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BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — It’s been three years since a Chinese company’s plan to develop a swath of farmland near a North Dakota Air Force base prompted local security concerns and led to a rush of legislation across the country, but calls for restrictions keep coming.
If anything, the demand by state legislators and Congress to get tough on China has only grown, even as some say the restrictions they support are more about politics than national security.
As Republican North Dakota U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer put it, the dispute “sounded the alarm” about Chinese investment in the U.S.
Regardless of whether that alarm was merited, it’s clear that since the Grand Forks Air Force Base dispute — and a Chinese balloon’s journey over the U.S. about the same time — proposals to restrict foreign ownership of farmland have soared. Lawmakers in dozens of states proposed such laws in the next couple years, and more than 20 states now have instituted restrictions.
Indiana, Missouri, Texas and other states also have blocked public pension funds from investing in China, and states such as Arkansas, Florida and Tennessee now have bans on public agencies buying widely used Chinese-made drones. Congress also has taken action, stopping future sales of two Chinese companies’ drones in the U.S. if an evaluation finds they present “an unacceptable risk” to national security and proposing a national ban on farmland sales to businesses from China.
President Donald Trump’s criticism of China and his decision to impose a 10% tariff on its goods — prompting the country to respond with its own tariffs — appears to have encouraged state legislators to keep pushing for more restrictions.
Lawmakers across the country appear eager to pursue limits on China with bills for restrictions on farmland, drones and investments introduced this year in more than a half-dozen states, from Arizona to South Carolina.
Cramer gives his home state much of the credit for a surge in skepticism toward China, saying the Grand Forks City Council’s decision to block the proposed wet corn milling plant after the Air Force raised concerns laid out a roadmap for other officials.
“It also served as the example to other communities and states that if you want to stop the takeover by the Chinese Communist party of our food supply chain while at the same time spying on our military bases, do what we did,” Cramer said.
Republican state Sen. Jeff Magrum said the controversy “really did open a lot of eyes, not just in North Dakota but nationally.”
Despite the concerns, foreign individuals and businesses own a relatively small portion of U.S. farmland.
In 2023, the most recent year of available data, foreign investors held an interest in 3.5% of all privately held agricultural land in the U.S., up slightly from the year before, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Canadian investors owned the largest percentage, with 33% of foreign-held land. Chinese holdings were less than 1%.
Mary Gallagher, a Brookings Institution fellow, said there are real concerns about China’s actions, such as surveillance, infiltration of critical infrastructure and hacking of personal information. But she questions whether the new laws address those issues.
“They seem often much more performative and political,” Gallagher said.
Sweeping restrictions such as the ability to buy real estate or for Chinese students to be employed in universities hurt the country’s reputation as an open place governed by the rule of law, she said.
“I think a lot of it just has to do with domestic, political dynamics, looking for something that can sort of galvanize people, often with very vague threats of what would happen if a Chinese company came in or if there was Chinese investment or land purchases somewhere,” she said.
Some individuals and groups are using opposition to China to build power bases and careers, said Mark Jendrysik, a political science professor at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.
“I think there’s been a certain and concerted effort among lots of different people for lots of different reasons to play up China as a major threat to the United States, one that we are, of course, failing to spend enough money on or be vigilant enough about,” Jendrysik said.
Kansas House Majority Leader Chris Croft, who has proposed bills restricting China, said he wants to protect military installations from spying, particularly by companies with ties to China’s government. Croft, a retired Army colonel, alleges companies “don’t have a choice” when Chinese authorities demand information.
North Dakota legislators have been especially active, with several bills under consideration, including one that would spend up to $15 million to replace about 300 Chinese-manufactured drones used by state agencies, colleges and universities.
“They fly over our communities, the oil fields, the missile sites, the air bases, all those sorts of things, so we do not want to have a hand in possibly giving information to the Chinese,” Republican Rep. Mike Nathe said.
North Dakota would be the first state to replace its entire inventory of Chinese-made drones “from A to Z,” Nathe said.
North Dakota lawmakers also are considering bills to evaluate the state’s vulnerability to foreign adversaries and to divest the state’s $11.8 billion oil tax savings from holdings in Chinese companies.
Another would require an investigative process for complaints of foreign adversaries’ projects, with felony penalties.
Magrum, the bill’s sponsor, said maybe his concerns about China are baseless, “but if I’m right, I hope we stop it.”
Although officials stopped the corn plant, Grand Forks Mayor Brandon Bochenski said a Belgian-based company is considering building a potato processing plant. After so much controversy, he is hopeful the latest plans by a business in a country friendly with the U.S. will come to fruition.
“This specific site, I think, could have a really happy ending,” Bochenski said.
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AP writer John Hanna contributed to this story from Topeka, Kansas.
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