LandWatch started a campaign, Save Skyline Forest, in recent years, a community effort to chart a path that would protect the very large parcel from future development.

Asked about the Bloomberg report and Chavez-DeRemer's remarks and possible action, LandWatch Executive Director Ben Gordon provided this statement Tuesday to NewsChannel 21:

"Ownership of Skyline Forest has changed hands multiple times over the past four decades. In 2015, all 33,000 acres were acquired by the international investment group Whitefish Cascade Forest Resources LLC., which has since become known as Shanda Asset Management LLC. As we understand it, Shanda Asset Management is a Chinese-owned, Singapore-based company. They own Skyline Forest and currently have the property listed for sale.

"Private ownership of this property has always meant and continues to mean the future of Skyline Forest is very uncertain. There is overwhelming support for local stewardship of this area that sustains public access and improves wildfire safety. That’s why the community-driven Save Skyline Forest campaign has such strong, local grassroots momentum - the effort aims to prevent large-scale, luxury development and put conservation at the heart of Skyline Forest’s future," Gordon said.

Chavez-DeRemer told us, "We know in Oregon, we're one of the seed capitals in the world. And so when somebody is wanting to purchase land, whether it be agricultural land, whether it be development land, we have to make sure our intellectual property, maybe our trade secrets -- anything can be captured if we're not doing our due diligence."

In a statement to NewsChannel 21, Shanda Group Communications Director Jason Reindrop told us they chose to purchase land in Oregon because of its "stability."

In addition, he said they voluntarily asked the Commission on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to review the purchase. At the time, he said, the commission deemed there were no national security concerns.

Chavez-DeRemer said, "I will make sure to put the pressure on this administration to give us an answer."

“This is a systemic issue that transcends Republican and Democratic Administrations,“ she said. “It is far past time for those who do not consider foreign adversarial land purchasing a threat to U.S. national security to take this issue seriously. We must continue the conversation toward reforms to CFIUS, the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act, which has not been comprehensively reformed since 1978, and other federal safeguards and provisions that will help advance the agricultural sector as a whole into our national security perspective and apparatus.”

The full text of the letter is available HERE.

Chavez-DeRemer first raised concerns late last week after the Bloomberg report uncovered that the second-largest foreign owner of U.S. land owns 198,000 acres of Oregon forestland -- including a huge chunk of Bend's backyard that a group has spent years trying to protect from development.

“Foreign ownership of United States land by our adversaries is a serious problem that has rightfully sparked unease among farmers, ranchers, and foresters across the country," she said. "I’m deeply concerned that a member of the Chinese Communist Party owns tens of thousands of forestland acres – one of our most precious and finite resources – in my district.” 

(Chavez-DeRemer's second news release on Thursday instead referred to Tianqiao as a former CCP member. Aaron Britt, her communications director, explained to NewsChannel 21: "We received information that he allegedly resigned his position in 2017; however, he was still a member when the purchase was made in 2015, which is why we decided to move forward with raising these questions.")

“I’m proud to be an original cosponsor of the Stop CCP Land Act and the Protecting America’s Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act – two proposals that seek to prevent adversaries of the United States from purchasing our valuable land," the congresswoman said.

"With conflict and uncertainty on the rise around the world, including increasingly aggressive rhetoric and actions from China, we cannot hesitate to stand up to bad actors. I’ll be taking further action in the coming weeks to ensure our land and national security are protected,” Chavez-DeRemer added.

The vast Skyline Forest west of Bend has been up for sale for close to five years, initially at a daunting $127 million, reduced in 2022 by 25% to "just" $95 million. It's a privately held tree farm that makes up much of Bend's mountain-capped view, and is one of the largest contiguous properties in the Northwest.

Chavez-DeRemer is an original cosponsor of the bipartisan Protecting America’s Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act, which would prohibit the purchase or lease of U.S. agricultural land by individuals associated with the governments of China and other foreign adversaries.

She is also an original cosponsor of the Stop CCP Land Act, which incentivizes states to prohibit countries such as China and Russia from purchasing American agricultural land. Additionally, Chavez-DeRemer is a cosponsor of the bipartisan Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security Act.