DALLAS (NewsNation) — Mounting national security concerns with China are prompting a growing number of local lawmakers to try to limit foreign land ownership within their states.
The majority of states have proposed or are working on bringing at least one bill restricting foreign access to farmland this year, according to the University of Arkansas’s National Agricultural Center.
The report revealed that 14 states already have restrictions in place.
Utah is the only state in 2023 where the governor has signed into law a bill banning certain foreign groups from owning land, the report said.
According to the Dallas Morning News, Texas has four bills (SB 147; SB 552; HB 4006; SB 711) up for consideration in the state legislature.
One of the proposed bills seeks to ban any person or business with direct ties to the governments of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from buying any real estate in the state of Texas. This does not include those with dual citizenship, nor immigrants who are trying to buy a home or a business.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has indicated he would sign it into law if it passes.
“The idea of restricting the ability of the Chinese government to do things that could adversely affect the national security of the United States is not a bad one,” Mark Jones, a Rice University political science professor, said. “The question is, is this legislation necessary to help prevent Chinese influence, or is it more rhetoric that’s more oriented towards generating support for Republicans and being an implicit criticism of the Biden administration?”
However, opponents call the bills discriminatory.
“Human beings who have no connection to a foreign government do not represent and should not suffer for those governments, especially people like my family who fled here, who sought refuge here,” State Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, said at a press conference to NewsNation affiliate KXAN in January.
Earlier this year, the city council in Grand Forks, North Dakota, voted to stop the construction of a corn milling plant by a Chinese company near a U.S. Air Force base following town outcry.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) revealed he turned down a $3.5 billion Ford battery factory because of its ties to a China manufacturer. That factory is now being constructed in Michigan.
Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed that as of 2020, China owns less than one percent of all foreign-owned land in the U.S.
On the federal level, the Committee on Foreign Investment looks at and reviews big purchases by foreign governments or individuals in terms of national security concerns.