Gov. Ron DeSantis raised concern over the Chinese Communist Party’s growing influence in Florida amid scrutiny of a Chinese firm’s purchase of 1,400 acres of land in the state in the hopes of building a primate breeding facility.
JOINN Laboratories CA Inc. purchased the land in Levy County, Florida, for about $5.5 million in July, state records show. Reports indicate the company plans to build a primate breeding and quarantine facility on the land.
Located in San Francisco, the lab is a subsidiary of drug developer JOINN Laboratories, a Beijing-based company whose founders have ties to the Chinese military. The lab’s purchase of the 10 parcels of land from L & T Cattle & Timber represents one of the biggest known Chinese acquisitions of U.S. land in recent years….