A Chinese company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party was forced to sell land it owned near two military installations in Utah.
The Epoch Times reports Mitime Utah Investment LLC received a letter from the state last November ordering it divest the property, a 511-acre motorsports and events venue in Grantsville. The property, which operates as Burt Brothers Motorpark, was acquired in November 2018 by Mitime, a subsidiary of China’s Geely Holding Group.
The motorpark is located about eight miles by road from the Tooele Army Depot and approximately 69 miles by road from the Utah Test and Training Range.
Utah law, first enacted as House Bill 186 in 2023 and updated with House Bill 516 in 2024, prohibits the purchase and ownership of land in the state by entities that are at least 51% owned or controlled by the governments of China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia.
At a press conference on Thursday, Gov. Spencer Cox announced the property’s transfer and declared, “This is a huge win for Utah. It’s a big win for the United States. It’s a win for our service members, and it’s a win for national security. This is the first forced divestiture where we sent a letter.”
Cox added, “Utah is not naive to the world around us and what is happening. We recognize that there are certainly threats out there. We have adversaries who are targeting our country and certainly targeting the state of Utah as well. We are also home to critical military and intelligence infrastructure that matters to our national security—that protects this nation and protects our allies as well. And that means what happens in Utah matters far beyond the borders of our state and even beyond the borders of our country.”
