Tag Archive for: CCP

EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Communist Party Intel Officials Have Keys To Trump’s Alma Mater

President Donald Trump’s alma mater was recently sold from one individual with extensive ties to China’s intelligence arms to another, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.

“Allen” Lu Yuzong, CEO of Guanghua Education Group, recently purchased the New York Military Academy (NYMA), which Trump attended between 1959 and 1964, from the CEO of SouFun Holdings, “Vincent” Mo Tianquan, for an undisclosed amount, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Mo initially acquired the bankrupt academy in 2015 for approximately $16 million dollars using a nonprofit he controls called the Research Center on Natural Conservation, Chinese state media reported at the time.

Mo and Lu have both worked for the Chinese government as well as agencies within an intelligence and influence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), according to Chinese government and state media reports translated by the DCNF, raising concerns among analysts that NYMA might be used as a staging ground for covert operations, especially given its close proximity and relationship with West Point Military Academy.

West Point denied that it had any relationship with NYMA.

NYMA, Lu and Mo did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

‘Jackpot’

China’s military and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence networks may view NYMA’s acquisition as a way to forge ties with individuals who will “have interaction, perhaps by proximity or otherwise, with West Point,” Steve Yates, senior research fellow for China and national security policy at the Heritage Foundation, told the DCNF. The acquisition could also be seen as a means to connect with influential alumni, which include filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, composer Stephen Sondheim and now the president of the United States, according to NYMA.

“I have no question that Chinese intelligence and military entities would see that as high value,” said Yates, who previously served as a Chinese language analyst for the National Security Agency and deputy national security adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney. “Here is a way to try to cultivate connections that may lead to either influence or a potential encounter with the president at some point.”

“They have a lot of people, and they can play the odds, so they can be wrong 999 times, but, if one of these people ends up being the president of the United States one day, that’s jackpot,” Yates said.

Lu and Mo have both held numerous positions with Chinese government and UFWD agencies, according to Chinese government and state media reports.

The UFWD’s operations are a “unique blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations that the [CCP] uses to shape its political environment, including to influence other countries’ policy toward the [People’s Republic of China] and to gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

Among other roles, both Lu and Mo have served as officials for a UFWD subordinate called the Western Returned Scholars Association (WRSA), which is one of the two “most important” organizations involved in China’s technology transfer efforts, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).

NYMA’s former owner-turned-board member, Mo, is listed as a “director” by WRSA, according to a DCNF translation of the association’s website. NYMA’s new board chairman, Lu, serves as the deputy chairman of WRSA’s “global liaison work committee,” according to a DCNF translation of a UFWD announcement.

Lu met with high-ranking CCP and UFWD officials at a WRSA branch in Zhejiang province in November 2022 to discuss talent recruitment operations for the region, according to a UFWD announcement. Several years prior, Zhejiang’s city of Rui’an held a conference for the Thousand Talents Plan, during which Lu was appointed to serve as a “talent ambassador,” Chinese state media reported. The Thousand Talents Plan is one of the Chinese government’s many “talent recruitment plans,” all of which incentivize participants to “steal foreign technologies needed to advance China’s national, military, and economic goals,” according to the FBI.

Both Lu and Mo have also served as delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), according to the Chinese government. CPPCC “delegates attend a high-profile annual meeting to receive direction from the CCP regarding the ways its policies should be characterized” and “serve as proxies for CCP interests,” according to USCC.

Chinese government announcements include photos showing both Lu and Mo wearing the CPPCC’s distinctive red, clip-on delegate’s badge during related press events.

‘Bad Deal’

NYMA has taken students to visit the West Point Museum and Chapel, it has held events at West Point’s Eisenhower Hall and Hudson Room, and has used West Point’s campus to “enhance” leadership training programs in recent years, according to NYMA announcements. The academy has also brought visitors from China to tour West Point, NYMA announcements state.

“West Point has no affiliation with the New York Military Academy,” a West Point spokesman told the DCNF. “Entrance to the United States Military Academy grounds is governed by rigorous security protocols. For security reasons, we will not provide further details about security measures.”

Trump appears to have a soft spot for his alma mater, whose cadets marched during his inauguration ceremonies in 2017 and 2025, footage shows.

Trump entered NYMA as a private in 1959, served as a company commander, and ultimately achieved the rank of “Captain, S-4, Senior Staff” by his graduation in 1964, according to NYMA photos and records. While attending NYMA, Trump played a variety of team sports including footballwrestling and baseball, and was named “ladies’ man” by a “popularity poll,” photos show.

“President Trump is proud of his time at the New York Military Academy. He learned important virtues that helped him become one of the greatest businessmen in the world and ultimately President of the United States twice,” Steven Cheung, White House communications director, told the DCNF.

NYMA’s sale to individuals connected to the Chinese government and UFWD is a “bad deal” for the U.S. and presents a national security threat, Michael Lucci, CEO of State Armor, a nonprofit focused on countering the CCP, told the DCNF.

“The CCP and its members should not own property within the U.S., nor should they be involved in our education system. And most importantly, the CCP should be kept as far as possible from any of our key military assets such as West Point,” Lucci said. “The NYMA should be removed from Chinese ownership as soon as possible.”

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include comment from the White House.

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Senior Investigative Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Harvard Commencement Speaker Worked For Org Tied To China’s Military

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: Harvard Commencement Speaker Worked For Org Tied To China’s Military

Harvard’s 2025 commencement speaker, “Luanna” Yurong Jiang, worked for a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entity with extensive ties to Beijing’s military and intelligence networks, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.

Jiang, who graduated from the Kennedy School on May 29 and appeared to take a swipe at the Trump administration during her speech, was a volunteer for the International Department of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) prior to attending Harvard between at least 2018 and 2022, according to a DCNF translation of Chinese state media. The organization is controlled by the CCP and has signed a cooperative agreement with a Chinese military arm, according to CBCGDF announcements.

Furthermore, CBCGDF also hosts a branch of a Chinese influence and intelligence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), to which many of its leaders belong, including its secretary-general who reportedly wrote a recommendation letter for Jiang to Harvard, according to a DCNF translation of Chinese state media.

“Harvard is one of the world’s greatest institutions, but we will have no choice but to end its existence if it continues to allow itself to be used by those seeking the destruction of our country,” Gordon Chang, author and China expert, told the DCNF.

Harvard and CBCGDF did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment. Luanna Jiang could not be reached for comment.

‘The Fate Of Students From Abroad’

“Humanity rises and falls as one,” said Luanna Jiang, the first Chinese woman to deliver Harvard’s commencement speech. “But today, that promise of a connected world is giving way to division, fear and conflict.”

“If we still believe in a shared future let us not forget those who we label as enemies, they too are human,” Jiang continued. “In the end, we do not rise by proving each other wrong, we rise by refusing to let one another go.”

The Harvard Crimson characterized Jiang’s speech as a “full-throated defense of the importance of international diversity as the Trump administration threatens the fate of students from abroad at Harvard.”

Harvard’s suspected ties to the Chinese government have come under intense scrutiny in recent years. In December 2021, Charles Lieber, a former Harvard University chemistry professor, was convicted of crimes related to concealing his participation in a Chinese government technology transfer program from U.S. government agencies funding his research.

The House Select Committee sent a letter to Harvard on May 19 alleging it had “repeatedly hosted and trained members of a CCP paramilitary organization” implementing “the CCP’s genocide against the Uyghurs.” Citing this and other examples, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked Harvard’s right to host foreign students on May 22, claiming the university has been facilitating and engaging “in coordinated activity with the CCP.”

However, a federal judge has blocked the ban prohibiting Harvard from enrolling international students.

“If Harvard insists on posing a threat to America, then the Trump administration must find a way to revoke its charter. Other schools can then take over its assets and functions,” Chang said. “A revocation is constitutional in a national emergency, such as the one we are now in.”

‘Proxies For CCP Interests’

Although the website for CBCGDF claims the organization is a “nationwide nonprofit public foundation and a social legal entity dedicated to biodiversity conservation and green development,” a DCNF review of its website and announcements found that CBCGDF is actually controlled by the CCP and Chinese government agencies, and has deep ties to China’s military and intelligence networks.

CBCGDF’s website states the organization was founded in 1985 by Lu Zhengcao, who was a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) general, according to Chinese state media. Lu also served as the deputy chairman of a Chinese influence arm called the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), according to CBCGDF.

CPPCC “delegates attend a high-profile annual meeting to receive direction from the CCP regarding the ways its policies should be characterized” and “serve as proxies for CCP interests,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).

The China Association For Science And Technology (CAST), which is part of the CPPCC, and one of the two “most important” organizations involved in China’s technology transfer efforts, according to the USCC, supervises CBCGDF, its website states.

The CBCGDF organizational diagram likewise reveals the group is under the control of its internal CCP committee, which was established in April 2017, according to CBCGDF. Xie Boyang, CBCGDF’s current chairman, is a counselor committee member to China’s State Council, according to the Chinese government.

The organization also works closely with the UFWD, which is a Chinese influence and intelligence service, according to the USCC.

The 4th chairman of CBCGDF, Hu Deping, previously served as the UFWD’s deputy director before joining the group and held CPPCC and other UFWD roles while leading CBCGDF, a review of the organization’s announcements found. Hu was still active within CBCGDF until at least 2024, CBCGDF announcements show.

A roster of CBCGDF directors from 2018 lists other UFWD personnel, and the group has sent staff to attend UFWD training camps, such as in September 2023, when staff members participated in a “UFWD theoretical research class” to study CCP ideology, according to CBCGDF.

Moreover, CBCGDF also announced in May 2024 that it had established an internal branch of the All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), which is a UFWD agency, according to the Department of Justice.

‘The Call Of Chairman Xi Jinping’

CBCGDF’s secretary-general, Zhou Jinfeng, wrote a recommendation letter for Luanna Jiang to attend Harvard, and has extensive ties to the Chinese government, according to Chinese government and state media reports.

Jiang volunteered with CBCGDF for at least four years, Chinese state media reported, and went with the group to participate in the London High-Level Meeting on Combating Illicit Wildlife Trade in October 2018. During the event, CBCGDF stated it wished to protect pangolins, according to the British government. The nonprofit’s researchers were later sent to study pangolins in Taiwan with the stated goal of promoting the nation’s “reunification with the motherland,” according to a CBCGDF staff member’s report given at a UFWD theoretical research class in 2023.

Zhou’s CBCGDF profile indicates that he has repeatedly served as a CPPCC delegate, and Chinese government sources identify him as having held several leadership positions within UFWD organizations.

Among others, Zhou is listed as the chairman of a U.S. branch of the Western Returned Scholars Association (WRSA), which is a UFWD subordinate, according to USCC. As with the aforementioned CAST that oversees CBCGDF, WRSA is the other “most important” organization involved in China’s technology transfer efforts, according to the commission. Zhou did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Zhou has also attended at least three events hosted by the Chinese People’s Association For Friendship With Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), which is a UFWD “affiliate,” according to the U.S. State Department. In November 2019, Chinese state media reported Zhou attended one such CPAFFC event in China’s Hebei province with the executive director of CBCGDF’s Green Future Science and Technology Development Special Fund, Jiang Zhiming, who is Luanna Jiang’s father, according to Sing Tao Daily.

Jiang Zhiming donated approximately $140,000 to establish CBCGDF’s special fund in 2015, according to the group. He could not be reached for comment.

Zhou has ties to Harvard and the Chinese military, according to multiple reports.

On May 23, 2018, Zhou met with Harvard Fairbanks Director Michael Szonyi to discuss the promotion of cultural exchanges, education and business between the U.S. and China, according to China Poly Group, which hosted the meeting at its headquarters in Beijing. China Poly Group is a state-owned Chinese defense contractor founded by the Central Military Commission and PLA, according to its archived website. The U.S. government sanctioned China Poly Group’s subsidiary Poly Technologies in 20132022, and 2024, for missile proliferation and other activities.

Zhou and Szonyi did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment. China Poly Group could not be reached for comment.

Chinese media outlet Sohu reported that during the 2018 meeting between Zhou, Szonyi, and China Poly Group’s chairman Xu Niansha, the parties also discussed the promotion of the Belt And Road Initiative, which is a Chinese government “infrastructure development and economic integration strategy” that China uses to gain intelligence and “political, military and economic leverage over participating countries through the accrual and manipulation of debt,” according to the U.S. State Department.

The year before Zhou’s meeting with Szonyi, CBCGDF’s secretary-general attended a January 2017 meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, during which CBCGDF signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation with China Poly Group, Chinese state media reported.

“China Poly Group follows the call of Chairman Xi Jinping, adhering to the aim of ‘protecting the country and benefiting the people,’ in order to build a harmonious China and green development, work together and dedicate ourselves to our responsibilities,” China Poly Group’s chairman, Xu Niansha, said during a speech at the 2017 meeting, according to a DCNF translation.

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Senior Investigative Reporter. Daily Caller News Foundation senior investigative reporter, political journalist, and China watcher. Twitter: @LenczyckiPhilip

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Top House Committees Sound Alarm On Suspected Chinese Spy Bases Just 90 Miles Off US Coast

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: Cash Flowing Into Anti-ICE Group’s Coffers Came From Chinese Gov’t-Linked Sources

Numerous Chinese government-linked entities have bankrolled a nonprofit accused of offering tips on how to evade federal immigration authorities, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

House Republicans recently launched an investigation into the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) — a New York-based nonprofit that’s been awarded over $1.4 million in tax-payer dollars since 2022 — after an undercover video surfaced purportedly showing CPC staff coaching illegal immigrants on how to avoid Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) apprehension. A review of CPC’s financial records discovered Chinese government-linked sources have been pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the nonprofit in recent years, raising concerns of potential foreign obstruction of U.S. immigration enforcement.

“I’m deeply concerned that Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars were potentially used by an NGO [non-governmental organization] to help illegal aliens subvert our nation’s laws,” Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, a Republican from Tennessee, told the DCNF.

“Even more troubling is the Chinese-American Planning Council’s alleged ties to the [CCP] — a regime we know is committed to undermining U.S. sovereignty,” Green continued. “This Committee will continue investigating suspicious activities by NGOs to protect taxpayer dollars from supporting those who make a mockery of our laws.”

CPC has received as much as $445,969 in donations from sources with ties to the Chinese government since 2018, according to financial records reviewed by the DCNF. State-run enterprises such as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Bank of China as well as other entities connected to the Chinese Community Party (CCP) have provided financial assistance to CPC in recent years, records show.

Additionally, CPC also appears to have significant financial and personnel links to a New York-based nonprofit, which, in turn, has extensive ties to Beijing and a CCP influence and intelligence arm.

CPC did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

‘If ICE Comes To The Door…’

Founded in 1965, CPC serves to promote the interests of Chinese-American, immigrant and low income communities across New York City, according to its website. The organization bills itself as the country’s largest Asian American social services group and claims to provide more than 50 “high-quality” programs at numerous sites across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

The House Homeland Security Committee announced on April 16 that it would begin investigating CPC for potentially using federal funds to facilitate illegal immigration. In an April letter first obtained by the DCNF, Green and Oklahoma GOP Rep. Josh Brecheen demanded CPC president Wayne Ho hand over documentation related to his group’s immigration seminars, funding grants and other related material.

The investigation is in response to undercover footage obtained by Muckraker.com, which allegedly shows CPC’s chief policy and public affairs officer, Carlyn Cower, and other staff  directing audience members on best practices to avoid ICE apprehension during a March 8th CPC seminar in New York City.

To avoid ICE, Cowen recommended “hardening your physical space,” “identifying a list of individuals authorized to respond if ICE comes to the door” and “training everybody who’s going to be involved,” footage shows. Another speaker at the event directed individuals to “not open the door at all.”

While state and local officials are not required to assist ICE with its mission, individuals are prohibited by law from getting in the way or otherwise impeding immigration enforcement actions. Immediately upon being sworn into office, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered funding to be pulled from sanctuary cities — and called for the Department of Justice to investigate NGOs receiving federal grant money.

The Trump administration has made clear it will not tolerate any obstruction of justice, and followed through on this position with the recent arrest and indictment of a Wisconsin judge for allegedly helping an illegal migrant in her courtroom evade an ICE agent.

A main concern for House Republicans is whether CPC has been facilitating illegal immigration all while raking in thousands of dollars in federal grants.

Around 55% of CPC’s total revenue comes from federal and state government grants, according to the House Homeland Security Committee. The New York City-based group has been awarded more than $1.4 million in direct federal grants from the Department of Health and Human Services since 2022, and may have received more federal funding awarded through New York State.

‘The CCP Orbit’

A review of CPC’s annual reports show it not only received U.S. federal tax dollars, but also large sums of cash from Chinese government sources.

The Bank of China, a state-owned banking corporation based in Beijing, gave CPC as much as $9,999 in 2020 and up to that same amount in 2024, the nonprofit’s annual reports show. CPC also received donations from Chinese state-run Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in 20182019 and 2023, amounting to as much as $19,997, the nonprofit’s annual reports show.

The Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia has also donated to CPC every year since at least 2018, having possibly doled out as much as $45,000, according to CPC’s financial records. Top executives for the bank, such as co-chief executives Adrian David Li Man-kiu and Brian David Li Man Bun, have both served as delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at either regional or national levels, according to their English language profiles on the bank’s website.

CPPCC “delegates attend a high-profile annual meeting to receive direction from the CCP regarding the ways its policies should be characterized” and “serve as proxies for CCP interests,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

The Charles B. Wang Community Health Center, a NYC-based health services provider catering to the local Asian-American community, has likewise donated large sums to CPC in recent years, according to a review of CPC’s annual reports. Since 2018, the health center contributed as much as $229,993 in donations to CPC, its records show.

However, Charles B. Wang — a Chinese-American billionaire and major donor to the health center — frequently met with CCP influence and intel leaders in China, state-run media reports reveal. A DCNF translation of Chinese government records reveal Wang served as an “executive director” of the China Overseas Exchange Association (COEA), an organization that operated under the CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD) in its final years until it was subsumed by a similarly-named and purposed UFWD agency called the China Overseas Friendship Association in 2019.

The UFWD’s operations are a “unique blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations that the [CCP] uses to shape its political environment, including to influence other countries’ policy toward the [People’s Republic of China] and to gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

A spokesperson for the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center, which adopted its present name in 1999, told the DCNF it was not connected to Wang’s “associations with his other philanthropic efforts across the world.” However, the health center’s annual reports show it has received as much as $699,993 from the Charles B. Wang International Foundation since 2009.

CPC is also closely linked with a nonprofit called the Committee of 100 (C100) through donations and shared leadership. While C100 claims merely to seek “constructive dialogue and relationships between the peoples of the United States and Greater China,” the nonprofit has been repeatedly accused of promoting CCP interests, with one joint report by the Hoover Institution and Asia Society alleging that the Chinese Consulate tasks C100 with co-opting prominent Chinese-Americans.

“It’s a cover organization for the CCP,” Shawn Steel, a California Republican National Committee member, told the DCNF. “So, any issue that would infringe or hurt the CCP, [C100] seems to be out there saying, ‘no, no, no, we can’t do this, it’s bad for Chinese-American relations.’”

Steel — who is married to former California GOP Rep. Michelle Steel — said he began looking into the C100 after the group attacked his wife for opposing China’s Confucius Institute program. While a member of Congress, Michelle Steel voted in favor of a resolution restricting funding to universities with ties to the Confucius Institute, which itself receives funding from the Chinese government under UFWD guidance, according to the State Department.

“C100 has morphed into the CCP orbit with its close connection to the CCP’s [UFWD],” Shawn Steel said.

C100’s members have included numerous individuals serving as Chinese government and United Front officials, the DCNF previously reported, such as Dominic Ng, CEO of East West Bank. Ng ultimately admitted membership in the aforementioned United Front group COEA after a DCNF investigation revealed that the CPPCC and several UFWD organizations identified him as a member.

Ng’s East West Bank — a California-based bank with at least one branch in China that was launched with a top United Front official present — donated as much as $9,999 to CPC in 2018, according to the nonprofit’s annual reports.

Charles P. Wang, who bears no relation to the aforementioned Charles B. Wang, has been a C100 member since 1989, and held multiple CPC leadership roles between 1968 and 1989, including executive director, according to his C100 website profile. Wang still remains active with the nonprofit, whose staff and board members came together to help honor him in October 2024 at an event in Flushing, New York.

Wang has also served as a Chinese government advisor and China Overseas Friendship Association director, according to Chinese government records and an Epoch Times report.

One C100 co-founder, Henry S. Tang, also served as a CPC chair from the 1970s to 1990, according to state-owned China Daily. Both Charles P. Wang and Tang are listed as “overseas advisors” to an anti-Taiwan independence front group, which operates as a subchapter of a CCP entity “directly subordinate” to the UFWD, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Several other C100 members have also made substantial and recurring donations to CPC since 2018, such as Shau-wai Lam, who, together with the company he founded, have donated as much as $69,992 to CPC, the nonprofit’s annual reports show. C100 itself also donated as much as $999 to CPC in 2023, according to its annual report.

“The Committee of 100 — and I’m granting grace — may have started with innocent and good intent, but it’s very clear that’s just not the case anymore,” Col. John Mills, Ret., a senior fellow at the Center For Security Policy, told the DCNF. “It’s absurd to not be concerned with this group in the current era, and anybody who is a part of it needs to do soul searching on why they are really part of this.”

“At this point in time, it’s like having a group during the Cold War that was advocating for the Soviet Union,” Mills said.

“Committee of 100 is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of distinguished Chinese Americans committed to the full inclusion of Chinese Americans across U.S. society and helping to ensure constructive dialogue between the U.S. and Greater China,” a C100 spokesperson told the DCNF. “Our members are American citizens who serve as leaders in business, government, academia, and the arts. Committee of 100 operates independently of any government and we share a commitment to core American values.”

However, the spokesperson refused to answer specific questions about Charles P. Wang, Tang, Lam or C100’s relationship with the UFWD, Chinese Consulate and CPC.

AUTHOR

Jason Hopkins And Philip Lenczycki

Contributors.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ Leader’s Campaign Bankrolled By Dem Power Broker Tied To Chinese Intel Agency

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Students Reportedly Uncover Chinese Espionage At Top California University

Students at Stanford University have allegedly uncovered a pattern of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attempting to gain sensitive information about American research.

CCP agents reportedly impersonate students at the university to gain trust from students and staff and steal information as part of a “nontraditional collection effort,” while others are already connected with Chinese nationals studying in the U.S., according to The Stanford Review. The report states that several Chinese students studying at Stanford are currently acting as spies for the CCP.

Those affiliated with the CCP attempt to gain access to sensitive STEM research, particularly AI, as well as gather intel into U.S. research on China, the Review reported.

In one instance, a Chinese agent impersonated a student at the university and attempted to pressure a Stanford student, who was involved in “sensitive research on China,” into flying to Beijing, the Review found. The man advised the student to limit her trip to between 24 to 144 hours “to avoid visa scrutiny by authorities” and tried to keep communications solely on a CCP-monitored app.

After the student tipped off authorities, it was revealed the man had apparently been impersonating a Stanford student for years and had targeted multiple students, mainly women focused on China-related research, the Review said.

One “China expert” who spoke to the Stanford Review claimed that several of the university’s Chinese students are actively reporting information back to the CCP. More than 1,000 Chinese nationals study at Stanford.

“Many Chinese [nationals] have handlers; they [CCP] want to know everything that’s going on at Stanford,” one unnamed Chinese national attending Stanford told the Review. “This is a very normal thing. They just relay the information they have.”

In 2020, Stanford student researcher and Chinese national Chen Song was indicted for attempting to conceal her affiliation with the Chinese military. During her time in the U.S., the student allegedly sent multiple updates on her research in medical science to Chinese government officials.

Despite her crime carrying the penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, Song’s charges were dropped under the Biden administration over technicalities stemming from a visa application question.

Suspicions of Chinese spying at Stanford, a top research university, have been widespread for years, with the Select Committee on the CCP (SCCCP) warning the school in March of its need for transparency on the issue in March.

“Our nation’s universities, long regarded as the global standard for excellence and innovation, are increasingly used as conduits for foreign adversaries to illegally gain access to critical research and advanced technology,” the SCCCP wrote to Stanford president Jonathan Levin in March. “America’s student visa system has become a Trojan horse for Beijing, providing unrestricted access to our top research institutions and posing a direct threat to our national security. If left unaddressed, this trend will continue to displace American talent, compromise research integrity, and fuel China’s technological ambitions at our expense.

According to the committee, a “large influx of Chinese national students” flooding American universities has created “a growing national security challenge,” especially at schools such as Stanford. Despite about one third of all foreign STEM students studying in the U.S. being Chinese nationals, only about one quarter intend to remain in America post-graduation, with many immediately returning to China.

“The brain drain of critical expertise is not a coincidence but a reflection of Beijing’s explicit strategy to leverage academia for technological advancement,” the committee wrote.

Some Chinese students feel pressured to comply with CCP requests for information collection in order to maintain good standing with the government or because their education is being funded by CCP scholarships, the Review stated. About 15% of Chinese nationals attending American universities are reportedly funded by China. These funds can often be used to direct “students’ research priorities to align with state-sponsored research activities at Stanford.”

“The Chinese government spends a lot of time collecting data on its overseas students; it has a pretty good understanding of who is doing what and if someone is working in an area of interest [frontier technology],” Matthew Turpin, an American security analyst specializing in U.S.-China relations, told the Review. “If students have access to things the government would like access to, it is relatively easy to reach out to an individual. They use carrots and sticks. If you turn over information, you may get a reward; if you don’t, there is a punishment.”

When asked to comment, Stanford referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to a public statement released by the university in response to the Review’s article.

“Stanford takes its commitment to national security with the utmost seriousness, and we are acutely aware of the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party to all research universities,” the university wrote. “We are looking into the reports in the Stanford Review article, and have reached out to federal law enforcement to consult on appropriate actions.”

AUTHOR

Jaryn Crouson

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Congress Calls On Prestigious University To End CCP-Linked School Allegedly Leaking ‘Sensitive’ Data

Big Trouble, Big China: CCP Spies Have Infiltrated American Universities

University Failed To Disclose Professor’s Ties To Chinese Government While Accepting Federal Research Funds

Caribbean proxies of Communist China have a decision to make

RELATED VIDEO: There’s CURRENTLY an organized CHINESE STUDENT spy ring in American Universities

EDITIORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Ed Dept Opens Probe Into University Of California, Berkeley Over ‘Deep Involvements With Chinese Entities’

The Department of Education (ED) opened an investigation into the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) Friday over its reported ties to Chinese sources, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

ED claims the university has failed to report “hundreds of millions of dollars” it received from foreign government over a span of several years, prompting the department to initiate a records request, the DCNF was told. The foreign funding sparks concerns the school has “deep involvements with Chinese entities” and may be sharing information about research and “important technologies.”

The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2023 found “grave research security concerns” with UC Berkeley due to the school’s partnership with the CCP-controlled Tsinghua University and the Shenzhen government.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order requiring American universities to be more transparent about any foreign donations they accept. The order calls on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to seek information from universities about the source and purpose of foreign funding and make such details available to the public and also tasks the U.S. Attorney General with enforcing the disclosures and holding schools accountable.

UC Berkeley did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

Jaryn Crouson

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

University Under Review For ‘Inaccurate’ Foreign Funding Disclosures Raked In Millions From China

Export-Oriented Factories in China Suspend Production Amid US–China Tariff War

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ Leader’s Campaign Bankrolled By Dem Power Broker Tied To Chinese Intel Agency

Boston Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu’s 2021 campaign received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fundraiser who is listed by a Chinese intelligence agency as an official, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.

Gary Yu, the founder of Boston International Media Consulting, helped raise over $300,000 for Wu with the help of a Chinese civic association he leads. However, Yu — whose Chinese name is Yu Guoliang — is listed as an official by an agency of a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence and intelligence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), and also operates as a recruiter for the Chinese government, according to reports from the CCP, Chinese state media and civic associations led by Yu.

“The Communist Party’s UFWD never rests,” author and China expert Gordon Chang told the DCNF. “There is no ethnic Chinese official in America who is not targeted. It’s time for law enforcement to investigate the CCP’s ties to Gary Yu and Yu’s ties to Mayor Michelle Wu.”

Wu has risen to national prominence as a central figure in the Democratic resistance to Trump’s border and deportation policies. Wu recently defended her city’s refusal to cooperate with immigration officials during her March 19, 2025 “State of the City” address, during which she criticized “presidents who think they are kings,” prompting the White House to fire back the next day with a press release labeling Wu a “radical mayor” who “puts violent criminal illegal aliens first.”

“Wu’s ultra-leftism makes her the perfect candidate for CCP recruitment and capture,” Chang said. “Or do we have it backward? Is her ultra-leftism the result of CCP recruitment and capture? More than just the people of Boston would like to know.”

Wu’s office, Yu, and Boston International Media Consulting did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

‘Overseas Chinese’

Yu has repeatedly met with high-ranking CCP intelligence leaders in China and is listed as an official by two regional branches of a UFWD arm, according to Chinese government announcements, state media reports and records from Chinese civic associations led by Yu.

The UFWD’s operations are a “unique blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations that the [CCP] uses to shape its political environment, including to influence other countries’ policy toward the [People’s Republic of China] and to gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

Yu is identified as an “overseas committee member” by the Hangzhou municipal All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC) branch in Zhejiang province and has met with their officials in China multiple times, according to the website of the North American Hangzhou Association (NAHAUS), where Yu serves as chairman.

ACFROC is a UFWD agency specializing in overseas influence operations, including allegedly directing Chinese community leaders to illegally establish a secret Chinese police station in New York City.

“China’s strategy to influence state and local policymakers is executed, in part, through hundreds of ostensibly ‘civil society’ organizations that are actually affiliated with the CCP’s UFWD,” Michael Lucci, CEO of State Armor, a nonprofit focused on countering the CCP, told the DCNF. “Xi Jinping considers United Front work a critical tool to undermine democracies. It involves influence peddling, intelligence collection, and intellectual property theft, all for the end goal of aligning U.S. subnational governments with China’s foreign policy and exploiting weaknesses they find.”

NAHAUS’s website details one meeting in China between Yu and the Hangzhou ACFROC Communist Party secretary on Nov. 29, 2018. During the meeting, Yu said NAHAUS would “work tirelessly to support the construction of Hangzhou and continue to serve the function of uniting and leading overseas Chinese,” according to a Chinese social media post that includes a photo of Yu alongside the ACFROC Party secretary.

Yu is likewise listed as an “overseas committee member” by the Zhejiang ACFROC branch, and he also met with officials from that group in China in November 2018, according to NAHAUS’ website. In March 2023, Yu participated in a Zhejiang ACFROC overseas advisory committee webinar, according to Zhejiang ACFROC. During the webinar, Yu and other ACFROC officials discussed matters such as building overseas coalitions.

‘Talent Recruitment’

Yu also agreed to headhunt U.S. talent for at least half a dozen Chinese regional governments, including the cities of Hangzhou and Guangzhou, according to Chinese government and ACFROC announcements.

For instance, in November 2019, the CCP announced that Yu agreed to establish an “Overseas Talent Recruitment Work Station” in North America for the party’s Organization Department in Nanning, a city located in the Guangxi Autonomous Region.

The Organization Department oversees China’s malign talent recruitment programs, like the Thousand Talents Plan, which incentivizes participants to “return to China to augment its scientific and military capabilities,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Yu has also agreed to help recruit U.S. talent to support China’s high-tech development, including in the field of artificial intelligence.

Guangxi’s ACFROC branch recently announced that Yu had met with its officials on March 27, 2025. During that meeting, Yu promised to continue introducing “top-quality resources to Guangxi” after the ACFROC chairwoman told him the region’s artificial intelligence industry urgently required “overseas high-level talents.”

A November 2018 article by the Chinese media outlet Sohu reported Yu had previously headhunted for the Chengdu government’s High-Tech Zone and Tianfu Software Park, which are home to multiple Chinese military companies sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Defense, including Chengdu JOUAV Automation Tech Co.Chengdu M&S Electronics Technology Co.Tencent, and Huawei.

‘Unlimited Power’

Meanwhile, Yu has organized the Chinese American community in Massachusetts to canvas and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect Democratic lawmakers like Wu.

Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) records show Yu has personally donated $45,515 to various Massachusetts Democratic politicians since 2018, including $3,200 to Wu and $2,175 to Gov. Maura Healey.

Among other leadership roles, Yu also serves as the co-chair of the New England Chinese American Alliance (NECCA), which has “actively engaged the Chinese community in political campaigns,” according to the nonprofit’s website. Toward that end, NECCA has hosted “fundraising events” for at least nine Massachusetts politicians including Wu and Healey.

NECCA’s website claims it “raised over $300,000 from the Chinese American community for Michelle Wu,” and Yu’s Twitter advertised fundraising events for the future mayor in November 2020 and June 2021.

“We organized so many fundraisers and translated campaign materials into Chinese for more Chinese residents to read,” Yu said about his work for Wu, according to a November 2021 Boston University News Service (BUNS) report. “We did street canvassing every week. We had unlimited power for supporting her in the past year.”

By September 2021, NECCA had “expanded the fundraising scope from the Greater Boston area to more than 30 states across the country,” BUNS reported.

“Public officials need to thoroughly vet any organization and individual that has ties to China’s government, and interface with state and federal law enforcement when there is any uncertainty,” Lucci told the DCNF. “It is well-known that China’s government seeks to influence U.S. politics and place agents within our governance systems to further the CCP’s agenda. We need to stop letting them get away with it.”

Yu also donated $3,000 to Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, OCPF records show.

DiZoglio added Yu to her “policies and priorities” transition team after winning her race for state auditor in June 2021, and later appointed him to serve as a commissioner on the state’s Asian American and Pacific Islanders Commission (AAPIC) in January 2024.

Yu now serves as vice chair of AAPIC, which describes itself as “the Commonwealth’s only permanent, statewide body dedicated to addressing the needs and challenges of the AAPI community.”

AAPIC’s chairman, Saatvik Ahluwalia, told the DCNF by email the organization was completely “unaware” of any activity between Yu and ACFROC.

“[T]his is the first time we have heard of ACFROC, and we’ve had no contact, affiliation, or engagement with either the organization or the Chinese Government,” Ahluwalia said. “We absolutely intend to investigate what you outlined in your questions, including talking directly to Mr. Yu.”

NECCA, Healey, and DiZoglio did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Senior investigative reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon, Energy Dept. Nuclear Research Projects Tapped Sanctioned Chinese Communist Party Supercomputers

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Georgia Bill Sparks MAHA Concerns About Alleged Chinese Poison Chemicals

MAHA advocates are warning about a bill Georgia lawmakers passed in March that they allege would allow manufacturers of pesticides to escape liability for poisoning customers.

Senate Bill 144 would make it so “that a manufacturer cannot be held liable for failing to warn consumers of health risks above those required by the United States Environmental Protection Agency with respect to pesticides.”

Environmentalists and regenerative farming advocates warn that the bill would be detrimental to public health.

“Stripping our right to be able to sue if we have a different opinion than what the EPA has is really going to be catastrophic for public health, because then we have no recourse whatsoever,” Kelly Ryerson, the founder of American Regenerative and Glyphosate Facts, told the Daily Caller. Ryerson, a Stanford University MBA, has a certificate in public health policy from Stanford Business School.

The bill’s primary sponsor, Republican Georgia State Sen. Sam Watson, pushed back on the idea that the bill would prevent Americans from being able to sue manufacturers.

“It’s dealing with failure to warn, it’s not providing immunity,” Sen. Watson told the Caller. “It’s not preventing anyone to go after [manufacturers] because they thought that a product caused cancer. You can still do that, you just can’t do it for failure to warn of it causing cancer.”

Manufacturers that would be covered under Georgia’s bill include Bayer, who owns Monsanto, the maker of RoundUp. A Georgia jury is fresh off awarding a plaintiff over $2 billion in a judgement against Bayer after he blamed RoundUp for his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in a lawsuit.

RoundUp’s active ingredient is glyphosate, the most commonly used pesticide in the United States. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said glyphosate likely causes cancer in 2015, labelling it as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

“It says it’s likely and we saw that same report. It doesn’t say it does. It says that it suggests or it may be or probably or could cause,” Sen. Watson told the Caller.

The EPA reached a different conclusion. After a February 2020 review, the agency found “that there are no risks of concern to human health when glyphosate is used in accordance with its current label,” according to its website.

The IARC was accused of manipulating their data in 2017. A draft document of IARC’s 2015 study was unearthed and, according to Reuters, showed the agency dismissed and edited out conclusions contrary to their final report.

Watson claimed that the study which the IARC based its carcinogenic conclusion on also found a number of other common American lifestyle choices increased the risk of cancer.

“If you’ll keep reading in that study it also says that red meat is carcinogenic and night shift work is carcinogenic and a lot of other things that people do are carcinogenic. So, I mean, you need to read the whole study because one studies shift and dictate,” Watson told the Caller.

While the EPA did not concur with the IARC’s conclusion that glyphosate is a carcinogen, Ryerson alleged that the research they based that conclusion on was manipulated by Bayer/Monsanto.

Wisner Baum, a law firm which Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once worked for, published a trove of documents that appeared to implicate Monsanto in ghostwriting a number of reports on glyphosate’s toxicity.

One email published by the firm allegedly shows that Monsanto commissioned scientist David Saltmiras and former Monsanto consultant Larry Keir to recruit respected names to write a review of glyphosate’s toxicity. “[E]ven though we feel confident that glyphosate is not genotoxic, this became a very difficult story to tell given all the complicated ‘noise’ out there,” the correspondence reads.

Keir’s name appears on the review that was eventually published, according to the documents obtained by Wisner Baum.

Other manufacturers that could benefit from the limited liability include Chinese chemical manufacturers. When ChemChina, a Chinese state-controlled chemical manufacturer, bought Swiss AgTech company Syngenta for $43 billion in 2017, it was forced by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to divest its rights to the company’s paraquat chemical business in the U.S. to an American firm.

However, China is still the primary producer of paraquat used in the U.S. while America is the world’s biggest importer, according to global shipping tracker Volza. The U.S. imports from 4,000 to 5,000 tons of the product annually, making up over 10 percent of China’s export supply, according to agropages.com

Like glyphosate, the EPA found “no dietary risks of concern associated with paraquat when it is used according to the label.” But others have called it “the deadliest chemical in US agriculture.”

National Institutes of Health (NIH) studies have linked the chemical to Parkinson’s disease, finding that people who used paraquat were 2.5 times more likely to develop Parkinson’s. Over 50 countries have banned its use, including China.

Sen. Watson, a vegetable farmer who uses RoundUp himself, argued it’s China’s very stranglehold over the paraquat market that makes SB 144 so necessary.

“If the Chinese become the only manufacturer of a product, you can’t go after them. It’s very difficult to go after a Chinese manufacturer for any kind of negligence claim,” he told the Caller.

“So I feel like they’re already protected, which makes it even more important to keep manufacturers in the United States because those are the ones that we can have recourse if they here in the United States.”

Ryerson disagreed. “I actually don’t care who manufactures it,” she said. “I just don’t want it anywhere in our system.”

Additionally, 99 percent of glyphosate used in the U.S. originated from China in 2024, according to a Farm Business Network survey.

The bill now sits on Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for him to sign. “Our office has 40 days following the last day of the legislative session to conduct a thorough review of legislation that received final passage by the Georgia General Assembly. We will make an announcement upon the conclusion of that review process,” a spokesperson for Kemp’s office told the Caller.

Georgia’s legislative session ended April 4, giving the governor until May 14 to make a decision.

The bill represents a test of power for RFK Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) coalition. Self-proclaimed “MAHA moms” have been lobbying hard against its passage, imploring Kemp not to sign it. RFK, who tried and won cases on behalf of Monsanto victims in his past life as an attorney, has yet to publicly comment on the bill.

The Daily Caller reached out to HHS to get Secretary Kennedy’s thoughts on the bill but did not receive a response.

AUTHOR

Robert McGreevy

Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

RFK Jr. Targets America’s Most Obese State For Aggressive MAHA Reforms

Top Maryland Dem Backs Green Energy Bill That Could Line His Own Company’s Pockets

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: How Small Town America Stopped A Chinese Communist Party Takeover

A U.S. electric vehicle battery manufacturer with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has suspended its permit application to build a plant near a Michigan National Guard base following fierce opposition.

Chuck Thelen, CEO of Gotion Inc. — a “wholly owned and controlled” subsidiary of Chinese company Hefei Gotion High-Tech Power Energy Co. Ltd. (Gotion High-Tech) — said the decision stemmed from the firm’s ongoing breach of contract lawsuit against Green Charter Township, according to the Big Rapids Pioneer. The township soured on the $2.4 billion project in November 2023 after voters recalled numerous officials following a series of reports revealing Gotion and its Chinese parent company’s ties to the CCP.

“I applaud the people of Mecosta County as Gotion pauses their permitting process, but their fight is not over,” Republican Michigan Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Gotion must announce it will finally listen to the people, and end its projects for good.”

“Over the last two years the residents of Green Charter Township, a small town of just 3,200 people, came together to defend American interests and stop Gotion from bullying its way into their community,” Moolenaar said. “The opposition to the CCP-affiliated company attended board meetings to voice their concerns and rallied their neighbors in true grassroots efforts against Gotion.”

‘National Security Risks’

Questions about Gotion’s CCP-ties began to arise around March 2023 when The Midwesterner reported Gotion High-Tech’s “Articles of Association” required the firm to establish a “Party organization and carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.”

Later, in August 2023, the DCNF found Gotion High-Tech’s Chinese-language annual reports from the previous year revealing the firm employed 923 CCP members at that time. The same month, the DCNF also discovered footage on the firm’s Chinese-language website showing employees visiting CCP memorials dressed as Red Army soldiers to pledge their lives to the Party.

Other Chinese-language announcements on Gotion High-Tech’s website unearthed by the DCNF showed Gotion’s Chief Technology Officer, Steven Cai, at the internal CCP committee meetings of its Chinese parent company.

The House Select Committee on the CCP investigated Gotion High-Tech in 2024 and “found their supply chains are reliant on forced labor as part of the CCP’s ongoing genocide of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang Province,” Mooleenaar told the DCNF.

“The full extent of Gotion’s ties to the CCP were uncovered, with the help of the investigative reporting by the Daily Caller News Foundation, as well as the national security risks posed by companies like Gotion,” Moolenaar said.

‘We Love Our Freedom’

Meanwhile, Michigan residents — like Joseph Cella, the director of the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group — engaged in grassroots activism to oppose the CCP-tied company. Cella served as the U.S. Ambassador to Fiji during the first Trump administration.

The former ambassador told the DCNF he blames local leaders for allowing such a company the opportunity to build a base of operations in Michigan.

“[They] refused to follow the directives given to state and local governments on dealings with China-based companies to exercise vigilance, conduct due diligence, and ensure transparency, integrity, and accountability are built into the partnership to guard against potential foreign government exploitation,” Cella said. “It is important that executive branch agencies, Congress, the Michigan Legislature, and citizens continue to scrutinize and investigate this ‘deal.’”

Cella credits other local activists, lawmakers, and journalists for their work in opposing Gotion’s project.

“This was a first-in-the-nation moment where a subnational incursion via a ‘deal’ with a China-based and CCP-tied company led to the recall and defeat of elected officials,” Cella said, referencing the November 2023 Green Charter Township election. “The totality of those activities for nearly two years resulted in this ‘deal’ being in grave trouble and facing a dim future.”

Dr. Ormand Hook, co-strategist for the “No Gotion” movement in Big Rapids, Michigan, told the DCNF that “people who just wanted to live in freedom” are “responsible for our victory.”

“We were motivated by the fact that we love our freedom and are not willing to give up our freedom to America’s number one geopolitical adversary. Plain and simple,” Hook said. “We had to push back at every opportunity because we had no playbook. We found the weaknesses and exploited them as best we could. Our biggest objective was to replace the fraudulent elected officials, which we were successful in doing.”

Among other things, Hook told the DCNF that many in the No Gotion movement were galvanized into action after the Michigan state Senate Appropriations Committee granted Gotion $175 million in taxpayer funding to support their project. The funding allocation passed with a 10-9 vote, despite every committee Republican and three Democrats voting against it.

“We found out most local politicians were in bed with the governor and our enemies,” Hook said.

Lori Brock, another leader of the No Gotion movement, told the DCNF that she was “cautiously optimistic that this disastrous project may finally be coming to an end.”

“We will continue to fight until it is completely gone from our community, and it’s my hope that our political leaders have learned a valuable lesson from this experience: in America, you don’t get to completely upend a community and our way of life without the consent of the people who live here, and American tax dollars should never, ever be used to subsidize anything associated with the CCP,” Brock said.

Thelen and Gotion did not respond to requests for comment.

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Daily Caller News Foundation senior investigative reporter, political journalist, and China watcher. Twitter: @LenczyckiPhilip

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon, Energy Dept. Nuclear Research Projects Tapped Sanctioned Chinese Communist Party Supercomputers

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon, Energy Dept. Nuclear Research Projects Tapped Sanctioned Chinese Communist Party Supercomputers

The Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Energy (DOE) have funded more than 100 research projects using Chinese government supercomputers sanctioned by the U.S. for collaborating with China’s military, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

The DCNF compared federally-funded research project reports against entities sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC). The DCNF identified 102 projects, primarily conducted through U.S. national labs, involving at least one of five sanctioned Chinese supercomputer centers in BeijingChangshaGuangzhouShenzhen and Tianjin.

While it’s unclear what information may have been shared with the sanctioned supercomputers, intelligence analysts and lawmakers say the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is committed to weaponizing research with dual civilian and military applications.

“It is unacceptable that federally-funded researchers continue to use Chinese supercomputing centers that have been blacklisted for supporting China’s military buildup,” Michigan Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, told the DCNF. “These systems have been instrumental in China’s hypersonic missile research, nuclear weapons development, and other strategic capabilities that directly threaten U.S. national security. The use of these centers by American researchers poses serious risks of U.S. technology transfer and cyber exploitation.”

Additionally, some research projects included China-based co-authors belonging to other sanctioned institutes serving the Chinese military, such as universities subordinate to China’s Central Military Commission.

Spokesmen for Argonne, Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge national laboratories told the DCNF their personnel had not used the sanctioned CCP supercomputers. Yet, when asked directly if the research projects involved China-based co-authors who had used the sanctioned Chinese supercomputers, the spokesmen did not respond.

DOD and DOE did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The DOC sanctioned the Chinese supercomputing centers in question for “activities contrary to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States” related to China’s weapons of mass destruction programs. The sanctions prohibit items of U.S. origin from being exported to the listed entities.

However, L.J. Eads, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence analyst, said there’s a major loophole in U.S. export control regulations that national labs seem to be exploiting.

“One major loophole is that while U.S. export controls restrict direct access, Chinese researchers can still exploit U.S. research by having China-based collaborators run simulations on sanctioned supercomputers,” Eads told the DCNF. “This loophole also allows DOD and DOE researchers to circumvent restrictions by outsourcing computations to China, which poses serious national security risks.”

‘Military-Civil Fusion’

After reviewing the DCNF’s findings, Eads said the majority of identified research projects relying on sanctioned Chinese supercomputers have both civilian and military applications, such as space weather modeling, which impacts satellite communications as well as “ballistic-missile early warning radar systems,” according to the U.S. Space Force.

Supercomputers are orders of magnitude faster than conventional computing technology, and, thus, are used to perform complex calculations, such as rapidly modeling advanced ballistics and nuclear reactions, Eads said.

“The power of these supercomputers equates to using tens of thousands of the newest MacBooks all at once,” Eads told the DCNF.

Consequently, U.S. entities using sanctioned Chinese supercomputers for advanced research may be exposing American technological assets to the threat of technology transfer through the CCP’s so-called “Military-Civil Fusion” strategy, which the State Department has warned “seeks to exploit the inherent ‘dual-use’” of technologies with both military and civilian applications.

“[CCP supercomputers] linked directly to the [People’s Liberation Army], risk transferring sensitive U.S. algorithms and models that could significantly enhance China’s capabilities in critical areas such as nuclear simulation and hypersonic weaponry,” Eads said.

‘No Such Thing As Harmless Cooperation’

Since October 2015, the DOD has funded at least 25 research projects using sanctioned CCP supercomputers, according to a DCNF review of U.S. government websites and scholarly databases.

In one instance, federal records show several Pentagon grants supported an October 2020 report conducted by a team of Chinese government personnel and a U.S. university professor researching “high-entropy alloys,” which have both aerospace and advanced nuclear applications. The team’s 2020 report thanks the “computational resource provided by the TianHe-1 supercomputer at the National Supercomputer Center in Changsha,” which the DOC sanctioned five years prior in February 2015 for activities contrary to U.S. “national security or foreign policy interests” and its use in “nuclear explosive activities.”

The DOD also funded a September 2024 report conducted by U.S. and China-based university professors, as well as Chinese government personnel, concerning hydrogen production. Eads noted the research may benefit the development of nuclear energy. The 2024 research report expressed gratitude for “the computational resources provided by the TianHe-1A, TianHe II supercomputer,” both of which were sanctioned by the DOC in 2015.

A third Pentagon-funded report from October 2018 conducted by U.S. and Chinese university professors, as well as DOD researchers, investigated atomic interactions, which Eads said could have dual-use applications related to developing nuclear weapon systems.

The 2018 research report thanked the “National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou,” which houses the sanctioned TianHe-2 supercomputer, according to the U.S. government. Guangzhou’s National Supercomputer Center was involved in 68 of the 102 research reports identified by the DCNF, the most of any of the sanctioned Chinese supercomputers.

“The CCP’s comparative advantage is surveillance, not science or fundamental research,” Jacqueline Deal, an advisory board member at State Armor, a nonprofit focused on countering the CCP, told the DCNF. “The Party has wired its universities and overseas research institutions in order to sense and detect work with military or intelligence applications. There’s no such thing as harmless cooperation on dual-use topics with people subject to the reach of China’s surveillance apparatus.”

‘Loopholes’

The DOE and U.S. national laboratories have also supported at least 77 research projects using sanctioned CCP supercomputers, according to a review of government websites and scholarly databases.

Illinois’ Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), known for its work on the Manhattan Project to develop the atom bomb, has been involved in at least 29 research projects using sanctioned CCP supercomputers.

One DOE-funded ANL research project published in December 2020, titled “Memory-Efficient and Skew-Tolerant MapReduce Over MPI for Supercomputing Systems,” used Guangzhou’s TianHe-2 supercomputer and focused on optimizing memory storage for supercomputers.

In addition, ANL and U.S. university researchers collaborated with personnel from China’s National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), which the Commerce Department sanctioned in February 2015.

An ANL spokesperson told the DCNF by email that its researchers had “not used any of the sanctioned Chinese national supercomputing centers or their associated supercomputers,” and said that compliance with federal regulations was “a top priority.”

Yet, ANL did not respond to questions about whether or not it had supported research projects relying on China-based researchers using sanctioned CCP supercomputing centers.

New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), which was established in 1943 to build the atomic bomb, has been involved in at least 22 research projects using sanctioned Chinese supercomputers, 15 of which involved collaboration with personnel from sanctioned Chinese universities.

Among other examples, in August 2022, LANL published a DOE-funded research project concerning spacecraft physics that leveraged simulations from Guangzhou’s TianHe-2 supercomputer.

The project also included personnel from Beihang University, which the Department of Commerce sanctioned in May 2001 under its former name, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Beihang University is one of China’s so-called “Seven Sons of National Defense,” which serve as “defense science, technology and industry work units” subordinate to the main driver of the CCP’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

A LANL spokesperson told the DCNF by email that “no LANL researchers worked on Chinese supercomputers, and there was no violation of export controls or Department of Commerce sanctions.”

However, the LANL spokesperson said certain research projects involving sanctioned Chinese supercomputers included LANL personnel who had participated in “scientific interpretation” or had “collaborated on the fundamental science.”

A LANL “code expert” who has allegedly developed a “large, open-source code” that was “used by the space physics community” and the sanctioned CCP supercomputers was also a research project co-author to “ensure that the code is working properly,” the LANL spokesperson told the DCNF.

“It’s disconcerting that esteemed DOE scientists, who are fully aware of the department’s critical national security role, persist in engaging with these sanctioned platforms,” Eads said. “Their actions contradict the very mission they are supposed to uphold.”

Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), another Manhattan Project landmark, has likewise participated in 26 research projects using sanctioned CCP supercomputers.

In November 2018, ORNL published a DOE-funded research project investigating the production of an exotic material called graphane, which may have applications in solar cells, and is related, but not to be confused with graphene. The research acknowledged that “calculations were performed on the TianheII supercomputer at the Chinese National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou.”

“ORNL has not violated Department of Commerce rules related to foreign entities,” an ORNL spokesperson told the DCNF by email. “No U.S. researchers performed work on Chinese supercomputers, and no government resources were used to support Chinese research conducted at the Chinese supercomputing centers.”

However, the spokesperson acknowledged that Chinese personnel involved in ORNL research projects had “used an ORNL instrument for non-sensitive, open science experiments” and had “used Chinese computers to analyze data.”

“Loopholes in current regulations and enforcement have allowed this dangerous practice to persist, exposing sensitive U.S. research to potential exploitation by Beijing,” Rep. Moolenaar told the DCNF. “Congress must act swiftly to close these gaps and ensure that taxpayer-funded research does not, in any form, contribute to strengthening our top geopolitical adversary.”

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Senior investigative reporter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

EXCLUSIVE: Owner Of US Defense Contractor Making Fighter Jet, Missile Parts Listed As Chinese Intel Agency Official

EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Communist Party Quietly Operates Shadow Justice System In US Cities

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

China Loses Multi-Billion Dollar COVID Court Case It Didn’t Even Bother Showing Up To

The state of Missouri won a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against China for its role in the COVID-19 pandemic after none of the defendants showed up to court.

A Missouri federal judge ordered China and the other defendants on Friday to pay the state “an amount of $24,488,825,457.00,” with post-judgment interest “at a rate of 3.91 percent, compounded annually.” The People’s Republic of China and co-defendants, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, “failed to appear or otherwise answer after being properly served, and [are] therefore in default,” Senior U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh wrote in his order.

CNF it was “no surprise” the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) opted to hide behind “proxy organizations like the Chinese Society of Private International Law rather than appearing in court to answer for their actions.”

“We will not allow the CCP to manipulate the legal process to evade justice — our mission is to fight for the truth and recover damages for the people of Missouri,” Bailey said.

Hiding Behind Proxy Groups

Bailey’s motion earlier on Friday argued that an amicus brief filed on Feb. 27 by The China Society of Private International Law (China Society) in defense of the Chinese government in the case of Missouri v. China should be struck from the record because the organization is allegedly a proxy for a Ministry of Foreign Affairs-run organization called the Chinese Society of International Law (CSIL).

The filing alleged that the China Society, which presents itself as an academic organization, “is actually controlled by Defendants,” i.e., the Chinese government, because China Society is led by many of the same individuals as CSIL, which was “founded by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

“China Society and CSIL appear to have the same President — a President who is also a government official in China’s legal field,” the legal motion reads. “The organizations’ share a president, a Chinese government official named Huang Jin, who, in addition to these (and other) presidencies, also currently works as ‘Special Counsel of the Supreme People’s Court’ and Expert Counselor of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate — the top prosecutorial agency of the People’s Republic of China.”

The DCNF also discovered that Huang apparently has several other Chinese government ties, such as being identified as a member of the CCP on China Society’s website.

The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) also identified Huang as a participant in 2020.

“CPPCC delegates attend a high-profile annual meeting to receive direction from the CCP regarding the ways its policies should be characterized to both domestic and foreign audiences,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. “Delegates to the CPPCC serve as proxies for CCP interests by virtue of their participation in this forum, and they frequently act as interlocutors with foreign government officials, businesses and academic institutions.”

The CPPCC’s charter states that delegates must “uphold the leadership” of the CCP, “facilitate implementation of state foreign policy,” and even “keep state secrets.”

“The reality is that China Society simply seeks to litigate this case on behalf of Defendants while shielding Defendants from any actual participation in this lawsuit,” the legal motion reads.

The legal motion also alleged that China Society’s executive vice president, Xiao Yongping, is CSIL’s vice president.“The list of direct overlap in leaders between China Society and [CSIL] (an express arm of the CPC), many of whom also appear to conveniently work as high-ranking government officials in China, goes on and on,” the legal motion continues. “For example, Yongping Xiao works concurrently as Executive Vice President of China Society and Vice President of [CSIL], while also working as a member of the Advisory Committees of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of China and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

The DCNF discovered that Xiao is also listed as holding several other Chinese government affiliations.

In addition to being identified as a CCP member by Wuhan University, where he is a faculty member, China Society’s website likewise identifies Xiao as a Chang Jiang Scholar, which is one of many so-called Chinese “talent recruitment plans.” The FBI has warned that all of China’s talent recruitment plans incentivize participants to “steal foreign technologies needed to advance China’s national, military, and economic goals,” and the Department of Defense has labeled the Chang Jiang Scholar program as posing “a threat to national security interests of the United States.”

“In other words, the purported ‘academic organization’ that seeks to file an amicus supporting Defendants is in fact directly controlled and directed by Defendants’ agents — while it seeks to argue on behalf of Defendants, who themselves have refused to appear,” the legal motion asserts. “This Court should strike or otherwise set aside the arguments of China Society as an improper attempt by a purported amicus to litigate this case on behalf of a defaulting party.”

Bailey told the DCNF that Missouri will hold the CCP accountable for “unleashing COVID-19 on the world.”

“The people of Missouri suffered immense loss — lives were lost, businesses shuttered, and livelihoods devastated — because of the CCP’s deception and negligence. This case is about standing up for the rule of law and fighting for justice on behalf of every Missourian impacted by the pandemic,” Bailey said.

China Society did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment and CSIL could not be reached for comment.

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Daily Caller News Foundation senior investigative reporter, political journalist, and China watcher. Twitter: @LenczyckiPhilip

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Communist Party Quietly Operates Shadow Justice System In U.S. Cities

China is imposing its justice system on American soil using a web of U.S.-based nonprofits linked to a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence agency, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

Located throughout California, the greater Washington, D.C. area, Hawaii, and New York, the network of more than a dozen nonprofits share information with Chinese law enforcement officials, and some also host unsanctioned courtrooms in the U.S., a months-long investigation discovered. Although the Chinese government claims it appoints law enforcement officials overseas in order to more conveniently handle mundane matters like Chinese driver’s license renewal and international divorce cases, U.S. lawmakers and intelligence analysts say China’s underground courts could easily be weaponized to punish dissidents and expand communist influence abroad.

Liu Pengyu, a Chinese Embassy spokesperson, told the DCNF that “Chinese law enforcement agencies conduct foreign law enforcement cooperation strictly in accordance with international law, fully respect foreign laws and judicial sovereignty, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects in accordance with the law.”

However, the DCNF found that not only are all the identified nonprofits led by individuals working with a Chinese intelligence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), but some of their leaders have also explicitly discussed forced repatriation operations with Ministry of Public Security (MPS) officials in China. Furthermore, several of the individuals appointed to operate overseas Chinese courts in the U.S. also belong to the nonprofit that ran a Chinese police station in New York, which the Department of Justice (DOJ) found sought to forcibly repatriate individuals back to China.

“The Chinese government’s attempt to impose its repressive legal system on U.S. soil through the CCP’s United Front network is an unacceptable assault on U.S. sovereignty and the rule of law,” Michigan Republican Rep. John Moolenaar told the DCNF.

“These actions jeopardize the safety and freedoms of Chinese Americans and undermine the principles of justice that define our nation,” said Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP. “Congress and law enforcement must remain vigilant, hold those involved accountable, and impose costs on the CCP’s illicit United Front activities within the United States.”

‘Foot Soldiers’

Chinese law enforcement agencies tapped at least eight U.S. nonprofit leaders to serve as “overseas mediators” and “hearing officers” for underground courts on American soil, according to Chinese state media and government reports.

Overseas mediators and hearing officers remotely notarize and serve legal documents, provide a physical space to host video calls for mediation and litigation and advocate on behalf of overseas compatriots, Chinese government and state-run media reports show.

A November 2022 UFWD announcement showcased the Xinhui District court in Jiangmen, Guangdong province and its “Overseas Dispute Mediation Station.” The announcement identified the chairman of the San Francisco, California-based World Youth Congress of Jiangmen as one of the court’s “overseas mediators” and highlighted his role in settling an international divorce case through video call.

The Xinhui branch of China’s organ for legal supervision, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, likewise appointed the chairman of the San Francisco-based Kong Chow Benevolent Association as a “hearing officer” connected to its “Overseas Chinese Inspection Liaison Station” in 2022, according to the Chinese government.

The DCNF has not been able to determine if these entities have adjudicated criminal cases. Under Chinese law, most dissident speech is a criminal matter.

Zhejiang and Fujian provincial law enforcement have also established U.S. hubs.

In July 2016, a court in Lucheng District, Wenzhou, Zhejiang appointed the Wenzhou Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce as its first California “Overseas Liaison Mediation Station” and named its chairman as an “overseas mediator,” Chinese state media reported. The court had previously appointed members of the New York-based Wenzhou Chamber of Commerce and Industry as mediators in 2014, Newsweek reported.

The Changle Procuratorate in Fuzhou, Fujian recently also demonstrated similar ambitions when it unveiled an “Overseas Chinese Protection Observation Station” in September 2023 and told the honorary chairman of the New York City-based Fukien Benevolent Association of America and others they were to perform overseas procuratorial work, according to a social media post.

Meanwhile, Changle District court social media posts from 2020 and 2022 reveal it appointed three members of New York’s America Changle Association to serve as “overseas mediators.” America Changle Association leader Chen Jinping recently pleaded guilty to “conspiring to act as an illegal agent” of China connected to running an “undeclared overseas police station” in New York, according to the DOJ.

The World Youth Congress of Jiangmen, Kong Chow Benevolent Association, Wenzhou Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Fukien Benevolent Association of America and America Changle Association could not be reached for comment.

“Overseas mediators” and “hearing officers” pose a national security threat, Chinese intelligence experts told the DCNF.

“There are risks to national security because these civic organizations are exclusively pro-CCP ‘United Front’-led groups that are under the supervision of Chinese consulates, who, in turn, ultimately answer to the CCP,” Ina Mitchell, a Chinese intelligence expert, told the DCNF. “I can see them being strong-armed into spying and other illegal activity on U.S. soil in a deal brokered by a mediator assigned by the state.”

Dr. Lawrence Sellin, a national security expert, told the DCNF that despite overseas mediation stations and overseas Chinese police stations claiming to only offer benign legal services, the CCP will use them for malign purposes.

“In reality, they are means by which the CCP can monitor and, when needed, punish members of the Chinese diaspora if they deviate from the CCP agenda,” Sellin said. “That degree of control allows the CCP to enlist Chinese community members, willingly or unwillingly, as foot soldiers in the conduct of influence and espionage operations in the United States, which represents a national security threat.”

‘Dual Justice System’

The DCNF also identified two U.S. nonprofit leaders working for the MPS, according to Chinese government records.

One such individual is both a consultant for the Gaithersburg, Maryland-based Wenzhou Chamber of Commerce Greater Washington and also the co-chairman of the Azusa, California-based U.S.-Zhejiang General Chamber of Commerce.

This individual not only serves as a mediator for the Wenzhou People’s Court, but also as a Zhejiang MPS supervisor, stemming from his work founding an MPS and Chinese military contractor called Senken.

He has also frequently met with MPS officials to discuss overseas Chinese police work including during an April 2024 meeting, which the chairman of the Rosemead, California-based Sino-American Public Diplomacy Association also attended.

The honorary chairman of the New York City-based American Fujian Association of Commerce and Industry is also connected to the MPS.

A Chinese government document reveals he previously served as an officer in a CCP paramilitary organization called the People’s Armed Police (PAP).

After rising through the ranks, “the military repeatedly dispatched [him] to the U.S. to conduct protection work for overseas Chinese community organizations returning to China for inspection,” the document states.

He eventually retired from the military and joined the MPS just before moving to the U.S., according to the document.

“China has built a vast UFWD network in the U.S. that the Chinese government and Party agencies use for command and control purposes,” Scott McGregor, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence official, told the DCNF. “These organizations are the main tool in China’s ever expanding foreign infiltration strategy that now includes the installation of China’s court and policing overseas.”

“It is obvious that the next step in the evolution of China expanding its control over overseas Chinese is now the creation of a dual judicial system that China operates inside the U.S.,” McGregor warned.

The U.S.-Zhejiang General Chamber of Commerce did not respond to multiple requests for comment and the Wenzhou Chamber of Commerce Greater Washington, Sino-American Public Diplomacy Association and American Fujian Association of Commerce and Industry could not be reached.

‘No Innocent Contacts’

Leaders of at least six U.S. nonprofits have also met with MPS officials to share information and discuss strengthening cooperation between Chinese police and overseas Chinese. Many of these meetings are colorfully described as “tea parties.”

The secretary general of the Elmhurst, New York-based American Fuqing Association has attended three tea parties in the Honglu District of Fuqing, Fujian with officials from MPS and the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), a UFWD arm.

An ACFROC social media post reveals he attended one February 2022 tea party where officials introduced their police station linked to Fuzhou’s “Overseas 110” network, which by June 2022 had established 38 overseas police stations, Chinese state media reported.

Attendees of the tea party also discussed measures to “persuade” certain persons in Myanmar to return to China.

“Persuasion to return” is the “use of non-traditional, often illegal, means of forcing someone to return to China against their will,” according to human rights group Safeguard Defenders.

The secretary general attended a second MPS tea party in January 2023 along with the honorary chairman of the Honolulu-based U.S. Hawaii Fujian United Association, another ACFROC social media post states.

“During last year’s tea party, the issue of fraud in northern Myanmar keeping compatriots from returning to conduct business normally in Myanmar was raised,” the secretary general said at the event. “The issue was resolved in a timely manner with the efforts of ACFROC and various cooperating departments.”

A third ACFROC social media post shows both nonprofit leaders also attended the most recent February 2024 MPS tea party, during which one ACFROC official said attendees would serve to connect MPS with overseas Chinese and globalize China’s national policies.

Leaders from the Highland Falls, New York-based Fuzhou Association of USA, New York City’s United Chinese Associations of Eastern United States, California’s U.S. Wenzhou Association and the aforementioned American Fujian Association of Commerce and Industry have also met with MPS officials in recent years, Chinese government announcements, social media posts and state media reports likewise reveal.

The Fuzhou Association of USA, United Chinese Associations of Eastern United States and U.S. Hawaii Fujian United Association could not be reached for comment and the American Fuqing Association and U.S. Wenzhou Association did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“The Communist Party believes it has the Mandate of Heaven to rule ‘tianxia,’ or ‘All Under Heaven.’ Worse, the CCP believes it has the obligation — not just the right — to do so,” author and China expert Gordon Chang told the DCNF. “Among other things, this means that every point of contact the regime maintains with our country constitutes a threat to our sovereignty and hence our national security. There are no innocent contacts. None.”

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Senior executive reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: US Gov’t Awarded Sensitive Research Grants To Scientists In Chinese Communist Party Talent Programs

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: Documents And Recordings Reveal How TikTok Forced Staff To Swear Oaths To Uphold China’s ‘Socialist System’

TikTok required an American executive to sign an oath supporting China’s “socialist system” and “national interests,” according to documents related to an employment discrimination lawsuit obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Former TikTok marketing executive Katie Puris alleged she was forced to sign an agreement with the tech giant’s China-based sister company, Douyin, swearing not to divulge “state secrets,” disrupt “national honor” or undermine “ethnic unity,” according to documents obtained by the DCNF. In the spring of 2024, Puris accused her employer as well as its Chinese parent company ByteDance, and ByteDance’s subsidiary Douyin, of gender and age-based discrimination in a lawsuit that also alleges TikTok’s day-to-day operations are controlled by ByteDance.

The Supreme Court may rule this week on a lawsuit brought by TikTok challenging the constitutionality of legislation President Joe Biden signed into law that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok on Jan. 19, 2025 or face an outright ban in the U.S. At the same time, President-elect Donald Trump filed a brief with the Supreme Court in December 2024, requesting for the justices to halt the looming ban to allow his administration to resolve the dispute through “political means.”

“If proven, these allegations reinforce that TikTok’s supposed independence is a fraud, and that [Chinese Communist Party (CCP)]-controlled ByteDance directly manages TikTok’s internal functions from China,” Michigan Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, told the DCNF. “It is critical for our national security that the Chinese Communist Party’s control over TikTok be eliminated. President Trump is the perfect leader to make that happen by forcing divestment and delivering the deal of the century.”

TikTok declined to comment on Puris’ lawsuit.

“We can’t comment on falsehoods that have been presented to advance political agendas,” a TikTok spokesperson told the DCNF.

Abiding By ‘The Socialist System’

Puris, TikTok’s former head of global brand and creative, alleged in her lawsuit that TikTok executives are required to sign an agreement with ByteDance subsidiary Douyin that polices speech and demands compliance with China’s socialist system.

After joining TikTok in December 2019, Puris was required to sign a user agreement with Douyin’s “Feishu Employee Stock Ownership Plan” to access “information concerning her equity grants,” according to the lawsuit.

“You shall comply with applicable laws and guidelines and abide by public order and good customs, the socialist system, national interests, legal rights of other citizens, and information authenticity requirements,” the purported Douyin agreement reviewed by the DCNF states.

The document also lists a number of prohibited activities for employees, including “overthrowing the socialist system,” “inciting secession,” “undermining national religious policies, or promoting cults and superstitions,” as well as injunctions against “meaningless information or deliberate use of character combinations to avoid technical censorship.”

‘Dual Reporting Structure’

TikTok executives also sign agreements with ByteDance consenting to digital surveillance and report to China-based leadership, according to other documents and audio recordings supporting Puris’ lawsuit.

One confidentiality agreement “For New York Employees” that ByteDance allegedly required Puris to sign apparently allowed the company to inspect TikTok executives’ personal electronic devices.

“Employee agrees [to] allow the Employer to inspect any electronic device in Employee’s possession or under Employee’s control which is or was used by Employee in the course of Employee’s employment in order for the Employer to satisfy itself of Employee’s compliance with the terms of this [non-disclosure obligations],” reads the alleged ByteDance agreement.

Other documents also seem to indicate TikTok ultimately considered Puris to be a ByteDance employee.

While onboarding in 2019, Puris was allegedly required to sign one hiring document reviewed by the DCNF affirming: “I am a director, executive officer or general partner of ByteDance LTD.”

Puris’ complaint also details how she and other TikTok executives reported to the Chinese parent company.

After being hired, Puris was allegedly told about TikTok’s “dual reporting structure,” which required her to report to one Beijing-based executive working for ByteDance and Douyin as well as another U.S.-based president of global business solutions at TikTok, according to the complaint.

Yet, Puris’ “performance reviews and compensation” were allegedly controlled by the chairman of ByteDance’s China region, her complaint states.

TikTok’s president of global business solutions seemingly acknowledged the company’s unorthodox corporate structure during a 2021 phone call with Puris, according to a recording reviewed by the DCNF.

“We still report into Beijing,” the president said at one point during the call after Puris asked about the future of TikTok’s global brand.

“From my perspective, the critical issue is not where TikTok’s user data is stored,” Puris told the DCNF through her attorney. “Rather, it is whether ByteDance retains ultimate control over TikTok’s employees and executives, and based on my experience at TikTok, that is the case.”

Communist Party Control

“These new materials, recently provided to the Select Committee by a whistleblower, should be shared with the public and appear to reinforce what we already know,” Illinois Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi told the DCNF. “The CCP controls ByteDance, and ByteDance and TikTok are one and the same. Full stop.”

First proposed in March 2024, Biden’s legislation now being reviewed by the Supreme Court identifies ByteDance, its subsidiaries and affiliates as “foreign adversary controlled applications” posing a threat to U.S. national security. TikTok denies the allegations and its lawsuit argues the legislation is inconsistent with the “First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of expression.”

TikTok’s ties to ByteDance first came under scrutiny as early as October 2019, when Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio sent a letter to the Treasury Department requesting for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review the national security implications of TikTok’s acquisition of a Musical.ly, a video-sharing platform, alleging that the Chinese companies censored content “deemed sensitive by the Chinese government and Communist Party.”

In March 2023, TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, testified at a hearing convened by the House Energy and Commerce Committee concerning his company’s alleged surveillance of American users, during which he denied TikTok shares U.S. user information with the Chinese government or censors content on their behalf, such as posts related to China’s ongoing genocide against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.

However, when TikTok subsequently responded to the committee’s follow-up questions in May 2023, it acknowledged it had accessed, or attempted to access, the user data of Emily Baker White, a Forbes journalist covering TikTok for the publication. Similarly, while TikTok has sought to assuage national security concerns by claiming it relocated all American user data to servers hosted by Texas-based technology company Oracle, TikTok was later forced to acknowledge it still stores some American user data in China.

Multiple high-ranking current and former ByteDance and TikTok employees have also come forward alleging that TikTok tracks users’ private connections and has exploited backdoor tools to help the Chinese government target civil rights activists, according to a series of media reports.

The DCNF also discovered that at least one ByteDance board member, Fred Hu, has extensive Chinese government ties, including holding membership in organizations serving a CCP intelligence service called the United Front Work Department.

“TikTok and its most vociferous defenders insist that the litigation at the Supreme Court is about free speech. It isn’t,” Michael Sobolik, Hudson Institute senior fellow, told the DCNF. “It’s about national security threats that emanate from ByteDance’s control of TikTok. These revelations are the latest evidence that TikTok is a vessel of its CCP-controlled parent company.”

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Daily Caller News Foundation senior investigative reporter, political journalist, and China watcher. Twitter: @LenczyckiPhilip

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: US Gov’t Awarded Sensitive Research Grants To Scientists In Chinese Communist Party Talent Programs

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Gov’t Awarded Sensitive Research Grants To Scientists In Chinese Communist Party Talent Programs

U.S. government agencies have awarded sensitive scientific, military and energy grants to dozens of researchers participating in Chinese government programs linked to economic espionage, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

The DCNF identified 50 federally-funded researchers currently working in U.S. universities and/or national laboratories who are listed as experts of Chinese government talent recruitment schemes, like the Thousand Talents Plan (TTP) and Chang Jiang Scholars program, following a months-long review of the talent plans’ websites, Chinese government documents, university profiles and state-run media reports.

The Chinese government has created hundreds of so-called “talent recruitment plans,” all of which incentivize participants to “steal foreign technologies needed to advance China’s national, military, and economic goals,” according to the FBI. Individuals identified as Chinese talent plan participants by the DCNF have conducted upwards of millions of dollars of federally-funded research while working in Ivy League schools, like Harvard, land-grant institutions, such as Penn State, and national labs, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The U.S. government’s “porous” vetting process allows many individuals involved in Chinese talent recruitment plans to fall through the cracks and access federal funding, according to L.J. Eads, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence analyst.

“We are playing Russian roulette with national security, funding research and infrastructure that could ultimately bolster the [People’s Liberation Army],” Eads told the DCNF.

Senate Republicans have been particularly concerned with Chinese espionage targeting U.S. national labs. Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn told the DCNF that China will “lie, cheat and steal to achieve its goal of global domination.”

“Any allegation of taxpayer-funded researchers sharing information with Beijing must be fully investigated,” Blackburn said.

‘Honor System’

The Department of Defense (DOD) identifies both the TTP and Chang Jiang Scholars programs as posing “a threat to national security interests of the United States,” and, consequently, federally-funded researchers failing to disclose participation in the programs may face criminal prosecution.

Although the TTP and Chang Jiang Scholars programs are not overseen by the same Chinese government agencies, both talent recruitment plans specifically recruit researchers with “expertise in emerging technologies or areas with potential military applications,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Of the 50 individuals identified by the DCNF, 39 are listed as TTP participants, two are listed as Chang Jiang Scholars and nine are listed as participants in both programs. But, to be sure, none of the individuals listed by either talent plan have been charged with any crimes.

Both programs also threaten U.S. national security by incentivizing participants to “eventually return to China to augment its scientific and military capabilities instead of contributing to the scientific activities of the foreign countries in which they were trained,” U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission notes.

Despite DOD and congressional warnings, nearly one-third of the Chinese talent plan recruits conducted research funded by the Pentagon and/or NASA.

A spokesperson for Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told the DCNF that DOD-funded researchers failing to disclose participation in malign Chinese talent plans may face criminal investigation.

“Ongoing participation in a malign foreign talent program such as China’s Thousand Talents Program would be a category that requires mitigation or rejection of a proposal,” the spokesperson said. “Failure to disclose required information could result in administrative penalties depending on the severity of the infraction, and in extreme cases could result in referral of a case to law enforcement.”

The Department of Justice has successfully prosecuted federally-funded researchers on charges related to failure to disclose participation in malign Chinese talent recruitment plans. In Dec. 2021, Charles Lieber, a former Harvard University chemistry professor, was convicted of crimes related to concealing his TTP participation from U.S. government agencies such as the DOD and others funding his research.

In July 2012, the Wuhan University of Technology recruited Lieber into the TTP to establish a research facility, for which he received a more than $1.5 million payout, $50,000 per month in salary and roughly $150,000 per year for living expenses, according to an FBI affidavit. Lieber was ultimately sentenced to time served plus two years of supervised release, six months of home confinement, a fine of $50,000 and $33,600 in restitution to the IRS in April 2023.

However, not all DOD research proposals undergo in-depth security reviews, according to a 2023 memorandum shared by the DOD spokesperson. Indeed, full security reviews are typically only conducted if an initial “risk-based” review discovers red flags, such as potential malign foreign talent plan participation, Eads said.

“Most of the time, they’re just spending 30 seconds doing a quick look and then approving the DOD award,” said Eads, who now works as the director of research intelligence at Parallax, a nonprofit research institute.

Eads added that relatively few grant applicants ever undergo full security reviews because the initial risk-based review essentially operates on an “honor system,” which relies on an applicant’s institution to certify “they’re telling the truth and abiding by those policies.”

Consequently, universities are now also finding themselves on the hook for failing to properly vet professors and falsely certifying federal grant proposals. In fact, the University of Delaware recently agreed to pay over $700,000 to “resolve civil allegations that it failed to disclose a UD professor’s affiliations with and support from the government of the People’s Republic of China in connection with federal research funding,” according to the Department of Justice.

The University of Delaware falsely certified a NASA grant that was not to be used “to participate, collaborate, or coordinate” with China, but was awarded to a University of Delaware marine studies professor who also served as a TTP expert connected to Xiamen University, the DOJ settlement agreement reads.

“We’ve seen Beijing repeatedly use its Thousand Talents Plan to steal information and intellectual property to advance military technologies,” Blackburn told the DCNF.

‘Industrial Espionage’

All the individuals identified by the DCNF who are working in U.S. universities conducted federally-funded research after joining Chinese talent recruitment plans — a large portion of which came from the DOD and NASA.

The DCNF identified these individuals by matching Chinese talent recruitment plan participants listed in talent plan websites, Chinese government documents, university profiles and state-run media reports with U.S. academic records.

Brandon Weichert, a national security analyst at the National Interest, told the DCNF that the TTP recruits American academics because the U.S. remains a central hub of research and development.

“The Thousand Talents Plan is an overt program of industrial espionage directed against the U.S.,” Weichert said. “They seek to co-opt our scientists to their cause.”

The DCNF found individuals listed by Chinese talent recruitment plans currently teaching in 38 schools, such as University of California-Berkeley, whose spokesperson told the DCNF that the school was “committed to complying with federal funding agency laws and policies governing research and grant disclosures” and was “not aware of any faculty participating in a ‘Malign Chinese Talent Recruitment Program’ at this time.”

While teaching at U.S. universities, more than half of these individuals have received research funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which was the most common source of federal research dollars among those identified by the DCNF.

One Rice University physics professor, whom the Chinese government identifies as a TTP expert, has worked on approximately $5 million worth of NSF-funded projects, including an ongoing $950,000 grant related to “quantum-information technology.” His faculty profile states he also performs research grant proposal reviews for NSF and the Department of Energy.

A Rice University spokesperson told the DCNF the school has “established very robust policies to address compliance with federal requirements concerning foreign talent recruitment concerns, and is committed to complying fully with U.S. research security laws and regulations.”

An NSF spokesperson told the DCNF that the agency requires “mandatory disclosure of foreign government talent recruitment plans,” and, in 2020, established an office that “has developed powerful research security analytics tools that can now detect nondisclosures.”

“The NSF’s research security analytics tools are a step forward,” Eads told the DCNF, “but without integrating foreign [open source intelligence] and data from behind China’s Great Firewall, their effectiveness is limited to comparing C.V.s with disclosure records, leaving significant gaps in detecting undisclosed foreign ties.”

The DCNF also identified 14 individuals working in U.S. universities who have conducted DOD-funded research, with the majority of those funds originating from either the Army Research Office (ARO) or the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

One professor in Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has worked on research projects funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), ARODefense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and several other U.S. defense agencies since Chinese state media reported he joined the TTP in 2011.

“This information is published, and is no secret,” the Harvard professor told the DCNF on X after being contacted about his involvement with Chinese government organizations including the TTP.

Yet, he refused to answer questions about his TTP contract, and the DCNF found no mention of his TTP participation listed on his faculty profile, C.V. or in any English-language sources, despite his work on multiple DOD-funded projects.

An AFOSR spokesperson told the DCNF that participation in the TTP would require “mitigation or rejection of a proposal.” An ONR spokesperson told the DCNF that “researchers funded by ONR are required to divulge any participation in foreign talent programs.”

Meanwhile, eight of the individuals working in U.S. universities identified by the DCNF have also conducted NASA-funded research.

One University of Washington atmospheric and climate sciences professor, whom Chinese government documents identify as a TTP expert, has worked on more than a dozen NASA-funded projects since 2002, according to NASA records and university announcements. Several of those projects, including a recently green-lit $5 million grant to study the troposphere, involve satellites.

A University of Washington spokesperson told the DCNF by email that no current faculty members had disclosed participation in malign Chinese talent recruitment plans.

“University of Washington personnel are prohibited from participating in malign foreign talent recruitment programs,” the spokesperson wrote and provided a link to a 2024 memorandum from the university president explicitly prohibiting such involvement.

NASA, Harvard, Duke, and Penn State did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Image created by DCNF with screenshots from the TTP and Wuhan University of Technology websites

‘Fox In The Hen House’

Six of the individuals identified by the DCNF also currently work in U.S. national laboratories, federal records reveal.

Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst wrote to the Department of Energy in September expressing concern about foreign adversaries targeting U.S. national labs “for espionage and theft,” The New York Post reported.

“Allowing foreign scientists to wander around America’s national labs makes as much sense as letting a fox in the hen house,” Ernst told the DCNF.

The 17 national laboratories are an “outgrowth of immense investment in scientific research initiated by the U.S. Government during World War II” and include sites like Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, according to the Department of Energy, which oversees the labs.

Among the Chinese talent plan participants working at national labs, half specialize in physics and half in materials science, academic profiles show.

One physicist currently working in the Nuclear Science Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is identified as both a TTP expert and Chang Jiang Scholar by the TTP website. Located in California, LBNL is responsible for “ensuring the safety, security and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear deterrent,” its website states.

Chinese government records also identify a TTP expert as a Princeton University physics professor who now also works in the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), which focuses on creating nuclear fusion, nanoscale fabrication and other products, according to its website.

A third physicist listed as a TTP expert in Chinese government documents teaches at Arizona State University and also works for Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). ORNL’s website states that it was established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb, according to the Department of Energy.

That physicist serves as a Proposal Review Committee member at ORNL’s Center For Nanophase Materials Science. The center contributes to the U.S. government’s National Nanotechnology Initiative, whose clients include DOD, NASA and other agencies, according to its website.

Chinese university records also identify a University of Tennessee-Knoxville materials science professor as another TTP expert working within ORNL’s Center For Nanophase Materials Science.

Ernst, a Senate Armed Services Committee member, told the DCNF that “8,000 Chinese and Russian scientists were given access to our national labs in 2023.”

“We work incredibly hard to protect our nation’s intellectual property and cutting-edge technology from espionage. Why would we make it easier for China to snoop?” Ernst said. “We must do more to cut off their access and protect America.”

A second materials science specialist who works as a lab fellow within the Energy and Environment Directorate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is listed as a Chang Jiang Scholar by the same Chinese school behind the recruitment of Harvard’s Charles Lieber: Wuhan University of Technology. PNNL works on a variety of issues ranging from the U.S. power grid to “safeguarding ports around the world from nuclear smuggling,” according to its website.

In 2011, Chinese state media identified a third materials science specialist — a University of Maryland professor also working in the Nuclear Science User Facilities at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) — as a TTP expert. INL was the first lab to develop “nuclear propulsion systems for Navy submarines and aircraft carriers,” according to its website.

This materials science specialist told the DCNF by email he participated in the TTP from “Fall 2011 to Fall 2013,” but quit a short time later after disclosing his involvement to the Department of Energy when approached to work as a director for an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program.

ARPA-E “advances high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment,” according to its website.

“It was a mistake for me to participate in the [TTP],” he told the DCNF. “I never disclosed any U.S. export-controlled or [International Traffic in Arms Regulation]-controlled information to anyone in China.”

A University of Maryland spokesperson told the DCNF that the school “prohibits all faculty and staff from participating in Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs.”

The DCNF’s investigation also discovered more than a dozen others involved in Chinese talents recruitment plans who had previously worked in U.S. national labs. One such TTP participant worked in both the Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) and LBNL before returning to China, Chinese university records show.

Paul Moore, former Department of Education chief investigative counsel, told the DCNF that the Chinese government will “rotate” such individuals in and out of the country before they can be detected by U.S. authorities and brought to justice.

“We have studied these problems for the last two administrations,” Moore said. “If our three letter agencies have been investigating or turning someone here or charging them, they’re on the way back and a new doctoral student is on the way.”

Princeton, Arizona State, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, LBNL, PPPL, ORNL, PNNL, INL, and LLNL did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Image created by DCNF with screenshots from the TTP and Wuhan University of Technology websites

‘Under The Microscope’

The DCNF only found a handful of Chinese talent plan participants who had disclosed their involvement on their C.V. or faculty profiles. Those individuals, who were not counted among the 50 researchers listed above, expressed conflicting attitudes towards their previous participation in statements to the DCNF.

One University of Georgia genetics professor looked back fondly on his TTP participation.

“It was a great opportunity and program,” he told the DCNF by email. “Made a ton of research contacts, published papers and spoke and taught lots of short courses.”

However, an associate professor of chemistry at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi told the DCNF he soured on the program after learning some participants were not being transparent about their involvement and had failedto pay taxes on the money they earned in China.

“Once it starts coming out that these programs have origins in espionage and things like that, then I started to get a real bad taste in my mouth,” he said.

Due to the nefarious nature of these programs, Chinese talent plan participants should disclose their involvement, the chemistry professor told the DCNF.

“This thing is under the microscope now and for some reason you haven’t disclosed yet, what’s going on?” he said. “If you’re not trying to do anything criminal in nature, then why not disclose, right?”

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Senior investigative reporter. Daily Caller News Foundation senior investigative reporter, political journalist, and China watcher. Twitter: @LenczyckiPhilip

RELATED ARTICLES:

EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Summer Camps Teach American Kids To Be Like Red Army Soldiers And ‘Little’ Police Officers

EXCLUSIVE: Former Biden Climate Czar Apparently Pushed Mayorkas To Ease Up On Chinese Company Linked To Slave Labor

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Summer Camps Teach American Kids To Be Like Red Army Soldiers And ‘Little’ Police Officers

Thousands of American kids are being sent to camps run by a Chinese influence and intelligence agency that promote Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda and even train some children to act like “Little Overseas Chinese Police,” a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.

The Chinese government advertises the “Root-Seeking Summer Camp In China” as an opportunity for ethnically Chinese children living in the U.S. and other countries to immerse themselves in Chinese language and culture. However, a DCNF review of Chinese government announcements and the program’s website discovered the camps are overseen by a Chinese influence and intelligence service.

The program not only exposes participants as young as 10 years old to CCP propaganda, but some even operate like boot camps run by officers from the People’s Liberation Army and Ministry of Public Security, Chinese government social media posts reveal.

“The long arm of the CCP’s malign influence extends into the United States and seeks to assert an illegitimate claim on all those of Chinese ancestry — regardless of their nationality,” Michigan Republican Rep. John Moolenaar told the DCNF.

“We need to protect all those on American soil from the CCP’s authoritarian agenda, particularly by educating the American public on the true nature of the Party and its dystopian vision,” said Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP.

‘Little Overseas Chinese Police’

The DCNF found multiple examples of Chinese-American children attending “root-seeking” camps run by Chinese security and military personnel.

In August 2016, over 50 children from the U.S., Canada, Portugal and other countries participated in an 8-day camp in and around the city of Suqian in China’s eastern Jiangsu province, according to a social media post from that city’s Foreign Affairs Office.

Among other activities, the social media post states that the children trained at the Jiangsu National Defense Education and Training Center in Suzhou, which is a roughly 62-acre military base featuring obstacle courses and field combat training areas, according to a local government website. Photos from the camp show two Chinese soldiers wearing fatigues alongside a group of several dozen participants standing in front of a “Jacob’s Ladder” obstacle course.

The following year, campers from the U.S. and the United Kingdom donned matching green shirts and camouflage shorts during two days of military training in Beijing, according to a social media post made by the training center. Photos from the July 2017 camp show the children marchingsalutingdoing pushups and standing at parade rest under the watchful eye of People’s Liberation Army soldiers. Other photos show participants smiling and hugging the soldiers.

The DCNF previously reported that the Chinese military has been conducting “National Defense Education” within Chinese kindergartens for years. Along with learning drill commands, the week-long boot camps also familiarize kindergarteners with a wide-variety of toy weapons, including knives, rifles, grenades, mortars and shoulder-fired missiles.

The DCNF discovered another “root-seeking” camp overseen by China’s national police authority, the Ministry of Public Security.

In July 2019, over 1,000 overseas Chinese children from the U.S. and other countries took part in a series of camps spread throughout the city of Wenzhou in China’s eastern Zhejiang province, Chinese-language media outlet Sohu reported.

Participants in at least one of the camps trained alongside Ministry of Public Security officers at a police station in the city’s Li’Ao subdistrict, according to an announcement from the provincial All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), which the Department of Justice identifies as an “agency” of a Chinese influence and intelligence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD).

Camp participants wore matching black t-shirts featuring the English word “POLICE” as well as matching hats bearing a Ministry of Public Security badge, photos show.

During the program’s convocation ceremony, Ministry of Public Security and ACFROC officials inducted the children into a squad of “Little Overseas Chinese Police,” saying they hoped the new cadets would “guide more overseas Chinese youth to join the ranks of the Little Overseas Chinese Police,” ACFROC’s report states.

Afterwards, Ministry of Public Security officials showed the children the police station’s “intelligence room” as well as a room dedicated to recruiting and training CCP members, ACFROC reported.

Brandon Weichert, a national security analyst at the National Interest, told the DCNF that the “Little Overseas Chinese Police” camp may aim to threaten participants into operating as informants, Weichert said.

“We’re always watching you,” Weichert said, “why don’t you help us keep tabs on mom and dad or grandma and grandpa or brother and sister?”

‘Get Them While They’re Young’

The Chinese government’s “root-seeking” camp program was jointly launched by the State Council’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO) and its China Overseas Exchange Association in 1999, according to an announcement on the New York Chinese Consulate website. OCAO officially became a UFWD bureau in 2018, Chinese government records show.

In 2001, the “root-seeking” program welcomed 3,000 participants from over 40 countries and grew to over 6,000 participants from 51 countries by 2010, according to Chinese state-run media.

The number of participants nearly doubled by 2018, according to a New York Chinese Consulate announcement from that year.

“Every year, over 10,000 overseas Chinese teenagers from around the globe are invited to come to China to visit, inspect, study and communicate, seeking their roots from their ancestors,” the consulate announcement reads.

Chinese government social media posts show the camps are held in megacities, like Shanghai, as well as in remote provinces, including Xinjiang, where the U.S. government says the CCP is committing genocide against Uyghur and other ethnic minorities.

Salih Hudayar, the East Turkistan Government-In-Exile’s minister for foreign affairs and security, described the CCP’s program as a “calculated attempt to whitewash its brutal policies.”

“By inviting overseas Chinese youth to participate in these state-orchestrated tours, Beijing seeks to mask its ongoing Uyghur Genocide, reshaping global perceptions to reinforce a false narrative over our homeland,” Hudayar told the DCNF. “This program is not a genuine cultural exchange, but a means of manufacturing support for China’s occupation and colonization.”

Although the camps’ itineraries vary depending on location, a DCNF review found they regularly include cultural activities such as practicing calligraphy or kung fu as well as stops at local attractions like the Great Wall of China or Giant Panda Sanctuaries.

Yet, regardless of where in China the camps are held, the sightseeing always involves “Red Tourism,” which state-run media outlet China Daily has described as visiting locations “related to the nation’s revolutionary history.” In recent years, participants have “experienced Red culture” by studying revolutionary martyrs, delivering flowers to Chairman Mao’s statue or by dressing in military uniforms at the “birthplace of the Red Army,” Chinese government social media posts show.

Opening and closing ceremonies overseen by high-level UFWD personnel are another commonality between the camps, with many even featuring special stops in Beijing to attend functions at the Chinese government’s Great Hall of the People.

During the program’s 2010 opening ceremony in Beijing, China’s vice president at the time, Xi Jinping, delivered a speech broadly outlining the program’s purpose, Chinese government records show.

“Uniting together as one Chinese people is the shared ‘root,’” Xi said at the event, according to a government report, “the wide-ranging and profound Chinese culture is the shared ‘soul,’ and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is the shared ‘dream’ of Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad.”

Xi urged participants to become “enthusiastic disseminators” of Chinese culture, “active promoters” of cultural exchange as well as “emissaries” for friendly contact between China and other nations, according to the government report.

The “root-seeking” program now closely follows Xi’s theoretical framework, and the DCNF found multiple government announcements from the summer of 2024 reporting camps had trained participants to become “Chinese culture ambassadors” and “tell China’s story well” — which is CCP terminology for conducting “external propaganda work,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

“The legitimate rights for overseas Chinese to learn and inherit their own language and culture should be respected and protected,” Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the U.S., told the DCNF by email. “The Root-Seeking Summer Camp in China provides a platform to help overseas Chinese learn their native language, understand their culture, and go to their ancestral country, China, to seek their roots and to study and exchange in China.”

“The Root-Seeking Summer Camp has always been conducted in accordance with international laws and the laws and customs of the country where the overseas Chinese live,” Liu Pengyu added. “The Root-Seeking Summer Camp not only satisfies the needs of overseas Chinese to learn their own language and culture, but also effectively promotes exchanges and integration between different cultures around the world, and provides convenience for the world to understand China and for China to understand the world.”

However, the Embassy refused to address questions concerning whether or not the program was connected to the UFWD.

National security analyst Weichert told the DCNF that the program aims to “get them while they’re young.”

“What this is all about is forming cadres of sympathizers for the CCP, so that they’ll then come back to the U.S. and they’ll serve the interests of the CCP, whether wittingly or unwittingly,” Weichert said. “No country is going to put resources into a program like that unless there was some kind of ulterior motive.”

‘Unrestricted Warfare’

The Chinese Embassy and consulates in the U.S. rely on a network of Chinese-American organizations to recruit children for the “root-seeking” camps, according to Chinese government and civic association records.

The so-called Overseas Chinese Service Centers (OCSCs) in the U.S. are among those involved in recruiting for the “root-seeking” program, according to their websites, Chinese state-run media reports and government announcements. The UFWD oversees a global network of approximately 60 OCSCs, which include seven U.S. branches located in California, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas, Utah and Missouri, the DCNF previously reported.

One year before campers trained to become “Little Overseas Chinese Police” in Wenzhou, leaders of OCSCs from the U.S. and other countries met with Ministry of Public Security officials at the very same Li’Ao subdistrict police station in January 2018, the DCNF previously reported.

During that 2018 meeting, Ministry of Public Security officials showed the OCSC leaders how the Wenzhou police station’s “Extraterritorial Video Trial Court” works with “Overseas Chinese Police Contact Points” housed in some OCSCs to conduct “cross-border remote justice services,” the DCNF reported. OCSC emissaries also posed with Ministry of Public Security officers outside the Wenzhou police station in the same spot where the “Little Overseas Chinese Police” cadets would later be photographed alongside Ministry of Public Security officers in 2019, Chinese government photos show.

However, OCSCs are not the only Chinese-American organizations recruiting participants for the “root-seeking” camps.

A 2018 announcement from the New York Chinese Consulate identifies over a dozen Chinese-American organizations recruiting for the program on the East Coast alone.

One New York-based group, Xungen Association Of Chinese-Americans, Inc., claims to have recruited nearly 2,000 children for the program since 2013. In July 2024, ACFROC appointed that association’s chairwoman as an advisor while she was leading a group of campers through Quanzhou, Fujian.

Another large U.S. recruiter is an Ann Arbor, Michigan nonprofit called the Chinese School Association In The US (CSAUS), which describes itself as “the largest grass-root organization for Chinese Americans.”

“Every year, the association hosts and organizes China’s ‘Roots-Seeking Tour’ summer camp,” CSAUS’s website states.

CSAUS’s board includes the head of the St. Louis, Missouri OCSC, who in 2018 was among the U.S. OCSC leaders that met with Ministry of Public Security officials in Wenzhou. In light of its Chinese government-ties, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey recently subpoenaed the St. Louis OCSC.

“The CCP embeds itself in our universities, critical infrastructure, and government through elite capture operations and establishes so-called ‘service centers’ that are linked to the CCP’s intel arm to extend its influence,” Missouri Republican Rep. Eric Burlison told the DCNF.

“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is waging an all-out war against the United States — not with missiles or bombs, but with a sophisticated and insidious strategy of unrestricted warfare to infiltrate, weaken, and ultimately destroy our nation from within,” said Burlison, a member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Xungen and CSAUS did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Daily Caller News Foundation senior investigative reporter, political journalist, and China watcher. Twitter: @LenczyckiPhilip

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Dem Congresswoman Was A Fixture At Events Honoring Chinese Communist Party Officials

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Communist Party Espionage ‘Expanded Rapidly’ Under Biden-Harris, House GOP Finds

Espionage, illegal immigration and other illicit activities linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have increased dramatically under the Biden-Harris administration, according to a House report exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A “China Threat Snapshot” released Thursday by the House Committee On Homeland Security’s Subcommittee On Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, And Intelligence, details 59 “CCP-related” criminal cases that occurred in 20 U.S. states between February 2021 and August 2024. The cases listed within the committee’s report involve a variety of alleged criminal activities including bribery, hacking and theft of trade secrets.

“The Chinese Communist Party is not satisfied with destroying freedom and repressing its citizens within its own borders,” Tennessee Republican Rep. Mark Green, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, told the DCNF. “Beijing has continually encroached upon American sovereignty to spy, intimidate, and harass not only defectors, but even American citizens.”

The China Threat Snapshot provides statistics overviewing how CCP-related activities have “expanded rapidly” throughout the U.S. in recent years.

“About 80% of economic espionage prosecutions allege conduct that would benefit the Chinese state, and there is at least some nexus to China in around 60% of all trade secret theft cases,” according to the report. Charges of trade secret theft are present in 14 of the 59 CCP-related criminal cases included in the committee’s report.

In one listed example, the Department of Justice charged Chenguang Gong, a Chinese national living in California, with theft of trade secrets in February 2024 for allegedly transferring thousands of files from his employer to his personal devices. Some of these files allegedly contained “information on sensors designed for nuclear missile detection as well as other sensitive technologies,” according to the committee’s report.

The China Threat Snapshot notes that there have been “224 reported incidents of Chinese espionage directed at the U.S. between 2000 and 2023,” with the states most impacted being California, Illinois, New York, Ohio and Florida.

The committee’s report also highlights a number of recent U.S. government efforts to counter the CCP’s malign activities, such as the SHIELD Against CCP Act, which aims to “establish in the Department of Homeland Security a working group relating to countering terrorist, cybersecurity, border and port security, and transportation security threats posed to the United States by the Chinese Communist Party,” according to the bill.

Screenshot from House Committee on Homeland Security infographic

At the same time, the House Committee On Homeland Security also warned about the recent spike in Chinese illegal immigration on Thursday.

“The Biden-Harris administration has overseen the largest influx of Chinese nationals illegally crossing the Southwest border,” a press release from the House Committee On Homeland Security stated. “In FY24 alone, Border Patrol agents have recorded more than 36,000 apprehensions of Chinese nationals — more than all those recorded from FY07-20 combined.”

The Biden administration drastically simplified the vetting process for Chinese illegal immigrants in 2023, increasing the speed of Chinese nationals entering the U.S., the DCNF reported in January after obtaining a leaked U.S. Customs and Border Protection email. The April 2023 email directed Border Patrol agents to reduce the number of interview questions for Chinese illegal immigrants apprehended after illegally crossing into the country from roughly 40 to just five “basic questions.”

North Carolina Republican Rep. Dan Bishop, chairman of the House Committee On Homeland Security’s subcommittee on oversight, held a hearing in May 2024 examining the roughly 8,000% increase in Chinese illegal immigration the U.S. has experienced since March 2021, as well as federal policies that may have contributed to the surge.

Most recently, the DCNF revealed the existence of a private social network run by a self-identified Chinese “cyber police” officer, which provides Chinese illegal immigrants with resources to get into the U.S. and evade border authorities. The online network also appears to be aiding and abetting prostitution and sex trafficking into the U.S., the DCNF discovered.

“To be clear, our adversary is not with the Chinese people, but the threat comes from the tyrannical regime that oppresses its own people, commits genocide, censors speech, and seeks to undermine representative government,” Rep. Green said. “It is important we remain clear-eyed about the threat the CCP poses to the security of the American people so we are prepared to counter its malign influence at every turn.”

The White House did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Investigative reporter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

EXCLUSIVE: Tim Walz Appointed Member Of Political Party ‘loyal’ To Chinese Communists To State Board

‘We’re Desperate’: Socialists, Muslims Band Together To Deny Harris The White House

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.