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First TikTok, Now Properties, Anti-China Tension Grows In Texas

On Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced a statewide model security plan which would ban TikTok from state agencies in order to protect government businesses from Chinese Communist Party members.

“The security risks associated with the use of TikTok on devices used to conduct the important business of our state must not be underestimated or ignored,” said Governor Abbott in a press release.

Abbott pointed out that the Chinese company that owns TikTok employs Chinese Communist Party members, and since TikTok harvests significant amounts of data from a user’s device it poses a threat to the security of Texans.

“It is critical that state agencies and employees are protected from the vulnerabilities presented by the use of this app and other prohibited technologies as they work on behalf of their fellow Texans.”

Abbott seems to be on the same track as the rest of the nation. Last December, President Joe Biden approved a limited TikTok ban, which prohibited the use of the app by the federal government’s nearly 4 million employees on devices owned by its agencies.

The scrutiny of TikTok, owned by the Chinese company Bytedance, has been brewing for some time now. Two years ago, then-President Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok from the U.S. but was ultimately blocked by the Court for overstepping his authority in using his emergency economic powers to try to put the wildly popular app out of business – since then, an emerging movement led largely by conservatives maintained an interest in a TikTok ban.

The renewed pressure on the app is part of a bigger anti-China political landscape in Texas.

A bill filed in November by Republican state Senator Lois Kolkhorst broadens a bill that bans infrastructure projects by companies with direct ties to China. Senate Bill 147 would instead ban all Chinese citizens and companies from buying homes or any other real estate in Texas.

Last month, Abbott announced his support for it: “I will sign it,” he wrote on Twitter.

The TikTok ban has not received much controversy, but banning Chinese citizens from buying land, is raising red flags from Democrats.
State Representative Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat, who was born in Guangzhou, China, and immigrated to Texas with his family as a child, said he supported laws targeting foreign corporations with ties to the government from buying specific property, as reported by The New York Times.

“That’s fine,” said Wu.“But the difference is this bill. This bill attacks individuals, private people with no connections with other governments other than being from that country.”

Standing next to Wu was Mayor Sylvester Turner, who grew up in a house his parents purchased after immigrating to Texas before they became citizens.

“This is wrong,” Sylvester said, pointing to a picture of a home. “This could be my family’s home, this could be yours.” 

Staff
Staff
Written by RA News staff.

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