Texas’s threat of real estate ban prompts surge of Chinese-American activism

The US presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris comes at a time of rising geopolitical tensions on multiple fronts. In the fourth of a series, Bochen Han reports on how legislation targeting Chinese citizens has mobilised voters in Texas.

For Lan Wang, life in Texas was good until she heard in early 2023 that Governor Greg Abbott would support a bill that would prevent Chinese citizens from buying property in the state.

“My initial thought was, this was a joke,” she said.

Angered, Wang – a Dallas resident who asked to use a pseudonym – began learning about the state’s legislative process and attending hearings related to the bill.

Even though she had studied public policy, and felt uncomfortable when anti-China rhetoric was being spread during the Covid-19 pandemic, she said it was only last year that she felt motivated to take action.

Early versions of Texas Senate Bill 147 – one of numerous Republican-sponsored measures introduced nationwide in recent years aimed at restricting property purchases by citizens of “adversarial” countries like China – would have imposed restrictions even on Chinese green card holders.

At the time, the restrictions would have directly affected Wang, who arrived in Texas as a student in 2010 and became a US citizen only late last year.