Exclusive: A suspected Chinese intelligence operative bundled donations for Eric Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign. The operation targeted politicians in California and across the country. The suspected operative, a Chinese national named Christine Fang, enrolled as a student at Cal State East Bay in 2011.
Fang’s friends and acquaintances said she was in her late 20s or early 30s, though she looked younger and blended in well with the undergraduate population. She was the president of the Chinese Student Association and the campus chapter of APAPA, an Asian American civic organization. She was good at running these clubs and held a flurry of events that raised their profile — and hers.
While she was a student at CSU East Bay, Christine Fang also had regular contact with a suspected MSS officer under diplomatic cover in the San Francisco consulate, though U.S. intelligence officials believe her main handlers were based in China.
Christine used her position as president of these two campus organizations to branch out into local off-campus politics. Between 2013 and 2015, she experienced an almost meteoric rise in Bay Area politics, becoming a ubiquitous presence at fundraisers and other political events.
Christine Fang was “everywhere,” to quote several people who knew her. She appears in photos with Eric Swalwell, Ro Khanna, Judy Chu, and Mike Honda, and numerous mayors, state assembly members, town council members, staffers, and other prominent politicos. Through campaign fundraising, extensive networking, personal charisma, and romantic or sexual relationships, Fang was able to gain proximity to political power.
Christine Fang engaged in sexual or romantic relationships with at least two mayors of Midwestern cities over about three years, according to one U.S. intelligence official and one former elected official.
At least two separate sexual interactions with elected officials, including one of these Midwestern mayors, were caught on FBI electronic surveillance of Fang. One of these encounters occurred in a car with a mayor from Ohio.
The alleged operation offers a rare window into how Beijing has tried to gain access to and influence U.S. political circles. The Chinese Communist Party knows that today’s mayors and city council members are tomorrow’s governors and members of Congress.
Close relationships between a U.S. elected official and a covert Chinese intelligence operative can provide the Chinese government with opportunities to sway the opinion of key decision-makers.
Beijing may aim to influence foreign policy issues directly related to China, or issues closer to home, such as partnering with Chinese companies for local investment — an issue particularly salient among local-level officials such as mayors and city council members.
Chinese Americans find themselves in a difficult position in 2020, being squeezed both by influence campaigns from the Chinese government and a rise in anti-Chinese racism in the United States.
“We want to fight against racism, we want to call it out,” Gilbert Wong, the former mayor of Cupertino who had interacted with Christine Fang on several occasions, told Axios. “How do we address this issue without infringing on Chinese American rights?”
Rep. Ro Khanna, who also interacted with Christine Fang, expressed concern about the potential “chilling effect” of surveillance on Chinese American political participation.”While I respect the need for law enforcement to protect our nation from espionage, we need strict guardrails to make sure the FBI’s investigations do not have collateral damage to the privacy of American citizens or the legitimacy of Asian Americans,” said Khanna.
This story took an immense amount of reporting. We spoke with 4 current and former U.S. intelligence officials, as well as 22 current and former elected officials, organizers, activists, and former students who knew Christine Fang personally while she was in the U.S.
Fang was put under FBI surveillance, four current and former U.S. officials said. The FBI’s San Francisco Division led a counterintelligence investigation into Fang’s activities, according to one current and one former U.S. intelligence official.
“The fact that she was travelling around the country” getting close to U.S. politicians “was a big red flag,” said one of the officials. “She was on a mission.”
What happened next: Senior U.S. intelligence officials provided multiple defensive briefings around 2015 to warn targeted local and national politicians about Fang’s connections to Chinese intelligence and potential Chinese assets in their offices, one of these officials said.
U.S. intelligence officials also provided multiple briefings to White House officials and members of Congress on the case, a current senior official said.
Bill Harrison, the mayor of Fremont, California, at that time, said he knew Fang because she volunteered in his office and participated in numerous local political and community events. Harrison told Axios that in August 2015 he was contacted by FBI officials who warned him about Fang’s suspected activities in the Bay Area.
Bureau officials said Fang’s activities were part of a “long gameplay” targeting local politicians, Harrison recalled. The FBI told him the Chinese government’s strategy is “to strike up a relationship with you and see if you move up the line,” Harrison said.
How it ended: Fang left the U.S. suddenly
U.S. officials said China’s intelligence operation broke up in mid-2015 when Fang left the U.S. amid the FBI-led probe.
Fang had planned to travel to Washington, D.C., to attend a June 2015 event. But shortly beforehand, she said she could no longer attend because she unexpectedly needed to return to China, according to an acquaintance from California on the same trip, who spoke with Axios.
Many of Fang’s political contacts in the Bay Area were surprised and confused about her sudden departure from the country.
“When she left kind of abruptly, we all kind of scratched our heads,” recalled Harrison, the former Fremont mayor. (The FBI reached out to Harrison after Fang’s departure.)
“She disappeared off the face of everything,” remembered Gilbert Wong, the former mayor of Cupertino, California, who had seen Fang frequently at political events.
But in the months surrounding her departure, rumours swirled in Bay Area political circles that the FBI was investigating her, according to four local organizers, political operatives, and elected officials who knew her.
Fang has not returned to the U.S., said intelligence officials and her former political acquaintances. She appears to have largely cut off contact with her U.S.-based friends and the networks she spent years building in California.
Source: This article was originally posted as a thread by B Allen Ebrahimian on Twitter and published in AXIOS. You can go through the full report here
https://www.axios.com/china-spy-california-politicians-9d2dfb99-f839-4e00-8bd8-59dec0daf589.html
Exclusive: A suspected Chinese intelligence operative bundled donations for Eric Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign.
— B. Allen-Ebrahimian (@BethanyAllenEbr) December 8, 2020
The operation targeted politicians in California & across the country.
Read Axios' year-long investigation, by me and @zachsdorfman: https://t.co/kY4BHIAvZh
