After years of living in dormitories and substandard apartments, Lisa Li couldn't wait to close on her new home.
The one-bedroom apartment in Miami's financial district had a view of the river, was in a safe neighborhood and, Ms. Li learned, had neighbors who were a lot like her: less party, more chill. So Ms. Li, a 28-year-old who came to the United States from China as a student 11 years ago, made an offer, had her offer accepted and began ordering furniture.
Then things took a sharp turn. At the last minute, the title company raised concerns about a small U.S. Coast Guard outpost near South Beach, a few miles away. According to the company, her purchase could conflict with a new Florida law that prohibits many Chinese citizens from buying real estate in the state, especially near military installations, airports or refineries.
Under the law, Ms. Li could face jail time and the sellers and brokers could be held liable. The deal failed.
“The whole experience was very hurtful and tiring,” Ms. Li said in a recent interview at a cafe in Miami, where she still rents. “I just feel that as someone who has lived and worked in this country for many years, and as a legal taxpayer, I should at least have the opportunity to buy a house that I can live in.”
More than three dozen states have introduced or are considering similar laws restricting land purchases by Chinese citizens and companies, arguing that such transactions pose a growing threat to national security and that the federal government has failed to stem the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in America.
Florida's law, which went into effect in July, is among the most far-reaching. In addition to banning Chinese entities from purchasing agricultural land, it effectively prohibits most Chinese individuals without a green card from purchasing residential property. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the measure just before launching his Republican presidential campaign, warning voters that China posed the greatest threat to the United States.
“Today, Florida is making it very clear: We don't want the CCP in the Sunshine State,” Mr. DeSantis said last year.
In more than a dozen interviews, Chinese Florida residents expressed frustrations about being cut off from the ultimate American dream. Other residents of Chinese descent said they faced discrimination when trying to buy a home. Some said they lived in fear about whether they might have accidentally broken the law.
Civil rights and Asian American groups are unaware of anyone being accused of breaking the law. But some people of Chinese descent said they feel anti-Chinese sentiment rising. The law is currently being challenged in federal court.
“I never felt any discrimination here before this law,” said Jin Bian, a Chinese software developer working in Tampa who is among those now banned from buying property. “But now I'm wondering if I should leave Florida.”
The law has also had a seemingly chilling effect on the real estate sector, a key part of the state's economy. Developers often rely on Chinese investors to help build projects in Florida, and the law appears to have banned such financing push back from a prominent real estate lobby group.
Yukey Hoo, a real estate agent in the Orlando suburb of Winter Garden, estimated she has turned away 10 potential clients — about a fifth of her usual sales — because she couldn't determine their eligibility to buy property.
The law technically applies to people who are “domiciled” in China and do not have U.S. citizenship or permanent residency, and much of the confusion centers on what “domicile” means. Real estate salespeople and agents can face up to a year in prison for violating the law.
“Every day I get calls from people asking if they can legally buy a house,” said Ms. Hoo, who has been selling real estate in Florida for a decade. “I tell them to talk to a lawyer, but for those who are unsure of their status, we don't want to take the risk.”
Florida law bans “foreign principals” from six other “countries of concern,” such as Venezuela and Cuba, from owning property. But the toughest restrictions – and the harshest penalties – are specifically aimed at Chinese citizens.
The law was part of a broader package passed by the Florida Legislature last spring that also included a bill restricting the state's public universities and colleges of offering research positions to students from China and other countries. There is also that law challenged in court.
“The deeper you look under the hood, the deeper you see that China is clandestinely pursuing land grabs in the United States,” said state Rep. David Borrero, a Miami-area Republican and one of the country's sponsors. law. “We can't just have that in our backyard.”
Mr. Borrero disagreed with critics who said the real estate law was discriminatory. “Our national security interests come first,” he said.
The Chinese government has one file of using economic coercion And espionage to achieve its geopolitical objectives, and in recent years both the United States and China have done so efforts have been stepped up to increase their spying capabilities around the world.
State lawmakers are particularly concerned about Chinese investments in farmland and territory near military installations, fearing that China could restrict U.S. food supplies or use the country as a spy post. Owning Chinese interests less than 1 percent of foreign-owned agricultural land in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
National security experts said the specific threat posed by Chinese people who own homes has not been clearly articulated.
Holden Triplett, a former FBI counterintelligence official who headed the agency's offices in China, said Chinese citizens likely have family ties to China that could be weaponized by state security forces there. But he said categorical bans could further alienate a Chinese diaspora community, which could especially help the United States in the event of a conflict with China.
“We have to be careful with these blunt instrument laws,” said Mr. Triplett, who left the FBI in 2020 and co-founded Trenchcoat Advisors, a risk management consulting firm. “Let's do the work to find out what's happening and see if there's another way to address this problem.”
Civil rights groups and residents have challenged the Florida law in federal court on the grounds that it violates the Equal Protection Clause and the Fair Housing Act, and that it undermines the federal government's foreign affairs powers.
“There is no evidence that Chinese home ownership is detrimental to national security,” said Ashley Gorski, chief counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit.
Mae Ngai, a professor of history and Asian American studies at Columbia University, said Florida's law is a reminder alien land laws from the early 20th century, which effectively banned Asian immigrants in many states from purchasing farmland and, in some cases, homes.
“They saw the Asians as an alien invasion that was going to take over America,” said Dr. Ngai.
After the bill was introduced last spring, Florida's Chinese community began frantically organizing rallies and door-knocking sessions.
In Texas, opposition emerged from the Asian American community, including a former Republican lawmaker of Chinese descenthelped reverse some provisions in a similar invoice. But in Florida, the Chinese community makes up only 0.6 percent of the population. Many are first-generation immigrants who moved to the state to study or work at universities. And there are very few Asian American politicians in the legislature.
The Florida activists' dissent barely registered.
Lobbyists for the prominent hedge fund Citadel, which moved to Miami from Chicago in 2022 and employs a large number of Chinese citizens, were more effective and managed to obtain an exemption for Chinese with a valid work visa to purchase a single primary residence, as long as the property is smaller than two acres and not within five miles of a military installation.
But most of the restrictions initially proposed remained in place and the law's impact was felt almost immediately.
Sunny Long, a real estate agent in Tallahassee, said she now searches Google Maps to estimate where her Chinese clients might qualify to buy real estate. Florida has about 20 major military bases, many small military outposts, and more importantly facilities like airports and water treatment plants that could fall under the law.
“A lot of my clients want to buy in a certain neighborhood with a good school district, but it's too close to the airport,” she said. “It has been a big test for me.”
Asian Americans are also concerned that the law has led to profiling of anyone perceived as Chinese, regardless of their citizenship or residency status.
One man said a real estate agent asked him at an open house if he was eligible to buy the house after talking to his parents in Mandarin.
Evelyn Yang, a real estate agent in Palm Beach Gardens, said she made repeated inquiries about a Miami apartment on behalf of a Chinese permanent resident client shortly after the law took effect. She didn't hear from the seller for days, she said.
“When they finally called me back, all they said was, 'Can your buyer buy?' Can't Chinese people buy now?'” Ms. recalled. Yang himself. “They see that our names are Chinese and assume that we cannot buy.”
Such interactions could be considered intentional discrimination based on national origin, which is prohibited by the Fair Housing Act of 1968, said Scott Chang, senior counsel for the National Fair Housing Alliance. On Monday, the alliance and several other groups plan to announce a new lawsuit making the accusation.
Nearly a year after her home-buying attempt failed, Miami renter Ms. Li still vividly remembers the days she frantically tried to salvage her deal.
The desperate calls to lawyers and state lawmakers. The time spent calculating distances. Ms. Li's real estate agent even drove to the Coast Guard outpost on South Beach to try to determine whether it was legally a “military installation.”
Ms. Li said she still enjoyed living in Miami. It was clean compared to New York City, where she lived before. She enjoyed taking tennis lessons on the courts in Palm Island Park and exploring the diverse food scene with her friends.
But the experience left her with a bitter taste.
“I think maybe I should just leave,” she said. “Who knows what policies they will come up with next?”