A new government report reveals that the total amount of American soil owned by Chinese investors is nearly twice as large as the entirety of New York City.
As the New York Post reports, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) revealed in last month’s report on foreign-held land that Chinese buyers currently own at least 384,235 of American land. By contrast, the full expanse of New York City covers just 193,700 acres. Even Bill Gates’ total land ownership is dwarfed by China’s, with just 270,000 acres.
Of all the foreign-owned farmland in the U.S., China owns roughly 0.9 percent, or about $1.2 billion worth of land, according to the USDA report. The most recent purchase of such land was in North Dakota, when approximately 300 acres were bought by the Chinese food manufacturer Fufeng Group, which plans to build “a wet corn milling and biofermentation plant” in 2023.
Two weeks prior to the release of the report, Assistant Secretary with the Department of the Air Force Andrew Hunter sent a letter to North Dakota Senators John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) discouraging the Fufeng purchase.
“The proposed project presents a significant threat to national security with both near- and long-term risks of significant impacts to our operations in the area,” Hunter wrote on January 27th, noting that the new Chinese mill would be located dangerously close to Grand Forks Air Force Base.
Both senators subsequently issued a joint statement on January 31st urging the local government of Grand Forks to “discontinue the Fufeng project” and “work together to find an American company to develop the agriculture project,” although their pleas were ultimately ignored.