Top News of the Day:
Today’s focus: Texas imposes land ban, CCP’s misconduct affects Chinese people; NATO increases military spending to 5% of GDP to defend against CCP-induced Taiwan Strait conflict; Rongjiang County in Guizhou Province suffers largest flood in thirty years, over 400,000 people affected across multiple provinces.
The CCP has long viewed the United States as its number one enemy, using illegal means to infiltrate, steal, and disrupt society in the U.S., conduct cross-border suppression, and undermine American democracy. In recent years, the CCP’s wrongdoing has been continuously exposed, prompting more states in the U.S. to be vigilant and take action against the CCP. Earlier this week (June 23), Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a new law restricting residents from four countries, including China, from owning residential, agricultural, mining, and water rights in Texas and prohibiting CCP members from buying land in Texas.
This legislation targets countries classified as national security threats by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, currently including Communist China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The law also authorizes the governor to add more countries to the restriction list.
Governor Abbott publicly stated two years ago that hostile actors of the Chinese government have targeted America’s communications, energy, transportation, water supply, and wastewater treatment systems, posing a threat to America’s national security.
According to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Chinese investors own the most forest and farmland in the U.S., totaling 277,336 acres. In Texas alone, Chinese investors own 123,708 acres of land, making it the state where Chinese people own the most land in the U.S.
State Senator Lois Kolkhorst, the author of the bill, called this legislation the “strongest homeland security bill in U.S. history,” aiming to protect Texas’s land and mineral resources from falling into the hands of hostile countries.
Under the new law set to take effect, legal U.S. residents from restricted countries can still purchase residential land but only for primary residence purposes.
The law also prohibits members of the “ruling party or its subordinate units” of those countries from purchasing land in Texas. This means that CCP members will be unable to buy land in Texas.
Furthermore, individuals acting as “agents or representatives of a designated country” are also banned from purchasing land.
The law also prohibits them from acquiring land through other means and limits lease terms to one year.
State Senator Lois Kolkhorst first introduced this bill in the previous session of the legislature but it did not pass the Texas House of Representatives. The reason for the bill was the purchase of approximately 130,000 acres of land near Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas by a Chinese billionaire and former high-ranking officer of the Chinese military in 2021, with plans to build a wind farm there. The military base is the largest pilot training base for the U.S. Air Force.
This move raised concerns from the Texas government. In 2023, Senator Kolkhorst proposed a bill to prohibit the sale of land to China and other hostile countries. The CCP then launched a vigorous “information war” through WeChat, spreading false information, misleading the public, rallying some Chinese locals, and even instigating violent attacks on two Chinese supporters of the bill.
In this year’s legislative session, Senator Kolkhorst reintroduced a similar bill, which passed the Texas Senate by a vote of 25 to 6 and the Texas House of Representatives by a vote of 85 to 57, successfully delivered to the governor for signature to take effect.
Texas Republican State Representative Cole Hefner pushed the bill in the House, stating that the new law will prevent hostile countries from acquiring Texas land, ensuring that authoritarian regimes actively plotting to harm America do not control Texas’s economy, supply chains, daily life, critical infrastructure, or even food supply, and issue mandates to Texas. Avoiding Texas being exposed to increasingly severe significant threats.
State Senator Bryan Hughes of Texas stated, “We love everyone, but we do not support hostile governments that openly plot against us, nor allow them to interfere with Texas.”
The new law will take effect on September 1. According to a report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released in August 2024, from January 2023 to July 2024, 22 states in the U.S. have passed similar laws restricting or prohibiting foreign ownership of land.
In addition, last month on May 24, 2025, Texas also passed the “Anti-Transnational Repression Act,” which defined CCP’s transnational repression and unauthorized enforcement of foreign laws as felonies, with a minimum imprisonment period of 15 years and no maximum sentence limit, further protecting Texas citizens and combating unlawful actions by the CCP in Texas.
The NATO summit was recently held in The Hague, Netherlands. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte stated before the meeting that CCP’s large-scale military expansion increases the risk of conflict in the Taiwan Strait, also engaging the U.S. and affecting European security. NATO will increase military spending and enhance its own strength.
Voice of America reported that Rutte believes if the CCP takes action on the Taiwan issue, Beijing is likely to urge Russia to cause trouble in Europe to divert NATO’s attention and resources. This is one of the reasons Europe must be prepared.
Rutte said that NATO should not only be wary of Russian military expansion but also CCP’s military expansion. Just a few years ago, there were no Chinese companies among the top ten global defense contractors. Now, three to five Chinese companies are among the top ten global defense contractors. Moreover, the CCP already has a comparable number of naval vessels to the U.S. Navy.
CCP’s military expansion has also raised concerns among multiple countries in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, and maintained close contact with NATO.
He indicated that one of the core proposed reforms is to significantly increase military spending, with member countries planning to raise military spending to 5% of GDP, more than double the longtime 2% target.
Trump has consistently advocated for NATO allies to increase defense spending, with the new proposed 5% set to be formally included in alliance policy.
Before leaving for The Hague to participate in the NATO summit, Trump pledged to member countries to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, which was welcomed.
Rutte also praised Trump’s decisive actions on the Iran issue, doing what others dared not do, making everyone safer. Following the U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Trump successfully brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Iran on Tuesday (June 24), ending the most intense military conflict between the two since June 13.
U.S. officials stated that the situation in the Middle East has stabilized, and the United Nations Security Council has called on all parties to fulfill their commitments and coordinate humanitarian aid entry.
During the summit from Tuesday to Wednesday in The Hague, Trump will discuss post-Middle East peace mechanisms, European defense autonomy, and the situation in Ukraine with Rutte and other leaders of the 31 NATO member countries.
Turning to the domestic disaster in China, with strong East Asian monsoons striking since last week, Guizhou and other regions in southern China have faced heavy rainfall, with some areas experiencing record-breaking rainfall. Rongjiang County in Guizhou province has suffered a catastrophic flood, described by local media and residents as the most severe in over thirty years. According to reports from mainland China, violent rainstorms hit Rongjiang County, Guizhou Province, on June 20-21, causing road collapses, farmland flooding, and homes inundated.
By June 24, Rongjiang County was hit by floods again, with river water levels rising rapidly. The “Village Super” competition venue was submerged, and the largest mall in Rongjiang was filled with floodwater. The downtown area of Rongjiang County has been extensively flooded, and the situation is “out of control.”
Due to the flood impact, all local power and communication services were disrupted, with schools announcing closures.
The Guizhou Provincial Meteorological Bureau forecasted new heavy rainfall from the night of the 24th to the 27th, combined with previous precipitation, increasing the risk of river floods, flash floods, geological disasters, urban and rural accumulative floods in some areas.
Several local netizens posted flood videos, showing the flooding of the county’s largest and busiest mall, Changchi Square submerged with waterfall-like floodwater. Merchants reported that the flood surged within minutes, leaving no time to evacuate goods, resulting in enormous losses. Some shops had their roller shutter doors deformed by water pressure.
Red Star News reported that aerial footage provided by a Rongjiang County resident showed the “Village Super” sports field, which was recently hosting a competition, entirely submerged by floodwater. Local officials confirmed that the water on the football field was two meters deep. The surrounding streets in the sports field area also experienced widespread flooding.
Residents were seen using plastic basins to rescue people in the community. The plastic basins almost reached the balconies on the second floor.
The footage captured by local residents shows a section of the Xia Rong Highway at the 1,263-kilometer mark turned into a waterway, with numerous local streets submerged, and cars swept away by the water.
In low-lying areas, water has risen to the fourth floor, with residents reporting sleepless nights and relocating to higher ground. Currently, there is no rain in the county town, and the water is coming from upstream. The town is experiencing water and power outages.
A resident from Rongjiang County informed Epoch Times that some areas are completely flooded, with speedboats plying the waters. In lower-lying areas, houses were completely submerged within an hour. The water rose rapidly because the Sandu Hydropower Station could not withstand it and opened the floodgates, worsening the flood situation in Rongjiang County.
Many people cannot contact their families because many towns lack electricity, and the internet is down. The local fire brigade is understaffed and estimates there will be casualties in the flood, but the government has not announced any figures, and the public is afraid to speak out.
According to Sina News, as of June 24, more than 400,000 people were affected by severe flooding in Hunan’s Xiangbei and Xiangxinan regions. Sangzhi County in Hunan saw torrential rains, with local precipitation breaking historical records, causing severe flooding in Zhangjiajie, where low-rise houses were almost submerged to the roofs, and extensive farmland was inundated.
– Focus Epoch》Production Team