WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Moreno is demanding a nationwide safety overview of a Chinese language photo voltaic producer’s buy of a facility situated close to a US navy base in Dayton, Ohio, arguing the agency is a “shell firm” for Beijing’s efforts to “advance its navy and intelligence aims.”
In a Friday letter, Moreno (R-Ohio) expressed his “grave issues” to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and requested his division to analyze the transaction, which had been referred to him by the Dayton Growth Coalition June 22.
“It’s my understanding that SolarSpace intends to lease or buy a facility situated at 2555 Woodman Drive, Kettering, Ohio, which is roughly 13 miles from Wright-Patterson Air Drive Base,” Moreno mentioned.
“Wright-Patterson Air Drive Base is a vital navy set up with a workforce of roughly 38,000 staff … The bottom is just not solely one of many Division of Conflict’s most strategically important installations, but in addition a cornerstone of U.S. air and area superiority, serving as a central hub for aerospace analysis, engineering, and intelligence, together with the Air Drive Analysis Laboratory,” he added.
“But, considered one of our biggest foes is trying to maneuver in practically subsequent door.”
Moreno additionally urged Bessent: “We can’t enable potential shell corporations for the Chinese language Communist Celebration [CCP] to purchase land or services close to our most delicate navy and demanding infrastructure websites, together with Wright-Patterson Air Drive Base.”
SolarSpace Expertise Co., Ltd., whose reps didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, is headquartered in Xuzhou, China, and makes photo voltaic cells and modules.
Beijing has been quietly shopping for up US farmland and different services close to navy bases and different installations in recent times, alarming American officers and nationwide safety consultants.
In 2024, The Put up recognized at the least 19 bases from Florida to Hawaii that stood close to land bought by Chinese language entities — together with Wright-Patterson Air Drive Base, in addition to Fort Liberty (previously Fort Bragg) in Fayetteville, NC; Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, Calif., and MacDill Air Drive Base in Tampa, Fla., amongst others.
“It’s regarding as a result of proximity to strategic areas,” Robert S. Spalding III, a retired United States Air Drive brigadier common whose work focuses on US-China relations, mentioned on the time.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) final yr launched laws to dam such purchases, saying that the CCP’s “efforts to infiltrate and surveil all elements of the US nationwide safety equipment requires vigilance from our nationwide safety businesses.”
The invoice, which has but to be voted out of the committee, is meant to mandate enhanced nationwide safety evaluations of all international actual property transactions via the Committee on Overseas Funding in america (CFIUS) — which Bessent chairs.
The measure additionally forces businesses whose leaders make up CFIUS — together with the Pentagon, State Division, Division of Justice and Division of Homeland Safety — to replace knowledge yearly so navy services might be newly designated as delicate websites. The invoice would additionally require annual stories to Congress about actual property lists concerned in such transactions.
In July 2025, President Trump’s US Division of Agriculture additionally launched an effort alongside different businesses to ban the acquisition of US farmland by Chinese language nationals.
Reps for the Treasury didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
