While much of Congress focuses on banning China from buying land near U.S. military bases, freshman Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., says the Chinese Communist Party already has a direct presence on those installations – through national nutrition chain GNC.
A bill released by Harrigan this week, the Military Installation Retail Security Act of 2025, would ban any companies of Chinese, North Korean, Iranian or Russian ownership from operating on military bases.
“This is actually a situation where the CCP is operating on our military bases. It’s even crazier [than foreign land purchases],” Harrigan told Fox News Digital.
In June 2020, vitamin retailer GNC filed for bankruptcy and was wholly acquired by Harbin Pharmaceuticals, a partially state-owned enterprise in China. Harbin had previously acquired a 40% stake in GNC in 2018.
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