Sen. Lois Kolkhorst filed a invoice that may ban citizens, governments and entities from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from buying land within the state.
TEXAS, USA — Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the Texas Tribune here.
Gov. Greg Abbott said this week that he would signal a proposed invoice banning citizens and international entities from 4 international locations, together with China, from buying Texas land.
Filed in November by Brenham Republican Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, Senate Bill 147 would ban citizens, governments and entities from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from buying land right here, a part of what she and different Republicans have mentioned will assist stem international affect in Texas.
The invoice would additionally prohibit the acquisition or acquisition of property by a “governmental entity” of the 4 international locations; by an organization headquartered within the 4 international locations; and by an organization “directly or indirectly controlled” by a government of the 4 international locations.
Opponents say the invoice — and the GOP’s broader emphasis on threats from the Chinese government — is probably going to additional sow anti-Asian sentiment that has skyrocketed in recent times and will disenfranchise immigrants, enterprise house owners and green-card holders whereas doing little to deal with any nationwide safety issues.
“If signed into law, this bill would make anti-Asian hate state policy,” the Houston chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations mentioned Friday. “It would violate the elemental rights of not solely citizens of different international locations no matter their relationship to their governments, but additionally Green Card holders and probably twin citizens.”
Others echoed these issues this week.
“The bill doesn’t say, ‘military bases,’” mentioned state Rep. Gene Wu, whose Houston district encompasses a big Chinese American inhabitants. “There is no discernment about what type of land is being purchased or who is doing the purchasing. … It targets individuals indiscriminately.”
Wu additionally feared that the Chinese government may retaliate over the ban and that it may complicate the power of companies of all sizes within the U.S. to work with Chinese counterparts or compete in an more and more globalized market.
The proposal follows a 2021 invoice that banned Texas companies and government officers from making infrastructure offers with pursuits from the 4 international locations. That laws, which handed unanimously, was filed in response to a Xinjiang-based actual property tycoon’s buy of roughly 140,000 acres for a wind farm in Val Verde, a small border city close to Laughlin Air Force Base.
Kolkhorst mentioned her invoice was equally prompted by issues over “growing ownership” of Texas land by international entities.
“The time to address adversarial countries acquiring land is before it becomes widespread, not after they already control substantial amounts of Texas,” she mentioned earlier this week. Late Friday afternoon, Kolkhorst mentioned in a press release that the invoice “will make crystal clear that the prohibitions do not apply to United States citizens and lawful permanent residents.”
She additionally added that the invoice “does not prohibit foreign business investment in Texas, because companies may still do business by leasing land and buildings.”
Kolkhorst’s proposal comes amid a wave of payments and rhetoric concentrating on China.
“Communist China, America’s greatest foe, is on a bender,” Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller wrote in an op-ed final yr that referred to as for such a ban. “They are buying up farmland across the United States and Texas.”
But taken collectively, traders from the 4 international locations account for a tiny sliver of foreign-owned farmland each in Texas and nationally: Chinese traders personal about 383,000 whole acres of U.S. farmland — about 600 sq. miles — which is lower than 1% of whole, foreign-held acreage, in accordance to the United States Department of Agriculture’s 2021 land report. Investors from Russia, Iran and North Korea collectively personal lower than 3,000 acres, in accordance to USDA.
Canadian traders account for about 31% of foreign-own farmland within the United States — by far the most important share — adopted by traders from the Netherlands at 12% and these from Italy at 7%.
In October, Republicans within the U.S. House of Representatives referred to as for an investigation into international land funding nationally. Former President Donald Trump, who’s working for the White House once more, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is taken into account a prime GOP presidential contender ought to he run, have just lately mentioned they help such bans. And, citing the Chinese Community Party, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, proposed federal laws this week that may equally ban Chinese land investments.
Wu, the Houston lawmaker, mentioned the invoice is paying homage to different items of anti-Chinese laws relationship again to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act — a 70-year prohibition on most Chinese immigration that the United States didn’t apologize for till 2012. He questioned why China is included within the invoice — and why the nation has been a focus of Republican Party messaging — whereas many different international locations escape scrutiny.
“We oppose communist countries, right?” he requested. “Where’s Cuba? Where’s Venezuela? Where’s Vietnam? You say that we oppose countries that are hostile to our country? Great, where is Saudi Arabia? Where is Pakistan? Where are all these other places that have caused our country harm? It becomes a real slippery slope.”
“The Asian population is the new scapegoat,” he added.
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