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

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

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

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

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

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

CPC did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

‘If ICE Comes To The Door…’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘The CCP Orbit’

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

The Bank of China, a state-owned banking corporation based in Beijing, gave CPC as much as $9,999 in 2020 and up to that same amount in 2024, the nonprofit’s annual reports show. CPC also received donations from Chinese state-run Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in 2018, 2019 and 2023, amounting to as much as $19,997, the nonprofit’s annual reports show.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AUTHOR

Jason Hopkins And Philip Lenczycki

Contributors.

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