Texas may curb Chinese
PROPOSES LAW AGAINST PROPERTY OWNERSHIP
Spark is purchase of 52 600ha by ex-Chinese army officer linked to Communist Party.
The US state of Texas is considering barring Chinese citizens from buying property on national security grounds and as tensions with Beijing rise, other states may follow suit.
The Texas proposal also would bar Russians, Iranians and North Koreans from owning property. But the principal target appears to be Chinese nationals.
The draft proposal was offered up in November 2022 by Republican Lois Kolkhorst, a state senator in Texas in the southern US.
“One of the top concerns for many Texans is national security and the growing ownership of Texas land by certain adversarial foreign entities,” Kolkhorst has said.
Governor Greg Abbott, a fellow Republican and fierce advocate of more severe immigration policies, said he would sign and enact the proposal if it passes the state senate.
Foreign ownership of farmland and other property, particularly by Chinese citizens or businesses, is becoming a hot issue in the United States.
Florida, Arkansas, South Dakota and eight other states are also considering legislation to restrict foreign ownership.
With 28.8 million citizens, Texas is the second-most populous state. Of its residents, 1.4 million define their ethnicity as Asian and 223 500 say they are of Chinese origin, US census data shows.
Houston, the fourth-largest US city, has 156 000 Asian residents. They include US citizens with Asian heritage but also Chinese permanent residents – or green card holders – who are not naturalised citizens.
“All these people are paying taxes here,” said Ling Luo, a first-generation Chinese immigrant who is director of the Asian Americans Leadership Council. “[They] are paying a tremendous contribution to the universities, to education.” Even though the proposal also targets other nationalities, Luo said the Chinese are most numerous. Others say ethnic Chinese are simply the target of discrimination du jour.
“Our country goes through these waves of finding immigrant groups... to demonise,” said Gene Wu, a member of the Texas House of Representatives.
He noted: “China is Texas’ second-largest trading partner. And China is the third-largest purchaser of Texas goods.” A proposal like this, he said, “could jeopardise all of those contracts”.
Kolkhorst said the spark behind the Bill was the purchase of 52 600 hectares by a retired Chinese army officer linked to the Communist Party. The land is near Laughlin Air Force Base east of Del Rio, a city near the border with Mexico.
China is Texas’ 2nd-largest trading partner