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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.
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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.