While Donald Trump launches a National Farm Security Action Plan to stop Chinese interests buying up American farmland like it's going out of fashion, Australia continues to roll out the red carpet for the CCP, red being, of course, their favourite colour.
In the United States, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and even Pam Bondi (who I thought was too busy prosecuting Epstein's ghost) are cracking down on foreign adversaries buying land around military bases and trying to sneak pathogens into the wheat belt. Meanwhile in Australia, we handed the entire Port of Darwin to a Chinese company on a 99-year lease. Ninety-nine years. Let that sink in.
Who leases anything for 99 years? If I lease a Hilux for five years, the dealership starts sweating. But when it comes to the Port of Darwin, a strategic asset in the north of a continent-sized country, we practically gave it away. For perspective, if Captain Cook had leased Botany Bay in 1770, the lease would still have 44 years left to run. At this rate, we may as well throw in Parliament House Canberra as part of the fire sale. Maybe they can repurpose it as a panda sanctuary or a Belt and Road office?
America, to its credit, is at least pretending to care. They're creating online portals so farmers can dob in dodgy land deals. They're blacklisting foreign entities. They're asking questions like: "Why is a Chinese company buying land near an Air Force base?" Meanwhile, in Australia, if you raise those questions, you're a racist, a conspiracy theorist, or worse,a member of One Nation Party.
Our politicians bleat about "strategic partnerships" and "foreign investment confidence," while simultaneously watching vital infrastructure, real estate, and agribusiness quietly fall into the hands of state-linked Chinese corporations. What do we get in return? A Confucius Institute at every second uni, and a glut of apartment towers so overpriced the locals can't afford to live in their own cities.
Where is our National Farm Security Plan? Where is our Agriculture Foreign Investment Disclosure Act? Probably buried under a stack of redacted FOI requests and ministerial golf trip invoices.
Let's be honest: if a Chinese national was caught smuggling agricultural pathogens into Australia, the kind that could wipe out our wheat or rice crops, the ABC would run a sympathetic profile about the poor soul's "mental health crisis," while ASIO would issue a strongly worded memo no one would read!
Trump may be many things, bombastic, divisive, orange, but at least he understands that a nation which cannot feed itself is not a sovereign nation. Meanwhile in Australia, the only time Canberra talks about farming is when the Murray-Darling runs dry and someone needs to blame South Australia.
So, here's a modest proposal: when we review our foreign investment laws (if we ever do), let's consider making one simple change. If the U.S. is saying "No" to the CCP buying cornfields in Kansas, maybe we should stop selling out sugar mills in Queensland, vineyards in the Barossa, and cattle stations in the NT. While we're at it, let's repossess Darwin Port before someone sails a PLA Navy frigate up the harbour with a complimentary bottle of Penfolds Grange.
Until then, maybe just save time and list Parliament House on Alibaba. Who knows, we might even get a bulk discount on democracy, if we throw Lab-Lib-Green pollies in on the deal!
"China has admitted it is helping Russia fight its war against Ukraine to distract the United States from countering the Chinese Communist Party elsewhere in the world. This makes it more important than ever to ensure that our critical infrastructure is resilient and can counter Chinese malfeasance.
No infrastructure is more critical to America's survival than its ability to feed its citizens. This past week, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, addressed this security risk by launching the first-ever National Farm Security Action Plan.
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This seven-point plan would increase fines for violating the Agriculture Foreign Investment Disclosure Act, create an online portal for farmers and ranchers to report noncompliance with the AFIDA, work with states to ban the purchase of American farmland by "countries of concern," such as China and Iran, require research grant recipients to certify they are not owned or controlled by foreign adversaries, and work with state governments to strengthen protections against biosecurity threats.
"American agriculture is not just about feeding our families," Rollins told reporters, "but about protecting and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research, and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us."
Hegseth added, "No longer can foreign adversaries assume we aren't watching. As someone who's charged with leading the Defense Department, I want to know who owns the land around our bases and strategic bases, and getting an understanding of why foreign entities, foreign companies, foreign individuals might be buying up land around those bases."
In 2023, a year after local officials blocked the sale of a 370-acre corn milling facility near the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, the Senate voted 91-7 to block all Chinese businesses from purchasing American farmland. Unfortunately, that legislation did not get a vote in the House. Congress should return to the bill and pass it.
Six states — Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Oklahoma — ban foreign ownership of farmland, and another 20 limit foreign investment. Some bans are too broad, as Canada is the biggest foreign holder of American farmland and does not pose a national security threat. The same is not true of China or corporations controlled by China, and every effort should be made to ban purchases of American farmland by Chinese-linked companies and force those companies to divest any land they own.
Just last month, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan and her boyfriend, both Chinese nationals, were arrested and charged with smuggling goods into the country, including a biological pathogen, Fusarium graminearum, that could wipe out entire fields of wheat, barley, and rice.
"We have already canceled seven active agreements with entities in foreign countries of concern and will continue to cancel additional agreements," Rollins said. "I signed a memo today, which immediately removes 70 citizens from countries of concern that are currently affiliated with the USDA through contracts or research arrangements. And we are working to issue regulatory action to remove over 550 entities from foreign countries of concern from our preferred catalog."
CHINA'S CYNICISM ON UKRAINE EXPOSED
It is concerning that the steps the Trump administration is taking to protect agricultural infrastructure were not taken years ago. The CCP has a record of trying to undermine our national security in every way, including hacking into local utility providers and attacking the electrical grid. There is no reason why it would not also try to destroy America's ability to feed itself.
China is by far the gravest threat to national security, and measures such as President Donald Trump's National Farm Security Action Plan are long overdue."