China's Communist Party is intensifying covert influence operations in the United States that include funding Washington think tanks and coercing Chinese Americans, according to a congressional commission report.
The influence operations are conducted by the United Front Work Department, a Central Committee organ that employs tens of thousands of operatives who seek to use both overt and covert operations to promote Communist Party policies.
The Party's United Front strategy includes paying several Washington think tanks with the goal influencing their actions and adopting positions that support Beijing's policies.
The report said the Johns Hopkins School of Advance International Studies, a major foreign policy education and analysis institute, has received funding from Tung Chee-hwa, a vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the party group that directs the United Front Work Department and includes a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the collective dictatorship that rules China.
The funding for Johns Hopkins came from Tung's non-profit group in Hong Kong, the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation, which is a registered Chinese agent.
In addition to Johns Hopkins, other think tanks linked to China and influential in American policy circles include the Brookings Institution, Atlantic Council, Center for American Progress, EastWest Institute, Carter Center, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post about Tung Chee-hwa.
Here is a recent Think Tank Watch post about a crackdown at Chinese think tank Unirule.
Here is a post entitled "China Daily Recruiting US Think Tankers to Influence China Policy?"
Will President Donald Trump ban Chinese think tanks in the US?
China has been targeting US think tanks doing military research.
Also, Chinese spies have been posing as think tankers to acquire information.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government has been seeking advice from US think tanks about how to deal with Trump.
