Follow us on social

Shutterstock_2008020998-scaled

Do laws preventing Chinese from buying US land even make sense?

Critics say state and federal bills aimed at the CCP purchasing farms and other property are a solution in search of a problem.

Analysis | Reporting | Asia-Pacific

In the last month, two sitting governors — Ron DeSantis of Florida and Doug Burgum of North Dakota — announced their intention to seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. In many ways, the two men are different. DeSantis is one of the most prominent politicians in the country and governs the nation’s third most populous state; Burgum is the little-known governor of the fourth smallest state by population. 

Yet, in the weeks leading up to their respective announcements, both DeSantis and Burgum signed legislation that aims to ban foreign governments from buying agricultural land in their state. The prevailing goal of both laws, and a host of other similar recent efforts, is to counter China’s perceived efforts to purchase American agricultural land. 

The impetus behind the North Dakota bill was a failed attempt by a Chinese-owned corporation to develop a corn mill in the state because of its proximity to an Air Force base, while Florida’s farmland bill explicitly aims to prevent the sale of “real property” to “any official or member of the People’s Republic of China or the Chinese Communist Party.” Upon signing the Florida bill, DeSantis tweeted that he had just put into place the “strongest legislation in the nation to stop the influence of the Chinese Communist Party.” 

The “anti-CCP” bills that Florida enacted in May went beyond land ownership — they also prohibit state colleges and universities “from soliciting or accepting any gift in their official capacities from a college or university based in a foreign country of concern,” and ban TikTok on government devices and networks. 

Florida’s legislation passed overwhelmingly in both the state house (95-17) and senate (31-8). Opposition to the legislation came entirely from Democrats, with House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell telling The Tallahassee Democrat "My concern has always been with the lack of definitions with some of the critical terms used in the bill. Because we have a lack of definitions, if they were viewed to be overbroad, we could be veering into the area of national origin discrimination."

Using competition with — and fear of — China as a justification for legislation that touches on virtually all aspects of American life has become the norm in Washington. The total number of bills in which the word “China” is cited during the current session of Congress is rapidly approaching 400

But the recent flurry legislation shows that the trend is alive and well at the state level as well. Florida and North Dakota are among the more than two dozen that have passed or considered legislation restricting Chinese purchases of U.S. farmland in the past few months. 

Similar legislation is being taken up in the U.S. Congress, too. Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Dale Strong (R-Ala.) recently introduced the Protecting America’s Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act. While the bill aims to prohibit “individuals associated with” North Korea, Iran, and Russia from purchasing agricultural land, the statement released by the two members makes clear that the CCP is the ultimate target. 

“As a former CIA case officer, I recognize the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party’s aggressive influence campaigns, as well as its attempts to target U.S. national security interests through seemingly innocuous transactions,” said Spanberger. 

“The United States can no longer turn a blind eye to the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party,” added Strong. “As the CCP looks to exploit weaknesses in our free and open society, it is our responsibility to ensure that the American people are protected against those who seek to undermine our national interest.”  

This legislation is just one in a series of recent Congressional efforts aimed at curbing foreign ownership of agricultural land. 

The explicit goal of this kind of legislation is two-fold. One is food security. As Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) put it in the statement accompanying his version of the one introduced by Spanberger and Strong in February, “The United States is engaged in a great power struggle with the CCP, and we must respond with tough policies that will protect our farmland and food supply chain.” 

The second aim is couched in terms of national security, citing the alleged threat of Chinese nationals buying farm land near U.S. military bases, which, according to yet another member of Congress, could be used “as a launching pad for espionage.” 

Not to be left behind, Donald Trump has also made this an issue on the campaign trail. Like his rival DeSantis, Trump has included agricultural land ownership in a long list of grievances concerning Beijing’s efforts to increase their influence in the U.S. 

“China has been spending trillions of dollars to take over the crown jewels of the United States’s economy,” the former President and candidate for the Republican nomination in 2024, said in a campaign video in January. “To protect our country, we need to enact aggressive new restrictions on Chinese ownership of any vital infrastructure in the United States, including energy, technology, telecommunications, farmland, natural resources, medical supplies and other strategic national assets.”

As Reid Smith, vice president for foreign policy at Stand Together, recently put it, these and other similar efforts are often “a solution in search of a problem.” According to the most recent estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, foreign entities currently own approximately three percent of all privately owned farmland in the country. Of this total, Chinese nationals hold less than one percent, with a total of about 400,000 acres. 

But advocates for U.S. farmers say that blaming Chinese and other foreign nationals for food insecurity misdiagnoses the true root of the problem, which they say is the rapid increase over the last 15 years in agricultural land ownership by wealthy individuals, pension funds, and multinational corporations. 

“Our concern is really focused on the corporatization of agricultural land, and the impacts and implications of that for local food systems for farmer livelihoods,” Jordan Treakle, the National Programs and Policy Coordinator at the National Family Farm Coalition, told Responsible Statecraft. 

He noted that Bill Gates is the nation’s largest private farmland owner, and the U.S.-based financial services company TIAA is the largest corporate farmland holder. “So it's been quite disappointing to see this issue of foreign government or foreign person, agricultural land investment be raised in what we see as a pretty xenophobic way.” 

“The real issue, if [legislators] actually really cared about the food supply and food security and food sovereignty,” adds Fran Miller, a senior staff attorney and adjunct faculty member at the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at the University of Vermont Law School, “is corporate ownership of agricultural lands and ways that pension funds and real estate investment trusts and all these investors are gobbling up agricultural lands and trying to make as much profit as possible, which means that new farmers, marginalized farmers, people seeking land access to actually grow food, are stymied.” 

Agricultural land ownership is partly based on voluntary reporting, and therefore difficult to measure, but Treakle estimates that corporate ownership of U.S. farmland has tripled in the past few years. “Those small-scale farmers or family-scale farmers are never going to be able to outbid any kind of corporation that is recruiting capital from abroad or domestically to access land,” he said.

Some of these corporations are foreign-owned, but Treakle points out that the most important source of foreign ownership of U.S. agriculture land is Canada — not China.

Even if there are some legitimate concerns about foreign ownership of agricultural land, some of the proposed solutions are so sweeping that activists fear that the rhetoric will only fuel growing anti-Asian sentiment in the country, as expressed by the nonprofit Asian Texans for Justice, when a like-minded bill passed in the Texas state senate last month.

“We are disappointed that the Texas Senate has passed SB147 on the Senate floor. Since November, the rhetoric used in discussing this legislation has been rooted in xenophobia and racism. No amendments can undo the harm already caused to the AAPI community in Texas.” 


mehmetkrc / shutterstock
Analysis | Reporting | Asia-Pacific
Kim Jong Un
Top photo credit: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the construction site of the Ragwon County Offshore Farm, North Korea July 13, 2025. KCNA via REUTERS

Kim Jong Un is nuking up and playing hard to get

Asia-Pacific

President Donald Trump’s second term has so far been a series of “shock and awe” campaigns both at home and abroad. But so far has left North Korea untouched even as it arms for the future.

The president dramatically broke with precedent during his first term, holding two summits as well as a brief meeting at the Demilitarized Zone with the North’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. Unfortunately, engagement crashed and burned in Hanoi. The DPRK then pulled back, essentially severing contact with both the U.S. and South Korea.

keep readingShow less
Why new CENTCOM chief Brad Cooper is as wrong as the old one
Top photo credit: U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper speaks to guests at the IISS Manama Dialogue in Manama, Bahrain, November 17, 2023. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

Why new CENTCOM chief Brad Cooper is as wrong as the old one

Middle East

If accounts of President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iranian nuclear facilities this past month are to be believed, the president’s initial impulse to stay out of the Israel-Iran conflict failed to survive the prodding of hawkish advisers, chiefly U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Michael Kurilla.

With Kurilla, an Iran hawk and staunch ally of both the Israeli government and erstwhile national security adviser Mike Waltz, set to leave office this summer, advocates of a more restrained foreign policy may understandably feel like they are out of the woods.

keep readingShow less
Putin Trump
Top photo credit: Vladimir Putin (Office of the President of the Russian Federation) and Donald Trump (US Southern Command photo)

How Trump's 50-day deadline threat against Putin will backfire

Europe

In the first six months of his second term, President Donald Trump has demonstrated his love for three things: deals, tariffs, and ultimatums.

He got to combine these passions during his Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday. Only moments after the two leaders announced a new plan to get military aid to Ukraine, Trump issued an ominous 50-day deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire. “We're going to be doing secondary tariffs if we don't have a deal within 50 days,” Trump told the assembled reporters.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.