By Juan Salinas II | Nebraska Examiner
Pillen, Kelly tout plan’s ability to prepare state, ag for Chinese threat, others
LINCOLN — Nebraska officials explored the statewide implications if the U.S. gets involved in a major war or “armed conflict” as part of a new state report issued this month on external threats.
Gov. Jim Pillen briefed the press Monday on the new legislatively required annual threat assessment. He was joined by Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly, and Adj. Gen. Craig Strong at the Nebraska National Guard Air Base.
The report comes after four meetings last year of the 11-member, legislatively created Committee on Pacific Conflict, required by a 2024 law from State Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln. The group met to discuss the state’s vulnerabilities in agriculture, infrastructure, telecommunications and cybersecurity with experts. It includes four lawmakers, the lieutenant governor and the adjutant general.
Kelly, a former prosecutor, said this year’s report focused on agricultural security. The report focuses on who owns farmland in the state and how it’s being used — especially land near military installations. Kelly said the committee will look into how the state should respond to “any threats by bad actors here in Nebraska when it relates to our farm security and our economy and our citizens.”
“We know that here in Nebraska, our defense starts with the 44 million acres of land that are in ag production,” Kelly said.
Strong praised another 2024 law, authored by state Sen. Barry DeKay of Niobrara, which updated an 1889 state law prohibiting certain entities from purchasing Nebraska ag land, primarily people and corporations with ties to countries that the U.S. Commerce Department deems foreign adversaries.
Bostar and U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., a former speaker of the Legislature, had highlighted the need to prevent foreign adversaries from buying land near military installations.
Nebraska is home to key U.S. military infrastructure, including Strategic Air Command near Omaha and to 80 intercontinental ballistic missile launch facilities and nine alert facilities, all serving national security.
Much of the press conference Monday discussed China and the national and state security threat of being too reliant on Beijing. Nebraska has passed its own laws focused on foreign adversaries that have partly focused on the country.
Pillen said the U.S. has “been duped that we can buy happiness by buying cheap crap from China” and that the “greatest form” of security for the state is buying from “Main Street Nebraska” instead.
Last year, the state committee described China as a threat to Nebraska. Then, as now, Pillen and legislative leaders have expressed concerns about Chinese ownership of American ag land. Pillen has issued executive orders restricting state agency use of Chinese technology.
Kelly highlighted one order from 2023, calling Nebraska is an “adversary-free zone” because of Pillen banning the use or download of “applications, software, and platforms created or owned by affiliates of the Chinese Communist Party on state networks and devices.”
The governor said it’s “extraordinarily important that we really recognize we have severe foreign adversaries.”
“China wants to take us out. Iran wants to take us out. North Korea wants to take us out. Venezuela wants to take us out,” Pillen said.
Asked by reporters about the U.S. capturing of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Pillen said he is “incredibly proud of what the president’s done in going to Venezuela and getting a radical terrorist out of our hair.”
The governor also said, “Nebraskans don’t need to worry about selling soybeans to China, because of the state’s “value added agriculture.” Nebraskans can raise and process 300 million bushels of soybeans, despite no “Nebraska soybeans going on barges to China.” Nebraska farmers are bracing for another tough year, plagued by low corn and soybean prices, which many ag experts blame partly on President Donald Trump’s trade war with China and other international ag customers.
“We have to roll up our sleeves and not be duped anymore,” Pillen said. “So if anybody’s buying anything from China, stop it today … That’s important to get it across to all Nebraskans. Stop it today. We have to win this.”