A faction within the Republican Party has clashed with President Donald Trump over a vital national security concern: curbing Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland. In May, Representative John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), introduced bipartisan legislation known as the “Protecting U.S. Farmland and Sensitive Sites from Foreign Adversaries Act.” The bill would prohibit acquisitions by China and other adversarial nations such as Russia, Iran, and North Korea, and would also cover seaports, telecommunications infrastructure, and properties near military bases.
Trump has opposed these restrictions, claiming they could lower land values and harm farmers. However, his own agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, has publicly raised alarms about the dangers of “the consolidation of our farmland” and adversarial foreign ownership “creeping up on our country.” Strikingly, her warnings align with the Trump administration’s National Farm Security Action Plan, which treats food security as a national defense priority.
The scale of foreign control may appear modest: Chinese-linked entities hold an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 acres across America’s nearly 900 million-acre farmland. Overall, foreign ownership accounts for approximately three percent of U.S. agricultural land, with China representing a small fraction. Yet Chinese-held acreage has more than quadrupled since 2010. Moreover, raw figures understate the threat—strategic location is often more critical than sheer numbers. Properties near military installations or critical infrastructure pose significant risks to national defense and supply chains.
A notable case occurred in 2022 when a Chinese company sought to establish a corn-milling plant near Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota—a situation that alarmed lawmakers about potential espionage and supply chain vulnerabilities.
With Congress gridlocked between the president’s economic concerns and a bipartisan security-focused group, states have taken action. Roughly half have enacted restrictions on foreign agricultural land ownership. As of 2026, more than twenty states have proposed new measures. Utah serves as a model: Republican Governor Spencer Cox signed legislation strengthening prohibitions against adversarial purchases, blocking a deal near Provo Airport involving Cirrus Aircraft—a company majority-owned by a Chinese state-run defense contractor linked to the People’s Liberation Army.
Critics of this state-level approach caution about regulatory fragmentation and cite outdated “alien land laws” from early 20th century America. Supporters emphasize that modern laws target Chinese Communist Party-linked entities and other adversaries, not individuals based on ethnicity.
U.S. farmland is fundamental to national food security and economic independence. Allowing adversaries—particularly the CCP (which has openly sought to destabilize the United States)—to establish footholds on U.S. soil compromises sovereignty and grants hostile foreign powers future leverage over the American people. American land must serve American interests. Anything less risks sacrificing the very foundation of our independence.
