Report: CCP-Linked Orgs Hold Vast Sway over Local Elections in NYC

A new report has revealed that dozens of Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-backed nonprofit organizations in New York City are illegally undermining local candidates for public office who support Taiwan and Hong Kong democracy and endorsing others who hold pro-CCP views. Experts say the Trump administration should take action to dissolve any organizations based in the U.S. that are linked to the communist regime.

The New York Times published an exposé Monday detailing how organizations known as “hometown associations,” which outwardly claim to serve as a kind of “heritage club” in cities with large populations of immigrants in order to “welcome newcomers, organize parades and foster social connections,” in reality have deep connections to the CCP via China’s consulate located in Midtown Manhattan. Some of these associations include the American Fujian Houyu Association, the American Jin Feng Federation, the Fujian Foundation in USA, the Wenshang Association, and the American Lianjiang Association, among many others.

CCP officials that work for the consulate have such an iron grip on the hometown associations that they have led dozens of ceremonies hosted by the associations, in which the members pledge oaths of loyalty to the “motherland,” recite vows to promote “reunification” with Taiwan, and sing “My Chinese Heart,” which the NYT notes is “a popular patriotic ballad in China.”

As the NYT discovered, consulate officials have also enlisted many of the hometown associations to undermine the political campaigns of multiple local candidates running for public office who hold views that are disfavored by the CCP, including supporting Taiwan’s independence, supporting democracy in Hong Kong, or criticizing the Xi Jinping regime.

In one instance, a hometown association leader helped to sabotage the congressional campaign of Yan Xiong, a U.S. citizen and retired Army chaplain, who planned to run in a district that included Chinatown, Manhattan, and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Xiong had helped to lead the student protests in 1989 that led to the Tiananmen Square massacre, and had spent two years in a Beijing prison. Jimmy Cheng, who led the United Fujianese of America Association in New York City and claimed that he could deliver 3,000 votes to Xiong, “duped him into being photographed in front of a backdrop claiming he opposed the creation of a museum honoring Tiananmen Square victims.” CCP operatives then spread the photo on the internet, and Xiong ended up losing the primary.

In other instances, hometown associations helped to unseat a state senator as retribution for attending a banquet in honor of the president of Taiwan, and also spread photos on social media of a New York City Council candidate at a 2023 rally supporting the democracy movement in Hong Kong, which led to the candidate’s eventual loss after numerous hometown groups threw their support behind a pro-CCP candidate.

Meanwhile, at least nine hometown associations in NYC are also endorsing the reelection campaign of Mayor Eric Adams (D). As the NYT discovered, at least 19 out of 53 associations that have direct ties to the CCP are registered as charities and classify themselves as tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, while at the same time endorsing political candidates and hosting fundraisers for them. But experts like Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a law professor at Notre Dame, say that this is “a clear violation of the limits that Congress has put on their tax-exempt status.”

The hometown groups even hold influence over New York’s top elected official, Governor Kathy Hochul (D). As the NYT reported, the Asian American Community Empowerment nonprofit held a fundraiser for Hochul in December 2021. Two months later, Hochul “announced that $10 million in pandemic aid would be distributed to dozens of Asian groups,” including $45,000 for Asian American Community Empowerment.

Experts like Gordon Chang, who is an author and serves as a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, say that the Trump administration should take direct action to shut down any entity with clear ties to Xi Jinping’s communist regime.

“The Communist Party’s United Front Work Department has thoroughly infiltrated the Chinese-American community in New York,” he told The Washington Stand. “The CCP has, among other things, been illegally interfering in elections, corrupting politicians and others. This is the poisoning of our country.”

Chang continued, “The solution is clear: Close China’s New York consulate for continually violating our sovereignty, expel the diplomats stationed there, disband the ‘hometown associations’ and similar organizations, investigate the officers and employees of these groups, deport communist sympathizers who are not citizens, and break up the networks of China’s operatives and agents operating in our country.”

“Our enemies are here and operating openly,” he added. “We need, to borrow a CCP phrase, to ‘strike hard.’ This is our country. Why do we put up with this?”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Sanctuary Cities Defy Trump’s Orders in a Legal and ‘Moral’ Showdown

Trump Teases Using National Guard to Clean Up Crime in Baltimore, Chicago

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.