WASHINGTON – Vice President JD Vance delivered a thunderous call to action Tuesday, pledging to “take back every piece of U.S. land owned by China” and ensuring “not a single acre” remains in foreign hands, a sweeping vow aimed at curbing Beijing’s influence over American soil. Speaking at a packed Columbus Day rally in his home state of Ohio, Vance decried Chinese entities’ ownership of roughly 384,000 acres of U.S. agricultural land as a “national security nightmare,” vowing legislative and executive measures to force divestitures and ban future purchases.
“It’s not normal for an adversary to own chunks of our heartland—farms, resources, even near military bases,” Vance roared to cheers from farmers and veterans, invoking recent scandals like the Fufeng Group’s thwarted North Dakota project adjacent to a Grand Forks Air Force base. His proposal builds on the 2023 Farm Bill’s reporting requirements, escalating to eminent domain seizures and a $25 billion federal buyback fund, tied to Trump’s broader tariff and decoupling agenda. “We’ll reclaim it all—not one blade of grass for the CCP,” Vance added, echoing rally chants and aligning with Sen. Marco Rubio’s Secure America’s Farmland Act, which targets adversarial nations.
The rhetoric taps into bipartisan unease: A 2023 USDA report flagged 49 Chinese-linked deals near sensitive sites, fueling fears of espionage and food supply vulnerabilities. Vance, a venture capitalist turned senator, positioned it as “America First” economics, warning that Chinese holdings—up 300% since 2010—threaten rural livelihoods amid rising farm bankruptcies.
Yet the plan draws fire from across the aisle. Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren labeled it “xenophobic hysteria,” noting most ownership is corporate, not state-directed, and divestitures could spike land prices, hurting small farmers. The ACLU warned of Takings Clause violations, while fact-checkers highlighted Vance’s past $65,000 investment in AcreTrader, a platform facilitating farmland shares open to foreigners—though not directly Chinese. “Hypocrisy alert,” quipped a Warren aide.
As midterms heat up, Vance’s acre-by-acre crusade galvanizes the GOP base, but risks alienating moderates in farm-belt swing states. With China tensions boiling—from Taiwan to trade wars—this land grab could redefine sovereignty, or ignite a legal quagmire. For Vance, it’s personal: From Rust Belt roots to White House warrior, no inch yields.
