AUSTIN (Texas Tribune) - In late May, House lawmakers were hours into a debate over a proposal to teach Texas school children about the dangers of communism.

Rep. Gene Wu , a Houston Democrat, stepped up to the podium of the House floor. He shared a story about when his family had its land confiscated by the communist Chinese government. During the Cultural Revolution, his father, 13 years old at the time, was dispatched alone to fields and “and basically told to either farm or die,” Wu said.

His father survived. Many others did not.

“When I hear people call me a communist spy, or when members of this body say those things, I get a little offended,” Wu said , clasping his hands atop of a podium and looking across the room at his fellow lawmakers. “Because our family has been

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