China

Senate Bill 147 was approved by Texas lawmakers Tuesday afternoon. The legislation is a watered-down version of the original proposal, which would have banned citizens of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from buying land and homes in Texas.

Legislation is being proposed at the federal and state level to restrict foreign ownership of farmland, especially by China. The scrutiny comes after a Midwestern project was scuttled by military concerns and the flight of a Chinese spy balloon across the U.S.

A former researcher accused of concealing work he did in China while employed by the University of Kansas was sentenced Wednesday to time served and two years of supervised release.

Feng "Franklin" Tao, a tenured chemistry professor at the University of Kansas, was the first defendant among about two dozen academics charged under the Justice Department's since-disbanded program.

Franklin Tao was arrested under the Trump-era China initiative, a federal program designed to catch spies sharing American intellectual property and secrets with China. In opening statements, prosecutors characterized Tao as deceptive and secretive about his work with Fuzhou University in China.

Feng Tao, a chemistry professor, has denied the charges and pleaded not guilty.

China's trade surplus hit a record in November as exports to the U.S. soared by 46%. U.S. exports to China are also growing, but not as quickly.

Heavy seasonal rainfall has caused the worst flooding in decades across China's interior, forcing officials at the Three Gorges Dam to open all 10 spillways for the first time since it was built.

The Trump administration's penalties are meant to punish China for its treatment of Uighurs and Muslim minorities in the region, and target a Politburo member for the first time.

The State Department's new listing of Chinese media escalates a tit-for-tat scrap over journalists that kicked off earlier in the year.