Typically the mantra grows exhausting, and the conclusion that flows from it seems to battle with different targets.
Nonetheless, this one appears fairly lower and dried.
In a 45-second clip posted Sunday to the social media platform X, Republican Rep. Pat Harrigan of North Carolina, who final week launched laws designed to tighten safety on army installations, took viewers on a short-and-spliced video tour of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the place he recognized 4 retail shops owned by the Chinese Communist Party.
The retail shops in query belong to an organization with which readers might need some familiarity — GNC, which sells nutritional vitamins, protein, dietary supplements, and different health-related merchandise geared towards fitness-conscious clients. The corporate has greater than 4,000 retail areas domestically and greater than 2,000 overseas.
Based on the army news-focused web site Task & Purpose, GNC began as a family-owned retailer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, throughout the Nice Melancholy. An organization spokesperson instructed the outlet that the Chinese language agency Harbin Pharmaceutical Group bought GNC out of chapter in 2020.
In fact, in a common sense, the connection between Chinese language companies and the Chinese language Communist authorities appears moderately opaque. On one hand, China’s private sector has grown in current a long time. However, state-owned and mixed-ownership companies in China accounted for 67 percent of market capitalization in that nation, which the Communist Get together has dominated with an iron fist since 1949.
Furthermore, U.S. elected officers have already examined the connection between China and GNC and have discovered trigger for alarm.
In 2020, as an illustration, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, now Secretary of State underneath President Donald Trump, requested for a safety overview of Harbin whereas its buy of GNC remained pending, per The Wall Street Journal. Rubio feared that the acquisition might compromise People’ private information.
“The acquisition of a significant well being and diet chain with over 5,200 retail shops in the US and an expansive buyer base presents the chance for state-directed actors to buy this data legally,” Rubio stated on the time.
Thus, Harrigan’s invoice and video undoubtedly struck many nationwide security-conscious officers as merchandise of a official trigger for concern.
On April 1, Harrigan launched H.R. 2551, the Army Set up Retail Safety Act of 2025.
Then, in Sunday’s video, he confirmed viewers the areas of 4 GNC shops at Fort Bragg.
“If I’ve something to say about this, and I do, they’re not gonna be right here for lengthy,” Harrigan stated.
The congressman amplified that promise in a corresponding submit.
“The Chinese language Communist Get together has no enterprise anyplace close to our warfighters!” Harrigan wrote.
I went to Fort Bragg, the guts of our Particular Operations Forces, and located not one, not two, not three… however FOUR CCP-owned GNCs working on base.
The Chinese language Communist Get together has no enterprise anyplace close to our warfighters! pic.twitter.com/Q5ZEs3drMg
— Congressman Pat Harrigan (@RepPatHarrigan) April 6, 2025
As of Tuesday morning, the congressman’s video had greater than two million views on X.
In different phrases, the query of Chinese firms on U.S. army installations attracted nice curiosity. And that included consideration from considered one of Harrigan’s colleagues, Republican Rep. Ben Cline of Virginia.
“It is a MAJOR nationwide safety menace,” Cline wrote as a part of a lengthier submit.
It is a MAJOR nationwide safety menace: GNC, owned by the Chinese language state-run Harbin Prescribed drugs, operates 85 areas on U.S. army bases—together with 7 in Virginia. They’re attempting to cover their ties to China by failing to reveal possession on https://t.co/6xrcB6svkS. We… https://t.co/gtIr1EPdRH
— Congressman Ben Cline (@RepBenCline) April 7, 2025
In the meantime, GNC spokesman Nick Sero denied that any such menace existed.
“We’re run by a U.S.-based management workforce and are ruled by strict U.S. safety protocols. Buyer information is protected by third-party controls accepted by the Division of Protection, and no information is shared with or accessible to our mum or dad firm,” Sero instructed Job & Function.
So what ought to readers make of all this?
Nicely, in a common sense, the unending “nationwide safety” mantra has grown tiresome. Any paranoid or bloodthirsty rogue official can cause endless trouble all over the world just by crying “nationwide safety.” These rogues and their allies within the institution media and elsewhere have spent a long time priming People for precisely that.
Conversely, we have already got a official goal of inviting foreign investors whereas hoping to stave off overseas affect or infiltration. One welcomes the funding, however no severe Trump supporter likes the concept of rival or hostile foreigners buying American firms.
Thus, within the case of GNC and Fort Bragg, it could seem that we’ve got the worst of each worlds. A longtime American-owned firm, lately bought to China, strikes one as a logo of the globalist struggle on America’s working class. And its look at U.S. army installations looks like one thing that folks concerned about defending their borders would wish to keep away from.
This text appeared initially on The Western Journal.
