Bid to ban land buying moves to federal level

The controversial legislation that some US states have proposed to bar Chinese from owning land could be federalized, as some members of Congress have introduced a similar bill targeting Chinese citizens.

The bill, introduced by US Representative Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican who is also chairman of the House select committee on Chinese competition, seeks to block companies of China and other "foreign adversaries "from purchasing land near military bases and other sensitive sites.

If passed, the bill would give the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, final authority over a deal involving Chinese buyers.

It would also require the CFIUS to raise the approval threshold by establishing a "presumption of non-resolvability" — a presumption that the "national security "concerns cannot be resolved — when reviewing a transaction.

The committee led by Gallagher has been naming companies and other entities with ties to China since it was set up earlier this year.

There are several bills in Congress aimed at limiting Chinese ownership of US land. At the state level, a growing number of states have passed or are considering measures to ban "foreign adversaries" from buying farmland.

Contrary to their claim that Chinese citizens are buying large amounts of property in the country, the US Department of Agriculture's data shows that the Chinese people own a tiny fraction of US land.

Among the 3 percent of foreign-owned land, the Chinese share is less than 1 percent, according to the Farm Service Agency's report.

The moves have prompted a backlash from the Asian American community and stoked anxieties among some experts who see echoes of past discriminatory laws in the United States like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 law that banned Chinese from immigrating to the United States.

Democrats have been vocal in warning that the legislation had the potential of fueling anti-Asian and anti-immigrant sentiments.

"Banning buying homes based on citizenship and registering your property did not bode well in history," said Democratic Representative Grace Meng of New York. "This is the Republicans rewriting the Chinese Exclusion Act."