A recent surge of interest by corporations affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party of buying U.S. farmland has congressional lawmakers working to further restrict Beijing and other foreign adversaries from securing such coveted property.
Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, whose 2nd Congressional District in northeast Iowa is heavily agricultural, told the Daily Mail on Wednesday it's crucial to stop China to protect the U.S. food supply chains and buttress national security.
"Communist China shouldn't be allowed to buy another acre of American farmland, nor should we rely upon our top foreign adversary for key parts of our food supply chain," Hinson said.
Chinese-linked companies own land in 29 states, a total of more than 347,000 acres of the 40 million acres owned by foreign entities, according to the Daily Mail, which cited Department of Agriculture data.
States including Florida, South Dakota, and North Dakota, have enacted laws in the past year to prevent Chinese companies and other foreign interests from owning land in their states, especially after Chinese-based food producer Fufeng Group in 2022 reportedly acquired 300 acres of land in Grand Forks, North Dakota, just 20 minutes from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, where some of the nation's most sensitive drone technology is housed.
Action also was spurred by the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the country early in 2023.
Hinson sits on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration, and the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the U.S. and the CCP.
She said among the reforms in the Farm Bill is a change in the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act, allowing the federal government to track foreign entities’ purchases of U.S. agricultural land more easily. It also will mandate minimum penalties on individuals who intentionally submit false AFIDA filings.
The reforms also will require the USDA to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to ensure timely data sharing of international land purchases.
The Committee is a division of the Treasury Department and is authorized to review certain transactions involving foreign investment in the U.S. and certain real estate transactions by foreign persons, to determine the effect of such transactions on U.S. national security.
The House Farm Bill would establish a position dedicated to auditing and overseeing activities related to the AFIDA called the chief of operations of investigative actions, which would report to CFIUS land acquisitions that could pose a threat to national security, the Daily Mail reported.
The Farm Bill also includes language from the bipartisan Securing American Agriculture Act, co-sponsored by Hinson and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., which will protect the American food and agriculture supply chain from the CCP’s influence. The Agriculture Committee passed the bill last week by a 33-21 vote, the Daily Mail reported.
Hinson said she "was proud" to work with Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., "to ensure initiatives to restore our food supply chain and prevent Communist China from buying our land were included in the House Farm Bill. Food security is national security, and this Farm Bill bolsters both."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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