New Texas Law to Prevent Land Sales to CCP Members
Udumbara
Texas will ban individuals and companies with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from purchasing land in the state under a law set to take effect on Sept. 1.
The legislation targets nations designated as national security threats by the U.S. National Director of Intelligence. Besides communist China, the current list includes Russia, Iran, and North Korea. It also grants the governor the authority to add more countries to the restricted list.
State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, who reintroduced SB 17 earlier this year, hailed the Texas measures as “the strongest national security bill that this nation has ever seen from any state.”
“All of these are our resources that should never fall into the hands of adversarial nations,” she said.
Under the soon-to-be-enacted law, people from the designated nations living in the United States legally are allowed to purchase residential property, but only if those properties serve as their primary residences.
It restricts members of “the ruling political party or any subdivision of the ruling political party” in these nations from purchasing the state’s property. That means the CCP members, for example, would not be able to buy land in Texas.
Individuals who act “as an agent or on behalf of a designated country” are also subject to the land purchase ban.
The law also prohibits them from acquiring land and limits property leases to less than a year at a time.
Texas alone has 123,708 acres, making it the state with the largest Chinese holdings. It was followed by North Carolina with 44,263 acres and Missouri with 42,905 acres.
Nationwide, Iranian and Russian investors reported owning 3,030 acres and 11 acres, respectively, while there was no reported acreage held by North Koreans, according to the report released in December 2023.
State Rep. Cole Hefner, a Republican who carried SB 17 in the House, said the new law will “prevent hostile foreign nations from buying up Texas land and exposing Texas to a significant and growing threat.”
“We cannot, we will not, allow oppressive regimes who actively seek to do us harm to seize control and dictate their terms over our economy, our supply chains, our daily lives, our critical infrastructure, or our food supply,” Hefner said at the May 31 press conference.
State Sen. Bryan Hughes told reporters that the bill was not about foreign people but part of Texas’s efforts to stand up against threats from hostile foreign adversaries.
He pointed to the threats posed by transnational repression, saying that agents from foreign adversaries operate in Texas, going after dissidents and Americans who speak out against them.
“We love all people,” Hughes said. “We do not support hostile foreign governments that are very open about their designs on us, and we will not let them mess with Texas.”
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