National or foreign security? Texas restricts the Chinese property it owns and rented

Jason Yuan, a used car store, closes the hood after tightening the last walnut on the battery station – a routine that is familiar with it.

Texas has long felt as a home for him, as a homogeneous American citizen born in China. But the recent approved state law shakes his belief in his chosen homeland.

The Senate Bill in Texas 17 of 2025, also known as SB 17, will become valid on September 1, and people and companies are restricted from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia to buy and rent real estate.

Officials say the bill is to protect national security. But for people like Mr. Yuan, he sends a discriminatory message – that the people who resemble him are not welcome in Texas.

“It is anti -Asian, anti -immigrant, specifically against the Chinese Americans,” said the representative of Texas Jin Woo, a democratic leading the battle against the bill.

Wu Wu said that the new law could harm the business in Texas. Companies that can bring millions of dollars from investing the country are looking for options elsewhere.

SB 17 was proposed earlier this year and was signed on June 20 by Governor Greg Abbott, who described it as “the most difficult ban in America” ​​to move away from “foreigners”.

It prohibits some individuals and organizations in the designated countries as national security threats to obtain property in Texas – including homes, commercial space and agricultural lands. It also restricts the time when they can rent real estate for it to less than one year.

China is the first country to be named in legislation, which is accused of Beijing by using “forced, sabotage and malicious influence activities to weaken the United States” in its attempt to overcome the United States economically, military and political.

Those who violate the law may face fines for more than $ 250,000 (193,000 pounds) or prison terms.

American citizens and green card holders are exempt, and good visa timin will be allowed to own one initial stay. But opponents say regardless of sculpture, the draft law is a discrimination in nature, and anyone who considers it seems to be the Chinese can be subject to unfair scrutiny.

In July, the US -Chinese Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA), a non -profit organization, filed a lawsuit on behalf of three visa owners from China, on the pretext that the law is unconstitutional.

The judge later rejected the case, as he stands with the state prosecutor who said that the prosecutor – who are a student of Visa and the workers of Vica who live in Texas – would not be personally affected by the law.

So it seems that the three prosecutors have not saved now. But for the broader group of visas from the four countries, the lack of a clear interpretation of legal items still praises uncertainty. Calda says she made an appeal.

Chinese citizens are the largest group affected by the new law. At least 120,000 people born on the mainland of China lived in Texas as of 2023.

Chenlin Lee, a graduate of the University of Texas A and M. and the lawsuit prosecutor against SB 17, said she was shocked when she learned for the first time the draft law.

“If there is no human rights, we will return to the same 150 years, we were like railway workers,” said Lady.

Lady Li lived in a rented apartment located in a quiet residential area in a suburb of Austin. It is busy with her work and the lawsuit, she had no time to search for a new apartment that could meet her needs even two weeks before her expiration.

It was in the middle of the movement when the lawsuit was rejected. Although the court ruling said it was not affected by the law, she said that the whole process affected its mental health.

“I think it will prevent people from studying here and working here because it is a lot of problems only to think about it,” said Lady.

Jason Yuan devoted his time outside his car store to be an active in society. Before approving the draft law, he led marches outside the capital of Texas and witnessed in a general hearing, and the committee told that the new land law should be called “Chinese exclusion law for the year 2025”.

In 1882, the Chinese exclusion law, a law fueled by anti -chicken feelings. The controversial law prohibits the migration of Chinese workers to the United States.

“The prohibition of ownership of homes from people is just like me based on their country of origin, and this is a discriminatory matter in nature,” Mr. Yuan, the owner of the auto store, told the BBC.

Mr. Yuan was concerned about the future-and when he spoke in a modern crowd, his 13-year-old son stood behind him.

Yuan said: “I told everyone that all this deserves all this effort.” “In the future, I would like to tell my children when you encounter some discrimination, when someone chooses you, this is a way to back down.”

As a small commercial owner, Mr. Yuan also feels anxious about the financial impact of the draft law because at least a third of his customers are Chinese immigrants.

“It is an environmental system on which business owners are dependent on,” he said.

In addition to small companies, via national companies can be exposed directly from China.

Between 2011 and 2021, 34 Chinese companies recorded 38 investment projects, $ 2.7 billion in capital investment and 4,682 jobs in Texas, according to a report issued by state officials.

According to what was reported, some Chinese companies seek to obtain alternatives to Texas.

Nancy Lin, a Dallas -based commercial agent, told BBC that many potential Chinese customers who spoke to them stop their investment plans, including some in the electric cars and solar energy sectors.

“If it is not possible to solve this problem, I think it will be difficult for Chinese companies to enter Texas. As for those who have already lease contracts, they will not be able to renew them. If they do so, it couldn’t be more than one year.”

The right to possess the land was a struggle for the Chinese Americans, and its history dates back to more than a century.

The former foreign land law in Texas, which restricts non -American citizens to buy lands, was in effect until 1965. It was considered “unreasonable and discriminatory” and against “economic development”.

Abbott says his maximum priority is the safety and security of Texas.

Upon requesting a comment by the BBC, his office referred to the previous data on this topic, including a press release that said “hostile foreign opponents”, including China “, should not be allowed to own lands in Texas.”

Chuck Devore, of the Sank Tank Public Policy Public, was among those who spoke in favor of the draft law – highlights the need to “keep hostilities away from our military bases, agricultural lands, and infrastructure, such as the Laughlin Air Force base in Del Rio, Texas, or The Ranches That feeds our state. “

The legislative effort partially prompted the purchase of Chinese businessman Sun Kwanganxen, which is 140,000 acres in Texas on a wind farm between 2016 and 2018, including lands near the La Veletin Air Force Base.

Although the Foreign Investment Committee in the United States (CFIUS) that was initially approved, Texas passed a law in 2021, as it was banned agreements with some companies owned by foreigners in “critical infrastructure”, and the Mr. Sun project was thwarted.

Sinator Texas John Corn said in 2024 that, as a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a former chief commander in the Chinese army, is likely to have other monitoring plans on behalf of the Chinese government.

Mr. Sun responded to such allegations. A lawsuit in 2024, submitted by one of its subsidiaries, highlighted that American officials had taken mitigation and removed the project from national security concerns.

A survey conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research company, gathered 224 spy cases against the United States from China from 2000-2023 from open sources.

National security experts have suggested that the US threats have grown in recent years.

“The risk is real,” Holden Triplet, the former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Beijing, told BBC.

“Targeting the United States at the level without patriotism has become an increasing trend in intelligence. Individuals and groups at this level tend to be less aware of the risks and most likely to establish relations,” said Mr. Triple.

But Patrick Tommy, from the American Civil Liberties Foundation (ACLU), said that in the case of SB 17, some officials were wrongly equal to the Chinese people with the Chinese government.

“There is no evidence that the harm to national security has resulted from the possession or rental of residential properties in Texas,” he said.

Experts also question the necessity of the new Texas law in orderly. Sarah Bourale Danzman, from the Atlantic Council Research Center, said it is better for the federal government to deal with such matters to avoid overlap in the judicial states.

SB 17 is not the first bill of its kind in the United States.

Twenty -six states, most of which are controlled by Republicans, have passed 50 laws that restrict foreign property ownership targeting China since 2021, according to the 100th Committee, a Chinese NGO.

Most of the state’s laws have been approved since 2023, in the same year in which a Chinese spy balloon flew through North America, in an incident that was characterized by the presence of the lowest new level of relations between the United States of China.

The Trump administration also said it plans to ban Chinese citizens from buying agricultural lands in the United States.

“The Texas Law must appear warnings,” said Mr. Tommy, adding that the legislation is a weapon of false claims for national security against Asian immigrants and other societies.

Mr. Yuan believes that if the Chinese Americans do not fight, the new law in Texas may pass bills similar in other states.

Ohio, for example, is taught a ban on “hostilities”, but with a tougher scope that can include green cards as well. Activists were gathering against her.

“They are trying to rewrite the rules of democracy, but there is still an opportunity to change the path,” says Yuan.

“Otherwise, the United States will become more similar to China.”