Three people unfurl a banner-sized open letter opposing the Texas SB 147 and SB 552 projects in Chinatown, Houston, Texas on Feb 9, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

Wu Xiaoyu, an information technology professional at Amazon, was among several hundred people attending a rally outside the Texas Capitol building in Austin, the United States, on Jan 29.

They gathered in front of the structure to protest Texas legislative bill SB 147, which if passed would ban government entities, companies and citizens of China, Iran, Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from buying real estate in Texas.

Wu said he is outraged by the bill proposed by Texas state Senator Lois Kolkhorst, who is a Republican, and endorsed by the state's Governor Greg Abbott. The latter tweeted shortly before Chinese New Year that he would sign the bill into law.

The bill has triggered outrage from communities, including Chinese Americans, in major metropolitan areas of Texas.

As the protest took place, Wu's son was celebrating Spring Festival a few blocks away at the University of Texas with members of the institution's community.

Wu told the crowd he attended the university as a student from China in 2012, before working for Amazon after graduation. He is proud of his contribution to Texas and said the apps he has developed have enabled thousands of Amazon workers and fellow Texans to make an extra $10 to $20 per shift.

For many Chinese Americans, SB 147 is a reminder of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act that denied Chinese immigrants entry to the US. It also refused to grant citizenship to Chinese already in the nation. The act was not completely repealed until 1968

Amazon workers use Wu's apps to swap shifts among themselves when they need to take care of sick family members or celebrate a special occasion.

Wu said it took him 10 years to complete a lengthy and complicated process to obtain his US green card, which grants the holder permanent residency in the US. His wife, who is due to complete a nursing program in spring, plans to become a licensed nurse.

"Just when we finally had a sense of settling down in Texas, this racist bill SB 147 comes out of nowhere and forbids us from owning a house in a place where we work and live. We are forbidden to live a normal life like any other hardworking immigrants. How come?" Wu asked. "How come we are portrayed as spies, as threats to national security?"

Wu said that instead of joining his son to celebrate Spring Festival, he attended the rally "because I want my children to live in a country where people are judged by their character, not by the color of their skin, or the country they come from".

The same day, another rally was held in downtown Dallas, and protests against the bill have also been staged in Fort Bend County and downtown Houston since the proposed legislation caught the public's attention.

For many Chinese Americans, SB 147 is a reminder of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act that denied Chinese immigrants entry to the US. It also refused to grant citizenship to Chinese already in the nation. The act was not completely repealed until 1968.

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In 1913, California passed the Alien Land Law, which prohibited "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning agricultural land or possessing long-term leases for it. The legislation included Chinese, Japanese, Indians and Koreans, and was later amended to forbid them from owning stock in companies.

Alien land legislation soon spread to other states.

Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming enacted laws restricting Asians' rights to hold land in the US. Florida was the last state to repeal such legislation, in 2018.

Martha Wong, the first elected Chinese American member of Houston City Council and a former Texas state Representative, told China Daily in a previous interview that when her family first moved to the Houston Heights area in the 1930s, before she was born, her father was unable to rent an apartment or buy a house. However, he managed to lease a grocery store.

Texas Representative Gene Wu, a Democrat, said at one of a series of news conferences he held from Houston to Austin late last month to protest SB 147: "This is especially painful for the Asian American community because we have been down this road before"

"We lived in the back of the store. It was just an empty space with two beds and a table. At dinner time, my father sat in the only chair, and the rest of us sat on apple crates. We lived there for six years after I was born," Wong said in the interview.

As the civil rights movement was making headway in the US, a customer of Wong's father finally sold his house to him.

Bill 'too broad'

Texas Representative Gene Wu, a Democrat, said at one of a series of news conferences he held from Houston to Austin late last month to protest SB 147: "This is especially painful for the Asian American community because we have been down this road before."

Wu has campaigned to stop SB 147. As a lawyer, he said the bill is too broad, and not much thought has been given to its impact. Under its current wording, it would affect the rights of visa holders and green card holders from China, Japan, the DPRK and Russia.

According to a report by media and publishing company Forbes, about 80,000 non-US citizens born in the four countries are residents of Texas. Some 55,000 are employed, more than 5,000 are self-employed, and over 1,000 have incorporated businesses.

Wu said that under current law, green card holders enjoy the constitutional protection of free speech and property rights, yet SB 147 is attempting to break down that protection for some.

"It basically says that everyone is protected except these people (those from China, Russia, Iran and the DPRK)," Wu told the Chinese community at a virtual meeting during Spring Festival.

The proposed legislation would have major consequences for many people. Besides being unable to own a home, Wu said that in one scenario, a noncitizen spouse would be forced to sell the house if his or her citizen spouse dies. Noncitizen entrepreneurs would also be severely restricted in starting or owning a business.

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A pedestrian walks down El Paso Street, a major shopping area, on Oct 23, 2020 in downtown El Paso, Texas. (PHOTO / AFP)

Even if the bill were modified to exclude permanent residents, and to a greater extent holders of H-1B work visas, it still sends a dangerous message, Wu said.

"It means everyone is equal except for this group of people. Think what that means for your children," he said.

The proposed legislation would have major consequences for many people. Besides being unable to own a home, Wu said that in one scenario, a noncitizen spouse would be forced to sell the house if his or her citizen spouse dies. Noncitizen entrepreneurs would also be severely restricted in starting or owning a business

Wu added that some harm has already been caused to the Chinese American community simply by having proposed legislation such as SB 147, and the bill would encourage people to attack Chinese in the US.

"Every time they pass a bill against a certain group, there is a rise in violence against that group," Wu said.

As many people cannot distinguish between Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese or Koreans, hate crimes triggered by bills such as SB 147 would eventually impact the entire Asian community, as witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.

The bill prompted him and other Asian lawmakers in Texas to form an Asian American and Pacific Islander, or AAPI, legislative caucus.

The caucus was announced on Jan 31, AAPI Legislative Day, at the Texas Capitol, where Asian Americans gathered to discuss obstacles and opportunities for themselves and Pacific Islanders in Texas.

The six Asian legislators in Texas are included in the caucus, which is jointly chaired by Wu and Angie Chen Button.

Wu said at the announcement ceremony, "Forming the AAPI caucus is a big stepping stone, a big milestone, for our community."

Austin Zhao, former chairman of the Houston Asian Chamber of Commerce, board member of the International Business Brokers Association and senior mergers and acquisitions adviser for Transworld Business Advisors, said some of his clients are worried about their investment prospects due to SB 147.

Zhao helps entrepreneurs make business deals, and many of his clients are immigrants.

"Some of them have been asking me about this bill. They are worried they will not be able to purchase land or invest in Texas in the future. This bill is basically trying to chase them out of Texas, making Texas a business-unfriendly state," Zhao said.

As an immigrant from China and a US citizen, Zhao said that under SB 147 he could not have invested in a shopping mall as a permanent resident.

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"This bill is simply ridiculous and unconstitutional. The fight is between the two governments (past and present). Why do you punish individuals here in the US as a result? This is so unfair," he said.

In addition to economic consequences for Texas and individuals, Zhao said the more serious repercussions of the bill are that Chinese in the US would be defined as secondary citizens by law even if SB 147 were modified.

This bill is simply ridiculous and unconstitutional. The fight is between the two governments (past and present). Why do you punish individuals here in the US as a result? This is so unfair.

Austin Zhao, former chairman of the Houston Asian Chamber of Commerce, board member of the International Business Brokers Association and senior mergers and acquisitions adviser for Transworld Business Advisors

"We would be discriminated against. What would come next? Sending us to concentration camps? This is the 21st century. We can't allow that kind of discrimination to become law," he said.

Like many others, Zhao blamed politicians for using national security for political gain. "This is not for national security, this is for pursuing political exposure for personal and partisan interest," he said.

Law extension

The SB 147 bill is an extension of a law enacted last year — the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act, or LSIPA. This legislation prohibits businesses and governments in Texas from contracting entities owned or controlled by individuals and entities from China, Russia, the DPRK and Iran for projects involving critical infrastructure.

LSIPA was a direct response to a land-use dispute between local residents and a wind farm owned by Chinese real estate businessman Sun Guangxin in south Texas. Sun's company declined to comment on the dispute.

According to a Forbes report in 2021, Sun, a real estate billionaire from China incorporated his company in the US in 2015. He bought about 140,000 acres (56,656 hectares) of land in a community in Val Verde county on the Mexican border in the name of his subsidiary GH America.

In 2017, local residents became alarmed when French wind turbine developer Akuo built the Rocksprings wind farm in the east of county on land leased from Sun. They feared the wind farm would threaten the Devils River ecosystem.

When the environmental group Devils River Conservancy learned of a plan by Sun's company to build a second wind farm, it launched a campaign against the project, titled Don't Blow It, Texas, according to Forbes.

Julie Lewey, the group's executive director, told Forbes: "Initially, we tried to take the environmental angle, as we had these endangered species and because the Devils River Conservancy has largely been focused on the ecological components of the region. Unfortunately, that angle didn't get a lot of traction."

People pass by US National flags in Washington, DC on Jan 9, 2021. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

Forbes reported that the group then started talking about "the hot-blooded issues of protecting nearby Laughlin Air Force Base, Sun's connections to the Chinese Communist Party, and the alleged national security threat GH America posed to Texas and the United States".

Lewey said: "We started to roll out the narrative and really just spread awareness and understanding that this company from China was planning to connect to our critical infrastructure. We're not xenophobic, but we are concerned for our national security, as every red-blooded American is."

Texas state Senator Lois Kolkhorst, who is a Republican, said her SB 147 bill was prompted by concerns over "growing ownership" of land in Texas by foreign entities. "The time to address adversarial countries acquiring land is before this becomes widespread, not after they already control substantial amounts of Texas," she said

GH America spokesman Stephen Lindsey told Forbes that Sun's wind farm has received federal approval, and national security concerns have been sufficiently addressed through federal regulatory channels.

"It's being spun as a national security deal, but really what it is, is a way to say 'not in my backyard,'" he told Forbes.

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As an environmental issue turned political, the story evolved and gained a central theme — a retired Chinese general buying a large piece of land near a US army base, and possibly spying for China.

Forbes reported that Sun was a retired captain from the People's Liberation Army — far from being a general.

The story quickly caught the attention of politicians in Texas. "China threats" were talked about, hearings were held, LSIPA was enacted last year, and SB 147 proposed.

Kolkhorst, the senator, said her SB 147 bill was prompted by concerns over "growing ownership" of land in Texas by foreign entities. "The time to address adversarial countries acquiring land is before this becomes widespread, not after they already control substantial amounts of Texas," she said.

However, The Texas Tribune reported that investors from China account for a tiny proportion of foreign-owned farmland in Texas and across the US.

According to the US Department of Agriculture's 2021 Land Report, Chinese investors own 154,994 hectares of farmland in the US — less than 1 percent of the land held by foreigners in the nation.

Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy account for more than 50 percent of foreign-owned agricultural land in Texas. Canada alone owns about 30 percent. No specific figure for China is available.