China’s decade-long effort to dominate the world’s food supply has expanded beyond controlling agricultural resources in South America and Africa. Chinese purchases of American agricultural land increased 5,300 percent between 2010 and 2020, and its rate of expansion is accelerating. China now controls an estimated 350,000 acres of American farmland (alarmingly, because the Department of Agriculture doesn’t maintain a reliable tracking system, the precise extent of Chinese ownership of U.S farmland is unknown).
Interests aligned with the Chinese government have also been vacuuming up U.S. fertilizer companies, food-processing facilities, distribution networks, and chemical companies at an accelerating rate. Much of the farmland and many of the facilities also happen to be near or adjacent to sensitive U.S. military installations or critical infrastructure such as power stations, dams, and transport hubs.
Some governors and members of Congress from states with large farming industries have been sounding alarm bells with increasing urgency, but the Biden administration has shown little, if any, signs of concern. Not to worry. Clearly, they know something Congress and the rest of us don’t.