China

Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, as seen on Nov. 21, 2022.

China owns little US farmland, but many lawmakers are worried

BY: - March 14, 2023

WASHINGTON — Nearly a third of states have laws prohibiting certain foreign businesses and governments from buying agricultural lands within their borders, and more states are looking to join them. The efforts in at least 11 states are pitched primarily by Republicans as another security front in the nation’s ongoing propaganda battles, primarily with China and Russia. Many lawmakers […]

Sen. Lee Schoenbeck, R-Watertown, on the Senate floor during the 2023 legislative session at the Capitol in Pierre. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

Senate rejects Noem’s bill to vet ag-land purchases by foreigners

BY: - February 21, 2023

PIERRE – The state Senate rejected a bill Tuesday that Gov. Kristi Noem had proposed as a way to protect South Dakota’s agricultural land from purchases by hostile foreigners. The vote was 23-11, and it wasn’t the only legislative rebuke of the day for Noem. Earlier Tuesday, a House committee rejected her bill to repeal […]

Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testifies on the Department of Defense’s 2021 budget request during a hearing on Capitol Hill, March 4, 2020. (Lisa Ferdinando, DOD)

One missile fired at mystery flying object wound up in Lake Huron, officials say

BY: - February 14, 2023

WASHINGTON — The American public may know by week’s end the administration’s strategy on unidentified flying objects going forward, but some questions about three recent ones shot down by the U.S. military may not be answered for a long time, if ever. Debris from the three low-altitude objects downed by U.S. Air Force air-to-air missiles […]

Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon on Feb. 5, 2023, off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. U.S. fighter aircraft operating under U.S. Northern Command authority engaged and destroyed a high-altitude surveillance balloon over U.S. territorial waters at the order of President Joe Biden and with the full support of the Canadian government. (Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Tyler Thompson/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)

Midwestern, Western states in spotlight after mystery flying objects shot down by military

BY: and - February 13, 2023

WASHINGTON — Military posts in Midwestern and Western states played key roles in the unprecedented downings of multiple unmanned aerial objects over the North American continent this weekend. Members of Congress and governors from the states involved and from both parties have shared information about the downings on Twitter and in statements, in some cases […]

A Chinese balloon flies above Billings, Montana, on Feb. 1, 2023. (Photo by Chase Doak, Special to States Newsroom)

After China balloon scare, Air Force shoots down object flying above Alaska’s North Slope

BY: - February 10, 2023

Updated 4 p.m. Central, 2/10/2023 An F-22 fighter jet from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson shot down an unidentified object flying above Alaska’s North Slope on Friday, officials at the White House said. The shootdown, at 9:45 a.m. Alaska time, took place less than a week after an Air Force fighter jet shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the […]

Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon on Feb. 5, 2023, off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. U.S. fighter aircraft operating under U.S. Northern Command authority engaged and destroyed a high-altitude surveillance balloon over U.S. territorial waters at the order of President Joe Biden and with the full support of the Canadian government. (Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Tyler Thompson/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)

China balloon’s voyage across Alaska, Montana and U.S. enrages members of U.S. Senate panel

BY: - February 9, 2023

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of U.S. senators grilled Pentagon officials Thursday on why a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was permitted to fly over Alaska and across the lower 48 states before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina. The Senate Committee on Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, led by Montana Democrat Jon Tester, featured […]

A Chinese balloon flies above Billings, Montana, on Feb. 1, 2023. (Photo by Chase Doak, Special to States Newsroom)

Chinese surveillance balloon now drifting across the middle of the U.S., Pentagon confirms

BY: - February 3, 2023

UPDATED: 3:30 p.m. Central, 2/3/23 WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will postpone his planned trip to Beijing after the U.S. detected a Chinese surveillance balloon hovering over Montana. A senior State Department official said Friday that despite the Chinese government claiming the balloon had entered U.S. airspace accidentally, its presence was a […]

In this photo illustration, the TikTok app is displayed on an Apple iPhone on Aug. 7, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Photo Illustration by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Members of Congress sign up for TikTok, despite security concerns

BY: - January 19, 2023

WASHINGTON — Just like teens, members of Congress are setting up TikTok accounts — even as the popular app is increasingly barred from government devices and heads of federal intelligence agencies raise concerns about data collection and surveillance obtained by a Chinese-owned company.  At least 32 members of Congress — all Democrats and one independent […]

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, speaks during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing May 11, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis-Pool/Getty Images)

U.S. Senate votes to bar TikTok from government devices as state bans multiply

BY: - December 15, 2022

The U.S. Senate late Wednesday unanimously passed a bill to ban federal employees from downloading TikTok on their work phones. Critics of TikTok, a widely popular social media platform, say the app creates national security concerns because of its ability to track users’ data — and because the Chinese government can compel that data from […]