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The Chinese own over 2 million acres of American farmland, more than any other nation. By having that drone backdoor they can get advance information on the co
by rmason 5y ago
The Chinese own over 2 million acres of American farmland, more than any other nation. By having that drone backdoor they can get advance information on the condition of all American crops. Possibly scout future land for purchase? They could acquire some of this information by satellite but the pictures from the drones are of higher quality.
The American government has acted decisively to prevent to prevent Chinese telecom equipment being used in the telephone system where it could monitor our communications. They've also convinced Japan and most European nations of the same. Yet they aren't restricted from buying our farmland and monitoring our crops. Farmers are quite concerned about both but so far not the U.S Congress.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- pvg 5y agoThe Chinese own over 2 million acres of American farmland, more than any other nation. This doesn't line up with government reporting here: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11977 https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11977 Even if this wrong by a factor of 10 (which it would have to be to match your number), it's peanuts compared to the US Agricultural land owned by Canada and less than half of Dutch-owned land.
- rococode 5y agoWow, off topic but why do the Dutch own so much farmland in America!? That's an unexpected one... -- Ok, I searched around for a few minutes and this was the best answer I could find: > Stephen Raes, economic minister for the Netherlands embassy in Washington, D.C., explained in an article in USA Today that the Dutch nationalized pension system is about 130 percent the size of that nation’s gross domestic product, thus making it the world’s largest relative to the size of its economy. That pension plan favors conservative investments, such as American farmland, he said, adding that historically Dutch immigrants to the U.S. became Midwest farmers all throughout the 19th century. And apparently, they also own a fair amount of wind energy farms in the US.
- pvg 5y agoThe Netherlands is also historically big into industrial agriculture (windmills, greenhouses, reclaimed land, helping invent capitalism, etc) so it all sort of adds up.
- petre 5y agoThe Dutch own farmland everywhere where it matters, not just in America, because they do quite efficient industrialized farming. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/holland-agriculture-sustainable-farming https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/holland-... https://www.politico.eu/article/netherlands-farmers-flee-environmental-rules-at-home-settle-other-eu-countries/ https://www.politico.eu/article/netherlands-farmers-flee-env...
- rmason 5y agoYou're correct it's around 200,000 acres or $2 billion. Chinese also own the largest hog producer, Smithfield Farms. I saw a news report this week that China was the largest holder of U.S. farmland. A quick web search shows the Canadians own far more, 4,000 times as much. How bad is it in this country when you can't believe the facts American media is giving you?
- pvg 5y agoDo you remember the outlet by any chance? I'm curious how something ended up being both so specific and off at the same time.
- mrjin 5y agoHmm, since those land is already own by Chinese, they can easily get detailed data on those. For all farmlands, wouldn't satellite data be good enough? So why would they need it anyway?