Following his state visit to China, President Trump has reversed his opposition to Chinese nationals purchasing US farmland.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump stated his policy shift was based on market conditions.
“Look, it’s not that I love it,” he said. “You want to see farm prices drop, you want to see farmers lose a lot of money? Just take that out of the market.”
Trump added that enabling Chinese ownership of US farmland is a position carries over from before his first term.
“But they’ve had a lot of land for a long time,” he continued. “Obama did nothing about it. They bought a lot of it during the Obama administration. He did nothing about it.”
Newsweek notes that Trump’s uneasy acceptance of Chinese ownership of US farmland is starkly different from his 2024 campaign language, when he pointed told Chinese investors, “We don’t want you buying our land.” It also marks a major policy shift – last July, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched the “National Farm Security Action Plan” to restrict land purchases by Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries.
“American agriculture is not just about feeding our families, but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research, and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in announcing the plan.
Chinese ownership of US farmland is relatively small – the USDA reported Chinese entities possess 277,336 acres, or less than 1% of overall foreign-held farmland. However, opposition to Chinese ownership has noted many of these properties are too close to US military bases, thus opening the possibility of espionage.
Photo: President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at last week’s summit in Beijing, courtesy of the White House
0 Comments