US Senate bill would ban Chinese investment in US agribusiness, citing national security
- The legislation would also prohibit investment in US agriculture by entities from Russia, Iran or North Korea
- The bill is a response to a proposal by China-based Fufeng Group to build a corn milling operation 12 miles from a US Air Force base in North Dakota
Weeks after a Chinese company’s proposed US$700 million agribusiness facility in North Dakota sparked national security suspicions, legislation has been introduced in the US Senate to “blacklist China” from investing in or acquiring any US farmland or agricultural businesses.
Senator Mike Rounds, a Republican from neighbouring South Dakota, said he had been “alarmed” by the China-based bio-fermentation giant Fufeng Group’s acquisition of 370 acres for a corn milling plant in Grand Forks.
The project is located 19 kilometres (12 miles) from the Grand Forks US Air Force Base, which houses top intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
Rounds contended that what local Grand Forks officials had described as a development plan for the project would allow the “Chinese Communist Party to closely monitor the operations and communications at a very important military facility”.
The bill, the Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security Act (PASS), proposes to prohibit all investments in the US agriculture industry from entities with ties to Russia, Iran and North Korea as well.
It would add the farm sector to the 1950 Defence Production Act, which empowers the US President to force private companies to manufacture goods and provide services to safeguard national security.