Chinese Americans fight for their place in Texas as lawmakers push restrictions on foreign land ownership, social media platforms

A mid-January Twitter post by Gov. Greg Abbott alerted Chinese Americans across Texas that their rights might be trampled as state lawmakers rushed to burnish their geopolitical credentials.

On Jan. 15, the Republican governor told his 1 million followers he was ready to sign into law a proposed bill that would ban “citizens, governments & entities” of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from purchasing land in the state, in effect blocking some immigrants from becoming homeowners.

The bill restricting land ownership was followed by kindred proposals to ban international college students from those same countries and to cut off Texans’ access to TikTok and another social media platform that’s become crucial for the Chinese diaspora living in the state to communicate with family in China.