Texas congressman Michael McCaul – the sponsor of legislation targeting Chinese-affiliated social media platform TikTok – is cautioning Texas state lawmakers against overly sweeping measures aimed at cracking down on China.
“I don’t know if he specified which pieces of legislation he was referring to,” says the Texas Tribune’s Patrick Svitek, “but we have seen some proposals introduced in the Texas Legislature that take a pretty sweeping approach – whether it’s issuing a blanket ban on any social media apps that are based in some of these foreign countries, or the initial version of a very controversial bill to ban Texas land purchases by citizens, companies… entities from countries like Russia and China.”
“So clearly, McCaul – who’s a big voice against China in Congress – sees maybe things at the state level progressing in a way that may be a little concerning,” Svitek adds.
For more stories from the week in Texas politics, including an interesting uptick in fundraising numbers from U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales and calls for state Rep. Bryan Slaton to resign, listen to the interview in the audio player above.
