How China influences elections in America’s biggest city

New York: 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 organisations 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, organise 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.

This meddling may seem modest, involving politicians who are unlikely to affect international policy. But China is determined to quash dissent in its diaspora before it spreads back home, said Audrye Wong, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies Chinese influence.

Beijing is also making a longer bet, she said: “You never know which politician might eventually run for Congress at the national level, or become a presidential candidate.”

Many countries, including the United States, have interfered in politics abroad. In New York City, federal prosecutors said a Turkish government official gave Mayor Eric Adams luxury travel benefits in order to expedite the opening of a new consulate building. (Adams denied the charges, which were later dropped by the Trump administration.) And groups tied to India’s ruling party have attacked Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim of Indian heritage running for mayor, claiming he is anti-Hindu.

China’s influence machine is one of the world’s most expansive and effective. Over decades, it has harassed exiles in France, bribed academics in Britain and targeted politicians in Canada. It has even built clandestine police stations in dozens of countries to threaten dissidents. Its efforts have been especially potent in New York City, home to 600,000 ethnic Chinese people.

In 2023, the FBI 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 New York 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, FBI 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 in which 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 organisations with ties to Beijing have mobilised members to fundraise or endorse political candidates over the past five years, the Times found. Many were nonprofit charities, which are prohibited by law from electioneering.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Consulate General said it had always followed international law and had not influenced US elections. “China has no interest in and has never interfered in any way,” the spokesperson said in a brief statement. The consulate’s interactions with American society, he said, “are open and transparent, and we strongly reject any malicious accusations and smears.”

In a city where victories can be determined by ethnic voting blocs, relationships between China-aligned groups and elected leaders are mutually beneficial. Politicians often court these groups and, once in office, sometimes send government money back their way.

Adams — whose former aide resigned amid an investigation into China’s possible intrusion in the last mayoral race — has secured endorsements from the leaders of at least nine hometown groups in his tough campaign for reelection. That aide and another Adams supporter also caused a stir after reports last week that they had given red envelopes of cash to some journalists at his events this summer.

Pledges to the Motherland

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 organisations 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.

The consulate has presided over dozens of hometown ceremonies that push China’s political interests.

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.

Zhang Yun, president of the American Lianjiang Association, said that it was “tradition” to invite Chinese consulate officials to these events, which are aimed at boosting ties between the two countries. “You all think that whatever Chinese people do is bad,” he said. “It’s discrimination.”

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 fundraisers despite answering “no” to questions from the IRS about political involvement.

“That’s totally out of bounds,” said Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a professor at Notre Dame who studies nonprofit law. “That’s a clear violation of the limits that Congress has put on their tax-exempt status.”

The IRS declined to comment. A spokesperson for New York’s tax agency, which is responsible for enforcing a similar state law, said it did not have the resources to look for such violations.

Some nonprofit charities with ties to China have endorsed the reelection of Adams. Dixon Mai, a leader of the Chong Lou USA Association Headquarters — which formally endorsed a meeting with top consulate officials last year focused on opposing Taiwan’s president — said he was mobilising the group’s 2,000 members to reelect Adams. “We are all united in voting for him,” he said.

Todd Shapiro, a spokesperson for Adams, said that the mayor attended heritage events to listen to residents’ concerns, and that the campaign had tried “to safeguard against any improper influence.”

“If any group is prohibited from making endorsements or engaging in campaign activities, those rules apply to them, and we expect them to follow the law,” Shapiro added.

Sometimes politicians steer government funding back to the groups that supported them.

In December 2021, the Asian American Community Empowerment nonprofit co-hosted a fundraiser for New York’s governor, Hochul. The event took place at a restaurant owned by the group’s leader, John Chan, a businessperson aligned with the Chinese government who was once convicted of trafficking heroin and smuggling Chinese citizens into the United States.

Two months later, Hochul announced that $10 million in pandemic aid would be distributed to dozens of Asian groups. Chan’s nonprofit received $45,000.

Anthony Hogrebe, a spokesperson for Hochul, said that campaign donations “have no impact on policy decisions.”

‘Violence Would Be Fine, Too’

In at least one case, agents of the Chinese government have directly targeted politicians perceived as threats.

In 2021, Yan Xiong, a US citizen and retired Army chaplain, decided to run as a Democrat for Congress in a district that includes heavily Chinese areas in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood and the Sunset Park neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough.

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 criticising the leadership on live television, 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 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 FBI.

On a phone call, the two discussed hiring a woman who might lure Xiong into a compromising situation. The spy, Qiming Lin, who lived in China, promised to pay handsomely, indicating that $40,000 was a fair price for a prostitute.

“Violence would be fine, too,” the spy told the investigator, according to a recording of the call described in court filings. “Beat him until he cannot run for election,” Lin added, laughing.

Beijing also recruited a former pro-democracy activist in New York City’s Queens borough to keep tabs on Xiong, according to charges later brought by federal prosecutors.

And the Chinese consulate directed hometown association leaders to oppose him, Xiong and several of his allies told the Times.

In March 2022, he opened his campaign headquarters in Chinatown and held a weakly attended fundraiser. He said that Chen Xueduan, a former head of the Fukien Benevolent Association of America, later told him on a phone call that the consulate had issued a threat: If Chen supported the campaign, he would risk repercussions for his business interests in China.

“I don’t know anything about this,” Chen told the Times.

Another community leader, Jimmy Cheng, also offered to assist his campaign, Xiong recalled. Cheng told him he hated Communists and that, as a top leader of the United Fujianese of America Association, he could help deliver some 3,000 votes.

But Cheng was a saboteur, Xiong said: An FBI agent had warned the candidate that Cheng had ties to China and should not be trusted.

At an event weeks after their initial meeting, Xiong said Cheng duped him into being photographed in front of a backdrop claiming he opposed the creation of a museum honoring Tiananmen Square victims.

“In five minutes, that photo was all over the world,” Xiong said, referring to coverage in Chinese-language media. It was a “dirty trick,” he said.

Cheng did not respond to phone calls or a note left at his door by the Times.

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 US Rep. Grace Meng.

He was surprised that his biography didn’t move voters, he said. But “the Chinese government corrupts the Chinese people here.”

A Cafe Confrontation

China has gone to great lengths to stamp out global support of Taiwan.

After state Sen. John C. Liu, who was born there, attended a meeting in New York with the Taiwanese president in 2019, “intermediaries” for the Chinese consulate contacted his office, he told the Times. They “made it clear that they felt it was inappropriate for me to attend that event.” Hometown associations rescinded his invitations to their banquets, Liu said.

In 2021, a top FBI agent warned state lawmakers that consulate officers used both threats and sweeteners to influence politicians, including those who support Taiwan. “You and your staff, among others, are the targets of these efforts,” the agent wrote in a letter to an incoming state Assembly member.

When Taiwan’s president held another reception in New York City two years later, the head of the consulate warned the mayor, Adams, to avoid contact, National Review reported. He did not go.

But Iwen Chu, a Taiwan native in the state Senate, attended the reception — and paid a hefty price.

In the days after the event, Chinese diplomats invited members of hometown associations to the consulate, two attendees told the Times. There, officials asked about Chu’s position on Taiwanese independence.

“I said I didn’t know anything about that,” Zhen Jinrong, one of the attendees and a longtime leader of the Taishan Friendship Association, recalled in Cantonese.

Soon Chu herself heard from the consulate. A diplomat asked for a meeting between the senator and a consulate deputy “to talk with her on cooperation between New York and China,” according to a copy of the email reviewed by the Times.

Chu met with the deputy in April 2023 at Boca del Cielo, a cafe in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn. After some small talk, the diplomat got to the point: People were upset about the banquet, he said, describing the situation as “explosive.”

“They were giving me pressure,” Chu recalled.

The senator told the diplomat that she was focused on New York, not global affairs. But it was too late.

By February 2024, Chan, the onetime smuggler and Beijing’s top power broker in New York, as well as the founder of a group representing people from the city of Fuzhou, was vetting a Republican to run against Chu, a Democrat.

In his Sunset Park office, Chan grilled the would-be candidate — Steve Chan, a former Marine and police sergeant, according to three people present. Lester Chang, a Republican state Assembly member, was there, too.

John Chan, who had once called the Taiwanese president “a sinner for all eternity,” asked the sergeant how he felt about Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Steve Chan replied that he supported Hong Kong democracy and that China should leave Taiwan alone, according to a person familiar with the meeting. The candidate was then asked if he wanted to revise his answer, the person said, and Steve Chan softened his response, suggesting a continuation of the status quo.

Steve Chan told the Times he did not change his stance in that meeting. Whatever he said, it convinced John Chan, who later endorsed the candidate at a hometown association event, with two members of the consulate in attendance.

One by one, leaders of groups that had once backed Chu flipped to Steve Chan. He easily defeated her in November, costing Democrats their supermajority.

Several community leaders told the Times that Chu was quite popular before the scandal over the Taiwanese dinner.

“If Iwen hadn’t attended that event, 100 per cent she would have won,” said Zhen of the Taishan Friendship Association. Justin Yu, a former president of the Consolidated Chinese Benevolent Association, which includes more than 60 groups, said he believed that the consulate “mobilised some of the organisations in Brooklyn to boycott Iwen Chu.”

Earlier this year, the Times asked Steve Chan why he had accepted the endorsement of someone with prominent ties to China.

“Whether you like him or not, whether he’s a communist or not,” the state senator said of John Chan, “he is very influential in his community.”

The Fortune Palace

This January, more than a dozen hometown associations, all with ties to the consulate and six of them tax-exempt nonprofits, put on a lively fundraising dinner for Susan Zhuang, a Chinese immigrant running for reelection to City Council after biting a police officer at a homeless shelter protest.

Zhuang had won her seat in 2023 after old photos surfaced of her opponent in the Democratic primary, Wai-Yee Chan, at a Manhattan rally for Hong Kong democracy. At the time of the rally, Zhuang shared a post on Facebook accusing Wai-Yee Chan of “supporting violent Hong Kong independence.”

When the two women later ran against each other for City Council, prominent members of several community groups recirculated the rally photos on WeChat, a popular Chinese social media network, and said Chan held extreme positions, according to screenshots reviewed by the Times.

Some community leaders urged Chan to take out newspaper advertisements holding the Chinese flag, “to show what side she’s on,” recalled Grace Safarik, her campaign manager. “It was bananas.” The candidate did not run any such ads. Hometown associations soon dumped Chan and threw their support behind Zhuang.

Since then, Zhuang has appeared alongside consulate officials on at least 30 occasions, according to a Times review of dozens of videos and Chinese-language articles. As a City Council member, Zhuang has distributed more than $300,000 in city funds to tax-exempt Chinese American nonprofits that backed her, according to a Times review of government records. The majority of the funds went to organisations with close ties to Beijing.

At the January fundraiser, some of the same group leaders showed up to the Fortune Palace restaurant in Brooklyn to support her again. Atop lavender tablecloths were signs denoting the names of various hometown organizations. That day, Zhuang’s campaign raised more than $20,000 in donations.

One donor, Huang Yirong of the Zhanjiang Association of America — a nonprofit that shares a house with the councilwoman’s campaign office — had helped organise opposition to the visiting president of Taiwan in 2023. Huang said his group did not endorse or donate to Zhuang’s campaign. “I support her, and some of our members support her,” he said. “We give and support individually.”

The emcee of the event, Joseph Luo, president of the American Association of Cantonese, had met in China in 2023 with leaders of groups belonging to the United Front, a division of the Chinese Communist Party aimed at expanding China’s influence.

“We want her to be reelected. Reelected!” shouted John Yu of the Guangdong Association of America, a tax-exempt nonprofit that has hosted many events with the consulate.

Benny Lau, the president of the Guangdong Association, said that while individual members supported the candidate, the group had not crossed the line into direct political advocacy.

Zhuang told the Times that questions about her ties to the Chinese groups were biased.

“Campaign contributions do not influence my decisions as a legislator,” Zhuang wrote in a statement. “I find it insulting that Asian American elected officials constantly have to defend our heritage because of these guilty-by-association rumors.”

She is expected to win her second term; no one is running against her.