DeSantis, who is running for the White House in 2024, said that the law was designed to counter “the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party."

Manjusha Kulkarni, the executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance and a co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, compared the measure to the "alien land laws" passed in California and other states in the 20th century, which restricted Asian migrants' right to own land. The law, she said, signals to Chinese Americans "that they don't belong."