Trump Administration Launches Crackdown on Chinese Ownership of U.S. Farmland
by Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Staff
(Worthy News) – In a sweeping move to safeguard America’s agricultural integrity and national security, the Trump administration has unveiled a comprehensive action plan to ban Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland and root out foreign influence in the agricultural sector.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, announced the launch of the National Farm Security Action Plan during a press conference on July 8.
The seven-point strategy aims to prohibit foreign adversaries–most notably the Chinese Communist Party–from acquiring American farmland, particularly near military installations. It introduces strict new transparency and enforcement mechanisms.
“Protecting America’s farms isn’t just about protecting our farmers. It’s also about national security,” Rollins declared. “U.S. farms are under threat–from criminals, from political adversaries, and from hostile regimes that view our way of life as a threat to their own.”
The plan mandates executive actions, coordination with Congress, and state partnerships to block direct and indirect farmland purchases by Chinese nationals and other “countries of concern.” Rollins, who also announced she will now serve on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), said the USDA is working with the Treasury Department to ensure close scrutiny of foreign agricultural transactions.
Defense Secretary Hegseth underscored the military dimension of the threat: “As someone charged with leading the Defense Department, I want to know who owns the land around our strategic bases. No longer can foreign adversaries assume we aren’t watching.”
The issue of Chinese encroachment on U.S. farmland has taken on renewed urgency in recent years. In 2022, the attempted purchase of land by China’s Fufeng Group near Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota triggered national outrage and was ultimately blocked. A 2024 New York Post investigation identified 19 military installations from Florida to Hawaii surrounded by land owned by Chinese-linked entities.
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published earlier this year warned of systemic failures in tracking foreign ownership, with Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) calling it “one of our worst fears.” House committee leaders Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) and James Comer (R-Ky.) added that foreign land purchases “pose a direct threat to our food security and national security.”
As of 2023, Chinese entities held 265,000 acres of American land–down from 384,000 acres in 2021. Much of that is linked to Smithfield Foods, acquired by a Chinese conglomerate in 2013, and Syngenta, a subsidiary of the state-owned ChemChina.
Rollins said the USDA will establish a new online platform to track foreign land holdings, and is pursuing legislative and regulatory changes to claw back existing land held by adversaries. “We’ve already canceled seven active agreements with foreign entities and removed 70 foreign nationals affiliated with the USDA,” she said, vowing to cut ties with over 550 additional entities from adversarial countries.
The plan also addresses broader agricultural resilience, including protecting food stamp programs from fraud, shoring up the agricultural supply chain, and enhancing research safeguards. “America First must be in every USDA program–from farm loans to food safety,” Rollins emphasized.
Last month, a Chinese researcher and her boyfriend were charged in Michigan for attempting to smuggle Fusarium graminearum, a crop-destroying pathogen, into the U.S. The incident highlighted the biosecurity dimension of foreign interference in the agricultural sector.
The Trump administration’s action has garnered strong support from the America First Governors’ Council. “This plan ends an era of weakness,” said former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. “Foreign adversaries, most notably the CCP, have quietly exploited lax federal enforcement to buy American farmland. That ends now.”
With 26 states already restricting foreign ownership of farmland and bipartisan concern rising in Congress, the National Farm Security Action Plan appears poised to reshape U.S. agricultural policy and land ownership for years to come.
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