Vulnerable North Carolina Democratic rep has long ties to China: 'Good hearing from a different perspective'

North Carolina Democrat Rep. Don Davis is facing the fight of his political life, squaring off this November with retired colonel Republican Laurie Buckhout in a race ranked as a toss up. As the contest enters the spotlight, so do reports of the first-term congressman's longstanding ties to the Chinese Communist Party. In 2013, the Democrat took a nine-day, all-expenses-paid trip to China, funded by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, an arm of the CCP. The group seeks out foreigners friendly to China to engage in "People-to-people diplomacy" and shape "Alliances of convenience with other political parties, social groups, and individuals" to "Strengthen the overall position of the Leninist Party and sow division among its enemies," per the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonpartisan DC think tank. Just a year later, Davis spoke to Wuhan University exchange students about the role governments play in health care. North Carolina is home to one of the country's largest concentrations of Chinese-owned farmland. While several states have banned the sale of farmland to those with ties to adversarial nations including China, North Carolina is not one of them. Former Rep. Mike Gallagher, who chaired the House Select Committee on the CCP before retiring this year, predicted China's next target in April, declaring, "From Chinese Communist Party-affiliated purchases of agricultural land to efforts by the party to influence state and local politics, states are on the front lines of our New Cold War with the Chinese Communist Party."