After years of living in dorms and subpar apartments, Lisa Lee couldn’t wait to build a new home.
The one-bedroom condo in Miami’s financial district has river views and is in a safe neighborhood, where Lee said her neighbors are much like her, less partying and more laid-back. It is said that So Ms. Lee, 28, who came to the United States from China as a college student 11 years ago, put in her offer, was accepted, and began ordering her furniture.
Then things took a turn for the worse. At the last minute, the title company raised concerns about a small U.S. Coast Guard outpost near South Beach a few miles away. The company said her purchase could run afoul of a new Florida law that prohibits many Chinese nationals from buying property in the state, particularly near military installations, airports and refineries.
Under the law, Lee could be sentenced to prison, and sellers and real estate agents could also be held liable. The deal fell through.
“The whole experience was very traumatic and exhausting,” Lee said in a recent interview from the Miami cafe he still rents. “As someone who has lived and worked in this country for many years, and as a legal taxpayer, I feel that I should at least have the ability to purchase a home that I can live in.”
More than 30 states have enacted or are considering similar laws restricting land purchases by Chinese nationals and companies, but such transactions pose a growing threat to national security and the federal government is They claim that they have not been able to stop the influence of the Chinese Communist Party.
Florida’s law, which took effect in July, is one of the most far-reaching. In addition to banning Chinese companies from purchasing farmland, it also effectively prohibits most Chinese individuals without green cards from purchasing residential real estate. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill just before launching his Republican presidential campaign, warning voters that China is the biggest threat to the United States.
“Today, the state of Florida made it clear that we do not want the Chinese Communist Party in the Sunshine State,” DeSantis said last year.
In more than a dozen interviews, Chinese residents of Florida expressed frustration at being cut off from the ultimate American dream. Other Chinese residents said they faced discrimination when trying to buy homes. Some said they lived in fear of accidentally breaking the law.
Civil rights and Asian American groups are unaware that anyone has been accused of violating the law. But some Chinese residents said they felt anti-China sentiment was growing. This law is currently being challenged in federal court.
“Before this law, I had never felt any discrimination here,” said Jin Bian, a Chinese software developer who works in Tampa and is currently prohibited from buying real estate. “But now I’m wondering if I need to leave Florida.”
The law also clearly has a chilling effect on the real estate industry, which is an important part of the state’s economy. Developers often rely on Chinese investors to build projects in Florida, but the law appears to prohibit such financing, prompting opposition from prominent real estate lobby groups.
Youkee Fu, a real estate agent in the Orlando suburb of Winter Garden, turned away 10 potential clients, about one-fifth of his normal transactions, because he couldn’t determine whether they were qualified to buy a property. We estimate that.
Although the law technically applies to people who are “domiciled” in China and who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents, much of the confusion centers on what “domiciled” means. Sellers and real estate agents could be sentenced to up to a year in prison for violating the law.
“I get calls every day from people asking if they can legally buy a house,” said Hu, who has been selling real estate in Florida for 10 years. “I tell them to consult a lawyer, but I don’t want to take the risk with people who don’t know their situation.”
Florida law restricts “alien principals” from six other “countries of concern,” including Venezuela and Cuba, from owning real estate. But the most onerous restrictions and harshest penalties are aimed specifically at Chinese nationals.
The law is part of a broader bill passed by the Florida Legislature last spring, including one that would restrict the state’s public universities from offering research jobs to students from China and other countries. It was. This law is also being challenged in court.
“The deeper we look inside, the more we see that China is covertly pursuing land grabs in the United States,” said state Rep. David Borrello, a Miami-area Republican who is one of the land sponsors. Told. Law. “You can’t have that in your backyard.”
Mr. Borrero disagreed with critics who say the real estate bill is discriminatory. “Our national security interests come first,” he said.
Beijing has a history of using economic coercion and espionage to further its geopolitical goals, and in recent years the United States and China have stepped up efforts to improve their spying capabilities around the world.
State lawmakers are particularly concerned about Chinese investments in farmland and territory near military facilities, concerned that China could disrupt the U.S. food supply or use the land as a spy base. There is. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Chinese interests hold less than 1% of foreign-owned farmland in the United States.
National security experts said the specific threat posed by Chinese homeownership was not clearly articulated.
Holden Triplett, a former FBI counterintelligence officer who headed the China field office, said Chinese nationals are more likely to have family ties to China, which could be weaponized by local national security agencies. He said there is. But he said a firm ban could further alienate the Chinese diaspora community and could be particularly helpful to the United States in the event of a conflict with China.
“We need to be wary of these blunt force methods,” said Triplett, who retired from the FBI in 2020 and co-founded the risk management consultancy Trenchcoat Advisors. “Let’s do some work to find out what’s going on and see if there’s another way we can address this issue.”
Civil rights groups and residents challenged the Florida law in federal court, arguing that it violates the Equal Protection Clause and the Fair Housing Act and undermines the federal government’s foreign policy powers.
“There is no evidence that Chinese homeownership poses a harm to national security,” said Ashley Gorsky, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, one of several groups that filed the lawsuit.
Mae Ngai, a professor of history and Asian American studies at Columbia University, said Florida’s law effectively bars Asian immigrants from buying farmland and, in some cases, homes in many states. He said it reminded him of the Alien Land Act of the early 20th century.
“They saw Asians as alien invaders trying to take over America,” Dr. Ngai said.
After the bill was introduced last spring, Florida’s Chinese community began frantically organizing rallies and door-knocking rallies.
In Texas, some provisions of a similar bill were withdrawn due to opposition from the Asian American community, including a former Republican lawmaker of Chinese descent. However, in Florida, the Chinese community only makes up 0.6% of the population. Many are first-generation immigrants who moved to the state to study or work in college. And there are few Asian American politicians in Congress.
The opposition of Florida activists went largely unrecorded.
Lobbyists at Citadel, a prominent hedge fund that relocated from Chicago to Miami in 2022 and employs a large number of Chinese nationals, are more effective in offering Chinese nationals with valid work visas. successfully secured an exemption for Chinese nationals owning one to purchase a principal residence. The land must be less than 2 acres and not within 8 miles of a military installation.
However, most of the originally proposed restrictions remained in place, and the law’s impact was felt almost immediately.
Sunny Long, a real estate agent in Tallahassee, said she is now looking at Google Maps to get an idea of where her Chinese clients can buy property. Florida is home to approximately 20 major military bases, many smaller military outposts, and important facilities subject to the law, such as airports and water treatment plants.
“Many of my clients want to buy in a specific area with a strong school district, but it’s too close to the airport,” she said. “That was a big challenge for me.”
Asian Americans are also concerned that the law leads to the profiling of anyone deemed Chinese, regardless of citizenship or residency status.
One man said that after speaking with his parents in Mandarin, a real estate agent at an open house asked him if he was eligible to buy a home.
Evelyn Yang, a real estate agent in Palm Beach Gardens, said she repeatedly inquired about Miami apartments on behalf of Chinese clients who are permanent residents shortly after the law took effect. He said he hadn’t heard from the seller’s agent for days.
“When they finally called me back, they just said, ‘Can your buyer buy?'” The Chinese have no excuse not to buy now. mosquito? ” Yang recalled. “They see that our names are Chinese and think we can’t buy it.”
Scott Chan, senior counsel at the National Fair Housing Alliance, said such interactions could be considered intentional discrimination based on national origin and are prohibited by the Fair Housing Act of 1968. On Monday, the alliance and several other groups plan to announce a new lawsuit making that claim.
Nearly a year after his failed attempt to buy a home, Lee, a Miami renter, still vividly remembers the days he spent desperately trying to get back on the deal.
A desperate call to lawyers and state legislators. Time spent calculating distance. Lee’s real estate agent drove to the Coast Guard post in South Beach to determine whether it was a “military installation” under the law.
Lee said he still loves living in Miami. It was clean compared to New York City, where she lived before. She loved taking tennis lessons on the courts of the Palm Island Park and exploring the diverse gastronomic scene with her friends.
However, the experience left her with a bitter feeling.
“I think I should probably leave here,” she said. “You never know what policy they’ll come up with next.”
