- Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a brand new invoice banning Chinese language residents from shopping for land in Florida.
- DeSantis cited considerations that Chinese language buyers have been shopping for up an excessive amount of farmland within the state.
- An exception permits these on non-tourist visas to purchase smaller properties away from navy bases.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a invoice into regulation on Monday that bans most Chinese language residents from buying land in his state.
The brand new invoice, SB 246, prevents Chinese language nationals from shopping for land in Florida except they’re additionally Americans or everlasting residents.
“Immediately, Florida makes it very clear we do not need the CCP within the Sunshine State,” DeSantis mentioned at a press convention on Monday. “We need to keep this because the free state of Florida.”
There’s an exception to the brand new rule. Lawmakers added an modification permitting anybody holding a non-tourist visa to purchase one property of as much as two acres, so long as it is not inside 5 miles of a navy set up.
Russian, Cuban, Iranian, North Korean, Syrian, and Venezuelan residents are additionally banned from shopping for property inside 10 miles of navy bases — however weren’t wholly banned from buying land in Florida.
DeSantis known as the newest measure a response to a “concerted effort” by the Chinese language Communist Social gathering to amass farmland in Florida.
He referenced an incident the place a Chinese language-owned drug developer tried to purchase 1,400 acres in Levy County for $5.5 million in late 2022.
“Our meals safety can also be nationwide safety, and so we do not need the CCP accountable for any meals manufacturing,” he mentioned.
Florida has greater than 21.8 million acres of privately held agricultural land, round 6% of which is owned by overseas buyers, based on the US Division of Agriculture’s 2021 information.
The agriculture division’s report would not say how a lot of this farmland is owned by China. Nevertheless it famous that Chinese language buyers in 2021 owned 383,935 acres of land value $2.1 billion throughout the whole thing of the US. That accounts for about 1% of all foreign-held US land.
Buyers from Canada personal essentially the most US land out of any overseas nation, holding 12.8 million acres value round $11.6 billion, per the division’s 2021 report.
Dozens of Chinese language-American and inexperienced card holders protested the brand new invoice at Florida’s capitol, saying the laws’s language is just too broad and will open the door to discrimination.
Representatives for DeSantis and the Chinese language embassy in Washington didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s requests for remark despatched outdoors common enterprise hours.
