Democratic Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina faces the biggest fight of his political life in November when he faces Republican former Colonel Laurie Buckhout in what is expected to be a close race.
And as the race gains attention, so too have reports about the first-time congressman's longstanding ties to China's Communist Party.
Davis's activities involving America's enemies date back to his time as a state senator and have been a topic of local media coverage.
In 2013, Li Keqiang, a Democrat, took an all-expenses-paid nine-day trip to China, funded by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, an organ of the Chinese Communist Party.
According to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, the group seeks out foreigners friendly to China to engage in “private diplomacy” and form “alliances of convenience with other political parties, social groups and individuals” with the aim of “strengthening the Leninist Party's overall position and sowing division among its opponents.”
The trip east wasn't Davis' only interaction with Chinese Communist Party members: Just a year later, he spoke to exchange students at Wuhan University about the government's role in health care.
“It was wonderful to have the opportunity to be a part of this exchange,” Davis said at the time. “It's always fun to hear from different perspectives.”
China's attempts to exert influence in North Carolina extend beyond the Legislature. The state has one of the largest concentrations of Chinese-owned farmland in the country. While several states have banned the sale of farmland to those with ties to hostile countries, including China, North Carolina is not one of them.
In Davis' district alone, Chinese-owned companies own 6,500 acres of farmland, but the vice chairman of the House Agriculture Committee who represents the area has remained silent on the issue.
Other lawmakers have raised alarm about Chinese purchases of U.S. land, especially land near U.S. military facilities. Foreign-owned farmland in North Carolina is located very close to the Coast Guard base in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and the Naval Station in Norfolk, neighboring Virginia.
Former Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who served as chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party until his retirement this year, predicted China's next target in April, declaring, “From the Party's purchases of farmland ties to the Party's influence in state and local politics, states are on the front lines of a new cold war with the Chinese Communist Party.”
