National security or xenophobia? Texas restricts Chinese property and rental property

Jason Yuan, the owner of second -hand cars, closes the hood of a vehicle after tightening the last nut of the battery terminal – a routine that is too familiar with.

Texas has long been feeling at home for him, as a naturalized US -born US citizen. But a recently adopted state law shakes his faith in his chosen homeland.

The Texas Senate was 17 of 2025, also known as SB 17, will enter into force on September 1, restricting people and companies from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from buying and renting real estate.

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

“This is anti-Asian, anti-immigrant, and in particular against Chinese-Americans,” said Texas Jean Wu, Democrat, leading the fight against the bill.

The new law can hurt the Texas business, Wu told the BBC. Companies that could bring millions of dollars investments to the country are looking for options elsewhere.

SB 17 was offered earlier this year and signed a law on June 20 by governor Greg Abbot, who called it the “most difficult ban in America” ​​to retain foreign “opponents”.

It prohibits certain persons and organizations of countries designated as threats to national security to acquire ownership in Texas – including homes, commercial space and agricultural land. It also limits the length of time for which they can hire property less than one year.

China is the first country listed in the legislation to accuse Beijing of using “forced, subversive and malignant influences of the United States Weight Loss activities” in its application to surpass the United States Economically, Military and Politically.

Those who violate the law could face fines of over $ 250,000 (193,000 British pounds) or prison.

US citizens and green card holders are released, and valid visas holders will still be able to have one basic residence. But opponents say that despite the carvings, the bill is discriminatory and anyone who is thought to be Chinese may be the subject of unjust control.

In July, the Chinese US Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA), a non -profit organization, filed a case on behalf of three state visas from China, arguing that the law was unconstitutional.

Later, the judge rejected the case, aside with the Prosecutor General of the State, who stated that the plaintiffs – who hold a student -visa and a work visa living in Texas – would not be personally affected by law.

Therefore, it seems that the three claimants have been spared so far. But for the wider group of visa in the four countries, the lack of a clear interpretation of legal clauses still led to insecurity. Calda says she filed a complaint.

Chinese citizens are the largest group affected by the new law. At least 120,000 people who were born in mainland China live in Texas by 2023.

Qinlin Li, a recent graduate of the Texas University A&M and the plaintiff of the case filed against SB 17, said she was shocked when she first learned about the bill.

“If there is no human rights, then we (we) returned 150 years ago, we were like rail workers,” Li said.

D -if he lived in a rented apartment nestled in a quiet residential area in the suburb of Austin. Busy with her work and the trial, she did not have time to look for a new apartment that could meet her needs for up to two weeks before her leasing expires.

It was in the middle of movement when the case was rejected. Although the court’s decision said it had not been affected by law, she said the whole process had taken a fee for her mental health.

“I think it will block people to study here and work here, because it’s a lot of problems just to think,” Li said.

Jason Yuan has dedicated his time beyond his car work to be the community community. Before the bill was adopted, he led rallies outside the capital of Texas and certificates of public hearing, telling the committee that the new land bill should be called “the Law on Exclusion of China of 2025”.

In 1882, the Law on Exclusion of China, a law fueled by anti -Chinese sentiment, was passed. The controversial law prohibits the immigration of Chinese workers in the United States.

“Forbidding home ownership of people just like me on the basis of their country of origin, it is discriminatory in nature,” said G -N Yuan, the owner of the car shop, before the BBC.

Mr. Yuan was concerned about the future for his two children-when he spoke at a recent rally, his 13-year-old son stood behind him.

“I told everyone that it’s all worth it,” said G -N Yuan. “In the future, I would tell my children when you are confronted with some discrimination when someone takes you, this is a way to step back.”

As a small business owner, Juan also worries about the financial impact of the bill, as at least one -third of its customers are Chinese immigrants.

“This is an ecosystem that depends on the business of the Chinese community,” he said.

Like small businesses, transnational companies from China can be directly affected by the bill.

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 by civil servants.

Some Chinese companies have been reported looking for Texas alternatives.

Nancy Lin, a trade agent, headquartered in Dallas, told the BBC that several future Chinese customers she spoke with was stopping her investment plans, including some in the sectors of electric vehicles and solar panels.

“If this question cannot be resolved, I think it will be more difficult for Chinese companies to enter the Texas. As for those who already have existing leasing leasing, they cannot renew them. If they do, it can only be no more than one year.”

The right to own land was a struggle for Chinese-Americans dating back to a century.

Previous alien legislation in Texas, which restricts non -US citizens from the purchase of land, has been in force until 1965. It is considered “unreasonable and discriminatory” and against “economic development”.

Abbot says his main priority is the safety and security of Texas.

Requested for comment from the BBC, his office refers to previous statements on the issue, including a press release stating that “hostile foreign opponents,” including China, “should not be allowed to own land in Texas.”

Chuck Deborah of the Conservative Foundation for the Public Policy Policy Trust in Texas was among those who spoke in favor of the bill – emphasizing the need to “keep hostile regimes away from our military bases, agricultural land and infrastructure.”

The legislative efforts were partly triggered by the controversial purchase of Chinese businessman Sun Guangxin from 140,000 acres of land in Texas for the wind power plant between 2016 and 2018, including land near the LAUGHLIN Air Force Base.

Although it was originally approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), Texas passed a law in 2021, banning agreements with certain foreign companies in Critical Infrastructure and Mr Sun’s project was thwarted.

The Texas Senator John Cornin in 2024 said that as a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a former senior leader in the Chinese military, the sun probably had others about the plans to observe on behalf of the Chinese government.

Sleep hit back with such claims. A 2024 court case filed by one of its subsidiaries stressed that US employees had taken a mitigation and cleared the project from fears of national security.

A study conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, based in Washington Brain Trust, has collected 224 espionage cases against the United States from China from 2000-2023 from open sources.

In recent years, threats associated with CCP have grown in recent years, according to national security experts.

“The risk is real,” Holdon Triple, a former FBI office manager in Beijing, told the BBC.

“Targeting the United States at a sub-national level is increasingly becoming a trend in intelligence. Individuals and groups at this level tend to be less aware of the risks and more likely to establish relationships,” said Mr Triple.

But Patrick Toumi of the American Foundation for Civil Liberties (ACLU) said that in the case of SB 17, some employees mistakenly equate the Chinese with the Chinese government.

“There is no evidence that the harm of national security is the result of the Chinese own or lying residential properties in Texas,” he said.

Experts also question the need for the new Texas law from a regulatory point of view. It was preferable for the federal government to deal with such questions in order to avoid overlapping jurisdictions, said Sarah Bauer Danzman of the Atlantic Council’s Brain Trust.

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

Twenty-six countries, most of which are controlled by Republicans, have adopted 50 bills that limit the ownership of foreign property aimed at China since 2021, according to a 100-American non-governmental committee.

Most of the state laws have been adopted since 2023, the same year when a Chinese spy balloon flew through the airspace in North America, in an incident that marks a new low level for connections in the US-Chinese.

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

“The Texas Law should sound alarm bells,” said G -N -Tumi, adding that the legislation is arming false claims for national security against Asian immigrants and other communities.

Mr. Yuan believes that if Chinese Americans do not fight, the new Texas law can lead to adopted such bills in other countries.

Ohio, for example, is considering a ban on “racing countries”, but with a more string range, which may include green card holders. Activists gather against this.

“They are trying to rewrite the rules of democracy,” says G -N Yuan, “but we are still likely to change the course.

“Otherwise, the United States will become much more like China.”