A rural community in Michigan has hailed a 'huge victory' after a Chinese-owned industrial firm backed out of buying local farmland.

Residents of the idyllic Green Charter Township, around 50 miles east of Lake Michigan, say they were 'bullied' into accepting the takeover, but refused to do so.

Gotion, a company that 'pledges allegiance' to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), did, however, complete the purchase of 260 acres of derelict industrial land in the township and 10 acres of disused farmland last week.

It comes as data shows Chinese firms now own more than $2billion worth of US farmland, up from just $162million a decade ago, DailyMail.com can reveal.

The CCP has a stake in 383,935 acres of American agricultural land as of December 2021, according to the latest figures released by the US Department of Agriculture.

By comparison, Bill Gates owns 248,000 acres of US farmland, while Jeff Bezos owns 420,000.

It has sparked a national debate over why the US is allowing a hostile state to buy up vital land across the country amid concerns over espionage and security.

Hundreds of residents in Green Charter Township, Mecosta County, have previously turned out to protest the Gotion deal, in which the firm is to be paid $175million in direct taxpayer funding to help it build the facility.