A retired Green Beret now in Congress wants to ban a chain of supplement and nutrition supply stores from military bases because of ties to Chinese owners.
With a bill titled the “Military Installation Retail Security Act,” Rep. Pat Harrigan, a Republican from North Carolina, would ban companies from operating on military bases if they were owned or financially controlled by entities in based in China, Russia, North Korea, or Iran.
GNC, a nationwide retail chain that sells protein powders and other nutritional supplements, has 75 outlets on U.S. military bases, most near or within Base Exchanges or other central shopping facilities.
The chain began as a family-owned store in Pittsburgh in 1935 and now has more than 2,300 stores in the U.S, and 1,300 others in 50 countries. A GNC spokesperson told Task & Purpose that the company operated stores on military bases as a U.S.-owned company for more than two decades before it was purchased out of bankruptcy in 2020 by Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Co, a Chinese firm.
GNC is one of the most popular stores across the U.S. for gym-goers and health fanatics to buy protein powders, nutritional and dietary supplements. In a post on X, Harrigan alleged that the Chinese government could be “potentially collecting personal data from our troops, including elite units like our Green Berets and Navy SEALs.”
Harrigan’s bill follows growing concerns over Chinese-owned businesses near military bases, like a bitcoin farm near a nuclear site and an agribusiness facility near Grand Forks Air Force Base.
“We owe it to our servicemen and women to protect them from the moment they step onto base. That means locking down their data, cutting off foreign influence, and shutting the door on adversaries who never should’ve been allowed on our military bases to begin with,” Harrigan wrote on X.
An official with GNC disputed Harrigan’s contention that the stores could provide information to Chinese intelligence services.
“We are run by a U.S.-based leadership team and are governed by strict U.S. security protocols. Customer data is protected by third-party controls approved by the Department of Defense, and no data is shared with or accessible to our parent company,” Nick Sero, a spokesperson for GNC said in an email to Task & Purpose. “We remain committed to protecting our customers, following our compliance, and meeting the trust placed in us by the U.S. military community.”
In 2018, the Committee on Foreign Investment looked into the potential GNC acquisition and found no national security concerns.
“In the event of a directive to close these stores due to national security concerns, AAFES would exercise a 180-day notice provision to close each individual location,” Chris Ward, a spokesperson for AAFES told Task & Purpose in a statement.
Supplements are popular in the military
An Army Public Health Center study found that active-duty troops were more likely to use dietary supplements than civilians. The broad use of supplements across the force led to the 2022 Department of Defense policy on use of dietary supplements which requires that all service members receive training on dietary supplements and education on banned products. In 2024, the House jumped on the fitness supplement bandwagon and asked the military to consider adding a muscle-building supplement called creatine to the prepackaged Meal, Ready to Eat, or MREs.
GNC has long-term contracts with on-base exchanges like AAFES, NEXCOM, and MCX which Harrigan’s office says are exempt from federal contracting standards that require disclosures of foreign ownership. The bill would also require more reviews of on-base retailers with foreign ties.
In June 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department announced a proposed update to expand the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States’ jurisdiction over foreign real estate purchases. In January, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced the Protecting Military Installations and Ranges Act to expand CFIUS jurisdiction over investments with links to China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea, that are within 100 miles of a base or 50 miles of a military training route, special use airspace, controlled firing area, or operations area.
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