🧵Ten things you might not know about the Chinese Communist Party’s ties to New York politicians, including NYC mayor Eric Adams, Rep. Grace Meng, and New York GOP officials.

A few notes from my previous reporting on the topic, in light of Linda Sun's arrest this week, in no particular order. 1 . Linda Sun is not the only former Hochul aide whom the governor sent to pro-Beijing events in New York on her behalf.

Former Hochul director of Asian Affairs Elaine Fan participated in the “Evening of Chinese Culture” at a Mets game last year, an annual event organized by the Sino-American Friendship Association (SAFA).

New: China’s Communist Youth League tried to recruit graduate students from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and, likely, other institutions, to participate in a week-long junket trip to China.

The stated theme is “Green Development for a Sustainable Future: Responsibilities and Actions of Chinese and U.S. Youths.” But the purpose of this program is almost certainly to co-opt up-and-coming American policy makers.

The Communist Youth League, via the All-China Youth Federation (a united front agency it controls), covered all expenses, except for international airfare to reach China.

I obtained promotional materials related to the trip, including a detailed itinerary.

The program began today, with a visit to a Chinese-government State Key Laboratory in Chengdu. There will also be site visits at companies and locations of ecological significance throughout the week, including Chengdu’s Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

More details in @NRO story at end of this 🧵


This is the rest of the itinerary, which was circulated among students at Columbia.

Some stops of note here:
- “The world’s first zero-carbon battery factory”
- The offices of Xiaomi, the Chinese mobile phone company

In Beijing, the students will meet with officials from several different government ministries.

Chinese consul general Huang Ping raises the PRC flag at a “China Day” celebration in Manhattan yesterday. There were speeches from dignitaries including Eric Adams and a parade. Adams raised the U.S. flag just before the PRC flag raising took place.

nationalreview.com/2023/10/eric-a…
Adams marched with Huang Ping, the CCP’s hardline top official in New York and Wu Xiaoming, a Chinese diplomat who visited Beijing’s secret NYC police station in 2022.

nationalreview.com/2023/10/eric-a…

New: Video of the 2019 meeting where Chinese police station defendant Harry Lu sat next to top advisers to then-Borough president Eric Adams.

Jesse Hamilton, a longtime Adams ally, is speaking about Fuzhou-Brooklyn ties. Lu to his right, Adams aide Winnie Greco to his left. The meeting took place in Fuzhou, as I reported on Sunday. The video was posted by a videographer who apparently traveled with them.

This was before Adams became mayor, but after Lu is alleged to have entered into a "relationship of trust" with the PRC.

nationalreview.com/2023/09/eric-a…

Bloomberg reports that the White House kept the balloon’s presence under wraps for fear of derailing the Blinken trip, until local media in Billings Montana published a picture of it on Thursday afternoon.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/… Should’ve tagged the @billingsgazette

New: A Congressional aide was fired after her outreach to other congressional aides allegedly on behalf of the Chinese embassy was revealed this week. Her firing followed an investigation and consultation with federal counterintelligence officials. @NRO

nationalreview.com/2022/10/exclus… Upon receiving the results of that investigation, her boss, @RepDonBeyer fired the staffer. “ Beyer was totally unaware of these activities prior to being contacted by the House Sergeant At Arms,” his spox said.

nationalreview.com/2022/10/exclus…

US govt contractors are working w CCP-linked entities:

- McKinsey contracts w DOD while working w Chinese central govt & SOEs
- Amazon contracts with the NSA & blacklisted Chinese surveillance firms
- Microsoft (a defense contractor) work with ByteDance (Xinjiang collaborator) “One potentially significant issue is that Amazon Web Services simultaneously provides cloud Internet services to the U.S. National Security Agency and Hikvision.”

nationalreview.com/2022/09/amazon…

New: A current State Dept official said that it is “dangerous” for the U.S. to attempt to maintain its military dominance in East Asia during a Quincy Institute event for a report that blames Washington for moving away from its One China policy.
@NRO

nationalreview.com/2022/07/state-… Although she specified that she was speaking in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the department, her comments, and the new report, make for a remarkable public repudiation of long-standing U.S. policy and some tenets of the Biden administration’s own approach.

New: During a bizarre, military-style ceremony that highlighted Huawei’s ties to China’s security state, the tech company launched a new internal business unit focused on developing artificial-intelligence-powered surveillance technology. @NRO

nationalreview.com/2022/07/huawei… According to a Chinese security-media report, which @ipvideo @CharlesRollet1 shared with National Review, the ceremony featured a row of uniformed Huawei employees doing a raised-fist CCP salute onstage, chanting, "Stay focused and competitive to live and die with the Corps..."