Gavin Newsom’s China Trip Sheds California Association With CCP’s ‘Malignant’ Influence Operation

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent trip to China, in which he sought to bring China and California closer together to address climate change, shines a light on the state’s association with a “malign” Chinese Communist Party influence operation (PCC).

The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) was recently recognized for inviting California Governor Gavin Newsom to China, the DCNF. reported. However, CPAFFC’s ties to California go back more than a decade and include meetings with several Democratic lawmakers as well as a formal agreement in 2018, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of California government and CPAFFC records .

On September 12, 2018, then-Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with CPAFFC establishing a joint program that facilitates an annual US-China subnational climate dialogue, seconds to a copy of the agreement posted on the California Energy Commission’s website.

Two years later, the State Department characterized CPAFFC as part of a “malign” Chinese influence operation. The State Department also labeled the CPAFFC as a subsidiary of the United Front Work Department (UFWD), which conducts Chinese activities. intelligence i influenceence operationsaccording to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

“The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) is linked to the Department of Labor’s United Front, a Chinese intelligence arm,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, said in the DCNF. “It was extremely careless for Governor Gavin Newsom to visit China at the invitation of the CPAFFC.”

The 2018 MOU between the State of California and CPAFFC details the creation of the so-called “California-China Program”.

“To improve the bilateral relationship and foster collaboration, California and China agree to establish the California-China Program, coordinated by the Office of the Governor of California and the China Friendship Association, which will be affiliated with the Forum of US-China Governors, with the goal of building a regular dialogue between California and its Chinese subnational counterparts to discuss the critical issues of mutual interest noted above,” the 2018 MOU reads. “The California-China Program will facilitate a annual subnational climate dialogue between the United States and China, jointly established on September 12, 2018 at the Global Climate Action Summit.”

In 2011, the National Governors Association and CPAFFC established the US-China Governors Forum with support from the State Department and the Chinese government. The purpose of the forum was to “promote understanding and cooperation between the two sides by creating a peer-to-peer exchange platform for sub-national leaders to discuss areas of mutual interest.” seconds in State Department records.

But in October 2020, the State Department discontinued its participation in the MOU, accusing Beijing of using the forum to wage a campaign of “malign influence”. The department identified CPAFFC as part of this effort.

“The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), a Beijing-based organization tasked with co-opting sub-national governments, has attempted to directly and malignly influence state and local leaders to promote the global agenda of the PRC,” the 2020 press release continued. . “CPAFFC’s actions have undermined the well-intentioned original purpose of the Governors’ Forum.”

‘Local autonomy’

Newsom’s week-long visit to China it began on and including October 23 it stops in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, according to the governor’s office. While in China, Newsom driving test chinese electric vehicles, on slide by the Great Wall of China, i known with General Secretary Xi Jinping, according to various reports.

However, Newsom faced criticism to fail raise human rights abuses with Xi and for attending meetings with CPAFFC leaders, such as the October 26 Great Wall Climate Dialogue in Beijing, which CPAFFC co-hosted.

A former senior State Department official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told the DCNF that CPAFFC was “100 percent United Front.” The former official also said the US-China Governors’ Forum was “actively infiltrated” to exploit the US federal system and turn subnational leaders against the federal government.

“One of the most difficult things to deal with in China is that we are a federal system, the states have a lot of autonomy,” the official told the DCNF. “The United Front will use sub-national entities, state governments and local governments to isolate, first, the federal government; number two, to penetrate the essence of American democracy: that is local self-government.”

The State Department and FBI declined DCNF’s request for comment on CPAFFC. A spokesperson for the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) called the State Department’s October 2020 announcement a “public notice.”

The DNI spokesperson also referred the DCNF to a 2022 National Counterintelligence and Security Center fact sheet that characterizes CPFFC as “closely tied to the CCP’s politically influential bureaucracy.”

Over the past decade, CPAFFC leaders have met with a number of California Democratic politicians, including former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, former California State Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg and ‘former Gov. Jerry Brown, the group’s records show.

For example, Garcetti met with CPAFFC leaders in Beijing to discuss climate and other issues in November 2014. seconds on the group’s website. Also, Hertzberg met with CPAFFC leaders in Beijing to discuss subnational cooperation in November 2015, CPAFFC website reports.

As for Brown, he began meeting with CPAFFC as early as February 2012 when he hosted the CPAFFC-supported US-China Governors Forum Roundtable with then-Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in Los angels seconds in the governor’s office.

Brown continued to meet with CPAFFC leadership before signing the 2018 MOU between the State of California and CPAFCC. This included back-to-back meetings in June 2017 china and the WEduring which Brown and Chinese officials discussed the environment and other issues, according to CPAFFC’s website.

“It is essential that the United States further investigate the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to undermine our country’s national security and ensure that it is not conducting espionage against the United States,” Senator Blackburn told the DCNF.

Newsom’s office, Garcetti, Brown and the California Energy Commission did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Hertzberg declined the DCNF’s request for comment.

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