Senate Republicans have introduced new legislation to ban China and Chinese Communist Party-linked firms from buying up land in the United States.
Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) introduced a plan that would protect American land from being bought by the CCP.
The legislation is titled the “Securing America’s Land from Foreign Interference Act.”
The introduction of the measure comes after it emerged that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) investors bought up $6.1 billion of homes and land across America last year.
“Chinese investments in American farmland put our food security at risk and provide opportunities for Chinese espionage against our military bases and critical infrastructure,” Cotton said in a statement.
“Instead of allowing these purchases, the U.S. government must bar the Communist Party from purchasing our land.”
Tuberville, likewise, said the U.S. “cannot continue giving our top adversary a foot in the door to purchase land in the United States and undermine our national security.”
The latest U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) figure reveals that Chinese investors’ holdings of U.S. farmland have skyrocketed.
American farmland owned by CCP-linked investors is up from 13,720 acres in 2010 to 352,140 acres in 2020.
Foreign investors now hold interest in more than 37 million acres of U.S. farmland — a region larger than the state of Iowa.
Most recently, a Chinese firm bought 300 acres of farmland in North Dakota which sits just 20 minutes from a U.S. Air Force Base.
