Plugging Loopholes on Chinese Communist Land Purchases

By State Rep. David Spiller District 68

If I went to China today and tried to buy land beside a Chinese military base, the next thing I know I’d be in a tiny cell hoping and waiting for an international prisoner exchange.

In sharp contrast to Communist China, Texas has had multiple cases of land purchases by Chinese nationals or Chinese entities near military bases here.

When you hear in the news of the complete lack of an even playing field in trade relationships with China, you can now see the imbalance does not stop at tariffs.

If China tries to sneak in and study U.S. military bases from up close, shame on them. But if we here in Texas sit back and let it happen, shame on us. America’s leading international rival will use whatever information it can find to gain military or economic advantage over us.

Four years ago, we banned Chinese nationals from owning vital pieces of the Texas’ electric grid. This year, we will double down and ban many kinds of Chinese economic activity and ownership here.

This session, the Texas House has a package of bills intended to fully address the issue of China and other international adversaries being able to purchase land for any purpose they please.

I have introduced House Bill 191, which will end foreign investment immediately. If we pass it through the Legislature, no foreign enemy of America, including Communist China, will be ever to purchase land and compromise our security. I have also joint-authored HB 17— another legislative vehicle seeking to achieve the same outcome. One way or another, we will get it done.

 China already owns 380,000 acres of American land. We own no land in China.

In 2023, China bought $6.1 billion in American real estate. Texas and Oklahoma are the two states that get the most attention from Chinese land buyers.

A Chinese company created a firestorm when it bought 365 acres in rural North Dakota and did not disclose that ownership to the USDA as required. Of course, the land was nearby Grand Forks Air Force Base.

When a national analysis was performed, it was found that the Chinese had made purchases all over America but the purchases were disproportionately near military bases.

But it’s not enough to simply stop the Chinese Communists from owning land—we’ve got to create mechanisms to claw our land back from hostile foreign nations who only wish to do us harm. That is the idea behind my legislation, House Bill 243, which would give the Attorney General the authority to utilize eminent domain to acquire land back from enemy nations.

Hostile foreign nations have no private property rights in our country. We must never allow those who would seek to destroy us the ability to use our nation’s liberties to harm us. Our Texas laws must reflect that.

Americans are also finally learning about how China recently bought an interest in managing critical parts of canal operations in Panama. The Panama Canal is the most vital militarily strategic point in the Americas. President Trump is right to react as strongly as he has and we must back him up.

American leadership is waking up and noticing more encroachments at every strategically important location in the world. In many small but strategically vital nations, it begins with bribery of local officials.

Texans took no bribes to allow the Chinese to buy land, so Chinese operatives have no influence here. The purchases will end this year. The danger is self-evident. I hope support for this legislation will be nearly unanimous—no less than the security of our hemisphere depends on it.