Texas GOP coalesces around bill banning Chinese ownership of land

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Gov. Greg Abbott said this week that he would signal a proposed bill banning residents and international entities from 4 international locations, together with China, from shopping for Texas land.

Filed in November by Brenham Republican Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, Senate Bill 147 would ban residents, governments and entities from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from buying land right here, half of what she and different Republicans have stated will assist stem international affect in Texas.

The bill 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 authorities of the 4 international locations.

Opponents say the bill — and the GOP’s broader emphasis on threats from the Chinese authorities — is more likely to additional sow anti-Asian sentiment that has skyrocketed lately and can disenfranchise immigrants, enterprise house owners and green-card holders whereas doing little to handle 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 stated Friday. “It would violate the basic rights of not solely residents of different international locations regardless of their relationship to their governments, but additionally Green Card holders and presumably twin residents.”

Others echoed these issues this week.

“The bill doesn’t say, ‘military bases,’” stated 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 authorities might retaliate over the ban and that it might 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 bill that banned Texas companies and authorities 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 stated her bill 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 stated earlier this week. Late Friday afternoon, Kolkhorst stated in a press release that the bill “will make crystal clear that the prohibitions do not apply to United States citizens and lawful permanent residents.”

She additionally added that the bill “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 known as for such a ban. “They are buying up farmland across the United States and Texas.”

But taken collectively, buyers from the 4 international locations account for a tiny sliver of foreign-owned farmland each in Texas and nationally: Chinese buyers personal about 383,000 complete acres of U.S. farmland — about 600 sq. miles — which is lower than 1% of complete, foreign-held acreage, in keeping with 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 keeping with USDA.

Canadian buyers account for about 31% of foreign-own farmland within the United States — by far the biggest share — adopted by buyers from the Netherlands at 12% and people from Italy at 7%.

In October, Republicans within the U.S. House of Representatives known 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 high GOP presidential contender ought to he run, have just lately stated they assist such bans. And, citing the Chinese Community Party, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, proposed federal laws this week that will equally ban Chinese land investments.

Wu, the Houston lawmaker, stated the bill is reminiscent of 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 bill — 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.