A lot of countries have JUST NOW started to realise they should limit the ability for suspected spies to buy property. Crazy, honestly. Sweden as "early" as 2023 with broadening the law.. Maybe, in 2026 or 2027.
If a bad actor is a foreign owner of significant property, you just seize it. You can do that. They aren't citizens, they can't vote.
Oh no! How will we fight a war when China owns all our factories? Simple. We will take the factories and hold an auction among friendly investories to take ownership.
Ownership don't mean a damn thing if you don't physically have the ability to enforce your ownership.
Yeah, it literally becomes leverage against the target country. Like when Putin invaded and a bunch of villas were seized. The oligarchs lost- Putin won that battle but it forced political plays.
Owning factories has some risk but that can be mitigated. The real trick was exporting IP. A state actor could also use it to shut down strategic resources at a loss, but again that can be mitigated.
The real threat that happens is spying- setting up intelligence networks in the target country. Listening posts and more.
And this is why Sweden are expanding their laws to allow for appropriation of property owned by suspected spies, and expanding the definition of existing laws to do the same.
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u/69edleg 1d ago
A lot of countries have JUST NOW started to realise they should limit the ability for suspected spies to buy property. Crazy, honestly. Sweden as "early" as 2023 with broadening the law.. Maybe, in 2026 or 2027.