Washington, May 8 (IANS) A bipartisan group of US lawmakers moved to tighten restrictions on Chinese and other foreign adversary purchases of American farmland and property near sensitive military and infrastructure sites, reflecting growing concerns in Washington over national security and food security.
The push came as Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar introduced the “Protecting US Farmland and Sensitive Sites from Foreign Adversaries Act”, while another bipartisan group announced plans for legislation to ban Chinese vehicles from American roads.
“Food security is national security, and we cannot allow foreign adversaries like China to buy up American farmland near our most sensitive military and critical infrastructure sites,” Moolenaar said.
He said the legislation would “close dangerous loopholes” and “presumptively bar foreign adversaries from purchasing land”. He added that it would also implement the Trump administration’s “America First Investment Policy” and the US Department of Agriculture’s Farm Security Action Plan.
The proposed legislation would expand the authority of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review real estate deals involving entities linked to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. It would create a new category of “elevated risk real estate transactions” covering farmland, ports, telecommunications infrastructure and property near military and intelligence facilities.
The bill also broadens the definition of “sensitive sites” to include military installations, NASA facilities, airports, maritime ports, data centres, fibre optic nodes, cloud computing facilities and critical communications infrastructure.
According to the bill text, elevated-risk transactions would be presumed to present “an unresolvable risk to national security” unless cleared through a high threshold review process.
The legislation has bipartisan backing from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, including Representatives Josh Gottheimer, Jimmy Panetta and Mike Thompson.
At the same time, Moolenaar and Congresswoman Debbie Dingell announced plans to introduce separate bipartisan legislation to ban Chinese vehicles from US roads.
“Every vehicle on American roads is a rolling data collection device, capturing information on location, movement, people, and infrastructure in real time, and we cannot allow Chinese vehicles or components to be a part of that system,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.
The measures come amid broader efforts in Congress to counter Beijing’s economic and technological influence in the United States.
In Florida, Congressman Greg Steube joined House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford in a roundtable discussion on what lawmakers described as growing Chinese counterintelligence threats.
Steube said the Chinese Communist Party was “actively working to undermine American security and expand its influence inside our country”. He said Florida’s “critical infrastructure and strategic importance make it a high value target”.
Separately, a bipartisan Senate delegation led by Steve Daines held meetings in Beijing with senior Chinese officials, including Premier Li Qiang and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The delegation discussed fentanyl precursors, supply chain security, Iran and agricultural trade. .
The latest proposals also come as Washington and Beijing remain locked in wider tensions over trade, technology, national security and Taiwan. Lawmakers from both parties have increasingly argued that Chinese-linked investments in strategic sectors could expose vulnerabilities in critical American infrastructure and supply chains.
–IANS
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