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Chinese-Owned Chemical Giant Expanding Into U.S. Heartland Led By Members Of Communist Party, Influence Orgs

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Top executives behind a Chinese chemical manufacturer planning to build two U.S. factories belong to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and affiliated influence outfits, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found.

Capchem Technology USA, the wholly-owned subsidiary of China-based Shenzhen Capchem Technology (Capchem), is slated to build a $120 million factory in Ohio and a $350 million plant in Louisiana. At the same time, Capchem records and social media posts that the DCNF translated show the company employs dozens of CCP members. Executives at Capchem and Capchem USA have also held positions at organizations affiliated with CCP influence operations, a DCNF review of Capchem’s website, Chinese social media account and executives’ social groups found.

The DCNF’s investigation is based, in part, on information provided by the Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action. The DCNF previously reported that Capchem, which makes chemicals used for batteries in electric vehicles, has received tens of millions of dollars in subsidies from Chinese government agencies, including a blacklisted Chinese government entity that plays an instrumental role in the CCP’s “Military-Civil Fusion” efforts.

“Communist Chinese companies have no place on American soil,” New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Conference, told the DCNF. “The Communist Chinese-owned company has a concerning history of advancing CCP military technology, presenting a clear and pressing national security threat.”

A Capchem spokesperson acknowledged that “some” of its employees are CCP members, but that “the company doesn’t have exact statistics about the number of them.”

However, a DCNF review of Capchem’s Chinese social media account found that the firm reported employing 44 CCP members as of June 2020. A separate social media post from 2023 identifies Capchem President Zhou Dawen as Party Secretary of the company’s CCP branch.

A “Party branch” is the smallest “grass-roots” CCP organization, and is required in Chinese institutions containing three or more Party members, according to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, which is China’s state organ for legal supervision.

“As a privately controlled company, Party member identity does not influence company management or operations,” the spokesperson told the DCNF.

Yet, the CCP Central Committee’s Organization Department says party committees are meant to “guide and oversee enterprises in obeying state laws and regulations, unite their employees, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of all parties and promote the sound development of their enterprises, with a focus on carrying out the [CCP]’s principles and policies.”

In July 2019, Capchem’s own social media account shows the CCP Committee in the Pingshan District of Shenzhen recognized Zhou as an “Outstanding Party Secretary” during an event celebrating the CCP’s 98th anniversary.

“This honor doesn’t belong to me personally, it belongs to all of Capchem’s Party branch comrades,” Zhou said during the 2019 event, according to the post. “As an old CCP member, I have a responsibility and duty to do my best for the Party’s cause.”

“My experience tells me, as long as we work according to the instructions assigned by our superior Party unit, work conscientiously, obey the law and what may come, the enterprise will most certainly overcome obstacles and usher in a better future,” Zhou said.

Capchem’s spokesperson admitted Zhou is “a member, but he is at retirement age,” adding that Capchem USA “does not employ any member of the Chinese Communist Party.”

But Capchem USA executives have been affiliated with groups identified by U.S. government entities as serving CCP’s “United Front” strategy. “United Front” groups engage in “influence activities and intelligence operations,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

The “United Front” system is led by the United Front Work Department (UFWD), a “Chinese intelligence service” responsible for coordinating domestic and foreign “influence operations,” according to the U.S. government-funded U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Capchem Chairman Qin Jiusan is identified in a Louisiana business filing as a director of Capchem USA.

Qin’s company bio previously disclosed his membership in the Pingshan branch of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission identified the CPPCC as one of several “important actors within the United Front system” in a 2023 report.

The CPPCC’s English-language charter states that delegates must “uphold the leadership” of the CCP, “take advantage of the CPPCC as a United Front organization,” and “keep state secrets.”

Qin is also a member of the Pingshan branch of the All-China Federation Of Industry And Commerce (ACFIC), according to the Shenzhen municipal government and CPPCC websites.

The UFWD lists ACFIC as a “subordinate,” and ACFIC describes itself as CCP “led” and tasked with linking the CCP “with people in non-public economic activities.”

A Capchem spokesperson confirmed Qin is a “local member” of the CPPCC and ACFIC. Capchem itself is also a corporate member of ACFIC, the spokesperson added.

However, Qin’s CPPCC affiliation disappeared from his company profile after the DCNF reached out for comment.

Capchem previously scrubbed references to its products being used in “high-end military equipment” and within the “military and aerospace industries” from its website after being contacted for comment by the DCNF.

“When these companies start scrubbing their websites, it’s clear that we’re on the right track,” Mike Howell, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, told the DCNF.

‘Follow Closely In The Party’s Steps’

In May 2023, Capchem announced that a “top advisor” to ACFIC’s Shenzhen branch, who was also a former China Ministry of Aerospace official, inspected the firm’s headquarters and met with company chairman Qin Jiusan.

The Shenzhen UFWD’s social media account also contains posts indicating that United Front officials have inspected Capchem facilities several times, including in February 2020 and April 2022. Photos from the 2020 and 2022 inspections show Qin leading UFWD minister Li Guangming on a tour of Capchem’s headquarters.

In August 2022, Qin spoke at a UFWD event in Shenzhen, according to the Shenzhen UFWD’s social media account. In his remarks, Qin described a speech given roughly two weeks earlier by President Xi Jinping as “profound,” telling the audience it “clarified a series of major theoretical and practical questions concerning United Front work in a new era.”

“As the vice chairman of Pingshan District’s ACFIC, I will take the lead in strengthening my personal study [of Xi’s teachings],” Qin said, adding that he would also “follow closely in the party’s steps.”

“Exacerbating our reliance on companies like Capchem for the domestic manufacture of energy products would be a self-defeating mistake,” Bryan Burack, senior policy advisor for China and the Indo-Pacific at the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, told the DCNF.

Capchem USA CEO Charlie Yao also previously belonged to an organization that the Chinese government has identified as serving the United Front, a Capchem spokesperson said.

Yao “was a member of the All-China Youth Federation from 1995-2000,” the spokesperson told the DCNF.

The All-China Youth Federation (ACYF) is a “patriotic United Front organization” that operates “under the leadership” of the CCP, according to the Chinese government.

John Dotson, deputy director of Global Taiwan Institute, called ACYF a “CCP-operated agency” and “United Front” organization.

“Any of ACYF’s officials would be subject to Party orders, Party discipline, etc.,” Dotson told the DCNF.

Capchem’s spokesperson, however, claimed that “neither Shenzhen Capchem nor Capchem USA has a relationship with individuals or entities involved in the CCP’s United Front.”

Burack told the DCNF that, given all Capchem’s CCP and United Front ties, he views the company as “part of the CCP’s influence apparatus.”

‘No Such Thing As A Private Company In China’

Capchem USA currently has plans to build chemical manufacturing facilities for electric vehicles in Lawrence County, Ohio and Ascension Parish, Louisiana.

Capchem USA also stands to benefit from U.S. government largess. Ohio’s Lawrence County recently granted Capchem USA a 50% tax break and Louisiana offered the firm a “$2 million performance-based grant for infrastructure expenses,” among other state incentives. Likewise, Capchem could also benefit from the web of subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022.

The company’s plans, however, have come under scrutiny from lawmakers who believe the firm’s Chinese government ties present a national security threat.

“Examples like Capchem are all the more reason we need to ensure Chinese companies are not eligible to receive U.S. taxpayer funding to further entrench our reliance on CCP-dominated supply chains in strategic industries,” Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, told the DCNF. “There is no such thing as a private company in China.”

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Investigative reporter.

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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: Firm Tied To China’s Military Industrial Complex Plans To Roll Out Massive Battery Chemical Plants In U.S.

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The Chinese manufacturer of chemicals for electric vehicle batteries planning to build two U.S. factories has long-standing ties to China’s military industrial complex, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

Capchem Technology USA, the wholly-owned subsidiary of China-based Shenzhen Capchem Technology (Capchem), plans to build factories in both Ohio and Louisiana that would produce components for electric vehicle batteries. Chinese government documents reveal the Chinese chemical giant was selected over a decade ago to conduct aerospace research for China’s military industrial complex as part of a program overseen by a blacklisted Chinese government agency.

Corporate reports show the company, as recently as 2023, received payments from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology — a government agency spearheading the Chinese government’s so-called “Military-Civil Fusion” efforts.

“This network of [Chinese Communist Party] military-linked companies proliferating across the United States is a great example of why blind economic engagement with China is a national security threat,” Bryan Burack, senior policy advisor for China and the Indo-Pacific at the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, told the DCNF.

The DCNF’s investigation is based, in part, on information provided by the Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action.

Capchem specializes in manufacturing chemicals for electric vehicle batteries, and for years, the firm has advertised its products’ military uses in annual reports and online. Indeed, until very recently, the firm’s website boldly stated its products were used in “high-end military equipment.”

Yet, Capchem denied supplying the Chinese military, and the reference to “high-end military equipment” was scrubbed from the firm’s website within 24 hours of the DCNF reaching out for comment.

Capchem “does not have products used by Chinese military, or any other military organizations,” a spokesperson told the DCNF.

“When the English/U.S. website was developed, the ‘military’ reference was inadvertently included,” the spokesperson said. “You brought it to the company’s attention, and it was removed just as it had been in the Chinese version in 2020.”

However, the military reference also appeared on Capchem’s Chinese-language website when the DCNF reached out for comment. The reference on Capchem’s Chinese-language site appears to have been removed around the same time as their English-language was being scrubbed.

Capchem business filings and corporate announcements from 2023, along with Chinese financial service research reports from as recent as January 2024, also note the firm’s products had military applications.

‘Military-Civil Fusion’

Capchem’s work with China’s military industrial complex extends back to at least 2012. That year, the Guangdong province Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced Capchem was one of 70 companies selected to serve as a “Guangdong Provincial National Defense Science And Technology Industry Military-Civil Fusion Superior Work Unit.”

The work unit focused on “critical components within the aerospace field,” including “space flight-grade, high-reliability and core electronic components, high-end general chips, base software, etcetera,” the 2012 Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announcement reads.

The project was overseen by China’s Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, which is “under direct supervision of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology,” and responsible for “nuclear weapons, aerospace technology, aviation, armament, watercraft and electronic industries,” according to China’s State Council.

China’s “Military-Civil Fusion strategy supports the modernization goals of the People’s Liberation Army by ensuring it can acquire advanced technologies and expertise developed by PRC companies, universities, and research programs that appear to be civilian entities,” according to the U.S. Defense Department.

Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi recently sent a letter to the Treasury and Defense departments noting the U.S. government’s blacklist of Chinese military companies extends to companies working with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

“Among other qualifying considerations, a company is a ‘military civil fusion contributor’ if such company is ‘affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, including research partnerships and projects,’” the lawmakers wrote in January 2024. “The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was formed in 2008 and is key to the PRC’s military-civil fusion strategy.”

Capchem’s annual reports show the firm has received millions of dollars in payments from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology since 2017. The ministry paid the firm approximately $1.5 million for an “Industrial Foundation Project” in 2017, according to Capchem’s annual report for that year.

Capchem’s most recent annual report shows the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had a subsidy of just under $1 million earmarked for the firm at the end of the 2023 mid-term reporting period.

Despite this, Capchem initially denied getting any “money/subsidies/donations from the Chinese government” in an email to the DCNF, though a spokesperson did say the firm had received “economic development tax incentives.”

However, the spokesperson changed their tune when the DCNF pointed to the firm’s own annual reports.

“The last time the company received any Chinese government subsidies besides standard incentives or awards provided for all eligible companies was between 2016 and 2018,” the spokesperson said. “Any reference to subsidies in company reports apply to those received during that time. The company has received no such subsidies since 2018.”

Capchem’s corporate reports list $26 million in subsidies from various Chinese government entities. The company’s 2023 mid-term report lists roughly $10 million worth of new government subsidies in a section labeled “Programs Involving Government Subsidies.”

Heritage’s Burack said Capchem has been “subsidized by the Chinese government” and “manufactures for China’s military.”

“There’s no question who these companies really work for,” Burack said. “There’s no such thing as a private Chinese company.”

‘Aerospace And Military Industries’

Capchem has long advertised the dual military-civilian use for its products. For instance, Capchem’s 2009 annual report touted how the company’s products are used in “aerospace and military industries.”

The vice president of Capchem’s research institute, Liu Zhongbo, discussed the military application of the company’s sodium-ion batteries at a July 2023 battery forum in Jiangsu province.

“Lithium-ion batteries and sodium-ion batteries are representative of new battery types serving as an important foundation for supporting the wide application of new energy sources in the domains of electricity, transportation, communication, military, etcetera,” Liu said during the event, according to Capchem’s website.

“In the future, Capchem will closely follow the national strategy to support the mass production of sodium-ion batteries,” Liu said.

More recently, a January 2024 research report from Chinese financial service firm Huaan Securities identified Capchem’s “fluorinated polyimide” product as being used in the nuclear industry and by the military, and the firm’s “perfluoropolyether oil” product’s use in aerospace landing gear, rudders and aircraft control mechanisms.

‘Security Risks’

Capchem’s plans to expand their U.S. footprint come as federal and state officials move to prohibit the ownership of U.S. land by Chinese entities. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson recently issued an executive order in January 2024 banning entities tied to China from purchasing agricultural land within 10 miles of any “critical military facilities” in the state.

Capchem USA is planning on building an approximately $120 million factory in Lawrence County, Ohio, Capchem announced in June 2023. County commissioners recently approved a 50% tax abatement for Capchem USA’s facility, the Herald Dispatch reported. The facility will serve as a “production facility for the manufacturing of battery chemicals,” according to Capchem.

Capchem USA is also considering a $350 million plant in Louisiana, according to Louisiana Economic Development, a government agency.

Ohio Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup’s congressional district includes Lawrence County. Barbara Boland, Wenstrup’s press secretary, told the DCNF that the congressman has “warned of the potential security risks to our supply chains, intellectual property and national security posed by Chinese-owned companies operating in the U.S.”

“Congressman Wenstrup recommends local governments and those pursuing economic development opportunities to fully vet any companies seeking to establish a footprint in their communities,” Boland said.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

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

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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.

The Pentagon Is Paying A Chinese Communist Party-Linked Venture Capital Firm For Tutoring Services

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The CEO of a Chinese venture capital firm that quietly bought up a U.S. education company holding a Pentagon contract has long-standing connections to multiple Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence units, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

Primavera Capital, a Hong Kong-based venture capital firm, was an early investor in TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, and owns Princeton Review and Tutor.com. However, a review of the firm’s Chinese-language website found that CEO and founder Fred Hu has extensive ties to the Chinese government and belonged to organizations that the U.S. government has identified as part of the CCP’s “United Front” system.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) says the CCP uses its United Front system to influence foreign actors and collect intelligence. China’s United Front is overseen by the United Front Work Department (UFWD), which USCC has characterized as a “Chinese intelligence service.”

The USCC was established by Congress to monitor and investigate the national security implications of the economic relationship between the U.S. and China.

Primavera, through its ownership of Tutor.com, now holds a contract with the Pentagon, Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton wrote to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in February 2024. The tutoring service is a “long-standing provider” to U.S. military servicemembers and their families, and is funded by the Pentagon’s Defense Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) General Library Program.

In 2008, Hu became a delegate of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Hunan province, according to his company’s website, which the DCNF translated from Chinese. Hunan’s CPPCC membership roster identifies Hu as a delegate in 2013, 2021 and during the most recently listed 2022 congress.

“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 USCC. “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,” “take advantage of the CPPCC as a united front organization” and even “keep state secrets.”

Hu appears in photos on the Hunan CPPCC’s website and on Chinese state-run media social media accounts wearing the CPPCC’s distinctive red, clip-on delegate’s badge at the organization’s meetings and during interviews.

Despite this, a Primavera spokesperson denied that Hu any ties to the Chinese government.

“Dr. Fred Hu is not a member of the CCP or any other political party, and Primavera Capital has no ties to any political party in China or any other country,” Primavera’s spokesperson told the DCNF by email. “Dr. Hu is not an advisor to the Chinese government, and belongs to none of the United Front organizations.”

Yet, Hu is also listed on the Western Returned Scholars Association’s (WRSA) website as a “director” of the organization’s “Entrepreneur Alliance.”

“WRSA is subordinate to the United Front Work Department, the CCP agency tasked with coordinating influence operations at the operational level” and seeks to “meet the requirements of the [CCP] leadership that it should ‘become a bridge between the Party and overseas students and scholars,’” a 2020 USCC staff research report states.

Toward that end, WRSA conducts “influence operations by disseminating propaganda,” the 2020 report states.

U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns over Primavera’s ownership of Tutor.com, an online tutoring platform.

Tutor.com partners with universities, K–12 schools, libraries and the U.S. military to “provide 24/7, on-demand tutoring and homework help,” according to its website.

Most recently, Cotton sent a letter to the Department of Defense (DOD) concerning a contract that the Pentagon has with Tutor.com. Cotton’s letter characterized the relationship as “ill-advised, reckless and a danger to U.S. national security,” citing a May 2023 Wall Street Journal investigation.

“While providing educational services, Tutor.com collects personal data on users, such as location, internet protocol addresses and contents of the tutoring sessions,” Cotton wrote. “As Chinese national security laws require companies to release confidential business and customer data to the Chinese government, we are paying to expose our military and their children’s private information to the Chinese Communist Party.”

Parents Defending Education, a “grassroots organization working to reclaim our schools,” recently identified dozens of U.S. K-12 schools using Tutor.com.

In 2018, Primavera was also one of several venture capital firms to invest a total of $3 billion into ByteDance, which owns TikTok.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Application Act, which, if passed, would force ByteDance to sell its interest in TikTok.

The vote came just days after FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that ByteDance is “beholden to the CCP” during questioning from Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

“The different kinds of influence operations you’re describing, are extraordinarily difficult to detect, which is part of what makes the national security concerns represented by TikTok so significant,” Wray told Rubio.

Primavera’s portfolio shows that the firm has also invested in companies tied to alleged human rights violations, including Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseTime.

In 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security blacklisted SenseTime for allegedly developing racial profiling facial recognition technologies to track ethnic minorities in China’s western province of Xinjiang, which the Chinese government has used in relation to China’s ongoing genocide.

“It’s concerning that a platform providing services to the U.S. military has close connections to a ‘trusted advisor’ to the Chinese government,” a majority spokesperson from the House Select Committee on the CCP told the DCNF. “This issue warrants further scrutiny.”

DOD did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

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

RELATED ARTICLE: China’s Military Could Be Reaping The Benefits Of Takeover Of US Ag Giant

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.

Is American Pork Ending Up In The Bellies Of Chinese Soldiers?

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Communist China’s military could be reaping the benefits of the takeover of a U.S agricultural giant.

America’s largest pork producer was exporting massive quantities of pork to its Chinese “sister company” as it stockpiled food for the Chinese military, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of corporate records and Chinese state-run media reports.

Smithfield Foods, owner of roughly 150,000 acres of U.S. land and operator of dozens of feed mills and production plants, has shipped hundreds of thousands of tons of pork to its China-based parent company WH Group and sister company Shuanghui Investment and Development Co. (Shuanghui) since being acquired in 2013, according to corporate and Chinese government records as well as state-run media reports.

Shuanghui has extensive ties to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which it touts on its website, and is responsible for developing food for China’s military to use on the battlefield, according to the PLA-sponsored China Military News.

Shuanghui also operates a food “mobilization center” for the PLA in Henan province, and has done so since 2009, according to a 2022 Shuanghui news release. Shuanghui’s mobilization center stockpiles food, including pork, to meet the PLA’s emergency response needs, and Chinese state-run reports indicate that Shuanghui has distributed food from this stockpile to Chinese soldiers on several occasions in recent years.

A December 2023 report from the Luohe municipal government in Henan province indicates the military stockpile is still active and under Shuanghui’s management.

While Shuanghui doesn’t disclose where the pork it supplies the PLA originates from, it’s very likely that at least some U.S. pork product is being supplied to the PLA, according to Brian O’Shea, a former military and intelligence analyst.

“My opinion would be that the Chinese government is giving this superior U.S. pork to their soldiers,” O’Shea told the DCNF based on his understanding of Smithfield’s central role in Shuanghui’s pork supply chain and Shuanghui’s extensive relationship with the PLA.

“At these mobilization centers, there’s going to be a Smithfield pile and a Chinese domestic pork pile, and the Chinese domestic pork is most likely going to the civilians, whereas the superior pork is going to the Chinese military,” O’Shea said.

Neither Smithfield nor Shuanghui responded to multiple requests for comment.

‘A Unified State’

WH Group acquired Smithfield in 2013 for $7.1 billion. At the time, WH Group Chairman Wan Long said the acquisition would allow his companies to “meet the growing demand in China for pork by importing high-quality meat products from the United States,” adding the merger “provided Smithfield the opportunity to expand its offering of products to China through Shuanghui’s distribution network.”

The DCNF recently reported that WH Group’s chairman and four other executives are Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members. WH Group’s chairman and several top executives also hold, or previously held, positions with the Chinese government, the DCNF found.

WH Group’s leadership includes both Shuanghui and Smithfield executives, according to Reuters.

In 2013, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s annual report characterized Smithfield’s acquisition by WH Group as “part of a broader trend of Chinese global investment in farm assets or food technologies.”

“China’s acquisitions in agriculture and other sectors are being driven by the desire to secure higher volumes of safe products and, in the long term, access to advanced production and processing technologies,” the commission wrote in its report.

“We’ve got to remember that China is a unified state,” Gordon Chang, distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, told the DCNF. “It operates under the direction of the Communist Party, which demands absolute obedience from all individuals and all entities.”

Since 2013, Smithfield’s exports to China have exponentially increased. Shuanghui constructed a $110 million Smithfield-branded factory in China in 2015 that exclusively processes U.S.-raised Smithfield pork, and the company developed an e-commerce portal in 2017 that sells Smithfield products.

In the wake of these developments, Smithfield’s pork exports to China exploded from roughly 83,000 tons in 2018 to approximately 335,000 tons in 2020, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data obtained by the DCNF.

Click here to view S&P Global Market Intelligence infographic U.S. Exports of Pork Linked to Smithfield (tons)

“There was an unusual increase in sales of entire swine carcasses to China during 2019,” according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service report. “This increase reflects the retooling of at least one U.S. Smithfield Foods plant to produce carcasses for shipment to a plant in China that had excess processing capacity due to the shortage of hogs in the country.”

Shuanghui “used excess capacity in its Chinese plant to make processed products from the carcasses,” the report added.

Between 2015 and 2020, 80% of Shuanghui’s imported meat came from Smithfield, Chinese state-run media outlet The Paper reported. Shuanghui characterized Smithfield as its “primary” pork supplier that same year.

Since then, Smithfield has continued to export hundreds of thousands of tons of pork to China. S&P Global Market Intelligence’s data shows Smithfield sent 242,672 tons of pork to China in 2021 and 124,886 tons in 2022. Smithfield exports to China hit 101,791 tons in 2023, the data shows.

A November 2023 financial briefing published by Chinese state-run firm Guosen Securities, which used data from compliance reports, forecast that Shuanghui will continue to rely on Smithfield pork imports for the foreseeable future.

“Shuanghui Development’s meat product offerings are expected to rely on the importation of Smithfield Foods’ Western products, and the synergy of the two large platforms will increasingly arise,” Guosen Securities reported.

‘My Love Spills Into Every Army Base’

While Smithfield has been sending pork to Shuanghui, the Henan-based company was supplying the PLA, according to corporate records seen by the DCNF. In fact, Shuanghui’s relationship with the PLA predates WH Group’s acquisition of Smithfield.

In 2008, the Chinese government proposed that large enterprises assist in creating provincial military stockpiles for various goods like food at so-called “mobilization centers,” and, shortly thereafter, Shuanghui officials applied for the firm to establish a “Non-Staple Foods Mobilization Center,” according to a PLA Daily article that was reposted by Chinese news outlet Sina.

The PLA first called upon Shuanghui’s mobilization center in June 2009 while it was still under construction, asking for assistance in delivering 10 types of foods to Chinese soldiers approximately 125 miles away, PLA Daily reported.

Shuanghui’s mobilization center “integrates the military with the civilian” and “blends peacetime and wartime” in order to “guarantee an emergency response,” according to an archived December 2009 company news release.

That same month, Shuanghui head Wan Long, who also heads WH Group, presided over the opening ceremony of the firm’s mobilization center, which several high-ranking Chinese military personnel attended, according to the archived post.

By 2015, the mobilization center reportedly employed more than 2,200 veterans. These veterans routinely simulate emergency situations, such as delivering food goods to front-line positions in wartime, according to state-run China News.

Shuanghui President Ma Xiangjie, who sits on WH Group’s board and is a CCP member, serves as the mobilization center’s director, according to a company announcement from December 2022. In that same announcement, the company touted that the PLA had named Ma Xiangjie as one of Henan’s “Top 10 Military Supporters.”

Company and Chinese military records reviewed by the DCNF indicate that PLA officers have inspected Shuanghui’s mobilization center multiple times in recent years. During a December 2021 inspection, PLA officers presented Ma Xiangjie with a ceremonial banner that read: “My heart is bound to the Great Wall of steel, my love spills into every army base.”

A December 2022 Shuanghui announcement states the company’s mobilization center had at some point prior “successfully developed an ABC set meal series of military rations.” The U.S. Army describes A-rations as “perishable foods,” B-rations as “nonperishable foods” and C-rations as a “balanced meal in a can.”

Wan Long and Ma Xiangjie did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

‘Food Security’

Chinese social media posts show Shuanghui has on multiple occasions distributed pork from its mobilization center to Chinese military personnel.

In February 2020, for instance, Shuanghui announced it had donated meat to the PLA as well as Wuhan military medical staff working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Shuanghui’s announcement featured photographs of the firm’s truck delivering boxes of pork sausages to PLA soldiers.

Smithfield exported at least 335,411 tons of pork to China in 2020, S&P data shows.

Chinese government documents show that Smithfield was sending pork directly to Shuanghui during the pandemic. China’s General Administration of Customs reporting it had rejected approximately 27 tons of Smithfield “frozen bone-in pork” sent to a Shuanghui subsidiary sometime before August 2020, citing an issue with the shipment’s certificate of goods.

Shuanghui has also bragged about donating medical supplies to the PLA during the pandemic.

In fact, People’s Daily, which is the CCP’s official media arm, reported in February 2020 that Shuanghui had launched a global campaign to procure medical supplies for the Chinese military. China’s State Council supported Shuanghui by helping medical supplies obtained abroad pass smoothly through customs, People’s Daily reported.

“In the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, WH Group’s subsidiary Shuanghui Development purchased anti-epidemic materials, including protective clothing, isolation gowns, masks and goggles overseas to support front-line medical staff in Hubei Province,” reads an English-language version of an April 2020 WH Group release. “Shuanghui also donated living materials and epidemic prevention materials to military medical workers at Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital through the Luohe military sub-district.”

Moreover, the People’s Daily article also features a photo of a Smithfield truck outside a warehouse with a caption reading “overseas procurement” and credits Shuanghui for the picture.

Other images show what appears to be a Caucasian man moving rectangular boxes purportedly full of medical supplies with a forklift and a UPS plane on a tarmac beside pallets of boxes. Another photo appears to show workers and delivery trucks at Shuanghui’s headquarters preparing to deliver supplies to the Chinese military, as reported in a Shuanghui corporate release less than a week later.

“The Chinese Communist Party is increasingly focused on acquiring, illicitly or otherwise, agricultural technologies and supply chains,” Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher, chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, told the DCNF. “We must strengthen our food security before it is too late.”

‘Chinese Communist Control’

Shuanghui also apparently agreed to supply a Chinese state-owned defense firm with Smithfield products, according to a 2022 Shuanghui Chinese social media post to which the company’s website also links.

During a November 2022 conference in Guangdong province, Shuanghui signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) to manufacture customized products in order to “support the rapid development of China’s aviation industry,” according to a company social media post.

Photos from the November 2022 event appear to show Smithfield bacon alongside other Shuanghui products involved in the defense contractor deal. The U.S. government sanctioned AVIC in 2021 “for operating or having operated in the defense and related materiel sector of the economy of the PRC.”

“People are just now starting to understand the consequences of the naïve policymaking that dominated Washington for the past couple decades,” Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio told the DCNF. “Chinese communist control of American businesses is a challenge we have to confront before a crisis.”

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

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

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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.

Leadership Of Major U.S. Landowner Chock-Full Of Chinese Communist Party Members

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Top executives at Hong Kong-based WH Group Limited, the world’s largest pork producer that controls vast swaths of U.S. farmland through its American subsidiary, are Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of corporate records and state-run media reports.

Records and reports reviewed by the DCNF identify four top executives and the chairman of the pork giant as CCP members with extensive ties to the Chinese government. WH Group controls nearly 150,000 acres of land across 29 U.S. states through its subsidiary Smithfield Foods, a family-run business established in 1936, which it purchased for $7.1 billion in 2013. While a keyword search on Smithfield’s website returned only two articles mentioning the firm’s relationship with WH Group, neither of the two articles mentioned China. An online map of Smithfield’s global business activities does not list any operations in, or connection to, Asia, despite archived reports from their website suggesting otherwise.

Revelations about WH Group’s CCP and Chinese government ties, which the DCNF found by cross-referencing the firm’s roster with Chinese-language news reports and corporate records, come as Republicans push for bans on Chinese rural land purchases, in particular, those close to U.S. military bases.

“It is no joke to join the Chinese Communist Party,” Matt Shoemaker, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, told the DCNF. “You cannot just walk in and sign-up. You have to show that you are a true believer.”

Several states, including Florida, have taken legislative and executive action to ban Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland. Recently, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson issued an executive order banning such purchases near military installations. GOP lawmakers also recently pressed the Biden administration to launch an investigation into the second-largest foreign owner of U.S. land after his CCP membership came to light.

“No foreign government should be owning American farmland,” said Shoemaker, who is running for Congress in North Carolina as a Republican. “It is a national security issue, for obvious reasons.”

WH Group’s chairman, Wan Long, as well as multiple board members and some senior management were identified as CCP members in a 2022 Chinese-language stock exchange filing from a subsidiary called Shuanghui Investment and Development Co. (SIDC). WH Group and Chinese corporate records from SIDC also show that WH Group’s chairman and several top executives hold, or previously held, Chinese government positions.

Between 2010 and 2021, the amount of U.S. land owned by Chinese entities skyrocketed from 13,730 acres to 383,935 acres, according to USDA reports.

Smithfield operates half a dozen distribution centers, nearly 20 direct store delivery services, 36 feed mills, as well as more than 40 production plants and 2,400 farms across 29 U.S. states, according to the firm’s website. In total, WH Group owns 146,000 acres in the U.S., according to a 2018 report by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“Smithfield Foods, Inc. holds a substantial market share in the U.S. pork industry, accounting for approximately 26% of the total market share,” according to trade publication Essential Protein Trade & Shipping News.

In a bygone era, GOP governors might have welcomed Chinese investment into rural industries and communities. Now, it’s become a major source of concern as relations between the U.S. and China continue to sour.

South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem told the DCNF her office has had “a lot of hard conversations” with Smithfield’s leadership, adding she now believes the company poses a national security threat.

“Any time it felt like we would have the opportunity to work together, it ended up not going as well as I hoped,” Noem said. “I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that Smithfield is owned by China.”

Smithfield did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

‘The CCP’s Long-Term Strategy’

WH Group Chairman Wan Long is among the company’s senior leadership who is a CCP member with Chinese government ties, a DCNF review of corporate business filings and Chinese state media reports found.

An archived business profile on SIDC’s website identifies Wan Long as a CCP member.

SIDC is “the largest animal protein company in Asia” and its products include “chilled fresh pork and packaged meat products,” according to Smithfield’s website.

The DCNF reviewed and carefully translated key sections of SIDC’s Chinese-language website, which contains extensive information about WH Group executives’ CCP and Chinese government ties that are absent from WH Group’s English-language website.

Born in 1940, Wan Long joined the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at the age of 20 before entering China’s meat industry, according to Chinese state-run media outlet People’s Daily. Wan Long has since earned various Chinese government positions and state awards, his archived SIDC profile states.

Between 1998 and 2018, Wan Long served as a representative to the National People’s Congress, according to his archived SIDC profile. The National People’s Congress operates “under the leadership” of the CCP, and its officials are “invariably influential members of the CCP and leaders of major mass organizations,” according to the Congressional Executive Commission on China.

SIDC’s archived website also notes that Wan Long has received a “special allowance” from China’s State Council. This refers to a reward system created to “strengthen and improve the work of the Party’s intellectuals,” according to the state-run China News Service. The tax-free reward ranges from a monthly stipend of roughly $85 to an approximately $2,800 lump sum payment, according to China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. However, it is unclear if Wan Long still receives this government reward.

Wan Long also earned the honorific “senior political engineer” from the Chinese government, according to his archived SIDC profile. Senior political engineers are required to possess a “relatively systemic grasp of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory,” according to the State Council’s State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

China’s United Front Work Department (UFWD) also named Wan Long as one of 100 “Outstanding Private Entrepreneurs In The 40 Years Of Reform And Opening-Up” in 2018, according to the All-China Federation Of Industry And Commerce, a UFWD subordinate agency that co-sponsored the award.

The UFWD engages in “influence activities and intelligence operations,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

SIDC’s 2022 filing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange also identifies three WH Group senior managers — Qiao Haili, Wang Yufen, Liu Songtao — and WH Group executive director Ma Xiangjie as CCP members. All four WH Group executives hold high-level positions at SIDC.

Ma Xiangjie was also elected to serve as a National People’s Congress delegate in Henan province, according to that government body’s website. Delegates are elected by “the People’s congresses at the provincial level as well as by the People’s Liberation Army,” according to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

A local branch of the All-China Federation Of Industry And Commerce named Ma Xiangjie as one of Henan province’s people of the year between 2019 and 2020, according to the UFWD-affiliate’s website.

Yet, it is unclear just how many CCP members WH Group employs.

SIDC, on the other hand, has employed hundreds, according to the Communist Party Member Network’s website, which is operated by the CCP’s Organization Department.

“In recent years, over 300 new Party members have been recruited, strengthening the Party’s troops,” reads SIDC’s Communist Party Member Network profile. “Currently, Shuanghui Development’s senior executives include 17 Party members, constituting 85% [of all senior executives]; six business department general managers are Party members; six Party members are among the seven management department directors; all project managers are Party members; and 47% of the firm’s mid-level cadre are Party members.”

‘Update CFIUS’

When WH Group purchased Smithfield in 2013, the acquisition “received clearance” from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

CFIUS reviews foreign investments into the U.S. on the grounds of national security, the Treasury Department website states. Multiple U.S. government agencies participate in the CFIUS process, including the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense and others, according to the Treasury Department, which is also involved in that process.

“We are pleased that this transaction has been cleared by CFIUS, and we thank the Committee for its careful attention to this review,” Smithfield’s CEO and president at the time, C. Larry Pope, said at the time, according to an SEC filing.

Over a decade later, House Republicans see CFIUS’ approval of WH Group’s purchase of Smithfield as a case study in why the body needs to be reformed.

“What we need to do is update CFIUS to ensure that it has jurisdiction over all foreign adversary land purchases, and to ensure that it has the ability to consider U.S. food security as a factor in assessing the potential risk of a transaction,” Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher, who chairs the House Select Committee on the CCP, told the DCNF.

Iowa Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson said the CCP has “nefariously exploited loopholes to buy U.S. land, so they can exert control over our food supply and undermine our national security.”

“This is all part of the CCP’s long-term strategy to hurt America and our interests — whether it’s garnering valuable U.S. military intelligence or interfering with our food supply chain,” Hinson told the DCNF. “We cannot allow another acre of U.S. land to get into the hands of the CCP.”

WH Group, SIDC, Wan Long and CFIUS did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Investigative reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Second-Largest Foreign Owner Of US Land Is A Chinese Communist Party Member

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.

Liberal Foundations Poured Tens Of Millions Of Dollars Into Influential Environmental Org Tied To Chinese Government

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Major U.S.-based liberal charitable foundations have donated millions of dollars to Energy Foundation China (EFC), a San Francisco-based environmental nonprofit with deep ties to the Chinese government.

U.S.-based liberal charities, such as the Hewlett Foundation and nonprofits managed by left-wing dark money consultancy Arabella Advisors, have poured over $100 million into EFC since 2020, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of tax filings and foundation grant databases. EFC uses those funds to bankroll U.S.-based climate activists and to support the development of clean energy in China.

EFC has close ties to the Chinese state; at least nine members of the organization’s leadership and senior staff have previously held positions in China’s government, with one described in a Tsinghua University press release as an “outstanding [Chinese] Communist Party member.”

EFC spent more than $52 million funding green projects and organizations in the United States and China in 2022, according to tax forms.

EFC funds several of the U.S.-based organizations that have played a role in influencing the Biden administration’s climate agenda. American groups funded by EFC have, among other things, opposed the development of new oil drilling sites and promoted renewable energy technologies, like solar panels.

Green Cash

Liberal foundations have poured millions into EFC over the last four years, specifically for climate and energy programs in China, tax documents and grant databases show.

EFC had been a program under the Energy Foundation before breaking off and becoming an independent legal entity in 2019, according to its website. Prior to 2019, grants from charitable foundations to EFC were made out to the Energy Foundation and earmarked for EFC.

The Packard Foundation, Hewlett Foundation and MacArthur Foundation, all major players in American environmental activism, were some of EFC’s largest donors, representing almost 40% of the over $217.1 million the group raised between 2020 and 2022.

The MacArthur Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation donated at least $6 million and $67 million to EFC, respectively, between 2020 and 2023. The Packard Foundation, meanwhile, has donated about $19.3 million to the organization since 2020, according to its grant database.

Likewise, senior employees of the MacArthur Foundation, the Packard Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation hold seats on EFC’s board of directors.

The MacArthur Foundation gave EFC $2 million between 2020 and 2021 to help “China transition to a sustainable energy future,” according to its tax filings.

The Hewlett Foundation, meanwhile, paid out grants explicitly to fund EFC’s pro-Chinese government activities.

The Energy Foundation, which housed EFC at the time, received $8.4 million from the Hewlett Foundation in 2016 in part to fund EFC’s efforts to support the “climate implementation goals for China’s 13th Five-Year Plan.”

China’s Five-Year plan is formulated by the CCP and “sets forth China’s strategic intentions and defines its major objectives” for a five year period, according to the Chinese government.

Furthermore, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund gave EFC $200,000 in 2021 to support “low carbon transportation planning in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao greater bay area.” Rockefeller Brothers spent $200,000 bankrolling a similar project in 2019.

EFC’s donors, while funding the organization’s China-based activities, also served as major backers of domestic liberal activists. The Packard, Hewlett and MacArthur foundations, for instance, have poured millions of dollars into Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups, according to tax filings.

The Energy Foundation’s activities in China also attracted significant support from entities tied to the Democratic Party.

The Heising-Simons Foundation, a California-based family charity founded by Democratic megadonors Liz Simons and Mark Heising. The foundation gave $925,000 to the Energy Foundation for its Chinese operations in 2017 and about $2.3 million in 2018, when EFC was still part of the Energy Foundation, according to tax forms.

Simons and Heising have donated nearly $10 million to Democrats and members of Congress who caucus with the Democrats since 2020, campaign finance records show.

Windward Fund and Hopewell Fund, nonprofits managed by the Democrat-aligned consultancy Arabella Advisors, supported EFC to the tune of nearly $2.5 million between 2020 and 2022, according to tax filings.

Several of the funds managed by Arabella Advisors are “dark money” organizations that are not required to disclose their donors and direct the bulk of their grants to left-wing and Democrat-aligned groups. Hopewell and Windward disclose their donors, however Hopewll received funds from Sixteen Thirty Fund, an organization in Arabella’s network that does not disclose donors, according to tax forms.

“Windward Fund recognizes that the climate crisis is a global challenge,” the organization said in a statement to the DCNF.

The Packard Foundation, Heising Simons Foundation, Hopewell Fund, MacArthur Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Hewlett Foundation did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

The China Connection

Former Chinese government officials have an outsized presence among EFC’s leadership and senior staff.

Zhang Hongjun, who is on EFC’s board of directors, was an official in China’s National Environmental Protection Agency and a legislative director in China’s National People’s Congress, focusing on environmental laws, according to EFC’s website.

The National People’s Congress (NPC) is “the highest organ of State power in China,” according to its website. The NPC operates under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and leaders of the NPC’s standing committee, a powerful subset of the NPC, are “invariably influential members of the CCP and leaders of major mass organizations,” according to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

He Kebin, another board member, was a representative in the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress in 2018, according to Sina, a Chinese-language media outlet. The Beijing Municipal People’s Congress works under the direct leadership of the CCP in implementing policy and providing services in China’s capital city, according to a report published by the mayor of Beijing in January 2023.

A group of universities in Beijing awarded Kebin the title of “outstanding member of the [Chinese] communist party” at a celebration marking the 99th anniversary of the CCP, according to a press release from Tsinghua University.

Several board members, including Kebin and Hongjun, are listed as council members on the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development’s (CCICED) website. CCICED was founded in 1992 with the approval of the Chinese government and advises the Chinese government on environmental policy and development, according to the organization’s website.

CCICED reports to the Chinese government’s State Council and its executive committee is staffed by several high-ranking Chinese government officials, according to the organization’s website.

CCICED Chairman Ding Xuexiang is the top-ranking vice premier of the People’s Republic of China and a member of the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee, a seven-person Chinese government body headed by General Secretary Xi Jinping.

Other EFC board members are listed as special advisors for CCICED, including Shenyu Belsky, Hongpeng Lei and EFC President Zou Ji.

Zou Ji formerly served as deputy director general of China’s state-run National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, and he was a key player in China’s delegation to the Paris Climate Accords in 2015, according to his bio on EFC’s website.

EFC paid Ji almost $500,000 in 2021 for his work as the group’s president and CEO, according to the organization’s 2021 tax filing. Board members Kebin and Hongjun drew compensation of $6,000 and $4,500, respectively, according to the 2021 filing.

EFC’s Senior Program Director of Strategic Communications Hui Jing formerly worked at the state-run National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Lan Yu, a program officer for EFC’s Low Carbon Economic Growth initiative, previously served in China’s finance and environmental ministries, according to their respective bios on EFC’s website.

Xin Liu, who leads EFC’s environmental management division, formerly served as a senior official in the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, and Ping He, who is the program director of EFC’s industry program, worked at the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences for almost a decade, according to EFC’s website.

While the organization’s tax forms say it’s based in San Francisco, EFC also has an office in Beijing, which, according to the group’s website, is “registered with the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau and supervised by the National Development and Reform Commission of China.”

The National Development and Reform Commission of China (NDRC) is a Chinese government agency that exists to “formulate and implement strategies on national economic and social development” and create “strategies, plans and policies for utilizing foreign capital,” according to the NDRC’s website. The commission also is involved with the Chinese military as it “undertake[s] specific tasks of the National Defense Mobilization Committee,” according to its website.

Additionally, EFC disclosed a payment of nearly $400,000 for “consulting services” to the state-run China News Service on its 2020 tax forms.

The State Department designated China News Service as a foreign mission in 2020, meaning that it was found to be effectively controlled by the Chinese government.

‘China’s Ambitious Climate Vision’

Among other things, EFC says its goals are to improve China’s transportation system, to help the communist country achieve clean economic growth and to promote “China’s ambitious climate vision.” EFC aimed to assist China in becoming “the world leader in clean energy production, consumption, and investment, by 2030,” according to an archived version of the organization’s webpage

“Communist China is our enemy, and their ‘green energy’ policies are based on slave and child labor, government subsidies and trade abuses,” Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott told the DCNF.

EFC has also funneled large sums of money into influential, left-of-center environmental groups in the U.S.

Domestic climate groups, like the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), received millions from EFC between 2020 and 2022.

RMI, a nonprofit dedicated to “working to accelerate the clean energy transition,” was behind a study cited by Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr.’s decision to consider a ban on gas stoves, which attracted significant controversy.

The Colorado-based organization also partnered with the Chinese government to produce a report advising a transition away from oil and gas. EFC was also involved in producing that report.

White House officials have met privately with leaders of RMI, Fox News Digital reported.

EFC gave about $1.8 million to RMI between 2020 and 2022, tax forms show.

NRDC, meanwhile, received about $700,000 from EFC between 2020 and 2022, according to tax forms.

NRDC describes itself as the “first national environmental advocacy group to focus on legal action.” NRDC has opposed expanded oil drilling in the United States, power plants that run on coal, mining projects and the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

NRDC also has close ties to the Biden administration.

Gina McCarthy, NRDC’s former president, served as the White House’s national climate advisor from 2021 to 2022, Fox reported. The organization’s current president, Manish Bapna, has attended at least two White House meetings and the NRDC regularly communicates with Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s office, Fox reported.

“There are those, foremost among them, John Kerry, but there are many others who believe the existential challenge of our time … is climate change, and therefore we must have a more cooperative relationship with China,” House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mike Gallagher told the DCNF.

“That’s nonsense. We need to get realistic before it’s too late. Thinking that Xi Jinping cares about the documents that are signed at [the United Nations Climate Change Conference] is naïve, utopian nonsense. It reflects a profound misunderstanding of how the geopolitical world works.”

NRDC and RMI both have offices in China.

EFC has provided funding to RMI and NRDC’s Chinese programs, though grants to those organizations on EFC’s most recent publicly-available tax forms are earmarked for “education and analysis” operations with no mention of China.

RMI employs a number of former Chinese government officials through its China program. Ting Li, Minhui Gao, Kaidi Guo, Qiyu Liu and Qian Sun are among the RMI staffers who formerly held posts in the Chinese government.

EFC did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHORS

ROBERT SCHMAD AND PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Contributors.

RELATED ARTICLE: Biden Admin Doubles Down On Climate Cooperation With China As Xi’s Economy Goes On Coal Binge

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.

Second-Largest Foreign Owner Of U.S. Land Is A Chinese Communist Party Member

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The second-largest foreign landowner in the U.S. is a Chinese billionaire who it has been determined is a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Chinese-language news reports.

Chen Tianqiao, the founder, chairman and CEO of global investment firm Shanda Group, owns approximately 200,000 acres of land in Oregon, according to Land Report. Chen also has extensive ties to the Chinese government, ranging from CCP membership to executive roles in CCP-affiliated organizations, according to a DCNF review of Chinese-language media reports.

In 2015, Chen acquired 198,000 acres in Oregon, according to Land Report. The $85 million purchase made the Chinese national the 82nd-largest property owner in the U.S. and the second-largest foreign U.S. land owner, Bloomberg reported, second only to a Canadian family who owns over 1 million acres of Maine.

Oregon’s Bull Springs Skyline Forest accounts for approximately 33,000 of Chen’s acreage, according to Land Report. The forest is located west of Bend, Oregon, and is home to springs, creeks, timberland and wildlife, according to the Bull Springs Skyline Forest website.

Oregon Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer said she was “deeply concerned that individuals tied to the Chinese Communist Party are buying up timberland, which is one of our most precious and finite resources.”

“Foreign ownership of United States lands is a serious problem that has rightfully sparked unease among farmers, ranchers and foresters across the country,” Chavez-DeRemer told the DCNF.

Chen also owns several urban properties in the U.S., including the Vanderbilt Mansion in Manhattan, the Seeley Mudd Estate near Los Angeles and a 150,000 square-foot research facility at Caltech called the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience — each worth tens of millions of dollars, according to Land Report.

Chinese ownership of U.S. land, in particular agricultural land, has come under increased scrutiny from GOP governors, who see it as a potential national security threat. Several states, including Florida, have taken legislative and executive action to ban Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland, the most recent being Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s January 2024 executive order banning such purchases near military installations.

“One of the Chinese Communist Party’s goals is to undermine and weaken America,” Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio told the DCNF. “This includes instances where our greatest adversary continues to buy land — whether its farmland or near our installations.”

‘Despise All Our Enemies’

Born in 1973, Chen served as a student cadre from an early age, state-run media outlet China News Service reported.

“In 1990, Chen enrolled in Fudan University to major in economics, the following year he joined the Chinese Communist Party, and, in 1993, he won the title of ‘Shanghai Municipal Outstanding Model Cadre Student,’” according to a DCNF translation of an archived 2005 press release from Chen’s alma mater, Fudan University in Shanghai.

Chen was just 18 when he joined the Communist Party, according to a 2007 article from Communist Youth Daily, the official newspaper for the Communist Youth League.

Since joining the Party, Chinese media outlets and business filings have repeatedly identified Chen as a CCP member.

A 2016 Sohu.com article identified Chen and several other Chinese CEOs as CCP members. Likewise, Chen’s profile on the Chinese financial portal Sina, which was last updated in November 2023, identifies him as a CCP member.

The state-run Beijing Review describes Chen as an admirer of Mao Zedong, first chairman of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Several Chinese-language outlets have also reported that Chen’s corporate office prominently displays Mao’s written works.

Chen even has a favorite Mao Zedong quote, according to state-run media outlet China News Service: “Strategically we should despise all our enemies, but tactically we should take them all seriously.”

Mao delivered the remarks in a speech denouncing American imperialism during a visit to Moscow in November 1957, according to the University of Dayton Review.

Above and beyond his CCP membership, Chinese government records show that Chen served as a representative to the 11th and 12th councils of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which ran between 2008 and 2018.

The CPPCC is a Chinese government agency where “all the relevant united front actors inside and outside the party come together: party elders, intelligence officers, diplomats, propagandists, military officers and political commissars, united front workers, academics and businesspeople,” former CIA officer Peter Mattis testified to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2019.

“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.”

Chinese media reports include photos of Chen attending CPPCC meetings while wearing the government agency’s distinctive red, clip-on delegate’s badge.

‘Growing Cause For Concern’

Chen has also held executive positions with the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), including with the group’s Shanghai branch, according to the Chinese-language news outlet Sohu.com.

ACFIC describes itself as an organization “led by the Communist Party of China” that “contributes greatly to the Party’s united front and economy related work as well as the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

John Dotson, deputy director of Global Taiwan Institute, told the DCNF that ACFIC is subordinate to the United Front Work Department (UFWD), which is a CCP agency whose operations are a “blend of engagement, influence activities and intelligence operations,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

“In regards to the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, it’s definitely a subordinate agency of the UFWD — that’s not even a matter for analysis or interpretation,” Dotson told the DCNF. “In public Chinese sources, ACFIC is openly listed as a subordinate branch of the UFWD.”

ACFIC could not be reached for comment.

“The increase in PRC-affiliated U.S. land purchases in recent years is a growing cause for concern,” a House Select Committee on the CCP aide told the DCNF. “We can start with adding a presumption of denial for entities affiliated with the PRC when it comes to land acquisitions near national security sites such as military bases that the CCP could use for intelligence collection or worse.”

Chen and Shanda Group did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

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

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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.

Biden Admin Watered Down Vetting Process For Chinese Illegal Immigrants, Email Shows

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The Biden administration drastically simplified the vetting process for Chinese illegal immigrants in April 2023, according to an internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) email obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The April 2023 email, which was sent by a CBP supervisor to a “master list” of about 500 Border Patrol agents, instructs CBP officials to radically reduce the number of interview questions for Chinese migrants apprehended after illegally crossing into the country from roughly 40 to just five. The “headquarters guidance” came as border agents were overwhelmed with near-record numbers of illegal crossings.

This scaling back of the interview process fast-tracked the releasing of Chinese illegal immigrants into the U.S. while making it more difficult for CBP agents to identify national security threats, J.J. Carrell, a retired CBP deputy patrol agent in charge, told the DCNF after reviewing the email.

“This policy change has accelerated the time it takes to process Chinese illegal immigrants — this doesn’t make America safer,” Carrell said. “The final result is that dangerous Chinese illegal immigrants will still be released into the U.S.”

“This is just the government covering their ass, so they can say they vetted,” said Carrell. “I believe the government recognizes the threat of Chinese soldiers and spies that are pouring into America, and they want to try and identify these individuals. However, the same government does not want to stop the flow of illegal aliens or Chinese nationals — just the ‘bad ones,’ which is impossible.

While previously agents might spend hours vetting a single Chinese illegal immigrant, the new guidance simplifies the vetting process by reducing the number of questions that agents are required to ask, thereby speeding up the flow of Chinese illegal immigrants into the U.S., Carrell said.

The former law enforcement official who provided the email to the DCNF said human smuggling operations quickly adapted to these new guidelines, coaching Chinese illegal immigrants on how to answer CBP’s shorter list of questions.

“It was almost immediate where [the Chinese illegal immigrants] knew what to say and what not to say,” said the former official, who requested anonymity in fear of U.S. government retribution.

Carrell described smuggling operations as “highly coordinated.” He told the DCNF that illegal immigrants are “coached from the beginning of the journey.”

“The stories are identical,” Carrell said. “The streets and the names they use just differ because of the nations they’re from.”

The April 2023 CBP email also states that Chinese illegal immigrants who pass field agents’ five “basic questions” may be released into the U.S. interior.

“If they do not alert to the above, there is no requirement to further delay current processing pathway — NTA/OR,” the email states.

“NTA/OR” is an abbreviation for “Notice to Appear” / “Order of Recognizance,” according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In practice, this allows Chinese illegal immigrants entry into the U.S. with a court date several years down the road, the former official said. By November 2023, the backlog of U.S. immigration court cases topped three million, signifying an all-time high.

Since 2022, Border Patrol has encountered approximately 35,000 Chinese illegal immigrants at the border, according to CBP data. Between 2022 and 2023, Border Patrol encounters with Chinese illegal immigrants surged over 1,000%, according to government records.

After answering agents’ “basic questions,” Chinese illegal immigrants are “sent out wherever they go, whether that’s contracted through Catholic Charities or other nonprofits,” the former official said.

‘Basic Questions’

The new guidance directs agents to ask five “basic questions” concerning “Military Service,” “Universities,” “POB/Region,” “Employment” and “Political Party.” All the questions are aimed at determining whether or not a Chinese illegal immigrant poses a national security threat, the former official told the DCNF.

“They’re really trying to see their ties to either terrorism or the government itself,” the former official said.

Questions regarding “Military Service,” “Universities,” “Employment” and “Political Party” are meant to tease out potential ties to the Chinese government, Chinese Communist Party or Chinese military. The question on “POB/Region” relates to terrorism, the former official told the DCNF.

“If there is a Yes to any of the above, they are then referred and transported to [redacted] for an in-depth interview by Tactical Terrorism Response Team,” the April 2023 email states.

The Tactical Terrorism Response Team (TTRT) is “part of the sector intelligence unit,” which is responsible for conducting in-depth questioning for Chinese illegal immigrants with potential terror or Chinese government ties, the former official said.

“Think of TTRT as the vetting unit before an individual is determined to be a national security risk or a terrorist,” Carrell, the former CBP agent, told the DCNF. “If TTRT determines that the individual is a security risk, that individual is turned over to Joint Terrorism Task Force for further investigation and deportation.”

Despite these concerns, DHS’s Special Interest Alien (SIA) list does not include immigrants from China.

SIA are defined as a “non-U.S. person who, based on an analysis of travel patterns, potentially poses a national security risk to the United States or its interests,” according to DHS. “Often such individuals or groups are employing travel patterns known or evaluated to possibly have a nexus to terrorism. DHS analysis includes an examination of travel patterns, points of origin and/or travel segments that are tied to current assessments of national and international threat environments.”

‘Bogged Down’

The vetting system for Chinese illegal immigrants in place prior to the April 2023 email was overwhelmed by the recent surge in crossings at the southern border, the former law enforcement official told the DCNF.

Under the previous system, it took up to four hours to process Chinese illegal immigrants, the former official told the DCNF.

“At the very beginning, what was happening was either at the station level — if they couldn’t get them to the processing center if it was too bogged down — or at the sector level at the processing center, the agent would then have to go through a long list of questions and it was taking almost four hours per person,” the former official said.

Carrell said the CBP vetting process was far more stringent for Chinese illegal immigrants during the Trump administration.

“If I received a Chinese national, we’d input them into the DHS database, look through [the National Crime Information Center] for criminal history in America — and nine times out of 10 these people have never been in America — so they’ll come back clean,” Carrell told the DCNF. “I would then set that individual up for deportation and [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] would fly him or her back to China. Never in a million years would I then process that Chinese national and then just release them into America.”

“Now, that person would be interviewed, put into the database and then just simply street-released,” Carrell said.

The DCNF reviewed a copy of CBP’s longer questionnaire for Chinese illegal immigrants, which the former official also shared.

While field agents are no longer required to vet Chinese illegal immigrants using the longer questionnaire of approximately 40 questions, TTRT still uses that questionnaire to vet those who’ve failed the five “basic questions,” the former official said.

In addition to the five “basic questions,” CBP’s longer questionnaire further directs agents to ask Chinese illegal immigrants about “prior arrests,” the “handling of weapons/firearms,” “smuggling fees,” and various other matters.

DHS and CBP did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

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

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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 Drug Dealers Use Risqué Ads To Sell Narcotics, Fentanyl Ingredients On U.S. Social Media

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Accounts claiming to represent Chinese drug manufacturers are using provocative images of women to advertise narcotics and fentanyl precursors on U.S. social media, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of hundreds of English and Chinese-language social media posts.

The DCNF identified several dozen LinkedIn accounts claiming to be saleswomen representing China-based manufacturers primarily located near Beijing or Wuhan. The accounts often featured images of women and teenage girls in advertisements for a wide variety of controlled substances including 4-piperidone, which is used to manufacture fentanyl.

Many of the posts included suggestive language like “hot sale” to advertise the chemicals, as well as contact information on encrypted messaging apps and Chinese phone numbers. The companies these accounts claimed to represent included six of the Chinese chemical manufacturers indicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in June and October for crimes related to trafficking fentanyl precursors and other substances.

It’s not clear if the LinkedIn accounts identified by the DCNF have any official relationship with the Chinese drug manufacturers they claim to represent. Neither the accounts nor the Chinese manufacturers responded to the DCNF’s request for comment.

After the DCNF reached out to LinkedIn for comment, the social media platform immediately removed the accounts that had been flagged.

“Whenever we see posts, ads or accounts that don’t meet our policies, we remove them, as we did in this case,” a LinkedIn spokesperson told the DCNF by email.

‘Foreign Attack’

Approximately 50 times more potent than heroin, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, which is a drug class that was involved in almost 70 percent of the approximately 110,000 U.S. overdose deaths in 2022, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

China is the “primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail” as well as the “main source for all fentanyl-related substances” trafficked into the U.S., according to the DEA.

“Chinese drug traffickers are successfully taking advantage of deliberate American policy weakness on both fronts [physical and virtual] with regard to fentanyl precursors and the products they become in the U.S.,” Steve Yates, America First Policy Institute senior fellow and China Policy Initiative chair, told the DCNF. “It is the single most significant foreign attack on the American family in history, with my family standing among the hundreds of thousands of other families who have suffered unspeakable injury and loss as a direct result.”

“I lost my daughter in October after she ingested a fentanyl-laced street version of Xanax,” Yates told the DCNF.

Many of the LinkedIn advertisements featured numeric identifiers for the chemicals on offer, known as Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) registration numbers. For instance, the National Institutes of Health identifies “23076-35-9” as the CAS number for xylazine hydrochloride, whose active ingredient, xylazine, is illicitly used to cut fentanyl, according to the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Xylazine also happened to be among the most frequently advertised products by the LinkedIn accounts reviewed by the DCNF.

In one such instance, a LinkedIn account for a saleswoman claiming to represent Hebei Ningnan Trade Co., Ltd. advertised 1019.5 grams of xylazine hydrochloride in an April 2023 post featuring an image of a bag of white powder on a scale.

“New date with strong effect,” the caption read.

In April 2023, the Biden administration designated fentanyl combined with xylazine as an emerging threat to the U.S. “because xylazine combined with fentanyl is being sold illicitly and is associated with significant and rapidly worsening negative health consequences, including fatal overdoses and severe morbidity.”

“Xylazine and fentanyl drug mixtures place users at a higher risk of suffering a fatal drug poisoning,” according to a 2022 DEA report. “Because xylazine is not an opioid, naloxone (Narcan) does not reverse its effects.”

“People who inject drug mixtures containing xylazine also can develop severe wounds, including necrosis — the rotting of human tissue — that may lead to amputation,” the DEA report stated.

The LinkedIn accounts reviewed by the DCNF also advertised a range of controlled substances, including those from the Schedule I category — such as the synthetic opioid, protonitazene, and the synthetic cathinone, eutylone. Schedule I substances have a “high potential for abuse” and “no currently accepted medical use in treatment,” according to the DEA.

In March 2023, a LinkedIn account for a saleswoman claiming to represent Henan Ruijiu Biotechnology Co., Ltd. advertised “eutylone” in a post featuring substances of several colors.

In 2020, eutylone was involved in at least 343 overdose deaths in the U.S., many of which co-involved “illicitly manufactured fentanyls,” cocaine or methamphetamines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In addition to Schedule I substances, the LinkedIn accounts that the DCNF reviewed also advertised various chemicals used to manufacture controlled substances, like PMK.

In April 2023, a LinkedIn account for a saleswoman claiming to represent Wuhan Xiju Biotechnology Co., Ltd. posted a video advertisement for a brown liquid that the clip identified as “PMK oil,” which is “important to the manufacture of the Schedule I controlled substance 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and other ‘ecstasy’-type substances,” according to the Federal Register.

An image of a teenage girl sticking out her tongue and the company logo of Wuhan Xiju Biotechnology were superimposed over the video advertisement, which was set to electronic dance music.

The DCNF also identified accounts purportedly representing several of the Chinese chemical manufacturers on various other U.S. social media platforms.

For example, Facebook accounts purportedly representing Wuhan Mulei New Material Technology Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Kairunte New Material Co., Ltd. advertised xylazine and other substances.

Likewise, a YouTube account purportedly representing Hubei Amarvel Biotech Co., Ltd. advertised controlled substances like PMK. One ad stated that the company offered “customized packages” for its products including dog food bags, tubs of nuts and other “creative designs.”

A Meta spokesperson told the DCNF by email that the social media platform had reviewed the accounts that the DCNF had flagged and “removed them for violating our policies.”

A YouTube spokesperson also told the DCNF by email that they’d “terminated” the accounts the DCNF had flagged, citing various platform policy violations including “marketing the sale of regulated pharmaceuticals without a prescription.”

“Channels that repeatedly violate our policies are subject to termination, which is what happened in this case,” the YouTube spokesperson said.

‘A Weapon Of Mass Destruction’

In November 2023, President Joe Biden met with General Secretary Xi Jinping in San Francisco, during which the White House announced “the resumption of bilateral cooperation on counternarcotics, with a focus on reducing the flow of precursor chemicals fueling illicit fentanyl and synthetic drug trafficking.”

“The PRC is now taking law enforcement action against illicit precursor suppliers, has issued a notice to industry warning Chinese companies against illicit trade in precursor chemicals and pill presses equipment and has committed to restart key law enforcement cooperation,” the White House stated at the time.

Fentanyl and its precursors that originate in China follow a number of routes to enter the U.S., according to a 2020 DEA report.

The substances are sometimes shipped from China-based manufacturers through mail services to Canada or Mexico, whereupon they’re processed and frequently mixed with heroin, before entering the U.S. drug market, the 2020 DEA report states. Other times, Chinese fentanyl and its precursors are simply sent by mail directly to the U.S.

Mexican drug cartels also take advantage of lax U.S. border security by using migrant volunteers “to smuggle drugs to reduce their debt from the tax required to move through their territory,” according to a 2023 America First Policy Institute research report.

Many clandestine laboratories in the U.S. are closely tied to Mexican drug cartels, Ammon Blair, Texas Public Policy Foundation senior fellow and former Border Patrol agent, told the DCNF.

“There are some organizations in the U.S. that are capable of synthesizing fentanyl and opioids independently of the Mexican cartels, but they may be limited by regional market conditions and law enforcement efforts,” Blair said. “However, the exact number and size of such organizations are not clear.”

In 2022, law enforcement “reportedly found chemicals or other items, indicating the presence of either clandestine drug laboratories or dumpsites” at over 130 locations in the U.S., according to a national clandestine laboratory registry maintained by the DEA.

Yates told the DCNF that the U.S. government must secure our “physical and cyber borders,” disrupt the illicit chemical supply chains and launch “comprehensive political and economic warfare against all responsible governments and entities.”

“We have done no less against the threat of terrorism,” Yates said. “This is a weapon of mass destruction detonated on American families.”

DOJ and DEA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

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

RELATED ARTICLE: Biden To Lift Sanctions On Chinese Human Rights Abuser In Exchange For Xi’s Latest Promise To Combat Fentanyl: REPORT

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.

Chinese Parent Of U.S. Battery Maker Has Business Ties With Blacklisted CCP Paramilitary Group

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Gotion High-Tech, the Chinese parent company of Gotion Inc., which intends to build electric battery plants in Michigan and Illinois, operates a joint venture in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that contracts with a U.S.-sanctioned entity, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Chinese-language news reports and business filings.

In May 2017, Gotion High-Tech Co. Ltd. established a joint venture with Shanghai Electric Co. Ltd. called “Shanghai Electric Gotion New Energy Technology Co. Ltd.,” according to Chinese news website Sohu.com.

“On the evening of May 12, Gotion High-Tech Co., Ltd. announced that it would jointly invest funds with Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ‘Shanghai Electric’) to establish Shanghai Electric Gotion New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.,” Sohu.com reported.

In July 2023, Shanghai Electric Gotion New Energy Technology’s social media account reported that the firm has been operating a battery energy storage system for a Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) power station located in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

“In days past, Shanghai Electric Gotion won the bid for the 60-megawatt / 180-megawatt per hour battery energy storage system for XPCC 1st Division 10th Regiment and State Power Investment Corporation’s 400-megawatt photovoltaic power generation project,” Shanghai Electric Gotion’s social media account stated.

XPCC signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement in 2020 with the state-run State Power Investment Corporation to “jointly promote the development of new energy projects, develop smart energy ecosystem and electricity support industries, cultivate talent, jointly build expertise and cooperate extensively in various other fields,” according to Sohu.com.

“The 400-megawatt photovoltaic power station of XPCC 1st Division’s 10th Regiment and State Power Investment Corporation is complemented by the 60 megawatt / 180-megawatt per hour battery energy storage system project located in XPCC 1st Division’s city of Aral, Xinjiang,” Shanghai Electric Gotion’s social media post continued. “This project’s energy storage system uses Shanghai Electric Gotion’s most advanced, standardized, modular, large battery core, liquid-cooling collection box, which by means of excellent system integration programs, will ensure the smooth connection of the project to the grid.”

In July 2020, the Treasury Department sanctioned XPCC for its human rights abuses, according to a press release.

“The XPCC is a paramilitary organization in the XUAR that is subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” the Treasury Department’s 2020 press release stated.

“The entity and officials are being designated for their connection to serious human rights abuse against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, which reportedly include mass arbitrary detention and severe physical abuse, among other serious abuses targeting Uyghurs, a Turkic Muslim population indigenous to Xinjiang, and other ethnic minorities in the region,” said the Treasury Department. As a result of the sanctions, federal regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within the U.S. that involve any property or interests in property of XPCC.

In June 2021, the Commerce Department added XPCC to the “Entity List” for “accepting or utilizing forced labor in the implementation of the People’s Republic of China’s campaign of repression against Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).”

In January 2021, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo determined that the PRC is committing genocide against Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.

“After careful examination of the available facts, I have determined that since at least March 2017, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), under the direction and control of the CCP, has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” Pompeo said in a 2021 press statement.

In 2022, the State Department’s Country Report on Human Rights detailed the extent of the PRC’s ongoing genocide and other crimes against humanity.

“Genocide and crimes against humanity occurred during the year against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” the State Department’s 2022 report reads. “These crimes were continuing and included: the arbitrary imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty of more than one million civilians; forced sterilization, coerced abortions and more restrictive application of the country’s birth control policies; rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence; torture of a large number of those arbitrarily detained; and persecution including forced labor and draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression and freedom of movement.”

In August, Fox News reported that Gotion Inc. — which is “wholly owned and controlled” by Gotion High-Tech, according to a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing — had received a greenlight from Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Biden administration to “invest $2.4 billion to construct two 550,000-square-foot production plants” for electric vehicle (EV) batteries in Big Rapids, Michigan.

On Sept. 8, an Illinois government press release announced that Gotion Inc. also intended to build a “state-of-the-art $2 billion” EV battery plant in Manteno, Illinois, “bolstered” by state incentives.

The DCNF recently reported that Gotion High-Tech employs 923 CCP members. Additionally, the DCNF found that Gotion High-Tech launched a joint venture company with a “Communist Chinese Military Company Subsidiary” in 2016.

In August, Politico reported that Chuck Thelen, the vice president of North American manufacturing at Gotion Inc., claimed that “the Chinese Communist Party has no presence in the North American company.”

“The rumors that you’ve heard about us bringing communism to North America are just flat-out fear-mongering and really have nothing based in reality,” Thelen said, according to Politico’s report.

On May 12, 2017, Gotion High-Tech’s CEO Li Zhen — whom the DCNF recently reported serves as the party secretary for the firm’s CCP committee — met in Shanghai with Shanghai Electric’s then-CEO and party secretary, Zheng Jianhua, for Shanghai Electric Gotion New Energy Technology’s signing ceremony, according to Sohu.com.

During the meeting, Li and Zheng signed an agreement stating that the joint venture’s main products would be “special vehicle batteries, smart energy storage products, including home energy storage, distributed micro-grid energy storage and power grid-grade energy storage,” Sohu.com reported.

A 2022 Gotion High-Tech business filing states the firm holds 45.4% of Shanghai Electric Gotion’s shares while Shanghai Electric holds 47.4%. Two other firms — Shanghai Xuneng New Energy Science And Technology and Shanghai Haohao New Energy Science And Technology — both hold another 3.6% of Shanghai Electric Gotion’s shares apiece.

While Shanghai Electric Gotion’s battery energy storage system in Xinjiang may be the first instance of Gotion High-Tech cooperating with XPCC, Shanghai Electric has been working on various projects with XPCC since at least 2012, according to a report on the website of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of China’s State Council.

“Shanghai Electric and XPCC’s 8th Agricultural Division signed a general contract for phase one of the Tianfu Power Plant 2×660-megawatt project,” the Chinese government’s report 2012 states.

Several years later, Shanghai Electric’s chairman, Zheng Jianhua, traveled to Xinjiang in 2018 to meet with the autonomous region’s party secretary, Zhang Chunlin, to discuss how Shanghai Electric could help XPCC develop energy storage products for Xinjiang, according to Shanghai Electric’s periodical.

“Zheng Jianhua said that Shanghai Electric would marshal the might of the entire corporation to develop Xinjiang’s energy storage products,” Shanghai Electric’s periodical reported.

More recently, a delegation from Shanghai Electric met with the commander of XPCC’s 13th Division on August 10, 2023, according to XPCC 13th Division’s social media account. During the meeting, Shanghai Electric’s senior development manager announced his firm’s plans to invest in and cooperate with XPCC 13th Division as well as Shanghai Electric’s intention to enter into discussions with enterprises related to XPCC, according to XPCC 13th Division’s social media account.

Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told the DCNF that “the CCP does not share American values and virtues — including freedom of speech, the rule of law and basic human rights.”

“Yet, the Biden Administration continues to use government mandates and green light EV tax credits to benefit CCP-linked companies, like Gotion and CATL,” McMorris Rodgers said. “We cannot continue to hand China the keys to our auto future, which threatens American jobs and our national security.”

Gotion High-Tech, Gotion Inc., Shanghai Electric and Shanghai Electric Gotion New Energy Technology did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Investigative reporter.

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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.

Nonprofit Head Bragged About Hosting Chinese Police Station Right In Front Of NYC Mayor Eric Adams

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The chairman of a New York City nonprofit bragged about housing an allegedly illegal Chinese police station in front of Mayor Eric Adams during a 2022 gala, video footage shows.

At the America ChangLe Association’s 24th anniversary banquet, its chairman, Lu Jianshun, took the stage and said the organization had established a “Fuzhou Police Department” within its headquarters, footage from the Sept. 26, 2022 event shows. The video also shows Adams was sitting in the front row.

“In 2020, we collaborated with the Changle District Court to establish a so-called Changle Overseas Chinese Dispute Litigation Center for Foreign Affairs and to help our fellow Changlenese to fight for judicial rights and interests,” Lu Jianshun said during his 2022 banquet speech, which was translated into English as he spoke, footage shows.

“At the very beginning of the year of 2022, in order to better implement the motherland government’s policy of benefitting the Overseas Chinese, our councilor of our association — which part of the — our councilor of our association, Mr. Lu Jianwang was invited to participate in the opening of ‘The World End Of The World,’ which is Overseas 110 network platform founded by the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau, and was also entrusted to set up the Fuzhou Police Department in the Changle Association of America,” Lu Jianshun said.

The United States District Court in the Eastern District of New York unsealed a complaint in April 2023 charging two members of America Changle Association — one of whom was Lu Jianshun’s brother, Lu Jianwang — with conspiring to act as agents of the People’s Republic of China and crimes related to opening and operating an illegal overseas police station.

The Eastern District of New York’s unsealed complaint states that “Lu Jianwang and others” operated an “unofficial police station” on behalf of the Fuzhou branch of China’s “primary domestic law enforcement agency,” the Ministry of Public Security. By January 2022, the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau had opened 30 such international police stations, dubbed “110 overseas stations,” according to the complaint.

The Ministry of Public Security ordered Lu Jianwang to “identify the locations of Chinese persons of interests in the United States,” including a dissident living in California, the complaint alleges.

The New York Post has reported that sources close to the mayor claim Adams was unaware of America Changle Association’s police station at the time of the nonprofit’s banquet. However, video footage shows Lu Jianshun discussing the police station and its operations during the gala, with Adams sitting front and center.

“We started a new division in our association, which is helping everybody to collect their driver’s license, to register and to get their ID card from their hometown,” Lu Jianshun said during the 2022 gala.

Later in the evening, Adams was welcomed on stage and delivered a speech praising America Changle Association, footage from the event shows. Adams was joined on stage by Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping, both of whom would later face federal charges, according to photos posted in an article by overseas.fjsen.com.

“This is such an important organization to empower our Chinese American community, particularly those from the Changle district in Fujian province,” Adams said during his speech at the 2022 banquet, footage from the event shows. “As a city, this is an important businessmen and women, you are the foundation of this community in general, but throughout this entire city.”

“Your organization has been instrumental in our efforts to provide life-sustaining support to our newest New Yorkers and their descendants,” Adams continued. “And, so, I celebrate you on this 24th anniversary for the cultural contributions and how you continue to make this city a great place to raise children and families.”

Adams also acknowledged the presence of several other New York Democratic politicians, footage from the event shows.

“I’m especially happy to share the table with our amazing councilwoman, Sandra Ung, and our great senator in the state of New York, Senator John Liu, who have strong voices speaking on behalf of your community,” Adams said.

After his speech, Adams presented Lu Jianshun with a “Certificate of Recognition,” according to event footage.

In addition to Adams, several of the other New York Democratic politicians or their representatives also took the stage during the banquet, footage shows. This included New York City Council member Sandra Ung, New York State Sen. John Liu and U.S. Rep. Grace Meng’s “community liaison,” Sydney Li, all of whom delivered speeches in Mandarin.

Winnie Greco, special assistant to Adams, also delivered a speech in Mandarin, footage from the event shows.

During her speech, Greco welcomed several staff members of Adams’ office as well as two New York Police Department officers to the stage, telling the audience to reach out to the mayor’s office for help with operating a small business or immigration matters, according to event footage.

In April 2023, the DCNF reported that Adams and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer attended an apparent 2022 fundraiser for Meng with Lu Jianwang at Crown One Restaurant in New York City.

Meng has attended multiple events alongside Lu Jianwang, including the September 2016 opening of America Changle Association’s Manhattan headquarters, the DCNF reported. During the event, Meng stood beside Lu Jianwang during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, photos from the event showed.

Adams, Greco, Meng, Li, Liu and Ung did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

America Changle Association, Chen and the Lu brothers could not be reached for comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

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

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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.

Chinese Parent Behind Company Building Michigan Battery Plants Employs 923 CCP Members

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The Chinese parent company of Gotion Inc., which intends to build two electric battery plants in Michigan, employs 923 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members, including its CEO, according to its 2022 ESG report.

The Fremont, California-based Gotion Inc. — which is “wholly owned and controlled” by Gotion High-Tech Power Energy Co., according to a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing — seeks to “invest $2.4 billion to construct two 550,000-square-foot production plants” for electric vehicle (EV) batteries in Big Rapids, Michigan, Fox News reported.

Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer supports Gotion’s plan, and the Biden administration approved the project in June. However, some Republicans have raised red flags over Gotion’s CCP ties through its parent company Gotion High-Tech.

While Gotion Inc.’s representatives deny CCP influence, Chinese-language documents show its Hefei-based parent company is led by a CCP member and employs hundreds more of them.

“Gotion High-Tech founded a CCP branch in 2010 that was upgraded to a CCP committee in 2014,” reads Gotion High-Tech’s 2022 ESG Report. “The CCP committee’s subunits are two CCP general branches and 11 party branches, currently with 923 CCP members, among which over 50% hold master’s degrees or higher.”

Gotion High-Tech’s CEO, Li Zhen, is also identified as the party secretary for the firm’s CCP committee within a section of the 2022 ESG report highlighting the company’s 2022 “party building work situation.”

“The company’s party secretary for its CCP committee, chairman of the board of directors, Li Zhen, led a portion of CCP member representatives, company leader groups and every level of core personnel on a road trip to Anhui province’s Jinzhai Revolutionary Martyr’s Memorial Tower, to tour the Red Army Memorial Hall and Jinzhai Revolutionary Museum,” the firm’s ESG report states.

View Hefei Gotion2022 ESG Report

Questions about Gotion’s CCP-ties arose after The Midwesterner reported that Gotion High-Tech’s “Articles of Association” state that: “The Company shall set up a Party organization and carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China. The Company shall ensure necessary conditions for carrying out Party activities. The secretary of the Party committee shall be the chairman.”

In August 2023, Politico reported that Gotion’s North American manufacturing vice president Chuck Thelen criticized those who cited this language in the China-based parent company’s Articles of Association.

Thelen, Politico reported, has insisted that there is no such language in the U.S.-based company’s articles of incorporation. Thelen said the Chinese Communist Party has no presence in the North American company.

“‘The rumors that you’ve heard about us bringing communism to North America are just flat-out fear-mongering and really have nothing based in reality,’” Politico quoted Thelen as saying.

Likewise, an unnamed spokesperson for Gotion told Fox News: “Gotion Inc. makes it very clear in the [Foreign Agents Registration Act] filing that it is not supervised, directed, controlled or financed by any foreign government or foreign political party. … It’s unequivocally spelled out in the FARA document.”

However, lawmakers remain concerned, given that Gotion’s proposed Michigan battery plant will “be located within 60 miles of military armories and 100 miles from Camp Grayling, the country’s largest U.S. National Guard training facility,” Fox News reported.

Camp Grayling occupies 148,000 acres and hosts live-fire combat training exercises, according to its website.

Gotion did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Li Zhen could not be reached for comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

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

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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 Intel-Linked ‘Service Centers’ In U.S. Cities Used Cultural Events To Push Communist Party Propaganda

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Overseas “service centers” set up in seven U.S. cities by a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence arm have hosted cultural events featuring pro-CCP propaganda and performers tied to China’s government and military, according to Chinese government records and state-run media reports reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD) runs “Overseas Chinese Service Center” (OCSC) branches that operate out of U.S.-based nonprofits in seven U.S. cities, a recent DCNF investigation found. OCSCs were ostensibly set up to assist with official government duties, like reviewing passport applications, but they also host cultural events that often feature pro-CCP songs and performers tied to China’s military and propaganda departments, according to Chinese government records and state-run media reports.

Members of the U.S. Congress have attended these propaganda-filled cultural events, according to Chinese state-media reports and photos.

“These activities offer a perfect platform for the CCP to invite elected officials, whom they can then influence into endorsing the CCP’s narrative, and, in turn, influence broad masses of people,” Scott McGregor, a former Canadian military intelligence officer, told the DCNF.

The DCNF previously identified OCSC branches operating in San Francisco, California; St. Paul, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri; Omaha, Nebraska; Charlotte, North Carolina; Houston, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah. The DCNF also reported that, during a 2018 trip to China, OCSC representatives met with officials from the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), which is China’s national police authority.

Republican Senators have asked the FBI and Justice Department to investigate the OCSCs. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey recently opened an investigation into the St. Louis OCSC, which he called a “possible CCP outpost.”

‘China Is Back’ 

Between 2014 and 2017, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office established 60 OCSCs around the world, including seven branches in U.S. cities, the DCNF previously reported.

The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office was under control of the CCP’s State Council until 2018 when it became part of UFWD, according to Chinese government documents and reports from China experts. The U.S.-China Economic Security and Review Commission, a federal entity, characterizes the UFWD as the CCP organ “responsible for coordinating [foreign and domestic] influence operations” as well as a “Chinese intelligence service.”

“United Front work is Beijing’s effort to enlist the Chinese diaspora and sympathetic residents of other countries to create sympathy for, and support of, the CCP’s goals,” Dr. June Tuefel Dreyer, former commissioner of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, told the DCNF.

OCSC branches perform a variety of duties in support of China’s foreign ministry, ranging from processing Chinese passport and travel permit applications to so-called “consular protection” activities, the DCNF previously reported. However, OCSCs also regularly host Chinese cultural events, many of which have featured pro-CCP propaganda, according to a DCNF review of dozens of events.

OCSC-hosted cultural events — which include Lunar New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival and other Chinese national celebrations — often present traditional Chinese music and dance alongside pro-CCP propaganda songs.

For instance, the Salt Lake City OCSC held a 2022 Mid-Autumn Festival livestream event featuring lion dancers and traditional instrumental songs, according to its website. Performers at the event also sang and danced to “My People, My Country,” one of 100 songs selected by the CCP Propaganda Department to commemorate communist China’s 70th anniversary, according to the state-run People’s Daily.

In a 2020 speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping called the song part of a “surging current that sings an ode to New China and inspires us to work harder in the new era, filling us with boundless energy.”

In 2018, the Salt Lake City OCSC hosted a Lunar New Year event that included ethnic dance routines, martial artists and performers singing patriotic tunes, like “Love My China,” which was also on the Propaganda Department’s list.

The OCSC in St. Paul, Minnesota helped organize a 2019 event celebrating the founding of communist China and the establishing of U.S.-China diplomatic relations, according to a report from the nonprofit Alliance of Minnesota Chinese Organizations (AMCO). The All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese is also listed as a co-organizer for the event. The All-China Federation is part of the CCP’s united front, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

In addition to performances featuring acrobats and traditional Chinese instruments, a performer at the St. Paul event also sang “Ode To The Motherland,” another CCP Propaganda Department-approved song, according to People’s Daily. The state-run China News Service has called the song communist China’s second national anthem.

The song’s author boasted to Chinese state-controlled media that his lyrics depict “the power of justice, a blood vow to resist the shame of national subjugation roared in the middle of battle.”

Although they did not appear to attend the event, AMCO reports that Minnesota Democratic politicians Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Dean Phillips and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey all wrote letters praising the celebration.

Klobuchar, Phillips and Frey did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Service centers have also hosted events that included performances from art troupes affiliated with Chinese government propaganda departments, according to multiple Chinese state-run media reports.

In 2018, the Omaha OCSC sponsored a Lunar New Year celebration that featured Chinese opera performers from the state-owned Jiangsu Provincial Theatrical Troupe, according to Qiaowang, which is the news and propaganda arm of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.

The Jiangsu theatrical troupe operates under the direction of the Jiangsu Propaganda Department, according to Chinese government documents.

The St. Paul OCSC and the Chongqing Propaganda Department have co-sponsored multiple events at the Mall of America in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, including events in 2019 and 2022, according to AMCO and Sohu.com. The 2022 event featured a performance from a dragon dance troupe managed by the Chongqing Propaganda Department, according to Sohu.com.

These performances came after the CCP Propaganda Department minister from Chongqing traveled to Minnesota in 2018 to sign a “mutual cooperation” agreement with the Mall of America and the St. Paul OCSC, according to the nonprofit AMCO. The details of the agreement are unknown.

In 2019, a vice president for Triple Five Group, which owns and operates the Mall of America, wrote a letter — which was posted on AMCO’s website — thanking the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, the head of the Chinese consulate in Chicago and several Chinese provincial government entities for their “firm support” of the mall’s Chinese New Year performances that year.

Neither the Mall of America nor the Triple Five Group responded to multiple requests for comment.

A Chinese Military Saxophonist Jams Out To U.S. Pop Songs

OCSC branches have also co-hosted performances with a related Overseas Chinese Affairs Office program called the Star Art Troupe.

Launched in 2014, the Star Art Troupe theatrical program is the “cultural flagship” of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office and aims to “meet the cultural needs of overseas Chinese” while providing a “window for foreigners to understand China,” according to the office’s website.

Chinese government and state-run media reports detail how, between 2014 and 2017, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office established seven Star Art Troupes in Boston, Chicago, Houston, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and St. Paul.

U.S. OCSC have co-hosted events with Star Art Troupes, according to multiple Chinese state-run media reports. Some of these events featured performers from the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Academy of Art. The PLA is the Chinese military.

In October 2019, for instance, St. Paul’s OCSC and the local Star Art Troupe co-hosted an event commemorating the founding of communist China, according to AMCO. The event included a singer and musician from the PLA’s Academy of Art, according to Sohu.com.

Similarly, Houston’s Star Art Troupe also included a dancer who attended the PLA’s Academy of Art, according to the Oriental Arts Education Center (OAEC), though it’s unclear if the dancer remains at the center. OAEC, which hosts the art troupe, has co-hosted events Houston’s Chinese Civic Center, which houses the Houston OCSC.

In September 2015, Houston’s Chinese Civic Center sold tickets for a public event in Stafford, Texas, celebrating communist China’s founding that was co-hosted by Houston’s Star Art Troupe, according to the local Chinese Student Association. During the event, the lead saxophonist for the PLA’s Central Military Band played the pop hit “My Heart Will Go On,” the association reported.

That same month, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office invited the head of Houston’s Star Art Troupe to come to China to attend a military parade at Tiananmen Square commemorating the defeat of Imperial Japan, according to OAEC.

While in Beijing, the head of Houston’s Star Art Troupe met with the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office’s chief propagandist to discuss “how the modern mission of overseas cultural disseminators is to use cultural confidence to demonstrate Chinese people’s profound heritage and love of peace in order to defend the peaceful image of China,” according to OAEC.

OAEC did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“Americans should be very wary of cultural events hosted by organizations affiliated with the UFWD — and especially the MPS — because they are used to covertly hide the CCP’s true intent,” Ina Mitchell, Canadian investigative reporter and co-author of “The Mosaic Effect,” told the DCNF.

The DCNF reached out to all seven nonprofits housing OCSCs by email and phone. Only two of the nonprofits responded.

The Nebraska Chinese Association, which houses the Omaha OCSC, claimed its cultural events “strive to cultivate understandings between Chinese and American culture” and denied any relationship with the Chinese government.

A man who identified himself as a “founding member” of the Charlotte “Chinese service center” told the DCNF by phone that his organization was “not related to any government agency.” He directed the DCNF to review the group’s website.

‘Feel Good Sentiments’

Several members of Congress have attended OCSC-sponsored cultural events, according to multiple Chinese state-run media reports.

In January 2023, St. Paul’s OCSC co-hosted another Lunar New Year event at the Mall of America. During the event, Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith delivered a speech praising her state for welcoming immigrants, the CCP-controlled Qiaowang and CBS News reported.

Smith’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Sen. Klobuchar also gave a video speech thanking an OCSC representative for promoting “the cultural heritage of Chinese Americans,” according to AMCO’s YouTube channel.

Performers at the January 2023 event sang the CCP Propaganda Department-approved song “Why Are The Flowers So Red?” The song’s lyrics celebrate “the heroic frontier guards in Northwest China’s Xinjiang,” according to the PLA’s English website.

The song’s lyrics include the line: “Why are the flowers so red? They’re watered with the blood of youth.”

Rep. Phillips has also attended St. Paul OCSC co-sponsored by the Chongqing Propaganda Department, according to multiple reports.

In September 2022, Phillips attended the St. Paul OCSC’s Mid-Autumn Festival event at the Mall of America, according to iChongqing, a Chinese state-run media outlet. During the event, Phillips, the head of China’s Chicago consulate and St. Paul OCSC members painted eyes on a large dragon puppet, which was then used in a performance by a dragon dance troupe managed by the Chongqing Propaganda Department, photos from a state-run media outlet show.

“Cultural events create feel good sentiments — ‘how could a civilization that produced such fantastic dance, musical performances, acrobats, cuisine possibly have militant intentions?’” Dr. Dreyer told the DCNF.

Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon has also attended events hosted by the Omaha OCSC, including a 2018 Lunar New Year event that featured the state-controlled Jiangsu Provincial Theatrical Troupe, according to Qiaowang.

Bacon’s spokesperson told the DCNF that individuals from the Nebraska Chinese Association “cherish their Chinese heritage” and “have a deep disdain for the Communist government and have expressed love and patriotism for the United States.” Bacon’s spokesperson added that local law enforcement had never “highlighted any concerns to us in the past” about the organization.

However, after the DCNF reported on the Omaha OCSC’s connection to the CCP’s United Front, Bacon said he contacted the FBI about the service center.

“Allegations that the Chinese Communist Government is operating an illegal organization to monitor and intimidate Chinese students and visitors in Omaha are obviously very alarming and we want answers from the FBI,” Bacon said.

In 2022, the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned that CCP influence operations in the U.S. have now placed state and local officials “on the “front lines of national security.” While these operations may vary in their execution, ultimately, they all aim to coopt American lawmakers as Beijing’s proxies, whether wittingly or unwittingly, DNI cautioned.

“These associations have been bridges that Americans naively saw as just cultural and mutually beneficial,” Steve Yates, former deputy national security adviser to former vice president Dick Cheney, told the DCNF. “The CCP has always used every organization as a vehicle to monitor, and, in many cases, control their ethnic affiliates and through them the influencers in the communities in which their ethnic compatriots reside.”

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Investigative reporter.

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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.

Chinese Intel Arm Quietly Operates ‘Service Centers’ In 7 US Cities

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A Chinese intelligence agency quietly operates “service centers” in seven American cities, all of which have had contact with Beijing’s national police authority, according to state media reports and government records reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work Department (UFWD) — which at least one U.S. government commission has characterized as a “Chinese intelligence service” — operates so-called “Overseas Chinese Service Centers” (OCSCs) that are housed within various U.S.-based nonprofits. OCSCs were ostensibly set up to promote Chinese culture and assist Chinese citizens living abroad, according to Chinese government records.

State media reports, Chinese government records and social media posts show that during a 2018 trip to China, U.S.-based OCSC representatives met with Ministry of Public Security (MPS) officials. During the meeting, state security officials demonstrated how they’re leveraging new technology to conduct “cross-border remote justice services” overseas.

MPS is China’s national police authority and has been referred to as “China’s FBI” by China experts. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says MPS also conducts covert “intelligence and national security operations far beyond China’s borders,” including “illicit, transnational repression schemes” on U.S. soil.

In April 2023, the DOJ charged two men for allegedly opening a secret police station in New York on behalf of MPS in order to “monitor and intimidate dissidents” and others critical of China.

There’s no evidence U.S.-based service centers operate as, or house, secret police stations, and the DOJ has yet to mention these entities in any statements or legal filings. Nonetheless, OCSCs’ association with China’s United Front system and contact with MPS raised red flags for legal and intelligence experts.

“The national security threat is real,” Will Mackie, a career federal prosecutor and former trial attorney for the counterintelligence section of the DOJ’s National Security Division, told the DCNF.

“Simply put, we should know which foreign government agents — including ‘unofficial’ actors — are operating in our country for whatever reason,” Mackie said, adding that American nonprofits performing Chinese governmental duties is “inconsistent” with diplomatic protocol, if not “illegal.”

After an extensive review of Chinese government and state-run media reports, the DCNF identified OCSC branches in San Francisco, California; Houston, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; St. Paul, Minnesota; Salt Lake City, Utah; St. Louis, Missouri and Charlotte, North Carolina.

GOP lawmakers expressed serious concern over OCSCs operating within the U.S.

“These centers aren’t there to help people get a business license or help resolve a domestic dispute,” Utah Republican Rep. Chris Stewart, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told the DCNF. “They’re here to pressure, to use coercion and to use malicious influence.”

Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn told the DCNF it was a “direct violation of our nation’s sovereignty” for the CCP to “set up shop on our soil to threaten, surveil and kidnap Chinese American citizens with a dissenting opinion.”

‘Eight Great Plans’

The “service centers” are at the heart of a larger CCP global influence strategy known as “The Eight Great Plans For Benefiting Overseas Chinese,” which was first announced during a 2014 speech by Qiu Yuanping, then the director of the Chinese government’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.

According to Chinese government documents and reports from China experts, the UFWD took control of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office in 2018. The U.S.-China Economic Security and Review Commission describes the UFWD as the CCP organ “responsible for coordinating [foreign and domestic] influence operations” as well as a “Chinese intelligence service.”

UFWD’s “overseas Chinese work” aims to “co-opt ethnic Chinese individuals and communities living outside China, while a number of other key affiliated organizations guided by China’s broader United Front strategy conduct influence operations targeting foreign actors and states,” according to the commission.

The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office Director Chen Xu also serves as the UFWD’s deputy director, according to the Chinese government. Qiaowang reported Chen Xu spoke at a conference held in Beijing in May that included OCSC officials from around the world. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office and the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, a key united front group, according to China experts.

“In the next five years, relying on overseas Chinese organizations that have the public’s trust, we will guide and support the construction of Overseas Chinese Service Centers in cities where overseas Chinese are concentrated and where there’s an urgent need for constructing harmonious overseas Chinese communities,” Qiu Yuanping said in her 2014 speech.

Shortly thereafter, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office provided the initial funding to establish OCSC branches around the world and tasked them with a variety of seemingly mundane duties in support of China’s foreign ministry, according to Chinese state-run media and government reports. Duties range from processing Chinese passport and travel permit applications to so-called “consular protection” activities that include emergency, medical and disaster response work, according to reports.

Despite this directive, a Chinese Embassy spokesperson told the DCNF that the centers are simply formed by “warm-hearted” volunteers and have no “affiliation with any Chinese government agency.”

Since 2014, OCSCs have expanded to at least 60 locations worldwide, according to multiple reports from Qiaowang, a Chinese news service that acts as a propaganda arm for the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.

Qiaowang reports also reveal the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office’s efforts to establish service centers in at least seven U.S. cities.

In September 2014, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office held the first of four annual awards ceremonies in Beijing for OCSC branches, according to Qiaowang. During the ceremony, the Chinese American Association of Commerce in San Francisco, California was announced as the first U.S. OCSC branch, Qiaowang reported.

The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office announced in 2015 the Chinese Civic Center in Houston, Texas, would also house an OCSC, a Chinese state-run media outlet reported. Qiu Yuanping personally attended the grand opening of the Houston OCSC in February 2016, according to the Chinese government.

In September 2016, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office unveiled more OCSC locations, including one in Omaha, Nebraska, Qiaowang reported. The Omaha OCSC is housed within the Nebraska Chinese Association, according to Qiaowang.

The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office also announced the Chinese American Association of Minnesota in St. Paul would house an OCSC branch in 2016. The group’s co-director received a commemorative plaque in October 2016, according to Qiaowang.

In September 2017, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office announced the final batch of service centers, including one in Salt Lake City, Utah, according to Qiaowang. The Salt Lake City OCSC is located within the Utah Chinese Civic Center, according to the group’s website. The Utah Chinese Civic Center’s website also states that it hosts an OCSC that’s “licensed” by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.

The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office also established an OCSC in St. Louis, Missouri, according to Qiaowang. The St. Louis service center is located within the Chinese Education and Culture Center, and a top Chinese consulate official from Chicago attended the branch’s opening ceremony, according to the consulate’s website.

The final U.S. OCSC location announced during the 2017 ceremony was in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to Qiaowang. The Charlotte OCSC is housed within the Carolinas Chinese Chamber of Commerce, according to a report from Qiaowang.

The Chinese American Association of Commerce, the Chinese Civic Center in Utah, the Chinese American Association of Minnesota and the St. Louis Chinese Education and Culture Center did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

A receptionist at Houston’s Chinese Civic Center confirmed the organization hosted a “Chinese service center” in a phone call with the DCNF. Similarly, a woman who only identified herself as an “associate” of the Nebraska Chinese Association confirmed the organization housed a “Chinese center” while speaking with the DCNF.

When the DCNF called the Carolinas Chinese Chamber of Commerce, a man who identified himself as a “founding member” of the Charlotte “Chinese service center” answered the phone. He confirmed the service center was housed within the Charlotte-based nonprofit.

‘Overseas Chinese Police Contact Points’

Chinese government records and state-run media reports reveal that U.S.-based OCSC representatives met with officials from China’s Ministry of Public Security. The FBI has accused the ministry of conducting “transnational repression” schemes in the U.S. targeting Chinese dissidents and human rights activists.

MPS’ most notorious transnational repression scheme is operation Fox Hunt. The operation uses “unsanctioned, unilateral and illegal practices, including coercion, extortion and intimidation” to “forcibly repatriate” alleged Chinese criminals living overseas, according to a 2020 DOJ complaint.

Between 2014 and 2018, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office sponsored a series of China trips for OCSC officials, according to Chinese government and state-run media reports. During these visits, participants frequently discussed how OCSC branches could assist Chinese law enforcement while abroad.

The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office convened an OCSC conference in Beijing in January 2018 that featured multiple work meetings across China focused on international law enforcement, according to multiple Chinese state media reports.

Representatives from all seven of the U.S.-based OCSCs attended the Beijing conference, according to multiple reports from the conference and photos reviewed by the DCNF.

In Beijing, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office head Qiu Yuanping announced that improving “legal services” and developing an “online platform” would be among her organization’s annual goals, Qiaowang reported.

On the third day of the conference, OCSC representatives traveled to Zhejiang province and met with MPS officials at a police station that serves as the nerve center for multiple “Overseas Chinese Police Contact Points” around the world. Representatives from all seven U.S.-based OCSCs visited the Zhejiang police station, according to state media reports and government social media posts.

During the visit, OCSC officials posed for photos with uniformed MPS officers and participated in a series of demonstrations of an MPS-developed “internet + law enforcement” platform. The MPS platform provides “cross-border remote justice services for overseas Chinese,” according to China News Service and Qiaowang reports.

In one demonstration, the Zhejiang police station used the MPS platform to contact “special duty police officers” in Milan, Italy, according to Chinese government social media posts. These “special duty police officers” then delivered a report on their operations to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.

Following the video call, an Overseas Chinese Affairs Office official instructed OCSC representatives “to learn” from the police station’s “model” in order to “better provide for the well-being of overseas Chinese,” according to a Chinese government social media post.

The OCSC delegation also visited an “Extraterritorial Video Trial Court” specializing in domestic affairs, according to the Zhejiang court’s social media account. OCSC representatives participated in an international video call with the court’s “Overseas Chinese Police Contact Point” in France, according to a report from a United Front organization.

During this call, police contact point officials in France — several of whom belong to an OCSC in Paris — explained how they used MPS technology to remotely handle legal matters such as divorces and property disputes, according to the United Front group.

The “Extraterritorial Video Trial Court” had “tried” 77 international cases and mediated 18 disputes using the virtual MPS platform, according to a January 2018 social media post from the court. The post did not elaborate on the specifics of any litigation or the enforcement of any international legal judgments.

After the court call, an Overseas Chinese Affairs Office official leading the OCSC delegation called on attendees to learn from the court’s experience and build a global internet legal service to realize “the Chinese people’s dream,” the court reported.

It’s unknown whether or not U.S. service centers now utilize any of the technology showcased during their visit with MPS officials, but details of the trip alarmed national security experts who spoke with the DCNF.

“This is the internationalization of monitoring and control,” said Steve Yates, former deputy national security adviser to former vice president Dick Cheney. “An organized government effort to extend sovereign government operations internationally — and to use charitable and affinity organizations as the cover through which to engage in espionage and police activity — crosses a pretty significant line.”

Chinese government and state-run media reports indicate that OCSC branches outside the U.S. often perform law enforcement functions, including by serving as MPS “Overseas Chinese Police Contact Points” and conducting “armed patrols” in a number of countries, such as South Africa.

Several OCSC branches outside the U.S. also house MPS police stations from Fuzhou province, such as Dublin, Ireland’s OCSC, according to its social media account. The Dublin OCSC said its office is designed to assist Chinese nationals with government services, including issuing overseas ID card renewals and conducting physical exams for driver’s licenses.

There is, however, no evidence that U.S.-based service centers host MPS police stations like the one the FBI raided in New York City last year.

Texas Republic Rep. Morgan Luttrell, who is a member of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations, characterized the OCSC program as a “serious national security threat.”

“As the Chinese government uses every tool at its disposal to infiltrate the U.S. and grow its influence on the global stage, we must take bold action to counter the CCP’s malign activity,” Luttrell told the DCNF.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Investigative reporter.

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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.

GOP Senator Demands Investigation Into California University’s Reported $220 Million China Campus Deal

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A Republican senator is calling for an investigation into the University of California, Berkeley’s reported multimillion dollar deal with a Chinese university, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Indiana Republican Todd Young urged the Department of Education (DOE) to investigate whether any U.S. laws were violated related to Berkeley’s reported $220 million joint venture with China’s “state-owned” Tsinghua University to build a 1.7 million-square-foot research campus in Shenzhen, known as Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI), according to the letter sent to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona Friday. According to The Daily Beast, who broke the story in May 2023, Berkeley allegedly failed to report the foreign funding for the TBSI project to the Department of Education in possible violation of the law, which Berkeley disputes.

“The longevity, scope, and origin of the funding is concerning,” Young’s letter states, “but what that funding provided to the Chinese is equally, if not more so, concerning from a national security perspective.”

The Daily Beast reported that, between 2014 and 2018, the TBSI project allegedly received $220 million from the Shenzhen government as well as a $19 million investment from Tsinghua University that was backed by a grant from a Chinese state-owned enterprise.

Furthermore, Berkeley allegedly failed to report any of these foreign funds to the DOE prior to being contacted for comment by The Daily Beast in February 2023, according to the outlet.

Young’s letter asks the DOE to investigate whether or not Berkeley may have violated “existing U.S. law with regards to the disclosure of foreign gifts.”

In May 2023, Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor of Berkeley, told the DCNF that although the university had indeed signed a “Master Affiliation Agreement” with Tsinghua University in 2016 that “arranged” for $22 million in “sponsored research” and “startup operations,” Berkeley has allegedly never received, nor benefitted from, a $220 million investment “made by the Shenzhen government, or any other entity in China.”

“UC Berkeley has no ownership of any of the facilities in Shenzhen and no agreements or plans to receive ownership interest in them,” Mogulof told the DCNF. “Therefore, UC Berkeley is not required to report this funding under Department of Education Section 117 guidelines.”

Young also expressed concern that the Chinese government may have “received other, more tangible, benefits from its arrangement with UC Berkeley,” according to his letter.

Between 2012 and 2021, Berkeley allegedly received over $4 billion in federal research funding from the Department of Defense and other government agencies, according to Young’s letter.

Therefore, TBSI may have allegedly benefited from “competencies, experience and expertise funded by the American taxpayer,” which China could have subsequently exploited, Young’s letter claims.

“Recent reporting calls into question the adequacy of existing guardrails to protect the security and integrity of American institutions of higher education from the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese government,” Young’s letter states.

Berkeley’s Mogulof told the DCNF that the university “takes concerns about national security very seriously” and will review “past agreements and actions involving or connected to the TBSI to reconfirm that all required reporting and compliance has occurred.”

DOE did not respond immediately to the DCNF’s request for comment and The Daily Beast declined to comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

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

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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.