Josh Riley Stokes Xenophobia With Chinese Communist Party Paranoia
Congressman Josh Riley promised us, months ago, that he was going to “fight like hell” to stop Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s fascist takeover of the American government, “fight like hell” against the defunding of government agencies that help rural Americans, and “fight like hell” to stop efforts to defund Medicaid and Social Security.
Since that time, we have seen other members of Congress protest, get arrested, and even be charged with crimes by Trump’s Department of Justice. They have been fighting like hell.
Josh Riley hasn’t even been showing up to all of his committee meetings.
In order to fill the space and create the appearance of action, Josh Riley’s congressional office reposted a boast from Josh Riley that he’s defending Upstate New York farmland from an invasion by the Chinese Communist Party.
“No chance in hell I’m going to let the CCP get its hands on Upstate farmland. My ‘America First’ amendment would better track foreign purchases of US land and protect national security. Because Upstate farmland should belong to Upstate farmers.”
This news is actually just a refresh of a minor action taken by Josh Riley way back in February, when he added his name as a co-sponsor to a piece of legislation called the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act. In February, the office of Representative Riley released the following statement:
“This week, Congressman Josh Riley (NY-19) signed on to The Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act, a bipartisan bill that would protect Upstate New York farmland from foreign land grabs by US adversaries like the Communist Chinese Party (CCP).
‘I’m sponsoring this bipartisan legislation because we need to stop the CCP from buying American farmland and preying on Upstate New York's family farms,’ said Riley. ‘Our bill will strengthen national security and preserve Upstate’s critical role in feeding America.’
USDA data shows that foreign investors have come to hold interests in more than 40 million acres of U.S. agricultural land—a level of ownership that has raised concerns about potential national security vulnerabilities.”
What?!? The Chinese Communist Party owns 40 million acres of farmland in the United States?!? This sounds like a foreign invasion, a genuine national security threat.
Pay attention to the details, though, and you’ll see that’s not actually what’s happening.
The USDA data Josh Riley cites says that foreign investors hold interests in about 40 million acres of US agricultural land.
Those foreign investors don’t completely own much of that land. They often just “hold interests” in that land, meaning that they are partial investors in businesses that own American agricultural land.
Most of those foreign investors aren’t from China. China is 18th on the list of nations who are home to investors that have some form of ownership of US agricultural land. Canada, the Netherlands, and Italy are the biggest sources of foreign ownership of US agricultural land.
Investors from China own less than even one half of one million acres of US agricultural land. All the investors from China combined own just 383,934 acres of American farmland. That’s only four hundredths of one percent of agricultural land in the United States.
Of that tiny portion of American agricultural land that is owned, often only in part, by Chinese investors, the vast majority is owned by Chinese businesses, not the Chinese Communist Party. These businesses are capitalist organizations. There’s nothing Communist about them.
The most recent data from the federal government about the purchase of American farmland by investors from China comes from December 2023. That data shows that in all of 2023, US agricultural land purchased by organizations “with a primary interest held by an owner from China” totaled only 1,311.6 acres. That’s not 1.3 million acres. It’s just a little over 1.3 thousand acres, in all of the United States.
None of that land was anywhere in New York State. Not even one acre.
None of that land was bought by the Chinese Communist Party. It was bought by business with heavy amounts of Chinese investors, including the companies Smithfield Foods Princeton Commercial, Chesapeake View, and Sygenta Seeds.
According to that same USDA report, the most recent data indicates that there are ZERO acres of land owned by any Chinese business or government entity in New York State.
From the USDA - zero agricultural and NON-AGRICULTURAL land holdings in New York State. Where are the Chinese Communists preying on Upstate New York family farms?
Despite the fact that there is absolutely no Chinese ownership of any farmland in New York State, Josh Riley is claiming that “we need to stop the CCP from buying American farmland and preying on Upstate New York's family farms”.
This statement by Josh Riley is nothing but anti-foreigner, and specifically anti-Asian, fearmongering. The Chinese Communist Party is not preying on Upstate New York’s family farms.
It’s not happening.
Why is Congressman Josh Riley whipping up baseless fears against Asian people, at a time when law-abiding foreigners who legally entered the United States are being grabbed off the street, put into detention camps or deported, often without any due process of law?
I don’t know what’s going on in Josh Riley’s mind. Nobody but Josh Riley knows that.
What this looks like, though, is Josh Riley exploiting irrational prejudice against foreigners in order to look tough. That’s what fascist demagogues do.
What this looks like is Congressman Josh Riley supporting Donald Trump’s anti-foreigner fascist ideology in order to look tough.
That’s the opposite of what Josh Riley promised us he would do.
When we look at the facts behind Josh Riley’s bluster, Congressman Riley doesn’t look tough. He looks dishonest. He looks manipulative. He looks like a racist bully.
If Congressman Josh Riley has any decency, he will make a statement about anti-Asian racism, about the dangers of anti-foreigner paranoia, and will apologize for whipping up baseless fears of Chinese Communists preying upon Upstate New York family farms.
Does Congressman Josh Riley have any decency?
