Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) vetoed a bill on Tuesday that would have prohibited the Chinese government from owning real estate in Arizona.
Arizona Senate Bill 1109 stipulated that the “People’s Republic of China may not purchase, own, acquire by grant or devise or have a substantial interest in real property in this state.” The law was to be enforced by Arizona’s attorney general if he or she suspected a real estate transaction which violated the law.
“This act is necessary to protect this state from global security threats and halt or reverse the influence operation of the Chinese Communist Party that poses a risk to the national security of the United States,” read the bill. “This act is necessary to protect the critical infrastructure of this state.”
Defenders of the bill say it was necessary legislation to prevent PRC officials from purchasing land near military bases for espionage purposes. Hobbs said she vetoed the bill because it failed to prevent such transactions and could be used under false pretenses and “arbitrary enforcement” in the future. The governor found SB1109 to not “directly protect our military assets” and was ultimately “ineffective at counter-espionage and does not directly protect our military assets.”
“It lacks clear implementation criteria and opens the door to arbitrary enforcement,” Hobbs said.
Arizona state Senate Majority Leader Janae Shamp (R) was one of the bill’s cosponsors. She claimed Hobbs’s veto was politically motivated and created an unnecessary security risk.
“SB1109 was a commonsense measure to ensure enemies of the United States would not have easy access to our military bases and critical infrastructure to carry out harm,” Shamp said.
Shamp was not alone in her criticism. Hobbs’s veto drew the ire from conservatives and national security organizations, including Michael Lucci, the founder of State Armor Action.
“Governor Hobbs’s veto of SB 1109 hangs an ‘Open for the CCP’ sign on Arizona’s front door, allowing Communist China to buy up American land near critical assets like Luke Air Force Base, Palo Verde nuclear power plant, and Taiwan Semiconductor’s growing fabrication footprint,” Lucci said in a comment to Fox News.
“Allowing Communist China to buy up land near our critical assets is a national security risk, plain and simple, and Gov. Hobbs is substantively and completely wrong when she says that SB 1109 ‘is ineffective at counter-espionage and does not directly protect our military assets,’” he said.