EXCLUSIVE: Dem Rep Serves As ‘Honorary Chairwoman’ Of Org Reportedly Linked To Chinese Intel Agency
New York Democratic Rep. Grace Meng has longstanding ties to an organization reportedly linked to a Chinese intelligence agency and alleged Communist Party operatives, the Daily Caller News Foundation found.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday indicted Linda Sun, who served in two New York governors’ offices as well as Meng’s chief of staff while she served in the state assembly, for allegedly acting as an unregistered foreign agent of China and money laundering.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Sun met the “heads of key groups identifiable in the indictment as being United Front-linked, including the U.S. Federation of Chinese-American Entrepreneurs and the Henan Association of Eastern America.”
China’s so-called “United Front” strategy of influence and intelligence collection is overseen by a Chinese intelligence service called the United Front Work Department.
The heads of these groups were “supervised, directed, and controlled by [Chinese] government officials,” DOJ alleges.
Meng has been associated with Henan Association Of Eastern America (HAEA), a New York-based organization, for over a decade. She previously served as “deputy chairwoman,” according to an archived version of HAEA’s website, and the group now prominently identifies the congresswoman as an “honorary chairwoman.”
Meng was not named in the DOJ indictment, and her office did not return multiple requests for comment.
The DOJ’s indictment, however, does note that one of Sun’s alleged unnamed co-conspirators, known as CC-1, “served as the president of an association of persons from Henan Province, PRC located in the New York metropolitan area.”
The indictment describes CC-1’s organization, “Association-1,” as “a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization closely associated with the United Front Work Department (‘UFWD’) and the Chinese Communist Party (‘CCP’).”
HAEA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“Over the last forty years, a network of pro-CCP Chinese-American organizations operating in coordination with the Chinese Consulate has been established, which now has enormous influence on New York’s business and political climate, basically providing an outpost and pro-CCP personnel for directly executing China’s foreign policy from within the United States,” Dr. Lawrence Sellin, a national security and United Front expert, told the DCNF.
Henan Association Of Eastern America
Founded in 1973, HAEA aims to support Chinese participation in politics as well as cultural exchange and trade between the U.S. and China, according to its website.
For more than a decade, Meng has held various roles with HAEA, according to records on the group’s website. Meng and her mother, who is a native of China’s Henan province, were first listed as HAEA members in 2008, the nonprofit’s records state.
Between 2008 and 2012, Meng served as HAEA’s “deputy chairwoman,” according to its website. HAEA later began identifying Meng as “honorary chairwoman” in February 2012, the month before Meng launched her congressional campaign in March 2012, HAEA’s records show.
Meng’s photo and title are currently pictured at the top of HAEA’s website alongside its president.
Sun has not been listed on HAEA’s member roster, but photos on HAEA’s website show Meng with Sun together at events as far back as 2009, the DCNF found.
For instance, Meng and Sun were photographed together at a December 2009 karaoke fundraiser for Meng, who then served in the New York State Assembly.
Photos also show Meng and Sun together at HAEA’s annual Chinese New Year meeting in February 2010.
Sun is accused of having “actively concealed that she took actions at the order, request, or direction of [the Chinese] government and CCP representatives,” the DOJ’s indictment states. “Thus, neither the NYS government nor the greater New York and American public had the opportunity to evaluate her conduct, considering her long-standing relationships with the [Chinese] government and the CCP and her status as their agent.”
In 2019, Sun was allegedly hired as a committee member for the All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), according to the DOJ’s indictment.
ACFROC is an “agency” of the CCP’s United Front Work Department, which attempts to “manage relationships with and generate support for the CCP among elite individuals inside and outside the PRC, including by gathering human intelligence,” the DOJ’s indictment states.
Dr. June Teufel Dreyer, former commissioner of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, told the DCNF that ACFROC is “unquestionably an organization through which the CCP, through the United Front Work Department, seeks to shape the opinions of the Chinese diaspora to its views.”
‘Co-Conspirator’
Sun previously served as “Asian Outreach Director” for former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and, most recently, served as New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s deputy chief of staff, government records show.
While working for the two New York governors, the DOJ’s indictment alleges that Sun also worked in secret for a man identified only as a “co-conspirator” who had direct contact with multiple officials in the Chinese government.
Sun’s work with the co-conspirator allegedly “included fraudulently obtaining letters that purported to be from the [New York governor’s office] inviting delegations of PRC officials to visit New York, which the government officials used to unlawfully obtain visas to enter the United States,” according to the DOJ’s indictment.
The invited officials were from China’s Henan province, according to the indictment.
In return, Chinese officials and co-conspirators allegedly funneled contracts to businesses in Henan run by Sun’s husband, Chris Hu, who was also arrested by the FBI and charged by the DOJ.
The DOJ did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
AUTHOR
Philip Lenczycki
Daily Caller News Foundation investigative reporter, political journalist, and China watcher. Twitter: @LenczyckiPhilip
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