US President Donald Trump’s administration is expanding scrutiny of Chinese and other foreign ownership of American farmland and starting to cancel agricultural contracts with entities from “countries of concern” amid apprehension over the national security risks of such foreign involvement.
As part of a new seven-part National Farm Security Action Plan, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters on Tuesday that “swift legislative and executive action” would be taken at “every level of government” to “ban the purchase of American farmland by Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries”.
The Agriculture Department will also target research and innovation programmes with foreign countries “that do not have our best interests in mind”.
Rollins said that the department has already cancelled seven active agreements with entities from countries of concern – a designation that includes China, Iran, Russia, North Korea – and will continue to cancel them, along with removing foreign citizens from federal contracts.
“American agriculture is not just about feeding our families, but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us,” Rollins said, citing China as a “hostile regime” that sees the American way of life as a “profound and existential threat”.
The Agriculture Department, according to Rollins, is coordinating with the White House; the departments of Treasury, Defence, Homeland Security, and Justice; and state governors, agriculture commissioners, and local, tribal, and territorial governments to carry out the plan.
Flanked by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House trade counsellor Peter Navarro, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and several Republican governors and lawmakers, Rollins added that she has officially joined the Treasury-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States as of Tuesday.
CFIUS, as the inter-agency committee is commonly known, is responsible for reviewing transactions involving foreign investment in the US.
Tuesday’s announcement comes as US-China tensions have cascaded through local and state politics across the US in recent years, sparking alarm about Chinese investment and other involvement in the American agricultural sector.
According to the New York-based Committee of 100, a group of prominent Chinese-Americans, 45 bills restricting foreign property ownership, some of them explicitly targeting Chinese citizens, were under consideration in 14 US states as of June 25.
Last month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed legislation to restrict Chinese nationals from buying property in his state.
However, the potential trade-offs of banning Chinese purchases of farmland have also been acknowledged at both national and local levels.
A Republican-led legal effort to restrict Chinese entities from owning land failed in Arizona last month after a veto by the state’s governor, Democrat Katie Hobbs, who argued that the bill would be “ineffective at counter-espionage” and open the door to arbitrary enforcement.
Critics of efforts to limit Chinese land investment argue that they could unfairly subject Chinese-Americans and Asian-Americans to extra scrutiny.
They also point to the relatively small amount of US land owned by Chinese entities and argue that there has been little evidence of Beijing’s interest in acquiring US farmland.
According to a 2023 US Department of Agriculture report, Chinese individuals or businesses own about 277,336 acres (112,234 hectares) of US land – less than 1 per cent of total foreign-held acreage – with none directly registered to the Chinese government.
Chinese ownership of land has come into the national spotlight several times in recent years.
In 2023, a US$700 million corn mill project in Grand Forks, North Dakota, was scrapped after opposition over its Chinese owner and proximity to a military base.
In a similar development that year, agrochemical and seed company Syngenta AG was ordered to divest 160 acres of farmland (65 hectares) in Arkansas within two years.
That enforcement action against Syngenta, which was acquired by China National Chemical Corporation, was the first taken under legislation signed by Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders restricting foreign entities from owning agricultural land in the state.
Sanders was one of the governors present at Tuesday’s event. In her remarks, she emphasised the need for a federal effort to curb land purchases by US “enemies”, noting that while states have led the way, they could not address the issue alone.
Tuesday’s National Farm Security Action Plan sets up a new portal for reporting foreign farm investments and raises the fine for late and false filings.
Rollins also said to expect an executive order on foreign land purchases from the White House “very soon”.
Responding to Rollins’ remarks, the Chinese embassy in Washington said that the US was “overstretching” the concept of national security.
“Over the years, Chinese companies’ investment in the United States has made important contributions to local jobs and growth,” said embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu.
“Politicising economic and trade investment issues violates the principles of market economy and international trade norms, only to undercut international confidence in the US market environment.” - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
