SC Senate OKs bill barring ‘foreign adversary’ land holdings

By JAMES POLLARD
Associated Press/Report for America

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s Republican-controlled Senate is moving to bar citizens of a “foreign adversary” from buying property in the state in an anti-espionage measure that critics fear will chill overseas investments over outsize concerns. The bill in question was approved Thursday by a 31-5 vote. It would apply to citizens of so-called adversary nations on a U.S. Department of Commerce list that currently includes China, Russia, Cuba, Iran and North Korea. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey says those countries “have specifically given us reason to have more scrutiny and to be a little bit more concerned.” Democratic Sen. Dick Harpootlian questions the premise that a Chinese-owned company’s purchase of land equates to “establishing a nest of spies.”