Activist groups with ties to the Chinese Communist Party have disrupted U.S. Senate hearings and “have engaged in violent, antisemitic riots in many cities across the United States,” Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote last week to Merrick Garland, the U.S. attorney general.
A U.S. citizen living in Shanghai with ties to the CCP has funded many far-left and pro-Hamas organizations across America, according to reports in The New York Times and Washington Free Beacon. They apparently did not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
“As you are no doubt aware, the CCP is engaged in an all-out information war against the United States,” the senators wrote. “Beijing seeks to influence foreign audiences around two key precepts: ‘united front work’ and ‘external propaganda work.’”
The former “involves garnering support for the CCP and its objectives while neutralizing opposition, whereas external propaganda work is centered around controlling the information domain in foreign countries to align with Beijing’s preferences,” the senators wrote. “The United States can and should protect legitimate political discourse, but we must not tolerate attempts by our primary adversary to exploit our open system to promote its malign agenda.”