Near the banks of Montana’s Musselshell River, rancher Michael Miller spotted a large white sphere over the city of Harlowton last week, a day before US authorities revealed they were tracking a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the state. The balloon caused a stir in the city of 900 surrounded by cattle ranches, wind farms and nuclear missile silos scattered behind barbed wire.
Miller worries about China as a growing threat to the US, but questioned how much intelligence could be gleaned from a balloon. The biggest threat from China, he said, is to the US economy. Like many across the country, Miller wonders if stronger laws are needed to prohibit the sale of farmland to foreign nationals so power over agriculture and the food supply doesn’t end up in the wrong hands.
“It’s better not to have a foreign entity buying land, especially one that isn’t very friendly to us,” Miller said. “They’re just going to dominate us economically, rather than militarily.”
US lawmakers increasingly share Miller’s concerns after the Chinese balloon ride over US skies stoked tensions between Washington and Beijing.
In Congress and parliament, the balloon ride added traction to decades-old concerns about foreign land ownership. US Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, is sponsoring legislation to factor agriculture into national security decisions that allow foreign investment in real estate.
“The bottom line is that we don’t want the people of China to own our farmland. It goes against food safety and it goes against national security,” Tester told The Associated Press.
At least 11 state legislatures are also considering measures to address the concern. That includes Montana and North Dakota, where the US Air Force recently warned that a proposed $700 million corn mill near a military base by the US subsidiary of a Chinese company would put national security at risk.
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Grand Forks, North Dakota, city council members endured a barrage of criticism from city residents Monday night before voting 5-0 to abandon the plan. The move came a year after the North Dakota governor called the project “extraordinary,” saying it would create jobs and bolster the agricultural industry.
Angry residents of the town of 59,000 near the Minnesota border demanded the resignation of council members who they claimed had tried to push through the plan, ignoring Chinese threats to national security.
“You decided, for some reason, that this was such a fantastic thing for our city that you went blind,” said Dexter Perkins, a professor of geology at the University of North Dakota. “You guys did your best when there were billions of unanswered questions.”
Before the Air Force warning, officials said they were not in a position to comment on matters of national security.
Foreign entities and individuals control less than 3% of US farmland, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Of that, those with ties to China control less than 1%, or roughly 600 square miles.
A US Air Force facility surrounded by farmland in central Montana is seen on February 7, 2023, near Harlowton, Montana. Lawmakers across the country and Congress are considering new restrictions on foreign ownership of US farmland. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)
However, in recent years, farm and non-farm land deals have attracted scrutiny, particularly in states with a large US military presence.
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Limitations on foreign individuals or entities owning agricultural land vary widely across the US. Most states allow it, while 14 have restrictions. No state has a total ban. Of the five states where the federal department of agriculture says entities with ties to China own the most farmland, four do not limit foreign ownership: North Carolina, Virginia, Texas and Utah.
Fifth, Missouri, has a cap on foreign land ownership that state lawmakers want to tighten.
Supporters of the ownership restriction often speculate about the motives of foreign buyers and whether people with ties to adversaries like China intend to use the land to spy on or exercise control over the US food supply.
In 2021, Texas banned infrastructure deals with people linked to hostile governments, including China. The policy came after a Chinese army veteran and real estate mogul bought a wind farm in a border town near a US Air Force base. This year, Texas Republicans want to expand that with a ban against the purchase of land by individuals and entities from hostile countries, including China.
Critics see it as anti-foreigner hysteria, with Texas’ Asian-American community particularly concerned about the effect on immigrants who want to buy homes and build businesses.
In Utah, concern has centered on a Chinese company’s purchase of a highway near an Army depot in 2015 and Chinese-owned farms that export alfalfa and hay from drought-stricken parts of the state.
This year, lawmakers are considering two proposals that, to varying degrees, would bar entities with ties to foreign governments from owning land.
“Do we really want some foreign country to come and buy our farmland, our forests, or our mining rights?” asked Republican State Rep. Kay Christofferson, who is sponsoring one of the bills. “If it interfered with our sovereignty, especially in an emergency situation or during a threat to national security, I think we would lose our ability as a state to be independent and self-sufficient.”
Caitlin Welsh, director of the Global Food Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the fight to limit foreign ownership of land followed rising tensions between the United States and China. Welsh shares concerns about US adversaries buying land near military bases like Grand Forks, but said concerns about China’s control of food supplies are overblown.
“China is only a small part of the bigger picture of foreign ownership,” Welsh said. “When it comes to food security, the biggest threat is that foreign owners can potentially pay a higher price for farmland, which then drives up prices.”
The restrictions have met with resistance in states with strong property rights. In Wyoming, two proposals to restrict foreign land ownership failed this week despite Republicans who control the state house sympathetic to concerns about China’s expansion.
“We’ve had a lot of problems with China lately in the air. Big balloons are flying over us. We see this as a state and homeland security bill, for Wyoming and the United States,” said Rep. Bill Allemand, a Republican. from Casper.
Lawmakers on Monday rejected Allemand’s proposal to ban ownership of more than an acre of land by people from countries considered state sponsors of terrorism, including Russia and China. Skeptics said it would be difficult to monitor because of the complex web of title companies and holding companies in agricultural real estate.
“This is very easy to get around,” said Republican Rep. Martha Lawley. “We may end the day feeling good about ourselves, but we’ve opened up to a lot of responsibilities.”
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Questions about foreign investment are sparking increasing debates about whether cities and states should roll out welcome mats or close the doors to potential threats. The problem can pit local officials interested in economic development against state and federal agencies concerned with national security.
That was initially the case with the proposed corn mill in Grand Forks, where officials praised the plans last year. But days after the US Air Force shot down the Chinese balloon, which China insists was just a weather balloon, sentiment faded and the city changed course.
“There’s something I’ve learned through this process, and that’s sometimes slowing down and making sure we fully understand before we go to the next level,” Grand Forks council member Ken Vein said before voting to leave the corn mill.
