How Much US Farmland Does China Own? Owners, Acreage, and State Bans

Chinese entities owned roughly 247,659 acres of US farmland as of December 31, 2024, according to the most recent US Department of Agriculture report filed under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA). That is about 0.03 percent of all privately held agricultural land in the country and less than one percent of all foreign-held farmland.¹ The figure has swung in recent years. Chinese holdings peaked at 383,935 acres in 2021, dropped 27 percent between 2022 and 2023 to about 277,000 acres, and then ticked back up in the 2024 data.²

The number should be read as a floor rather than a precise count. The USDA has acknowledged that parcels owned by multi-country investment groups can be categorized as having “no predominant country,” which excludes them from the Chinese total.¹ A Government Accountability Office review also found that AFIDA’s paper-based filing system produced errors, including double-counting of the largest Chinese-linked holding.³

Who the Chinese Owners Actually Are

Chinese-held US farmland is not spread across a large field of buyers. Five companies accounted for 92 percent of all reported Chinese holdings at the end of 2024.¹

Smithfield Foods and WH Group

When WH Group (then Shuanghui International) acquired Smithfield Foods in 2013, it took ownership of a major US pork producer and its land. Smithfield holds roughly 85,000 acres concentrated in North Carolina, Missouri, Virginia, and Oklahoma.⁴ Two Smithfield subsidiaries, Murphy Brown LLC and Murphy Brown of Missouri, appear in the 2024 AFIDA data with about 100,000 acres combined.¹ The original acquisition was reviewed and approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and that clearance has given Smithfield some insulation from later state restrictions. Oklahoma, for example, wrote an explicit Smithfield exception into its foreign ownership ban.

Sun Guangxin’s Texas Holdings

Starting in 2016, subsidiaries of Chinese billionaire Sun Guangxin acquired roughly 140,000 acres in Val Verde County, Texas, spending an estimated $110 million.⁵ Part of that land had been planned for a wind project called Blue Hills Wind Development. After Texas passed the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act, which restricts entities from “hostile nations” from connecting to the state electricity grid, Sun sold a 15,000-acre parcel to Greenalia, a Spanish renewable energy company.⁶ Two Sun-linked entities, Brazos Highland Properties and Harvest Texas, still appear in the 2024 AFIDA data with 116,699 acres between them.¹

Syngenta

Syngenta, a global agrochemical and seeds company, was acquired by China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) in 2017.⁷ It reports about 1,500 US acres used for research, development, and seed production in Illinois, Missouri, Washington, California, Nebraska, and Arkansas. In October 2023, the Arkansas Attorney General ordered Syngenta to divest a 160-acre research farm in Craighead County and imposed a $280,000 penalty for filing an ownership report late under state law.⁸

Where the Land Sits

The 2024 AFIDA report shows Chinese-held farmland concentrated in a few states: Texas at 123,708 acres, North Carolina at 44,263, Missouri at 42,905, Florida at 12,555, and Virginia at 4,654.¹

How China’s Share Compares to Other Countries

Total foreign holdings of US farmland reached 46.3 million acres by the end of 2024, or 3.6 percent of privately held agricultural land.¹ Foreign ownership overall has grown steadily, from about 26 million acres in 2011 to 40 million by 2021 and 43.4 million by the end of 2022.⁹

China’s share is dwarfed by US allies. Canada holds roughly 12.8 million acres, about 31 percent of all foreign-owned agricultural land, much of it forestland. The Netherlands accounts for about 12 percent, Italy 6 to 7 percent, the United Kingdom 6 percent, and Germany 5 to 6 percent.¹⁰ China ranks eighteenth among foreign countries by acreage.¹¹ Investors from other countries designated as foreign adversaries — Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela — hold roughly 95,000 acres combined, most of it Venezuelan.

Why a Small Acreage Draws Large Attention

The concern in Washington and state capitols has focused less on the raw acreage than on where some of the land sits and what could happen on it.

Proximity to Military Installations

Reporting has identified Chinese-owned parcels near at least 19 US military installations, including Fort Liberty in North Carolina, Fort Cavazos in Texas, Camp Pendleton in California, MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, and Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas.¹² Michael Sobolik of the Hudson Institute told CBS News that the absolute acreage is less concerning than the proximity to sensitive sites.¹³

The Fufeng Case

The episode that crystallized these concerns involved Fufeng Group, a Chinese food manufacturer whose US subsidiary bought 370 acres near Grand Forks, North Dakota, in 2021 for a proposed $700 million corn milling plant. The site was about 12 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base, which houses intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. After bipartisan pressure from Senators Marco Rubio, John Hoeven, and Kevin Cramer, Fufeng voluntarily submitted the deal for CFIUS review. In December 2022, CFIUS determined it lacked jurisdiction because the site was undeveloped land and was not on the list of installations covered by its real estate regulations.¹⁴ The Air Force later expressed formal opposition, and the Grand Forks City Council voted in 2023 to abandon the project.¹⁵

The Broader Argument, and the Pushback

Representative John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, has argued that “food security is national security.”¹³ Senator Deb Fischer has pointed to Chinese laws that can compel corporations to share information with the government and noted that the value of Chinese-held US farmland grew from $81 million in 2010 to $1.9 billion in 2022.¹⁶

Not everyone accepts the framing. Analysts at the Cato Institute have called the fears overblown, noting that Chinese nationals own roughly 600 square miles of agricultural land out of more than two million square miles nationwide, that the land remains subject to US law, and that the government retains the authority to expropriate it during a national emergency.¹¹ A Michigan State University study of state legislation found the restrictions were driven mainly by national security rhetoric and political ideology rather than economic factors, and warned of reduced investment, property-rights harm to lawful immigrant landowners, potential trade retaliation, and legal challenges.¹⁷ Ranking House Agriculture Committee member David Scott has cautioned against “alarmism” that could incite violence against Asian Americans and noted that China is also the largest US agricultural export market, at over $33 billion a year.¹⁸

What the Federal Government Is Doing

On February 21, 2025, President Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum titled the “America First Investment Policy,” directing the use of CFIUS and other legal tools to restrict Chinese investment in listed sectors including agriculture, and calling for stronger CFIUS authority over greenfield investments and land near sensitive facilities.¹⁹

On July 8, 2025, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a seven-point “National Farm Security Action Plan” with the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Justice. It aims to end farmland ownership by nationals of “countries of concern,” reform AFIDA with an online filing system and higher penalties, sign USDA-CFIUS data-sharing agreements, and launch a portal for reporting non-compliance.²⁰ The New York Post reported the administration also plans to “claw back” properties already held by Chinese nationals, remove at least 700 foreign nationals from USDA contracts and research agreements, and raise AFIDA civil penalties to 25 percent of a parcel’s fair market value.²¹

Some pieces are already in place. The USDA launched a new online AFIDA reporting portal in January 2026.²² A proposed rule raising AFIDA penalties was published for public comment in June 2026.²³ The USDA and Treasury signed a memorandum of understanding in May 2025 to share AFIDA data on holdings by persons from China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, though the Department of Defense had not yet signed a similar agreement as of August 2025.³

In Congress, the Agricultural Risk Review Act (H.R. 1713) would require reporting of agricultural land sales to individuals from China, North Korea, Russia, or Iran to the Secretary of Agriculture; it passed the House by voice vote on June 23, 2025.²⁴ The PASS Act, reintroduced in March 2025 by Senators Mike Rounds and Catherine Cortez Masto, would ban individuals and entities controlled by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from purchasing agricultural land near military installations and make the Secretary of Agriculture a voting CFIUS member.²⁵ A bill introduced in May 2026 by Representative Moolenaar would expand CFIUS jurisdiction over farmland transactions by foreign adversaries and treat such purchases as a presumptive national security risk.²⁶

State Laws Restricting Chinese Land Ownership

State legislatures have moved faster than Congress. More than 20 states have enacted restrictions on foreign ownership of agricultural land. In 2025 alone, 194 related bills were introduced across 38 states, and 15 states enacted new laws.²⁷ The wave accelerated in 2023, when Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia passed new laws. Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and South Dakota followed in 2024, and Arizona, Kentucky, Texas, and West Virginia in 2025.²⁸

The laws vary. Some target all foreign owners; others apply only to “foreign adversaries” as defined by federal regulations, typically including China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. Penalties range from civil fines to escheat, where the state takes title to the land. Several states focus their restrictions on parcels near military installations and critical infrastructure.²⁸

Court Challenges to the State Bans

The rush of state legislation has produced lawsuits testing whether nationality-based land restrictions survive constitutional scrutiny. Courts have so far been largely deferential to states, though the litigation remains in early stages.

In Florida, Chinese citizens residing in the state challenged Senate Bill 264 in Shen v. Simpson on equal protection, due process, Fair Housing Act, and federal preemption grounds. On November 4, 2025, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled 2-1 that most plaintiffs lacked standing because they were domiciled in Florida rather than China.²⁹ For the registration and affidavit provisions where two plaintiffs did have standing, the court found them unlikely to succeed on the merits under rational basis review, citing the state’s national security and property-tracking interests.³⁰

In Arkansas, Jones Eagle LLC — a cryptocurrency mining operation near DeWitt controlled by Qimin “Jimmy” Chen, a naturalized US citizen born in China — challenged state laws barring foreign-connected entities from owning property and digital asset mining operations. The state had investigated the company over alleged “significant ties to China,” which Chen disputed. In December 2024, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking Arkansas from enforcing the laws against Jones Eagle.³¹ In Texas, a class-action challenge to Senate Bill 17 brought by nonimmigrant visa holders was dismissed on July 3, 2025, after a federal judge found the plaintiffs were not directly affected by the law.²⁸

Common theories in these suits — that nationality-based restrictions violate equal protection, that vague definitions of restricted persons create due process problems, and that state laws are preempted by federal authority over foreign affairs and CFIUS — will continue to be tested as more cases work through the appeals courts.

1
USDA Farm Service Agency. Foreign Holdings of US Agricultural Land Through December 31, 2024
2
Agriculture Dive. Foreign Ownership of US Farmland Continues to Rise, Chinese Holdings Fall
3
U.S. Government Accountability Office. Foreign Investment in US Agricultural Land
4
Investigate Midwest. Oklahoma’s Ban on Chinese-Owned Farmland Made an Exception for Smithfield Foods
5
Forbes. Why a Secretive Chinese Billionaire Bought 140,000 Acres of Land in Texas
6
Office of Senator John Cornyn. Cornyn Urges DOD to Block Chinese Wind Farm Near Laughlin AFB
7
Carolina Journal. Greensboro’s Syngenta, Owned by ChemChina
8
Agri-Pulse. Syngenta Weighing Next Steps Following Arkansas Land Divestment Order
9
GlobalAffairs.org. China Foreign Land Ownership Explainer
10
American Farm Bureau Federation. Foreign Investment in US Ag Land: The Latest Numbers
11
Cato Institute. Fears Chinese Ownership American Farmland Overblown
12
New York Post. Chinese-Owned Farmland Next to 19 US Military Bases
13
CBS News. Lawmakers China Owned US Farmland
14
Holland & Knight. CFIUS Determines Chinese Greenfield Investment in North Dakota
15
North Dakota Monitor. Fufeng: A Lesson in How Not to Do Things, Sen. Cramer Says
16
Office of Senator Deb Fischer. A Hidden National Security Problem
17
MSU Today. MSU Study Examines State Legislation on Foreign Ownership of US Farmland
18
U.S. Congress. House Agriculture Committee Hearing on Foreign Ownership of Farmland
19
The White House. America First Investment Policy
20
USDA. Farm Security Is National Security
21
New York Post. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins Launches National Farm Security Action Plan
22
USDA Farm Service Agency. USDA Launches New Online Portal for Reporting Foreign-Owned Agricultural Land
23
Federal Register. Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 Proposed Rule
24
Congress.gov. HR 1713 – Agricultural Risk Review Act
25
Office of Senator Mike Rounds. Rounds Leads Legislation to Ban Foreign Adversaries From Buying American Farmland
26
House Select Committee on the CCP. Moolenaar Introduces Bill to Stop China From Acquiring US Farmland
27
MultiState. Foreign Adversary Property Bans Advanced Across 38 States
28
National Agricultural Law Center. Foreign Investments in Agriculture
29
National Agricultural Law Center. Eleventh Circuit Upholds Florida’s Foreign Ownership Law
30
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Shen v. Simpson, No. 23-12737
31
Arkansas Advocate. Arkansas Laws Targeting Foreign Ownership of Land and Data Center Put on Hold