Bipartisan Bill Aims to Block Chinese Purchase of US Farmland

An aerial view from a drone shows a truck loaded with soybeans harvested from a field at the Bardole & Son's Ltd. farm in Rippey, Iowa, on Oct. 14, 2019. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A bipartisan proposal introduced in the U.S. House on May 17 aims to block Chinese Communist Party (CCP) affiliates from taking hold of U.S. farmland, adding to the growing bipartisan push in Congress to counter threats from the regime in Beijing.

The legislation from Reps. Dale Strong (R-Ala.) and Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), titled “Protecting America’s Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act,” would bar individuals associated with the Chinese regime and other foreign adversaries from buying or leasing U.S. farmland.

The prohibition covers any person or entity “owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a foreign adversary”—among them are Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia, with the exception of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

Under the proposal, those covered individuals and entities would be banned from participating in Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs if they have full or partial ownership of U.S. farmland or lease agricultural land in the country unless it’s related to food safety regulatory requirements or the health and labor safety of individuals.

“The United States can no longer turn a blind eye to the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party. As the CCP looks to exploit weaknesses in our free and open society, it is our responsibility to ensure that the American people are protected against those who seek to undermine our national interest,” Strong said in a statement.

An aerial view from a drone shows a combine being used to harvest soybeans in a field in Rippey, Iowa, on Oct. 14, 2019. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

China owned 325,686 acres of U.S. agricultural land as of the end of 2020, according to the USDA. While that’s less than 1 percent of the total foreign-held land, the acreage marked a more than 20-fold jump from a decade earlier.

Spanberger, a former CIA case officer, said that her previous work in the intelligence field gave her clarity on the “threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party’s aggressive influence campaigns, as well as its attempts to target U.S. national security interests through seemingly innocuous transactions.

“And as the only Virginian on the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, I’m committed to protecting America’s farms and farm families from foreign threats,” she added. “If buying up American farmland is a tool for eroding our nation’s food security, economic security, and national security, then we need to be prepared to take steps to push back against these efforts.”

Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), John Tester (D-Mont.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) introduced a companion version of the measure in the Senate in March.

The lawmakers noted that the United States currently lacks accurate data on foreign land ownership and investment because of loopholes and lapses in reporting.

“You’re looking at more than 3,000 counties in the country; every single county has a recorder’s office, every single recorder’s office receives deeds. There is not a process now for there to be an accumulation of the deeds that are being filed today,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the House Agriculture Committee at a March 28 hearing.

“In those recorder’s offices,” he said, “it’s dependent on people making the report to us voluntarily. It’s a system where there is a gap in terms of our ability to know what transactions are taking place.”

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack addresses the opening session of the Agriculture Innovation Mission (AIM) for Climate Summit at the JW Marriott in Washington on May 8, 2023. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

At the hearing, Rep. Mark Alford (R-Miss.) described the Chinese ownership of U.S. land as a big concern.

“One acre that is bought or owned by the Chinese communist government or any agent thereof is a big concern, especially near Whiteman Air Force Base in my district, home of the B-2 stealth bomber,” he said. “Something has to change.”

Vilsack, in response, said that he agrees that “we have to be very, very careful about the ownership of foreign land near any of our defensive installations, which is why the recent situation in North Dakota was brought to everyone’s attention.”

The situation in North Dakota cited by Vilsack involved a Chinese corn mill project in Grand Forks, on land located about 12 miles from the Grand Forks Air Force Base. The Grand Forks City Council voted 5–0 to end the project in February after a year-long debate and intense pushback from local residents. The U.S. Air Force stated in a late January letter that its view is “unambiguous” that “the proposed project presents a significant threat to national security with both near- and long-term risks of significant impacts to our operations in the area.”

An RQ-4 Global Hawk drone lands at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. Johnny Saldivar/Wikimedia Commons

In April, a Michigan Senate committee approved sending $175 million of state money to help Chinese manufacturer Gotion build an electric vehicle battery project. The site will be about 100 miles from Camp Grayling—the Michigan National Guard training center, which has been training Taiwanese troops.

“We are partnering with Taiwanese military leadership to make sure they can defend themselves from possible invasion from the Chinese military operation. And so the idea that we’re going to have a company within 100 miles that has an affiliation and has a duty to respond to the Chinese Communist Party, that is a concern,” Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) recently told “China in Focus” on NTD, the sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.

Strong, in the May 17 statement, also urged stronger oversight over farmland ownership.

“We must be able to effectively monitor who is growing, producing, and marketing our food safety and agriculture products. Lacking that ability is a clear threat to national security.”