National Security or xenophobia? Texas limits the property of Chinese inherent and rent

Jason Yuan, the owner of the car shop, closes the hood of the vehicle after tightening the last nuts at the battery terminal – the routine with which he is too familiar.

Texas has long felt like a naturalized US citizen born in China. But the recently adopted state law is a shaken belief in the chosen homeland.

The Texas Bill on Senate 17 of 2025, also known as SB 17, will come into force on September 1, limiting people and companies from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from buying and renting property.

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

“This is anti-immigrant, anti-immigrant, and specifically against Chinese-American,” said Texas spokesman Jin Wu, a democrat who is fighting the bill.

The new law may harm the Texas business, Wu BBC said. Companies that could bring millions of dollars to the state are looking for options elsewhere.

The SB 17 was proposed earlier this year and signed the law on June 20, Governor Guber Ebott, who called it a “most severe ban in America” ​​to preserve foreign “opponents”.

It prohibits some persons and organizations of the national security threats, acquiring property in Texas – including houses, commercial squares and agricultural land. It also limits the time they can rent property in less than one year.

China is the first country named after Beijing of using “forced, sabotage and malignancies to weaken the United States”, seeking to surpass the United States in economic and political terms.

Those who violate the law may threaten more than 250,000 dollars (193,000 pounds) or prison.

US citizens and green card owners are released, and the current visa owners will still be allowed to own one primary residence. But opponents say that regardless of the nomination, the bill is discriminatory, and anyone who is considered a Chinese can be subjected to unfair control.

In July, the Chinese American Law Defense Alliance (Calda), a non -profit organization, launched a lawsuit on behalf of three visa owners from China, claiming the law was unconstitutional.

Later, the judge dismissed the case, self -self -supported by the Attorney General, who stated that the plaintiffs – who are students and owners of work living in Texas – would not be injured personally.

So, it seems that three plaintiffs are now deprived. But for a wider group of visa owners from four countries, the lack of accurate interpretation of legal points is still uncertain. Kalda states that she has filed an appeal.

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

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

“If there is no human rights, then we (we), as 150 years ago, we looked like working railways,” said Ms. Lee.

Ms. Lee lived in a rented apartment located in a quiet residential area in the suburb of Austin. Busy with her work and trial, she did not have time to look for a new apartment that could meet her needs until two weeks before her rent was over.

She was at the center of the crossing when the lawsuit was rejected. Despite the fact that the ruling in court stated that it did not affect the law, she said that the whole process had taken on its mental health.

“I think it will prevent people from learning here and work here because it’s a lot of problems to think about it,” said Ms. Lee.

Jason Yuan dedicated his time to the borders of his car shop to become a public activist. Prior to the adoption of the bill, he conducted rallies on the capital of Texas and showed at the public hearing, informing the Committee that the new land bill should be called “the law on China’s exclusion of 2025”.

In 1882, a law on the exclusion of China was passed, which is fueled by anti -acid sentiments. Contradictory law banned the immigration of Chinese workers in the US.

“The ban on housing from people, as I did, on the basis of its country of origin, which is discriminatory,” said the owner of the car shop, the owner of the car shop, the BBC.

Mr. Yuan was concerned about the future for his two children and when he performed at a recent action, his 13-year-old son stood after him.

“I told everyone that it’s all worth it,” Mr. Yuan said. “In the future, I would tell my children if you are confronted with some discrimination when someone is picking up on you, this is a way to push back.”

As a small business owner, Mr. Yuan is also worried about the financial influence of the bill, since at least a third of his customers are Chinese immigrants.

“This is an ecosystem on which the business owners of the Chinese community depend,” he said.

In addition to small businesses, transnational companies from China may 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, state officials said.

Some Chinese companies are reportedly looking for alternatives in Texas.

Nancy Lynn, a commercial real estate agent based in Dallas, told the BBC that several future Chinese customers she said stop their investment plans, including some in the electric vehicles and solar panels.

“If this issue cannot be resolved, I think Chinese companies will be more difficult to enter Texas. As for those who already have a rent, they can restore them. If they do it, it may be no more than one year.”

The right to its own land was the struggle for Chinese-American who begin for more than a century.

The preliminary law of aliens in Texas, which restricted the US citizens, acted until 1965. It was considered “unjustified and discriminatory” and against “economic development”.

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

Having asked the BBC comment, his office referred to previous statements on this issue, including a press release stating “hostile foreign opponents”, including China, “cannot be allowed to possess land in Texas.”

Chuck Dewar, from the Conservative Analytical Center of Texas, was one of those who advocated the bill – emphasizing the need to “keep the enemy regimes away from our military base, agricultural land and infrastructure, such as Laughlin Airback in Del -Riya, Texas.

The legislative efforts have partially caused the controversial purchase of Chinese businessman Sun Guangansin at 140,000 hectares of Earth in Texas for the wind farm between 2016 and 2018, including the land near the Laughlin airbase.

Although initially approved by the Foreign Investment Committee in the US (CFIUS), Texas passed the law in 2021, banning agreements with some foreign companies into “critical infrastructure”, and the Mr. Sun project was thwarted.

Texas Senator John Corinin said in 2024 that as a member of the Communist Party of China (CCP) and the former senior leader of the Chinese military, Sun probably had other observation plans on behalf of the Chinese government.

Mr. Sun repelled such requirements. The trial, filed by one of the subsidiaries, emphasized that US officials had a softening of the consequences and released the project from national security problems.

A poll conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an analytical center based in Washington, has collected 224 cases of espionage against the United States from China since 2000-2023 from open sources.

The CCP -related threats have grown in recent years, suggested that national security experts.

“The risk is valid,” said BBC Holden Triplett, former FBI office head in Beijing.

“Setting on the US at a subnation level is increasingly becoming a tendency in exploration. People and groups at this level are usually less aware of the risks and most likely set relationships,” Mr Triplet said.

But Patrick Tumey from the US Civil Liberties Foundation (ACLU) said that in the case of SB 17, some officials were incorrectly equated with the Chinese government.

“There is no evidence that national security damage has led to the Chinese who have residential properties in Texas,” he said.

Experts also question the need for a new Texas law in terms of regulation. The federal government is desirable to deal with such issues to avoid overlapping jurisdictions, said Sarah Bauer Danzman of the Analytical Center of the Atlantic Council.

SB 17 is not the first such account in the US.

Twenty-six states, most of which are controlled by the republican, has adopted 50 bills that restrict the property for foreign property aimed at China since 2021, according to the 100, Chinese-American non-profit organization.

Most of the state laws have been passed since 2023, the same year, when the Chinese spy ball flew through the North America’s air space, in an incident that has become new for US-China ties.

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

“Texas law must condition,” Mr. Tommy said, adding that the legislation has armed with false claims against Asian immigrants and other communities.

Mr. Yuan believes that if the Chinese-Americans do not fight, the new Texas law may lead to such bills in other states.

For example, Ohio is considering a ban against the “competitive countries”, but with a tougher volume that may include green card owners. Activists play against it.

“They are trying to rewrite the rules of democracy,” says Mr. Yuan, “but there is still a chance that we can change the course.

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