US farmland Photo: VCG

The US government announced plans this week to ban all farmland sales to buyers linked to China and other countries it deems adversarial, citing national and food security concerns, as a Chinese observer said the move may disrupt the current trajectory of bilateral economic and trade talks.

US Department of Agriculture chief Brooke Rollins announced the move on Tuesday — an effort that casts uncertainty over property currently held by China-linked investors, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday. The report also noted that Rollins, together with the US defense and homeland security secretaries, is seeking an investigation into existing land owned by Chinese buyers and is exploring ways to potentially claw back past purchases.

A representative for China's embassy in Washington said Chinese companies' investments in US agriculture have created jobs and economic growth, and that politicizing the country's investments hurts international confidence in the US market.

This was not the first time that US politicians' have hyped the issue, who claimed that China and other countries could use US farmland to facilitate spying or wield influence over the US food-supply chain. Chinese-owned entities hold nearly 300,000 acres — approximately 0.02 percent — of US farmland, according to official data cited in the report.

The city of Grand Forks, North Dakota, in 2023 halted construction of a $700-million-worth corn mill backed by Chinese company Fufeng Group after a US Air Force official said the facility posed a national-security risk because of its proximity to a nearby base.

Chinese company-owned pesticide seller Syngenta has said it owns a small amount of land for research, development and regulatory trials in the US. However, Arkansas ordered Syngenta to sell about 160 acres in the state, where it operated an agricultural research facility employing several dozen people. Syngenta at the time called the state's decision shortsighted..

The agriculture chief's remarks came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday indicated that he would be meeting his Chinese counterpart within the next two weeks, though observers cautioned that China must remain vigilant against hegemonic thinking and continued uncertainty in the US.

As bilateral economic and trade relations steadily progress, some US politicians repeatedly hype the "China threat," reflecting deep-seated political bias and irrational security anxiety, Li Yong, a senior research fellow at the China Association of International Trade, told the Global Times on Wednesday. He warned that such rhetoric seriously obstructs normal economic cooperation and poses a long-term obstacle to mutual trust.

In February 2023, when responding media questions that multiple US states are considering banning Chinese citizens from buying property over national security concerns, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial and win-win in nature. She emphasized that to overstretch the concept of national security and politicize economic, trade and investment issues runs counter to the principles of market economy and international trade rules, which undercuts international confidence in the US market environment.