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If the Chinese Communist Party can readily manipulate our politics, imagine how easy it is for domestic dirty-dealers.
The New York Times last week exposed some of China’s influence operations in New York, particularly via Beijing’s abuse of Chinese-American “hometown associations.”
“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,” the paper found.
And they’ve carried out China’s bidding with worrisome success.
Undermining a congressional candidate who publicly slammed the regime, for example.
Shifting support away from then-state Sen. Iwu Chu after she attended a banquet with Taiwan’s president and helping her lose reelection.
Defeating a City Council hopeful who backed Hong Kong democracy.
In at least one case, an official linked to the government actually hinted of violence against a candidate.
These groups work with the Chinese, reports the Times, because some of their leaders have family or business in China and fear the consequences if they don’t.
Many of the associations are tax-exempt and thus prohibited from endorsing candidates or fund-raising — yet do so anyway.
Worse, some pols, like City Councilwoman Susan Zhuang, have funneled city funds ($300,000 in Zhuang’s case, per the Times) to groups that back her.
Meaning taxpayers are financially supporting groups that help China meddle in local elections and promote Beijing’s policies.
Of course, China’s political interference is hardly new. In one of the most alarming recent cases, prosecutors last year charged an ex-aide to Govs. Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo, Linda Sun, with acting as a Chinese spy.
Nor is the influence confined to New York:
* Last year, China waged a propaganda and disinformation campaign throughout the nation to meddle in the 2024 elections.
* Regime-linked entities sought to buy influence through deals with the Bidens.
* Chinese national Christine Fang (Fang Fang) allegedly set “honeytraps” for US pols. One of her big targets was Rep. Eric Swalwell.
* In the 1996 election, the Chinese were caught in a huge fundraising scandal involving the Clintons, Al Gore and the Democratic National Committee.
New York’s political culture makes it particularly vulnerable to this kind of manipulation, just as it paves the way for more mundane outfits — special interests like the United Federation of Teachers, and radical groups like the Democratic Socialists of America — to wield undue political power.
Chalk it up to low voter turnout, cynical politicians, enormous government spending that creates blatant pay-to-play malfeasance, election and campaign-finance rules that hand a huge edge to those who can game the system . . . Today’s political system is rife with vulnerabilities.
Until New Yorkers use their voices, and votes, to show their outrage, expect shady players — whether in the teachers union or the Chinese consulate — to keep manipulating our government to serve their interests, not the public’s.