TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a few charges meant to control the influence of the Chinese federal government in Florida.
The measures will limit land ownership in Florida by Chinese citizens, ban the use of Chinese-owned social media platforms these as TikTok and WeChat on federal government products and even further restrict colleges and universities from building interactions with international “countries of issue” these types of as China.
DeSantis reported the laws, which will get outcome July 1, “tends to make it really obvious we really don’t want the CCP (the Chinese Communist Celebration) in the Sunshine Point out.”
“They have proven a position of financial may possibly, of industrial hegemony, and their military is significantly more robust currently than it was 20 or 25 decades in the past,” DeSantis claimed throughout a bill-signing function in Brooksville, “They have a leader who’s quite ideological and is intent on increasing CCP impact, not just in their area but even all-around the world.”
DeSantis, who has been functioning to create intercontinental credentials forward of an expected presidential run in 2024, blamed “elites in our individual state” who for a technology have favored “brief-time period income” with China. He did not specify the persons.
Lawmakers handed the measures concentrating on overseas nations around the world of problem — China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela — all through the legislative session that ended Friday and drew opposition from some Chinese Americans.
The most-contentious measure (SB 264) seeks to mostly avert Chinese citizens from buying land in Florida.
The legislation would permit Chinese citizens with non-vacationer visas to get single parcels that are less than two acres and situated at minimum 5 miles from army installations.
In voting versus the laws past 7 days, Property Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat who is an lawyer, named the monthly bill “overly wide” and warned it could final result in lawsuits by “veering into the region of nationwide origin discrimination.”
The legislation also seeks to prohibit governments, citizens and corporations from international nations of problem from buying agricultural land in the condition.
Also, it will prohibit the sale of property positioned in 10 miles of army bases and other vital infrastructure — seaports, airports, electricity plants and drinking water therapy services — to passions tied to the Chinese authorities or other foreign countries of concern.
In the meantime, DeSantis signed a bill (SB 258) that expands on a September 2022 govt purchase directing the point out Department of Management Providers to develop a list of prohibited social-media programs that it considers stability threats and to block obtain on condition-owned wireless networks. The invoice arrived amid a national discussion about proscribing accessibility to the greatly popular TikTok app for protection factors.
Also, DeSantis signed a evaluate (SB 846) that, in aspect, will ban condition faculties and universities and staff from accepting presents from this sort of factors as schools primarily based in foreign international locations of concern.
It also would prohibit point out faculties and universities from moving into into agreements with their counterparts in foreign international locations of problem.
Condition university process Chancellor Ray Rodrigues touted the new legislation as “stopping specified international locations from remaining capable to “exploit the educational freedom that we have below” in Florida.
If a higher education or university entered into an settlement with out acceptance, the State Board of Instruction or the college system’s Board of Governors could sanction the educational institutions or withhold what is recognised as general performance funding, which can volume to tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases.
The regulation expands on a 2021 regulation that produced new reporting needs for entities trying to get grants or contracts from the condition.
