Restricting Chinese ownership of US farmland

 Washington Examiner:

Lawmakers at both the federal and state level are seeking to “blacklist” or otherwise crack down on Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland, including but not limited to land near U.S. military bases.

The February shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon off the Atlantic coast after it traversed the continental United States, along with Chinese purchases of land near U.S. military bases in Texas and North Dakota, helped crystallize the China challenge but also highlighted U.S. weaknesses and significant gaps in tracking and addressing it.

WHO OWNS AMERICA? SHORTCOMINGS IN CHINESE FOREIGN OWNERSHIP DATA

Chinese investors owned just 69,295 acres of American land at the end of 2011, according to the Department of Agriculture, but by the end of 2021, Chinese investors controlled 383,935 acres.

A flurry of federal legislation to limit Chinese ownership has been introduced recently, much of it led by Republicans in the House and Senate but with some Democratic support. Meanwhile, governors and state legislatures are increasingly taking local action, including likely 2024 GOP contender Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and rising star Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA).

“Purchases of American land at the direction of the Chinese Communist Party, particularly around sensitive national security installations, is yet another concerning example of the Party’s strategy to exert its malign influence in the U.S. and subvert American sovereignty,” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), chairman of the House select committee on China, told the Washington Examiner. “The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party will examine this issue and work with our colleagues on relevant committees to protect American land from purchases that threaten U.S. national security.”

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), another member of the House China committee, told the Washington Examiner that China’s purchases of U.S. land were “part of a deliberate and planned-in-full attempt by the Chinese Communist Party to gain what they call coercive economic pressure over not just our nation but even more so over African countries and in Southeast Asia.”

“And so Chinese land ownership in America, yes, that’s problematic — it’s a small number now but getting bigger — but their ownership of farmland outside of China has increased 1,000% in the last 10 years,” Johnson said. “And when they own that African farmland, when they own that Southeast Asian farmland, they gain more control over the whole global food supply."

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) teamed up with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) in January to push the Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security, or PASS, Act, which is “bipartisan legislation aimed at preventing China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from investing in, purchasing, leasing or otherwise acquiring U.S. farmland.”
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It is a new form of aggression by the Chicoms.  It is cheaper than trying to take the land by warfare.