Paxton attacks his opponent over Chinese land deals while taking $40,000 from donors in that business

What happened

Lone Star Liberty, the super PAC backing Paxton, spent more than $7 million on an ad saying his opponent “is helping communist China,” and more than $3 million on another warning that “communist China” is “buying up Texas.” ⁰¹

Before the ads ran, Paxton’s campaign took $40,000 from donors tied to the industry, according to a Hearst Newspapers review of campaign-finance records. Ting Qiao, co-founder of Wan Bridge, a developer that solicits foreign investors for its Texas housing, gave nearly $30,000 to Paxton and affiliated PACs. Co-founder Danting Li gave just over $10,000. Both previously worked at Modern Land, a Chinese real estate developer with a Chinese Communist Party branch. ⁰¹

A third donor, John Chiang, is an executive at a Houston firm that works with Wan Bridge and with a U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese company connected to the Communist Party of China. He gave Paxton $3,000 this cycle and $12,000 across earlier races. ⁰¹

Why it matters

Paxton has made Chinese land purchases a centerpiece of his campaign against his opponent while collecting money from people whose business is bringing Chinese investment into Texas real estate. ⁰¹

What the sources show

The donations come from campaign-finance records reviewed by Hearst Newspapers. ⁰¹