Ken Paxton has made China the centerpiece of his Senate campaign. His super PAC has spent more than $10 million on two TV ads warning that "communist China" is "buying up Texas" and that his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, is "helping communist China."

Before those ads ran, Paxton's own campaign was cashing checks from people whose business courts Chinese money for Texas homes.

That's the finding of a review of campaign finance records by Hearst Newspapers, published this week in the Houston Chronicle. Paxton took about $40,000 from donors who work for companies that facilitate the exact kind of Chinese real estate investment he has been attacking. All of the money came in before the June 30 filing deadline.

Who gave the money

Most of it traces to one company: Wan Bridge, a Houston-area home developer. Wan Bridge's American website opens to a leasing page for its homes for rent in Houston, Dallas and Austin. Its Chinese-language website, the Chronicle found, is built for investors. It has pages for investor resources that don't appear on the U.S. site, and it shows Texas houses that investors appear to be able to buy and then rent out to tenants.

• Ting Qiao, a Wan Bridge co-founder, gave nearly $30,000 to Paxton and PACs tied to him between June 2025 and April 2026. His donations are on file with the Federal Election Commission, where he lists Wan Bridge as his employer. Qiao spent more than 10 years at Modern Land, a Chinese real estate company with a Chinese Communist Party branch inside it, and rose to executive vice president there.
• Danting Li, another Wan Bridge co-founder and its chief operating officer, gave just over $10,000 in two donations last year. She also worked for Modern Land, through its American arm, as director of investor relations. Her donations to Paxton are the biggest she has ever made.
• John Chiang, a top executive at a Houston firm that works with both Wan Bridge and Modern Land's American arm, gave Paxton $3,000 this cycle and $12,000 across his earlier races. That $3,000 is the biggest federal donation he has made.

None of the three, and none of their companies, answered the Chronicle's questions.

What Paxton told Texans next

Now look at what Paxton was telling voters. His super PAC, Lone Star Liberty, put more than $7 million behind an ad last month saying that "while you're working overtime just to survive, James Talarico is helping communist China." It put more than $3 million behind a second ad warning that "communist China" is "buying up Texas."

Those ads were part of a bigger push. The Chronicle reported earlier this month that conservative groups had poured more than $20 million into TV ads in a single week, and that most of the new ones were about Chinese influence. One Lone Star Liberty ad said: "Risking our future, selling our land, driving up the cost of living. James Talarico stood with China."

The main charge against Talarico is that he voted against bills in the Texas House last year limiting who from abroad can buy land in Texas.

Paxton has pitched this himself on the stump. "As attorney general, I took on the Chinese communist party, suing CCP-controlled companies and defending the Texas law that keeps the Chinese government from buying our land," he said at a stop in Bryan.

His answer: change the subject

When the Chronicle asked about the donations, Paxton's campaign didn't answer the question. A spokesperson said instead that Paxton has spent "more than a decade fighting the Chinese Communist Party's influence," then turned it back on Talarico, saying he "picked a side, and it was decidedly pro-Chinese Communist Party and anti-Texas."

Even some Republicans had doubts about the China message before this. A former campaign manager for Sen. John Cornyn told the Chronicle the issue is "pretty niche," and a pollster called it an attempt to wake up Republican voters who aren't sold on Paxton after his bruising primary win over Cornyn.

A pattern of who pays Paxton

This isn't the first time the money behind Paxton has told a different story than his ads. When he won the nomination, even Republican mega-donors didn't want to be seen with him because of his long record of scandal, including a bribery complaint his own senior staff took to the FBI. Then Trump's super PAC put in $10 million, and Elon Musk's PAC more on top, to try to buy him the seat anyway.

Talarico's campaign put it bluntly. "Ken Paxton is lying about James again because he can't defend his career of corruption," a spokesperson said, pointing to an attack ad Cornyn ran against Paxton in the primary: "There's a reason Republicans call him 'Commie Ken.'"

What the filings show

Ken Paxton's campaign took about $40,000 from donors tied to Wan Bridge, a Houston developer that courts investors in China for its Texas homes, before his super PAC spent more than $10 million on ads tying James Talarico to "communist China." Two of those donors used to work for a Chinese real estate company with a Communist Party branch. Asked about the money, Paxton's campaign didn't answer.

Source

Ken Paxton donors tied to Chinese real estate investments he attacks — Houston Chronicle / Hearst Newspapers. Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP.