U.S. Officials Work to Prevent China from Purchasing American Farmland

Amid reports of China purchasing United States agricultural land in March, new reports reveal how Republican and Democrat congressional representatives and state and local officials are working together to prevent more sales.

In June last year, Florida joined several other states, including Virginia, North Dakota, Montana, and Arkansas, to pass bills to protect America's agricultural resources, military bases, and other critical installations.

In May, Florida signed a bill preventing citizens from "foreign countries of concern" from purchasing land on or within 10 miles of any "military installation or critical infrastructure facility," including seaports, airports, and power plants. According to state officials, the "foreign countries of concern" include China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, and Iran, and agencies and governments operating on their behalf.

Virginia and Montana also signed similar laws applying them to "foreign adversaries" as designated by the U.S. Commerce Department, which includes China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

In North Dakota, an American subsidiary of Chinese company Fufeng Group tried to build a wet corn milling plant that would have been close to a U.S. Air Force Base, posing what officials at the U.S. Air Force described as a "significant threat to national security."

Texas is also considering a bill to prevent hostile regimes like China from purchasing agricultural land.

In Michigan, residents of the idyllic Green Charter Township near Lake Michigan recently won a victory after a Chinese-owned industrial firm Gotion backed out of buying local farmland.

Gotion is a company that has "pledged allegiance" to the CCP and completed the purchase of 260 acres—about the total floor space of the Pentagon—of derelict industrial land in the area and 10 acres—about half the area of Chicago's Millennium Park—of disused farmland several days ago. Residents told reporters they were "bullied" into accepting the takeover but refused to do so and rallied together to prevent it from occurring.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, Gotion confirmed the purchase of 270 acres of land, saying it had "listened to the concerns of residents and decided not to purchase two large parcels of land zoned for agriculture use at this time."

One of the residents vocal about the company's presence in Michigan, Lori Brock, told DailyMail.com that the concession was a "huge" victory for the township but added that the fight was "far from over."

Efforts to prevent China from acquiring more land in the U.S. have gained traction in the Senate, where a few weeks ago, Republican and Democrat Senators voted 91-7 to prevent China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran from purchasing U.S. farmland.

According to reports, the law was passed as an amendment to the annual defense budget bill, requiring the President to review farmland transactions from the designated countries, blocking any deals that would allow a foreign entity from any of the countries to "control" American farmland and waive those that do not.

Additionally, the new measure provides the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., commonly known as CFIUS, the ability to evaluate land agreements using data from the Department of Agriculture and block those deals if necessary.

In the House of Representatives, Congressional members have also proposed various bills to prevent China and other anti-American regimes from acquiring farmland, with some warning that such efforts from Beijing threaten the lives of small family farms and weaken America's agricultural supply chain.

According to the Department of Agriculture, Chinese investors own around 384,000 acres—about half the area of Yosemite National Park—of forest and farmland in the U.S., representing less than 1% of the 40 million acres—about half the area of Arizona—owned by foreign entities as of December 2021.