Sun used the companies to buy more than 100,000 acres in Texas for a wind farm. USDA data obtained by NPR shows more than 80% of Chinese-owned land is held by Smithfield Foods, and a billionaire named Sun Guangxin, through Brazos Highland Properties LP and Harvest Texas LLC. But for the purposes of this story, we're using the name of the country as shorthand for companies or investors from that country.ĭata pertaining to China shows corporations own the bulk of the land.Ĭhinese ownership of U.S. Department of Agriculture data, from 2021, foreign governments do not directly own land in the U.S. "In this particular case: guilty until proven innocent - let's put it that way."Īccording to the most recent U.S. "Any company and any individual living in China that comes and tries to buy land can be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party because they have that kind of control over their people," Tester said. But China's rise - coupled with its geopolitical heft and its strategic goals that are sometimes at odds with Washington's - has raised questions over who owns this land and how much control the Chinese government has over the ownership. Chinese firms and investors own just over 383,934 acres in the U.S., less than the state of Rhode Island, and far less than how much Canada, Netherlands, Italy, the U.K. Still, Chinese-owned land accounts for a tiny share of foreign-owned land in the United States. "That ability by the government to gain access to information is one of the reasons why people view the risk of dealing with a Chinese corporation similar to what they would view as the risk of dealing with the Chinese Communist Party or the government," Kennedy said. Mark Kennedy, director of the Wilson Center's Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition, said that the Chinese government has laws that allow the government to access information held by its citizens and corporations. He said he believes it's best to pause Chinese purchases "rather than wait years before we determine that this equipment or these purchases are being used for other purposes." He said one big fear is that Chinese telecommunications equipment could be used to disrupt U.S. "What's missing here is a lot more information about where these specific locations or farmland purchases are located in close proximity to the military base," said Craig Singleton, China program deputy director and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. In the case of the transaction in North Dakota, the government agency that must approve such purchases said at the time that it could not act because the matter was " out of its jurisdiction." Some of these fears exist because of a gap in data on where Chinese-owned land is, and whether it's near military installations. Chinese acquisitions in the U.S., no matter how benign or how minor, are being viewed through that same lens. Those fears come amid broader tensions between the two countries on issues as varied as Taiwan, trade and Chinese intelligence gathering. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who is skeptical of Chinese land ownership in the U.S., told NPR. "I don't know that we know for sure all the foreign land that potentially is owned by Chinese individuals or folks controlled by the Chinese government," Sen. Now legislation in Congress would restrict Chinese ownership of U.S. Corporations own the majority of that land. as well as purchased major food companies like Smithfield Foods, the United States' largest pork processor. Indeed, during the past four decades, Chinese companies and investors have bought up land in the U.S. assets or gain access to U.S.-based information. food and energy supply, as well as a hold on markets and critical infrastructure.Īlthough Chinese-owned land is a tiny fraction of all foreign-owned land in the U.S., its purchases have raised fears that the Chinese government could have control, through the Chinese corporations, over U.S. Lawmakers feared that China, which many policymakers view as a strategic adversary even though it's the country's top trading partner outside North America, could gain control over the U.S. In 2021, a Chinese company bought land near an Air Force base in Grand Forks, N.D., sending lawmakers into a frenzy.
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