Macron promised to take measures on Chinese businessmen buying land in France

Beijing. February 26. Silkroadnews - President Emmanuelle Macron has promised to take measures on Chinese businessmen buying land in France, People’s Daily reports.
President Emmanuel Macron promised to take measures to prevent Chinese investors buying French lands after Chinese businessmen managed to take advantage of French rural communities’ situation.
“For me, French agricultural lands are strategic investments on which our sovereignty depends, so we can’t allow hundreds of hectares of land to be bought by foreign powers without us knowing the aims of these purchases,” Macron said.
Reportedly, the French president was referring to last year’s news that the Chinese fund had bought 900 hectares in the cereal-growing Allier region in central France 1,700 hectares in the Indre area in 2016.
Zhao Yongsheng, professor of economics at the University of International Business and Economics of China, said French authorities will not undertake significant measures against Chinese land buyers, noting that Macron’s remarks are simply just out of “political correctness”.
“There is no obvious trend of Chinese investors buying land in France. From what I know, those who bought land in north Normandy are not real estate speculators, but investors in dairy farming. Japanese and Russian investors are also great buyers of French land, who are as well boycotted by the French public. The truth is, the lands for sale are either too expensive for French buyers or disliked by them. Selling such lands would promote French economy, especially benefit the tax department,” the agency quoted him saying.
The Chinese authorities also responded to Macron’s claims, noting that Chinese enterprises are required to comply with laws when expanding markets abroad.
“We also hope that the relevant party could provide an enabling environment and a level playing field for Chinese enterprises’ investments and operations there and contribute to the sound development of bilateral economic cooperation and trade,” Geng Shuang, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, said.