Chip Roy introduces bill to keep China from snapping up US farmland
Rep. Roy says there is no reason the Chinese Communist Party should be permitted to buy up land in the US
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With lawmakers of both major parties in agreement that the United States must push back against China's increasing influence in the U.S. economy, a House Republican is putting forward legislation to crack down on Chinese purchases of U.S. farmland.
Texas Rep. Chip Roy introduced the "Securing America's Land from Foreign Interference Act" on Thursday, a bill that would prohibit any member of the Chinese Communist Party or an entity linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from purchasing private or public real estate in the U.S.
The bill directs the president of the United States to "take such actions as may be necessary" to prohibit entities that are "under the ownership, control, or influence" of the CCP from purchasing U.S. farmland.
"There is no reason we should allow one of our greatest adversaries — the Chinese Communist Party – to buy up land in the United States," Roy told FOX Business. "If the Soviet Union had been doing this in the 80s, we’d have recognized the threat. China does is not our friend; they want to dominate us and destroy our way of life; we need to wake up and start acting like it."
REPUBLICANS SOUND ALARM OVER CHINESE GOVERNMENT-LINKED FARMLAND PURCHASE NEAR NORTH DAKOTA AIR BASE
Texas Rep. Chip Roy at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. Roy introduced legislation that would block Chinese Communist Party entities from purchasing U.S. farmland. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Buffalo Gap, South Dakota. (Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Real estate purchased by foreign entities are reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, but Roy's office said legislation was needed to prevent large purchases of U.S. land by foreign adversaries.
Data published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2022 showed that Chinese owners controlled about 195,000 acres of land in the U.S. worth close to $1.9 billion. According to the department, foreign investors control nearly 40 million acres of U.S. farmland, which Roy's office notes is roughly the size of the state of Ohio.
Republicans have previously raised concerns over Chinese land acquisitions in the U.S., which they say could give the hostile foreign power greater control over the food supply.
Fifty-one Republican lawmakers sent a letter to three of President Biden's cabinet secretaries in September warning of the "alarming development" for U.S. National Security after a CCP-linked company bought land near North Dakota's Grand Forks Air Force Base.
It was not the first time a land grab by CCP-linked firms caused concern. A wind energy farm project near Del Rio, Texas, was reportedly nixed by the Texas government after it was revealed the 130,000 acre plot — around the size of Tulsa, Oklahoma — was only miles away from the Laughlin Air Force Base, where pilots are trained.
It was also revealed the Chinese billionaire who owns the company that wanted the land, GH America Energy, formerly served in the Chinese military and has deep ties to the CCP.
MCCARTHY, GOP, DEMS UNITE BEHIND NEW CHINA COMMITTEE: ‘THE ERA OF TRUSTING COMMUNIST CHINA IS OVER’
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy picks up the gavel as he begins to speak in the House chamber in Washington, D.C., Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon / AP Newsroom)
Answering China's growing influence and domination of the global economy is a bipartisan priority. House Republicans and Democrats voted together to create a new committee to examine U.S. strategic competition with China, something House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., promised to do on the campaign trail in 2022.
"We spent decades passing policies that welcomed China into the global system," McCarthy said Tuesday. "In return, China has exported oppression, aggression and anti-Americanism. Today, the power of its military and economy are growing at the expense of freedom and democracy worldwide."
The committee's mission, which was proposed by McCarthy, is to "investigate and submit policy recommendations on the status of the Chinese Communist Party’s economic, technological, and security progress and its competition with the United States." It is being established after the growing realization in the U.S. that China is America’s most immediate economic competitor and military threat.
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Fox News' Houston Keene and Peter Kasperowicz contributed to this report.