The writer is a contributing columnist, based in Chicago
The honeymoon, it seems, is over. China and the United States loathed each other for most of my life, but for a brief couple of decades near the turn of the millennium, they seemed unexpectedly determined to become friends. Luckily, those were the years — between the mid-1990s and mid-2010s — when I adopted two Chinese children and moved to Shanghai to raise them. It was the best time to set foot on both camps; I had no idea how soon that would become impossible.
Now relations between my two favorite superpowers have sunk to their worst since Richard Nixon’s diplomatic bombshell of visiting China in 1972 – and the signs are palpable, even in the isolated Midwestern United States where I now live. It’s not all french fries AND Tick tock or: Dozens of US states and federal lawmakers are trying to prevent Chinese citizens from buying land in the United States.
It doesn’t matter that the Chinese own it less than 1 percent of U.S. land held by foreigners, according to a 2021 U.S. Department of Agriculture report. The figure has risen sharply in recent years, and the USDA says Beijing’s overseas agricultural investment grown more than ten times – from $300 million in 2009 to $3.3 billion in 2016. This gave my homeland the jitters.
No federal law currently prevents foreigners from buying US land, and a bill to ban the purchase of US farmland by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea has so far gone nowhere in Congress. Washington proposed a rule this month that would prevent foreigners from buying land near eight military bases. But some US states want to go much further.
Micah Brown of the National Agricultural Law Center says battles over foreign ownership date back to colonial days, and by the turn of the last century, most Asians had been barred from owning land in many states. Now the debate is reigniting: 34 US states want to limit foreign investment in land, he says.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a law last week to prevent most Chinese citizens from buying farmland. His likely run for the presidency of the United States may not be unrelated, as he was quick to say that his status is “leading the nation in terms of what we’re doing to stop the influence of the Communist Party of China.” “. United Chinese Americans, an advocacy group, said the law would “legitimize and normalize” discrimination and racism against Asian Americans.
A few days earlier, the governor of Montana signed a law that prevents governments, businesses and individuals in China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia or Venezuela from buying or leasing agricultural land. And Texas lawmakers have debated a law to bar some foreigners from buying such assets after they pulled the plug on an investment project at a Chinese wind farm.
South Dakota has tried a different approach: Angered by the failure of the federal government when Fufeng, a Chinese food manufacturer, proposed a large investment near a military base in North Dakota, it now wants to set up its own CFius (foreign investment committee). ). In the Fufeng case, the federal CFius ruled that it did not have jurisdiction because the base in question was not on its list of military structures which activated special controls; Washington is now proposing to add it to the list.
“If a federal entity can’t investigate such an obvious concern, then maybe something is wrong,” says Rachel Oglesby, deputy chief of staff in the South Dakota governor’s office. She peppered her speech with references to Chinese “invasions” and “enemy” countries, and concluded that “China has gotten much stronger over the past 10-15 years and people are rightly scared of it.” The proposal for a statewide CFius failed to pass the South Dakota legislative session, she says, due to fears that “friendly” countries could get caught up in the bureaucracy, but she insists the matter is gaining momentum.
Antonia Tzinova, an expert in foreign agricultural investment at the law firm Holland & Knight, puts my fears into words about all of this. “The talk is getting louder and at some point someone is going to make a stupid mistake and we will all live to regret” the impact on the bilateral relationship, she says. Food and land and patriotism: it’s a toxic cocktail.
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