On Saturday, The Daily Wire posted the following headline:
CCP Billionaire Secretly Bought 200,000 Acres Of U.S. Farmland
Why are we selling large tracts of farmland to people who want us destroyed?
The article reports:
Back in October, the Department of Agriculture estimated that Chinese entities owned around 400,000 acres of U.S. farmland, which translates to more than $2 billion dollars. Though it’s a fraction of foreign-owned farmland, the number has alarmed lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, since it’s been dramatically increasing over the past decade as China becomes more and more adversarial toward the U.S.
At the time, it was acknowledged that the 400,000 acre estimate was likely far lower than the real number. For one thing, there’s been an antiquated paper-based reporting system for foreign owned-land, and if someone owns less than 10 acres, it doesn’t have to be reported, nor does someone leasing land.
“Right now, we don’t know the full extent of the risk at hand,” Democrat Sen. Tammy Baldwin (WI) said. “Outdated reporting systems and a lack of auditing at both the state and federal level leave us with incomplete information and many questions.”
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY) told the Post on Saturday that the Biden administration has “dropped the ball” when it comes to foreign adversaries goggling up American farmland.
“Communist China is purchasing US agricultural land to subvert our sovereignty, undermine our agriculture industry, encroach on our military installations, and upend America’s rural communities,” she said.
The article also notes:
It’s been estimated that some 31,000 Chinese nations were stopped by law enforcement at our border, a CNN report highlighted. According to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data, the U.S. would typically only see around 1,500 Chinese nationals in a given year over the previous decade.
Is anyone in charge of national security paying attention?