COMMENTARY: Tennessee Isn’t China’s to Buy
Tennessee Today

Communist China isn’t just competing with America these days- it’s attempting to buy America. From farmland to strategic assets, hostile foreign interests are working to gain a foothold in our country while family farmers struggle to hold onto land their families have cultivated for generations. Tennessee has led the way in pushing back, but we can’t afford to stop now. Our farmland is part of our national security, and it belongs in the hands of Americans and not foreign adversaries. 

Tennessee’s economy is deeply rooted in the land, with agriculture and forestry contributing approximately $89 billion to the state’s economy each year. In the U.S., 20% of all economic activity is generated by the food and agriculture industry, supporting over 49 million jobs.

There is no doubt that the agriculture industry is central to our economy’s success, making the idea of foreign entities gaining a foothold in our soil strike a chord deeper than pride or international politics. It is a threat to the security and livelihoods of millions of good Americans; being flippant about who owns our agricultural land is not an option. 

The numbers show the damage, as 1 in every 5,600 acres of all privately held agricultural land in the U.S is Chinese-owned, as of 2024. 

Thankfully, Tennessee has taken action. In 2025, the state prohibited entities from sanctioned countries from buying Tennessee agricultural land. In another piece of legislation signed into law by Governor Bill Lee in 2025, the state aimed to tighten reporting requirements on foreign purchases of agricultural land and introduced fines to those who failed to comply. 

This year, State Representative Jay Reedy and Senator Rusty Crowe led the charge for the passage of a bill that will keep foreign adversaries off Tennessee land more generally by prohibiting foreign entities from purchasing non-agricultural land in Tennessee. What differentiates this bill from previous efforts is how it reaches backward. Current foreign landowners who fall within this bill’s scope have two years to divest, and companies with prohibited foreign owners would be obligated to register with the Tennessee Secretary of State. Tennessee lawmakers have been working for years to strengthen this framework, and this legislation represents the most significant step forward thus far. 

Looking beyond our own backyard, we can see that multiple states have adopted bills targeting foreign land ownership. Arkansas, George, Idaho, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Utah have amended existing laws. Additionally, Kentucky, Texas, and West Virginia passed new restrictions. 

At a national level, the Trump administration also added federal pressure through launching the National Farm Security Action Plan, pushing state and federal partners to crack down on foreign land acquisitions. 

These steps are important to our farmers and our national security, but they are not enough. Farming is the backbone of Tennessee’s economy. Our farms are more than generators of billions in economic output each year; they are the homes and generational livelihoods of thousands of Tennesseans. When this land falls into foreign hands, we lose more than dirt. We lose a piece of what it means to be a Tennessean. We need to stand together and tell Communist China that Tennessee is not for sale once and for all. Tennessee belongs in the hands of Tennesseans.