China’s emergence as the United States’ new Cold War-style global rival has spilled over into the state legislatures and Congress in the form of restrictions on who can own U.S. farmland.
Florida on Thursday became near Grand Forks Air Base in North Dakota. The sale ultimately was stopped by the Grand Forks city council.
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But Griswold and others say those concerns can be dealt with either by using the current review process triggered by sensitive foreign investments or purchases of real estate, the multi-agency Council on Foreign Investment in the United States, or tweaking that process slightly.
“We speak out now as we have seen policies like this before in our nation’s history.”
– statement from the leaders of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), in addition to proposing a bill restricting ag land buys from most Chinese, Russian, North Korean and Iranian nationals, has advocated for adding the Agriculture Department to the CFIUS group.
On Friday, The Associated Press reported the Treasury Department, one of the CFIUS agencies, was set to propose a rule requiring government approval for any foreign citizens and companies to buy land within 100 miles of eight military installations across the country.
Ultimately, though, there’s no national security or economic rationale for blanket bans of foreign ownership, according to Griswold. But there is another explanation for the heightened interest in them.
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“Unfortunately, xenophobia is kind of simmering below the surface throughout a lot of American history. Sometimes it bubbles up,” he said. “I think there’s an element of that here.”
