A move to outright ban the purchase of public or private agricultural land by China is underway. Washington State US Representative Dan Newhouse says the Chinese Communist Party is a threat to American democracy and that the U.S. must respond with tough farmland and food supply policies.
Newhouse is calling for the outlawing of such purchases in a new bill called the Prohibition of Agricultural Land for the People's Republic of China Act. The legislation has the support of more than 40 co-sponsors in the U.S. House Of Representatives, including Eastern Washington Congresswoman Cathy McMorris-Rodgers who says “we simply cannot allow companies from China to lock down our resources and undermine our farmers and ranchers' ability to feed the world.” She goes on to call prohibiting the Chinese Communist Party from purchasing farmland in the United Sates, a “no-brainer.”
Newhouse says Chinese businesses have been purchasing American agricultural assets at a rate 10 times of what they had been. He also says many of the properties are near military installations or power generating stations, areas with critical national security implications.