Congressional Republicans have urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate nonprofit organizations linked to the Chinese Communist Party. After months of inaction, they have resorted to taking them up on their own.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) “is demanding records from The People’s Forum, a New York-based 501(c)(3) organization following mounting evidence that shows that this organization has acted as a foreign agent of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and has received millions of dollars in funding from a known CCP ally, Neville Roy Singham, while enjoying the benefits of U.S. tax-exempt status” a news release from the committee reads.
MAJOR CCP-BACKED NGO RECEIVES TENS OF MILLIONS EACH YEAR IN FEDERAL GRANTS
As Smith said, “public reporting suggests that The People’s Forum has received over $20 million from Mr. Singham and his wife, Jodie Evans, the co-founder of CODEPINK, between 2017 and 2022 through shell companies and donor-advised funds.”
In its report, the Ways and Means Committee outlined its concern over the donor because he lives in Shanghai and has several deep ties with the CCP, which poses a threat to American national security.
According to the report, Singham works “with and physically alongside a foreign propaganda company, and attends CCP forums on how to promote the party, through “agents of a foreign principle” such as the People’s Forum.
“Using tax-exempt status to spread foreign propaganda while acting as a foreign agent is unacceptable and illegal,” Smith wrote. “The evidence presented in this letter makes it abundantly clear that The People’s Forum has been directly funded, as you admit, and influenced by Mr. Singham’s CCP affiliations.”
Earlier in the year, other influential Republicans begged Bondi’s Justice Department to investigate the allegations and shut down the CCP-linked groups if found to be in violation of federal law.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) urged Bondi back in April to define what the DOJ has “done to assess whether The People’s Forum and Code Pink should register under FARA,” given their alleged ties to the CCP.
Grassley, the Senate president pro tempore, also asked if the DOJ “sent a letter of inquiry or letter of determination” to the organizations and their agents asking them about whether their efforts are to influence U.S. policy.
Grassley then asked if the organizations or their agents ever requested an advisory opinion from the DOJ on whether they should be required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Lastly, Grassley asked the DOJ if it has “investigated any ongoing covered political activity by The People’s Forum or Code Pink in the years since these lobbying and public relations efforts occurred.”
The DOJ has yet to respond.
The DOJ’s silence on the matter is concerning for American taxpayers, given that these CCP-backed groups are hindering America’s national security at America’s expense.
As Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) noted, the CCP pushed “efforts to expand its influence in the United States through funding far-left entities that oppose U.S. foreign policy interests and advocate the interests of foreign adversaries.”
There are at least eight other organizations with possible ties to the CCP that have previously been on the government’s radar, such as the Centre for the Governance of Artificial Intelligence.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration received numerous calls for action from Congress on these questionable organizations and their repeated violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which were disregarded. However, that was the Biden administration, Beijing’s puppet Cabinet.
President Donald Trump’s administration is supposed to be different. Trump promised to stand strong against China, and his DOJ’s silence towards these nonprofits has raised questions about the integrity of his promise.