WASHINGTON — The U.S. counterintelligence agency is ramping up a campaign to warn state and local leaders, as well as business leaders, against what they see as the toughest recourse increasingly frequent by China in both overt and covert means aimed at influencing policies in the country.
A notice issued Wednesday by the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) points to an aggressive and escalating campaign by China to influence state and local leaders , tribal and business leaders and to put pressure on them amid heightened tensions with Washington.
During an event hosted by the Senate Intelligence Committee last February, representatives from the NCSC, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) urged state and local officials across the country to to be wary of the risks of Chinese influence, according to sources familiar with the situation. Since then, said these sources, these representatives have carried out other awareness-raising actions of this type.
A DHS spokesperson said the department has stepped up engagement with all levels of government, while Democrat Mark Warner (MP from Virginia) and Republican Marco Rubio (Florida), who lead the Senate Intelligence Committee , urged a redoubling of efforts to confront the threat posed by China. The FBI declined to comment.
Michael Orlando, who leads the NCSC, informed the Wall Street Journal Chinese campaigns and explained that the pace of influence operations at the state and local community levels had accelerated as positions on Beijing in Washington, particularly among members of Congress, had hardened. These operations “have become more aggressive and more widespread”, he said.
The caveat states that China’s attempts to influence range from public diplomacy, where the role of the Chinese government is officially recognized, to covert activities where Beijing’s hand “is hidden, and operates coercively, even criminal”.
According to this warning, the tactics used include harvesting personal data from state and local leaders and their associates; to target such figures early in their careers with the aim of using them for China’s interests if they rose to high-level positions; and to use trade and investment to reward or punish leaders.
The goal, the warning document says, includes promoting pro-China US policies and reducing criticism of China’s policy toward Taiwan — a democratically ruled island that China claims. as part of its territory — and the lack of respect for human rights in the regions of Tibet and Xinjiang, controlled by China. Ultimately, it says, the Chinese government’s attempts are likely to “threaten the integrity of the American policy-making process and interfere with the functioning of the civil, economic, and political life of the United States.” »
Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said the content of this warning is based on speculation and Beijing does not interfere. “China has always adhered to the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, and we have no interest in interfering in US internal affairs,” he said.
The advice from the counterintelligence services says the measures to warn business leaders and local and state leaders are not intended to call for beware of Chinese people or Chinese Americans. Orlando clarifies that many of China’s interactions with local or state governments involve entirely legitimate trade deals that benefit both parties. Sometimes, he said, Beijing seeks to use these agreements for political gain.
The communication from counterintelligence officials follows a decision by the Justice Department last February to end a program dating from Donald Trump’s presidency called the China Initiative. This was designed to counter national security threats, particularly Chinese attempts to target the fields of science and new technologies. The move led to a series of lawsuits against academics suspected of lying to the US government about their affiliations with China. Some of these lawsuits have ended in failure and overall the measures have sown suspicion in higher education and some Asian-American groups have complained that they unfairly target Chinese scholars.
The notice released Wednesday identifies a Chinese Communist Party agency, the United Front Work Department, as the driving force behind the overseas influence attempts, and suspects it of working through numerous organizations.
According to this document, the Chinese Ministries of External Affairs, State Security and Education are also involved; as well as embassies and consulates in the United States as well as various “quasi-official entities or agents”.
Among the groups mentioned is the National Association for the Peaceful Unification of China, which presents itself as a non-profit organization based in Washington and advocates positions aligned with those of Beijing on Taiwan and of Tibet. This group was designated in 2020 by the Trump administration as a Chinese foreign mission – a status that amounts to being affiliated with the government – because it would be controlled by the United Front.
The Trump administration had halted participation in a memorandum of understanding signed in 2011 that supported the creation of a National Governors Forum between the United States and China. She justified the decision by arguing that the Beijing-based Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries sought to “exert harmful influence on state and local leaders” and “undermined the well-meaning initial intention of the Governors Forum”.
At the time, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman criticized the move and said the Peaceful Unification Group was a normal organization and the Friendship Association “a civil organization dedicated to promoting friendly exchanges.” and cooperation between China and the rest of the world, especially the United States. »
Chinese officials and delegates have threatened to suspend investment or block access to their market if Beijing’s interests are not taken into account, the notice states.
In another case cited by this document, a federal complaint made public in March alleges that a Chinese spy hired a private investigator with instructions to end the campaign of a candidate for the House of Representatives for state. of New York, violently if necessary, and that he had ordered her to “beat him until he was incapable of running for office”. The candidate in question, who in 1989 was a student leader of the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, fled China and became a US citizen.
The advisory advises state and local leaders to guard against Chinese operations by refusing to sign any deal that would violate domestic U.S. policies, even if it would benefit a locality in the short term ; to insist on the transparency and public nature of the terms of all the agreements concluded, and to share their experiences with other local leaders as well as with the American authorities.
Translated from the original English version by Bérengère Viennot
