In Congress earlier this month, Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), who chairs the House Select Committee on China, introduced a bipartisan bill to restrict Chinese purchases of American farmland and real estate near sensitive military sites, underscoring how firmly the issue has become embedded in Washington’s bipartisan national-security agenda.
Ahead of Trump’s meeting with Xi, lawmakers backing the legislation argued that existing loopholes leave sensitive military and agricultural assets vulnerable. Moolenaar said in a statement that “food security is national security.”
TIME reached out to Rep. Moolenaar’s office for comment.
China owns a ‘tiny sliver’ of U.S. farmland
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, foreign entities own roughly 46 million acres of agricultural land in the United States, about 3.6% of the nation’s total farmland as of 2024. Chinese investors held nearly 248,000 acres, which is 0.02% of all U.S. farmland, and slightly less than 1% of foreign-held acres, a comparatively small share dwarfed by holdings from Canada (34%), the Netherlands (10%), Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom (6%).