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Former national security official David Feith, who severed as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the State Department from 2017 to 2021 was interviewed by CBS’s ’60 Minutes’ over the weekend. The first-term Trump administration official warned that China may use the U.S. farmland it has been purchasing near military bases as an asset for a future attack on America.
“The ability to own large tracts of land, especially close to sensitive U.S. military and government facilities, can pose an enormous problem given the nature of technology today, which is that hostile actor from all across the world can very easily exploit access to land, access to buildings and warehouses, access just to a shipping container or two and do enormous damage, either in intelligence terms or in military terms,” Feith told 60 Minutes.
Until April Feith worked on the National Security Council in Trump’s current administration. During that time he became more concerned by Beijing’s ownership of America’s farmland.
He referenced Ukraine’s “Operation Spiderweb” which used remotely-operated drones that Kiev smuggled into Russia to attack nuclear-capable bombers. Feith said the ownership of U.S. farmland near military bases gives Beijing more operating room for potential strikes.
“It’s an entirely new way of war,” he said.
CBS detailed the current state of CCP-linked ownership of U.S. farmland and some efforts to counter it:
This fear is why, in 2023, North Dakota politicians blocked a Chinese company from building a corn mill near an Air Force base in Grand Forks. At the time, the company denied it would use the mill to spy on or harm the U.S.
China isn’t the only nation buying American farmland. According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, non-Americans own about 45 million acres — or about 3 and a half percent — of agricultural land in the U.S. That’s up about 70 percent from a decade earlier. Canadians own about a third of that, while Chinese nationals own just under 1 percent, at 277,336 acres.
It may be a small percentage, but it is enough to grab the attention of politicians. There’s no federal law stopping foreigners from buying American farmland, but 29 states now limit it or ban it altogether, according to the most recent data from the National Agricultural Law Center.
As part of a seven-point national security plan, the Trump Agriculture Department this summer announced it will increase transparency around foreign ownership of farmland, impose harsher penalties for false reporting, and collaborate with Congress and state governments to stop adversarial countries like China from buying more land in the future.
Feith also told 60 Minutes that Chinese-owned cryptocurrency mining operations in the U.S. (massive data centers with specialized computers that solve mathematical equations to validate cryptocurrency transactions) may also pose a threat.
“The first threat they pose is for intelligence collection. And the second threat is that they can sabotage the power grid because they draw so much power,” he said, going on to explain that the locations for such crypto mines concerns him. “The fact that these mines, these large, powerful data centers, are so often located near sensitive U.S. military facilities underscores why this would be a potential catastrophe in crisis or conflict with China.”
CBS gave an example of such a crypto mine:
In one example, President Biden in May 2024 ordered a Chinese-backed firm to sell a property in Cheyenne, Wyoming and dismantle its cryptocurrency mining operation there. The decision was based on national security concerns; the site is located near Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, which houses intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Due to Chinese law requiring corporations to work with the CCP, Feith explained that it is not enough for a Chinese company operating within the U.S. to claim to be a private firm.
If China’s leader Xi Jinping directs a Chinese firm operating within the U.S. to share data and assist in intelligence work, the firm is obligated to do so.
“In the view of U.S. intelligence officials and government leaders now for years, China is preparing to be able to fight and defeat the United States military in a war,” Feith said.
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