Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) today introduced the Securing America’s Land from Foreign Interference Act to prohibit members of the Chinese Communist Party from purchasing any land in the United States. Text of the bill may be found here.
“Chinese investments in American farmland put our food security at risk and provide opportunities for Chinese espionage against our military bases and critical infrastructure. Instead of allowing these purchases, the U.S. government must bar the Communist Party from purchasing our land,” said Cotton.
“We cannot continue giving our top adversary a foot in the door to purchase land in the United States and undermine our national security,” said Tuberville. “I hope my colleagues will recognize the importance of our bill and join the effort to prohibit Chinese Communist Party involvement in America’s agriculture industry.”
China’s ag investments in countries around the world grew more than tenfold from 2009-2016. China’s Ministry of Ag claims the country had more than 1,300 ag, forestry and fisheries enterprises with registered overseas investment of $26 billion, at the end of 2016.
There is concern Chinese investments in U.S. ag may provide the Chinese Communist Party with undue leverage over American supply chains and access to sensitive information critical to America’s national security.
Chinese investors’ holdings of U.S. ag land went from 13,720 acres in 2010 to 352,140 acres in 2020.
According to the USDA’s most recent report on foreign landholding, foreign investors now hold an interest in nearly 37.6 million acres of ag land in the U.S. — an area larger than the state of Iowa.
