Latest news with #CFIUS
Telegraph
09-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
The US has become terrifyingly vulnerable to Chinese drone sabotage
The Trump administration has embarked on measures to ban sales of US farmland to 'foreign adversaries' – in this instance, particularly to China. It is a welcome move – if overdue. Though China owns much less US land, often via corporations, than numerous other countries, concern has been growing that it could become a potential foothold for hostile activity, beyond any impact on food security. In the digitalised battlefield of drones and communications disruption, an unobserved presence on the ground can enable devastating sabotage – as Russia discovered to its cost during Ukraine's recent strikes on its strategic bomber fleet. Beijing has thus far been able to exploit some serious loopholes in the law. In the past, presidential orders have been used to attempt to prevent China from buying land too close to US military sites. But because the committee on foreign investment in the US (CFIUS) was primarily tasked with blocking PRC acquisition of sensitive US businesses, its jurisdiction did not address the purchase of greenfield sites. This led to a farcical situation in 2021, when a Chinese firm bought land about 12 miles from the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, currently focused on strategic air and space reconnaissance using drones and satellites. In June 2023, CFIUS determined that it lacked the authority to intervene, and other mechanisms had to be used to deal with the problem. The US agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, commented this week that foreign purchases of US farmland were being used as 'weapons to be turned against us'. At Tuesday's briefing on the National Farm Security Action Plan, she said that it was 'time to take back our land'. With the Trump administration's new decision, she will join the CFIUS and is required to report to the committee any purchase of land by foreign adversaries that may pose a risk to national security. Future Chinese land purchases will likely be banned outright, while the administration has declared its intention to 'claw back' land that China already owns. This gives teeth to President Trump's long-term planning. Shortly after returning to office, he signed a memorandum instructing CFIUS to restrict Chinese investment in critical sectors including technology, infrastructure, energy, agriculture and raw materials. This broad-spectrum approach to combatting China correctly reflects Beijing's own many-sided assault on its rivals. At Wednesday's Chinese ministry of foreign affairs press briefing, the spokesperson criticised the US decision, which 'would ultimately harm the interests of the US itself'. This language is conventional, but more hostile reactions will likely follow. Washington cannot afford to run scared of China's threats, however, particularly if it leaves the US vulnerable to new and emerging threats. The experience of the UK, in this regard, is instructive. There are several strategic US air force bases in Britain. In November 2024, numerous drones were detected breaching the restricted air space of several such bases. The suspicion is that the drones were conducting surveillance for a state actor. If so, it is likely that the operation was Russian. Other drone activity has been reported on US soil, with a particular peak in December 2024 which has been investigated by the FBI with support from other agencies. The chairman of the US House foreign affairs committee has suggested that in this case China may have been responsible. In the UK, while the Government recently accepted that the Chinese threat has increased on a broad front, the policy response has been lacking. Britain's China policy remains fundamentally unrealistic, naive and aspirational. Above all, it lacks honesty as to the adversarial threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party's strategic ambitions. Britain evidently has much to learn from the US.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US Acts on Foreign Ownership of Farmland Amid China Tension
(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration is tightening its grip on foreign ownership of farmland amid continuing concerns over Chinese investment in America's heartland. Are Tourists Ruining Europe? How Locals Are Pushing Back Denver City Hall Takes a Page From NASA Can Americans Just Stop Building New Highways? Philadelphia Trash Piles Up as Garbage Workers' Strike Drags On The US Department of Agriculture will work with state lawmakers to end farmland purchases 'by nationals for countries of concern or other foreign adversaries,' according to a press event Tuesday. The USDA is also partnering with the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, to review foreign purchases involving the farming industry. US farms are 'under threat from criminals, from political adversaries and from hostile regimes that understand our way of life as a profound and existential threat to themselves,' Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at the event. Rollins said she is officially part of CFIUS as of Tuesday. The move comes as US-China tensions have reverberated across state and local politics in Middle America in recent years, sowing angst about Chinese investment. Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have long raised concerns that foreign farmland ownership threaten food and national security, and roughly half of US states bar non-resident or foreign-owned entities from owning farmland, according to the National Agricultural Law Center. In 2023, a unit of seed company Syngenta AG was given two years to divest 160 acres of farmland in Arkansas. That enforcement action against Syngenta, which was acquired by China National Chemical Corp., was the first taken under legislation signed by Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders banning prohibited foreign entities from owning agricultural lands in the state. In a similar development, a $700 million corn mill project in Grand Forks, North Dakota, was scrapped in 2023 after facing growing opposition from local politicians over its Chinese owner. Companies such as Syngenta and Smithfield Foods, owned by China's WH Group, are among the owners of American farmlands that have raised concerns among officials. Peter Navarro, the counselor to the president, said the acquisition of Smithfield in 2013 'really troubled' him and that seeds, like those sold by Syngenta 'can be the revolution that keeps the world fed and China now owns a key part of that.' Foreign-held farmland expanded to nearly 45 million acres as of 2023, though that is only about 3.5% of all US privately-held farmland, according to the USDA. More than a third of that acreage is owned by Canadian investors. China held nearly 280,000 acres in 2023, slightly less than 1% of foreign-held acres. The so-called National Farm Security Action Plan unveiled Tuesday raises the fine for late and false filings on foreign farm investments to 25%, and creates a new portal for reporting filing violations. Other pillars of the plan include evaluating USDA-funded research for foreign participation, including the elimination of all program agreements going to so-called foreign adversaries. The USDA has already canceled seven agreements with entities in foreign countries of concern and will continue to do so, Rollins said. She said she also signed a memorandum today removing 70 citizens of such countries who were affiliated with the USDA through contracts or research arrangements. Also speaking at the event with Rollins were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. State governors including from Arkansas, Nebraska and Tennessee were also in attendance. (Updates with additional context starting in seventh paragraph) Will Trade War Make South India the Next Manufacturing Hub? 'Telecom Is the New Tequila': Behind the Celebrity Wireless Boom SNAP Cuts in Big Tax Bill Will Hit a Lot of Trump Voters Too For Brazil's Criminals, Coffee Beans Are the Target Pistachios Are Everywhere Right Now, Not Just in Dubai Chocolate ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
South China Morning Post
08-07-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Trump admin restricts foreign ownership of US farmland amid China tensions
The Trump administration is tightening its grip on foreign ownership of farmland amid continuing concerns over Chinese investment in America's heartland. Advertisement The US Department of Agriculture will work with state lawmakers to end farmland purchases 'by nationals for countries of concern or other foreign adversaries', according to a press event on Tuesday. The USDA is also partnering with the US Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, to review foreign purchases involving the farming industry. US farms are 'under threat from criminals, from political adversaries and from hostile regimes that understand our way of life as a profound and existential threat to themselves', Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at the event. Rollins said she is officially part of CFIUS as of Tuesday. US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins peaks during a news conference to roll out the USDA'S National Farm Security Action Plan in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: AP The move comes as US-China tensions have reverberated across state and local politics in Middle America in recent years, sowing angst about Chinese investment.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US Acts Against Foreign Ownership of Farmland Amid China Tension
(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration is tightening its grip on foreign ownership of farmland amid continuing concerns over Chinese investment in America's heartland. Are Tourists Ruining Europe? How Locals Are Pushing Back Denver City Hall Takes a Page From NASA In California, Pro-Housing 'Abundance' Fans Rewrite an Environmental Landmark Can Americans Just Stop Building New Highways? The US Department of Agriculture will work with state lawmakers to end farmland purchases 'by nationals for countries of concern or other foreign adversaries,' according to a press event Tuesday. The USDA is also partnering with the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, to review foreign purchases involving the farming industry. US farms are 'under threat from criminals, from political adversaries and from hostile regimes that understand our way of life as a profound and existential threat to themselves,' Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at the event. Rollins said she is officially part of CFIUS as of Tuesday. The move comes as US-China tensions have reverberated across state and local politics in Middle America in recent years, sowing angst about Chinese investment. Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have long raised concerns that foreign farmland ownership threaten food and national security, and roughly half of US states bar non-resident or foreign-owned entities from owning farmland, according to the National Agricultural Law Center. In 2023, a unit of seed company Syngenta AG was given two years to divest 160 acres of farmland in Arkansas. That enforcement action against Syngenta, which was acquired by China National Chemical Corp., was the first taken under legislation signed by Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders banning prohibited foreign entities from owning agricultural lands in the state. In a similar development, a $700 million corn mill project in Grand Forks, North Dakota, was scrapped in 2023 after facing growing opposition from local politicians over its Chinese owner. Foreign-held farmland expanded to nearly 45 million acres as of 2023, though that is only about 3.5% of all US privately-held farmland, according to the USDA. More than a third of that acreage is owned by Canadian investors. China held nearly 280,000 acres in 2023, slightly less than 1% of foreign-held acres. The so-called National Farm Security Action Plan unveiled Tuesday raises the fine for late and false filings on foreign farm investments to 25%, and creates a new portal for reporting filing violations. Other pillars of the plan include evaluating USDA-funded research for foreign participation, including the elimination of all program agreements going to so-called foreign adversaries. Also speaking at the event with Rollins were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Will Trade War Make South India the Next Manufacturing Hub? 'Telecom Is the New Tequila': Behind the Celebrity Wireless Boom SNAP Cuts in Big Tax Bill Will Hit a Lot of Trump Voters Too For Brazil's Criminals, Coffee Beans Are the Target Pistachios Are Everywhere Right Now, Not Just in Dubai Chocolate ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg
08-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
US Acts Against Foreign Ownership of Farmland Amid China Tension
The Trump administration is tightening its grip on foreign ownership of farmland amid continuing concerns over Chinese investment in America's heartland. The US Department of Agriculture will work with state lawmakers to end farmland purchases 'by nationals for countries of concern or other foreign adversaries,' according to a press event Tuesday. The USDA is also partnering with the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, to review foreign purchases involving the farming industry.
