The government of Texas has mandated that Texas ‘ state cash stop funding Chinese investments and issue warnings to all state companies to protect themselves from potential attacks and intrusions from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).  ,
Texas ‘ governor since 2015, Republican lawmaker Greg Abbott, who has been in office since 2015, has issued three executive orders and a letter to the governors of both Texas and Texas, inviting them to cut ties with China.  ,
Two days after Republican Donald Trump won the November 5 presidential election, his enquiries came in. As part of Trump’s massive illegal immigrant imprisonment program, Abbott offered 1, 402 acres of land along the US-Mexico frontier near Rio Grande City to build infrastructure along with it.
In recent days, Abbott has issued:
- a law preventing the People’s Republic of China ( PRC ) or the CCP from coercing and harassing Texans of Chinese descent;
- an executive order to shield Texas ‘ crucial system from PRC and CCP risks,
- an executive order to protect the state government from the PRC and CCP’s covert spy activities,
- a letter to Texas ‘ state companies urging them to stop making risky investments made in China.
On November 18, the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Houston warned Texans that the PRC perhaps be harassing and pursuing Chinese dissidents who oppose the CCP in Texas.
According to Abbott,” The CCP has engaged in a global harassment campaign against Chinese rebels in efforts to violently transfer them to China.” More than 250, 000 people of Chinese origin who legitimately reside in Texas are subject to abuse and force from the CCP or its terrible intermediaries.
To detain and return suspected financial crime suspects, the Chinese government launched a covert world procedure known as Operation Fox Hunt in 2014. However, the procedure was apparently used to jail and harass , social dissidents , around the globe.
In July 2020, the Trump presidency ordered China to “cease all businesses and occasions” at its embassy in Houston, Texas within 72 hours.  ,
The State Department claimed at the time that China had been conducting extensive improper eavesdropping and control operations for years and that those pursuits had significantly increased in recent years.
In retaliation, China ordered the US Consulate in Chengdu, Sichuan state to continue activities.
Important infrastructure
Abbott stated on November 20 that he had given the Texas Division of Emergency Management ( TDEM) and the Public Utility Commission of Texas ( PUC) instructions to prepare for potential threats from a hostile foreign government or their proxies.
” China has made it evident that they can and will target and assault America’s important infrastructure”, Abbott said in a press release. ” Just this past year, a hostile Chinese state professional targeted America’s contacts, power, travel, water and wastewater techniques, threatening our national protection”.
He claimed in an interview with Fox News that the Biden administration is unaware of the CCP’s challenges to America’s protection.  ,
In September,” Salt Typhoon,” a group of Chinese hackers connected to the Chinese government, reportedly breached the network of a number of US broadband services, including AT&, T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies, according to The Wall Street Journal’s October 5 report.
A joint venture called Shanghai Symphony Telecommunications ( SST ) was established in December 2000 between Texas-based AT&, T, China Telecom Corp, and a government-owned business. In 2017, AT&, T and China Telecom agreed to launch new services such as the Internet-of-Things ( IoT ) and big data via SST.  ,
Texas is the best oil and gas state in the US, producing 42 % of crude oil and 27 % of marketed natural oil in 2022, according to its government’s website. It has 32 petroleum refineries, which are the most of any state, and process more than 5.9 million barrels of crude oil per day ( 32 % of the US refining capacity ).
If Texas, a powerhouse of the US, were to experience energy grid paralysis caused by Chinese cyberattacks, Abbott claimed it would be a catastrophe.
The Houston-based Exxon Mobil Corp, a supplier of liquified natural gas ( LNG ), chemicals and lubricants, has grown its China businesses through ExxonMobil ( China ) Investment Co Ltd in Shanghai since the late 1970s.
Halliburton, a Houston-based fuel services company, has been providing services in China since 1984. In 2014, it signed an agreement with Petrotech ( Xinjiang ) Engineering Co Ltd, an affiliate of the Beijing-based SPT Energy Group Inc, to establish a , joint venture , focused on hydraulic fracturing and production enhancement services in Xinjiang.
The Texas state has not yet urged private companies to keep China. Chinese observers also do n’t think these businesses will shut down their profitable businesses in China.  ,
Abbott is presumably doing what Trump wants by preventing US opportunities in China, according to a journalist from Guangdong. He said Texas Instruments, a Dallas-based silicon manufacturer, may then feel the heat.  ,
According to reports in May 2022, Texas Instruments ‘ computer (MCU) research and development staff was disbanded in China. The business emphasized that there had not been any cuts.
Decoupling from China ,
Abbott mandated the sale of state cash ‘ assets in China and Hong Kong on November 21. He said he had told the University of Texas/Texas A&, M Investment Management Company ( UTIMCO ), which manages nearly US$ 80 billion, to divest from China earlier this year.
At the end of August 2024, the Texas-based Teacher Retirement System ( TRS ) reported its annual report to have$ 111.5 % under management. It has about$ 1.4 billion worth of Tencent Holdings shares worth$ 385 million, including$ 1.4 billion in Chinese and Hong Kong dollar assets.  ,
Chinese analysts speculated that Abbott’s desire to sell Chinese stocks may be to blame for the decline in the Hang Seng Index and Shanghai Composite Index, which both fell 1.9 % and 3.1 %, respectively, on November 22.
The US Federal Retirement Terror Investment Board ( FRTIB ) announced in November 2023 that it had decided to forego using Hong Kong-listed shares in its international fund benchmark indexes.
Future Union, a non-partisan trade organization, said last December that 74 US public pensions, including the TXRS, have allocated more than$ 70 billion of funds to companies in China and Hong Kong.
The Asia Times has Yong Jian as a contribution. He is a Chinese columnist who specializes in Chinese technologies, economy and politics.  ,
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