US states should be vigilant about preventing Chinese land purchases close to military installations.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is preparing for conflict with the United States and learning from ongoing wars that are redefining how future battles may unfold. A critical lesson emerging from today’s conflicts is that assets positioned behind enemy lines in peacetime can be activated with devastating effect in wartime.  

Israel’s Operation Rising Lion succeeded in decimating Iranian military infrastructure and eliminating senior military leaders not only through superior platforms, munitions, and intelligence, but also through low-cost, unmanned systems launched from within Iran itself. Similarly, in Operation Spider’s Web, Ukraine struck at the heart of Russian airpower using covertly deployed UAVs pre-positioned in Russia, damaging or destroying at least 20 strategic aircraft across five oblasts.

China is undoubtedly studying these operations, recognizing that the ability to operate from within US borders through surveillance, sabotage, or pre-placed systems could prove decisive in a future conflict. These examples should serve as a wake-up call for American policymakers: the Chinese Communist Party’s acquisition of US farmland, including near sensitive military installations, is not merely an economic concern but a strategic threat.

China’s Global Ambitions

The CCP is pursuing a long-term grand strategy to achieve national rejuvenation and displace the United States as the world’s preeminent power. Economically, China aims to entangle the world in its supply chains while racing to dominate critical technologies like AI and quantum computing. Politically, it is striving to erode US credibility, weaken US-led alliances, and reshape global norms to favor autocracy. Militarily, it is building a world-class force capable of challenging US superiority first in the Indo-Pacific, then globally. These efforts are already shifting the balance of power and are guided by a coherent, aggressive strategic worldview that senior Chinese leaders articulate regularly and unapologetically.

As I testified at a recent Wisconsin Senate hearing, what makes the China threat so pressing is that it is no longer confined to overseas competition. The CCP is carrying out key parts of its strategy here in America. Its campaign includes stealing intellectual property (in what’s been called the greatest transfer of wealth in human history), infiltrating research institutions, embedding malware into supply chains critical to our economic and food security, as well as buying farmland and acquiring property near military installations.

The CCP’s US Land Grabs

In recent years, Chinese-linked entities have acquired hundreds of thousands of acres of American farmland, often through a maze of shell companies designed to evade scrutiny. Underscoring the threat this poses, two Chinese nationals affiliated with the University of Michigan were recently charged with attempting to smuggle a crop pathogen into the United States. At the same time, a PhD student from Wuhan was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport for concealing biological materials tied to roundworm research.

Taken together, these incidents reveal a disturbing pattern of CCP-linked actors exploiting academic and commercial channels to infiltrate and potentially undermine US food security from within. Beyond the immediate national security risk, the broader economic implications are alarming. Farmland is a strategic asset, and allowing a geopolitical adversary to control it threatens both state economies and America’s long-term food security.

There are also direct military concerns. In 2022, a Chinese company purchased 300 acres just 12 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. One US Air Force officer warned that the project posed “a costly national security risk,” and local officials ultimately shut it down. 

Similarly, in Texas, a former Chinese military officer acquired 140,000 acres near Laughlin Air Force Base in a deal that prompted the Texas Legislature to intervene due to espionage concerns. Such incidents are not isolated. Instead, they reflect a deliberate pattern by the CCP to establish footholds inside the United States and exploit our open system for strategic advantage.

Preserving American security and prosperity requires a strategy equal to the scale of the threat and an understanding that no Chinese company is truly private. Under Chinese law, all businesses and citizens must support the state’s national security goals, including espionage or data theft abroad, if called upon to do so. This means any Chinese-owned entity operating on US soil can be weaponized to serve Beijing’s strategic aims. Our policies must reflect this reality.

The Need for a State-Level Response

Thankfully, President Trump recently unveiled the National Farm Security Action Plan, which ultimately will defend US farmland and US sovereignty against the depredations of the CCP. However, while the core components of the US strategy to counter China must be executed at the federal level, we must also recognize that a national response does not necessarily mean a federal-only approach. Many states have taken action, passing bills to shore up their defenses against foreign adversary intrusion, but more must be done.

China is certainly taking note of what Ukraine and Israel have accomplished behind enemy lines. It would be naïve for us to think we remain protected from our adversaries by the tyranny of distance and our two greatest liquid assets: the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. If we allow it, China will exploit every loophole to position itself favorably in a future conflict with the United States.

And make no mistake, Beijing is mobilizing a whole-of-government effort to prepare for a future conflict, and it is preparing for that fight to extend far beyond the Indo-Pacific and onto American soil. If we fail to act now, we risk watching China replicate, on our own soil, the same strategic surprises we’ve seen unfold in Iran and Russia.