By Allegations of deepening ties between key Democratic figures and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are sparking intense scrutiny as concerns grow over China’s expanding influence in the United States. With China’s influence operations increasingly targeting U.S. political leaders, critics fear these connections could jeopardize national security, especially when linked to Chinese intelligence agencies.
One figure at the center of this controversy is Rep. Grace Meng, a Democrat from New York, whose participation in events seemingly aligned with Chinese government interests has raised alarm. Meng, a prominent advocate for Asian American communities, is now under fire for her attendance at a 2008 banquet in Queens, New York, honoring a senior CCP official. This event, meant to welcome a high-ranking member of the CCP Central Committee, has cast doubt on Meng’s ties to Beijing, igniting fresh concerns about the implications of such associations for U.S. security.
The Daily Caller writes:
In December 2008, Meng and other leaders of local Chinese community associations attended a banquet in Queens, New York, to welcome a visiting CCP Central Committee member named Lin Jun, according to a DCNF review of a series of YouTube clips linked on the website of an organization affiliated with the congresswoman.
The footage shows Meng referred to Lin as “our chairman,” an apparent reference to his role as the head of the All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas (ACFROC). The Department of Justice (DOJ) considers ACFROC an agency of a Chinese intelligence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD).
“My name is Meng Zhaowen,” Meng said in Mandarin, using her Chinese name. “In January of next year, I will begin serving as a New York State Assembly member. Today, I specially welcome Chairman Lin to Flushing’s largest and newest building. Today, our Zhejiang overseas Chinese organization and everyone made [this banquet] very beautiful — am I right? — all for the sake of specially welcoming our Chairman Lin!”
“And, as for me?” Meng continued. “It’s my duty to represent the state government, overseas Chinese and our second generation overseas Chinese. [I’m] especially grateful to Chairman Lin for taking care of us — we really need your leadership!”
A large red banner behind Meng highlighted Chairman Lin’s key role in the Chinese government, reading: “Warmly Welcome The Delegation Of Chairman Lin Jun Of The All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese To Visit The United States.” However, the DCNF found no evidence that Meng is a member of the ACFROC, the outlet also noted.
Before Meng took the stage, Chairman Lin addressed the attendees. “We have a responsibility to care for the survival and development of overseas Chinese compatriots, and a responsibility to care for the difficulties everyone faces,” Chairman Lin said during his remarks at the 2008 banquet, as shown in footage from the event.
The investigation into Meng comes as several other Democrats, including another from New York, have been flagged for either spying on behalf of China or having a strange affection for the community country.
Last week, a key adviser to two different New York governors was accused of working on behalf of China. The New York Times reported, “In July 2021, six Nanjing-style salted ducks, prepared by a Chinese consulate official’s private chef, were delivered to the parents of an aide to New York’s then-governor, Andrew M. Cuomo. About four months later, another six ducks arrived at their home. Another four months later, there were more salted ducks. Eight months after that: still more salted ducks.
Prosecutors say that the poultry shipments, described in a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday, were just a small part of a yearslong series of payoffs to the aide, Linda Sun, in exchange for actions that benefited the People’s Republic of China and its Communist Party. The 65-page indictment also described travel benefits, event tickets and the promotion of a close friend’s freight business with a headquarters in Queens.
Prosecutors say that Ms. Sun blocked Taiwanese officials from having access to the governor’s office, eliminated references to Taiwan from state communications and quashed meetings between Taiwanese officials and state leaders, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, who succeeded Mr. Cuomo and who promoted Ms. Sun to deputy chief of staff.
She also ensured that state officials did not publicly address the persecution of Uyghurs, a primarily Muslim ethnic group that for more than a thousand years has lived in a region of what is now China, prosecutors said.”
New York Democrats aren’t the only ones in their party to have been connected to China. In August, it was revealed that Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz made some strange comments about China.
Walz, who taught social studies in Nebraska at the time, described the Chinese communist system in a way that appears to extol its virtues, emphasizing equality and state-provided necessities, wrote The Washington Free Beacon.
“It means that everyone is the same and everyone shares,” Walz said during a lesson on China’s communist system in November 1991. “The doctor and the construction worker make the same. The Chinese government and the place they work for provide housing and 14 kg or about 30 pounds of rice per month. They get food and housing.”
The Minnesota governor, according to reports, has visited China at least 30 times and was married on the anniversary of the Tienanmen Square crackdown. He later would say, “There was no doubt I would remember that date.”
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