After days of protests, the author of a bill to bar citizens from China and three other...
Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerfrom buying land in Texas is promising changes to alleviate concerns that the legislation is too broad and could have unintended consequences.
Kolkhorst’s SB 147 would bar government entities, businesses and citizens from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran from buying land in Texas. She said the legislation builds off of a law she passed in 2021 that already bars businesses from those countries from buying critical infrastructure, like power facilities and telecommunications communities.
On a visit to Houston this week, Shirley Xueyuan Xu, the deputy chief of mission at the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., declined to comment directly on the proposal. But Xu said she has heard concerns from the local Chinese-American business community about it. Kolkhorst first filed the bill in November, but last week, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, announced on Twitter his support for the legislation and promised to sign it if it passes the Legislature. The bill has not had a hearing yet in the Texas Legislature, which officially got underway on Jan. 10 and runs through May 29.
Nationally, new U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has vowed to take a tougher stand against China. Last year he traveled to Houston to specifically make that point and
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