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Some U.S. lawmakers have expressed concerns about increasing ownership of American land by Chinese entities, often attributing it to the Chinese government’s attempt to control food supply and surveil U.S. infrastructure. China ranks 18th on the list of foreign landowners in the U.S., trailing Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, and the U.K. So how worried should we be about China’s ownership of U.S. land?
Straight Arrow News contributor Peter Zeihan isn’t very concerned. Zeihan argues that Chinese purchases of U.S. farmland over the past few years have actually been negligible, and that was even before certain states passed laws preventing the Chinese from purchasing American land.
Excerpted from Peter’s Feb. 23 “Zeihan on Geopolitics” newsletter:
I’ve had a lot of you write in concerned about Chinese land purchases in the United States. There’s not much to be concerned about here, but let me paint the full picture for you.
Foreign ownership of U.S. land is quite limited, and the Chinese portion of that is just a sliver of the pie (Canada has the largest piece of the pie for those curious). To temper worries even further, most of this U.S. land is being bought by Chinese individuals simply trying to park their assets outside of China…and you can’t really blame them for that. If you need even more reason not to stress, just look at the historical precedence of foreign assets being seized in times of conflict.
It’s good to ponder these questions and keep an eye on things like foreign land ownership in the U.S., but as of now, there’s really no need for concern.
