In New York City, social clubs backed by China undermined a congressional candidate who once challenged the regime on Chinese television.
They helped unseat a state senator for attending a banquet with the president of Taiwan.
And they condemned a City Council candidate on social media for supporting Hong Kong democracy.
In the past few years, these organizations have quietly foiled the careers of politicians who opposed China’s authoritarian government while backing others who supported policies of the country’s ruling Communist Party. The groups, many of them tax-exempt nonprofits, have allowed America’s most formidable adversary to influence elections in the country’s largest city, The New York Times found.
The groups are mostly “hometown associations” of people hailing from the same town or province in China. Some have been around for more than a century, while dozens of others have sprung up over the past decade. Like other heritage clubs in a city of immigrants, they welcome newcomers, organize parades and foster social connections.
But many hometown associations have become useful tools of China’s consulate in Midtown Manhattan, according to dozens of group members, politicians and former prosecutors. Some group leaders have family or business in China and fear the consequences of bucking its authority. Consulate officials have enlisted them to intimidate politicians who support Taiwan or cross Beijing’s other red lines. In one case, a Chinese intelligence agent and several hometown leaders targeted the same candidate.
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{snip} Its efforts have been especially potent in New York City, home to 600,000 ethnic Chinese people.
In 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested leaders of one group, the America Changle Association, for operating a police station in its clubhouse. Last year, a federal indictment accused a former aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul of conspiring with the heads of two Chinese associations, saying their political activities “were supervised, directed, and controlled” by Chinese officials. And this summer, F.B.I. agents interviewed group leaders in Chinatown about consulate pressure, two leaders said.
The Times uncovered new evidence of how the consulate wields its influence. Videos uploaded to YouTube show festive ceremonies where consulate officials led hometown groups in pledges to love the motherland and defend her interests. Sometimes they vowed to promote “reunification” with Taiwan, a self-governed island democracy that China aims to absorb into the mainland.
More than 50 organizations with ties to Beijing have mobilized members to fund-raise or endorse political candidates over the past five years, The Times found. Many were nonprofit charities, which are prohibited by law from electioneering.
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The Times searched social media and Chinese news outlets for evidence of Chinese American groups endorsing or raising money for New York candidates. At least 53 such organizations had ties to China, defined as openly promoting Beijing’s political agenda, meeting in China with party members or extensively interacting with the Chinese Consulate.
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The Times found videos of 35 ceremonies overseen by consulate officials since 2016. Diplomats led group leaders through many types of oaths, such as affirming China’s Taiwan policy and promising “to safeguard the development interests of the motherland.”
Some pledged to dedicate their utmost efforts to the “great rejuvenation” of the motherland, a phrase that President Xi Jinping used in his first public speech as the Chinese Communist Party leader in 2012 and has invoked many times since.
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Among the 53 groups, The Times found at least 19 registered charities that had ignored the ban on election activities. Under federal tax law, these nonprofits — which do not pay most taxes — can take positions on policy issues but cannot endorse candidates for office. And yet, in case after case, the hometown groups made endorsements or hosted fund-raisers despite answering “no” to questions from the Internal Revenue Service about political involvement.
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In 2021, Yan Xiong, a U.S. citizen and retired Army chaplain, decided to run as a Democrat for Congress in a district that includes heavily Chinese areas in Chinatown, Manhattan, and Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Mr. Xiong figured his background would help him win. As a student in Beijing in 1989, he had helped lead the uprising for democratic reforms in Tiananmen Square, prompting a bloody government crackdown. After criticizing the leadership on live television, Mr. Xiong landed on China’s list of 21 “most wanted” dissidents. He spent almost two years in Beijing’s notorious Qincheng Prison.
More than three decades later, and across an ocean, he remained a prime target.
After Mr. Xiong announced his campaign, an intelligence agent with China’s Ministry of State Security hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on him, according to criminal charges later filed by federal prosecutors. Unfortunately for the Chinese spy, the investigator was secretly cooperating with the F.B.I.
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Beijing also recruited a former pro-democracy activist in Queens to keep tabs on Mr. Xiong, according to charges later brought by federal prosecutors.
And the Chinese Consulate directed hometown association leaders to oppose him, Mr. Xiong and several of his allies told The Times.
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Mr. Xiong lost his primary handily and moved to Florida. He plans to return to New York and has filed paperwork to run in the Democratic primary next year against Ms. Meng.
He was surprised that his biography didn’t move voters, he said. But “the Chinese government corrupts the Chinese people here.”
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