Thread by @JMichaelWaller

1) Thoughtful WaPo pre-election piece by @joshrogin about China's interference in the US political process. With the @ericswalwell issue, it deserves another look. washingtonpost.com/opinions/globa…

2) Rogin: "There are multiple Chinese interference campaigns that include actors outside the government, who profess to be fighting against the Chinese Communist Party but may be doing its bidding at the same time."

3) Rogin: @ODNIgov addressed "Chinese official state organs. There is also a separate effort, aimed at supporting Trump & spreading disinformation about Joe Biden, that is run by a Chinese billionaire who claims to be a dissident but whose actions sometimes align with CCP goals."

4) Rogin: "Guo Wengui, a close ally of Stephen K. Bannon, has interjected himself ... directly into the middle of the presidential election. His Chinese-language news website, GNews, has been publishing documents and videos purported to be from Hunter Biden’s lost laptop."

5) Rogin: "Guo’s ultimate agenda remains murky. Guo’s associate, Dinggang Wang ... recently claimed on YouTube that the alleged Biden material was collected and sent to Washington by the CCP leadership, contradicting the story put forth by Bannon" and @RudyGiuliani.

6) Rogin: "GNews posts often splice Hunter Biden material with easily provable false information. It’s unclear why GNews is altering the material in this way, but it has the effect of undermining its credibility and muddying the Bannon-@RudyGiuliani narrative about its origins."

7) Rogin: "Guo’s claim to be an anti-CCP dissident is especially undermined by his other main project right now, which is to pay legions of his followers to harass and threaten Chinese American dissidents and human rights activists on US soil...."

8) "...including Pastor Bob Fu, who heads the group ChinaAid, & democracy activists Wu Jianmin and Li Yiping. On YouTube, Guo has accused them of being CCP spies and called on his followers to 'eliminate' them. GNews has even tried to link Fu to the Biden scandal..." @BobFu4China

9) Rogin: "Fu, who is now in hiding with his family under police protection, told me he believes Guo is not an anti-CCP dissident, but rather hunting dissidents on behalf of the CCP." @BobFu4China

10) Rogin: "It’s no coincidence, Fu said, that official Chinese propaganda outlets (including the Global Times) are attacking the same Chinese dissidents in the United States as Guo." #UnitedFront

11) Rogin: "In this theory, Guo’s efforts allow Beijing to hedge its bets, by hurting Biden’s domestic standing in case he wins. Guo was long aligned with a faction of China’s Ministry of State Security before his main benefactor was purged and Guo left China in 2015."

12) Rogin: "Guo told me GTV posts are made by individual users outside his editorial control. He also rejected any suggestion he is tied to the CCP: 'This is classic CCP disinformation 101....'

"Guo’s true motivations are unknowable."

13) Rogin: "Did [Guo Wengui/Miles Guo] switch sides to fight the CCP only to switch back later? Is he aligned with one internal CCP faction battling another? Is he just out for himself?"

14) Rogin: "It ultimately doesn’t matter. He [Guo Wengui/Miles Guo] is a foreign national spreading malicious political disinformation while harassing US citizens."

15) Rogin: "Chinese politics and US politics are becoming intertwined in ways we can’t understand but that surely are bad for the health of our democracy."