Explained: Why US states are trying to make it illegal for Chinese citizens to buy land

Houston: After a Chinese billionaire with plans to create a wind farm bought up more than 130,000 acres of Texas land, some of it near a US Air Force base, the state responded with a ban on such infrastructure projects by those with direct ties to China. Governor Greg Abbott’s endorsement of the bill underscored just how important foreign land ownership, particularly by Chinese buyers, has become as a political issue, not just in Texas but across the country. “One of the top concerns for many Texans is national security and the growing ownership of Texas land by certain adversarial foreign entities,” Kolkhorst said, referring to the Chinese purchase of the land near an Air Force base near Del Rio, Texas, for a proposed wind farm. “These people can be engineers, medical doctors, accountants and teachers.” The proposed bill in Texas, he said, would “take American dreams away from these people, including my family.” A 2021 census survey estimated that about 150,000 foreign-born Chinese are living in Texas, a larger population than any of the other nationalities targeted by the proposed ban. Because the measure does not distinguish between targeting people who are already here and those outside the United States, he said, it raises “serious due process and equal protection issues.” In response to an inquiry from the New York Times, Kolkhorst said in a statement that she would amend her bill “to include a provision that will make crystal clear that the prohibitions do not apply to United States citizens and lawful permanent residents.” Texas State Representative Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat, speaks at a rally against State Senate Bill 147.