The efforts to eliminate the GNC from Chinese property of the US military bases won impulse this week when Senator Ted Budd, RN.C., introduced Legilation Companion Legion to a bill directed by the house addressed to the nutrition retailer.
Currently, some 85 GNC stores operate in US military facilities.
Representative Pat Harrigan, RN.C., presented for the first time a bill to prohibit the company from doing business in US bases, citing national security and espionage conerns.
Now, the North Carolina Republican is leading a similar effort in the Senate, denouncing stores as centers to “exploit personal data.”
Budd, together with the sens. Tom Cotton, R-Oark., And Rick Scott, R-Fla., Introduced the Retail Military Installation Security Law, which would prohibit the Department of Defense from allowing companies owned by adverse nations to China, Russia, Iran and North.
In Fort Bragg of North Carolina, four CNG stores serve approximately 53,700 troops, almost 10% of the US Army.
“Adverse nations do not have owners and operational business in US military bases, while gaining personal identification information from US citizens, only for earnings,” Budd said in a statement.
“We should be allowing Chinese affiliated companies in the United States, much less in our military bases.
This bill will guarantee that our adversaries cannot exploit our military, “Cotton added.
While much of the Congress has focused on preventing the acquisitions of Chinese lands near US military facilities, Harrigan said he was alarmed to discover that a Chinese property company was already operating largely unnoticed.
“It’s simply crazier [than foreign land purchases]”Harrigan told Fox News Digital last week.
In June 2020, the Vitamins Retaist GNC declared bankruptcy and was fully acquired by Harbin Pharmaceuticals, a state -owned Chinese partial property company that had already bought a 40% participation in the company in 2018.
In 2019, GNC agreed to integrate its manufacture with International Vitamin Corporation (IVC), which has a consortium of Chinese investors.
The company, founded on Pittsburgh, had already been operating in the US bases for years at the time of sale, and therefore ignored its potential to help with Chinese surveillance in the military bases.
Approximately 85 CNG stores in military facilities operate under “long -term concessions” contracts, which means that they are operated, served and supplied directly by CNG.
“I am slippery to have Sen. Budd Step in the help of promoting this and making sure that CCP companies have a zero place within the United States military infrastructure,” Harrigan said on the new Senate bill.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a CNG spokesman retreated the legislation, saying: “Our systems are independently monitored and comply with strict federal standards, separating into multiple audits during the year.”
“We love our military clients. Your well -being, whether your personal health or safety of your information will always be the first. We are honored to be part of your communities and we will continue to safeguard that you are saved on your hunt.”
Harrigan said stores could identify people with vulnerabilities by tracking frequent purchases of testosterone, sleeping aid or any other supplement.
It could also be potentially monitoring the implementation cycles based on changes in purchase patterns, he added.
The monitoring of mobile data in the store and mobile data could perform troops geolocations, said Harrigan, and loyalty applications or promotional emails could be used to embed malicious links or software.
“This should be common sense,” Scott said. “Allowing companies controlled by our greatest foreign adversaries, such as the Chinese communist, Russia and North Korea, operating in US military bases is a completely unacceptable threat.”
