Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has been linked to Chinese intelligence for the second time.
Once an operative for a Cuban intelligence front, Bass is thick as thieves with two Chinese intelligence operatives, the Daily Caller has revealed. The website’s report follows its revelation in June that Chinese intelligence had penetrated her administration.
Bass is the second far-left, big-city Democratic mayor linked to Chinese Reds. Boston’s Michelle Wu has the same suspicious ties.
The Latest Link
The Daily Caller’s report is, as they say in politics, bad optics, at least for real Americans.
Bass’ “transition advisory team enlisted two Chinese intelligence-tied bankers who have fundraised for her and a nonprofit she helps lead,” the website reported:
Bass appointed Dominic Ng, CEO of East West Bank, and Simon Pang, co-founder of Royal Business Bank, to her mayoral transition advisory team in December 2022, according to the City of Los Angeles. In total, Ng, East West Bank and Pang have donated upwards of $1 million to Bass’ mayoral campaign and the Mayor’s Fund For Los Angeles, where Bass serves as an advisor to the board of directors, according to the nonprofit.
Amusingly, the website reported that what Ng and Pang did for the transition is “unclear.” One thing is clear: They are Chinese Communist Party spies.
“Both have extensive ties to the Chinese government and have also been listed as holding positions within arms of a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence and intelligence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD),” the website reported.
Sam Cooper, a Canadian reporter and the author of Wilful Blindness: How a Network of Narcos, Tycoons and CCP Agents Infiltrated the West, told the website that anyone in UFWD who lands on a mayor’s transition team “is a huge red flag.”
“In fact,” he told the website, “they’re often placed on these teams as a reward for channeling significant donations.” As well, “when donors connected to United Front groups have significant wealth and show up constantly around politicians, they’re there for a reason,” he said.
The Daily Caller reported that Bass’ campaigns for Congress and mayor and her Mayor’s Fund for the city hauled in “as much as $33,000 from Pang.” Pang is supposed to co-opt American elected officials.
“Pang donated $3,800 to Bass’ congressional campaign between 2019 and 2020, and has contributed $4,700 to Bass’ mayoral campaign since 2021, according to Federal Election Commission and Los Angeles Ethics Commission filings,” the website found:
Pang has reportedly held multiple positions with the Chinese government, such as serving as the “Southern California coordinator” for the Chinese People’s Association For Friendship With Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), according to the Burbank, California government website.
CPAFFC
Affiliated with the United Front, CPAFFC has an interesting task from the Chinese government: “influencing foreign leaders in order to promote China’s agenda.” That included pushing elected officials “in Irvine, California to sever ties with Taiwan’s government in 2006, according to the U.S. Director of National Intelligence.”
Bass’ Mayor’s Fund has collected “between $5,000 and $24,999 from Pang.”
CPAFFC’s former chairwoman, Li Xiaolin, awarded Pang — whose Chinese name is Feng Zhenfa — the honorary title of “Sino-U.S. Friendship Envoy” in 2019 for his contribution to the development of friendship between American and Chinese people, according to a DCNF [Daily Caller News Foundation] translation of a Chinese government announcement.
One photo accompanying that announcement shows Pang wearing a “Mao suit” alongside CPAFFC’s chairwoman within Beijing’s Great Hall of the People during a Chinese government reception celebrating the communist nation’s 70th anniversary.
CPAFFC’s subsequent chairman, Lin Songtian, appointed Pang to serve as an “overseas honorary director” of CPAFFC’s Shanghai branch in February 2023, according to a DCNF translation of a CPAFFC announcement, which includes a photo showing Lin handing Pang a framed document.…
By December 2019, Pang and a nonprofit he heads, called the U.S.-Sino Friendship Association, had already led nine delegations of U.S. lawmakers to China to meet with CPAFFC officials, and continued to take lawmakers to China until at least 2023.… In one instance, Pang helped bring 21 mayors to meet with CPAFFC officials in Hubei Province in May 2014, Chinese state media reported. The majority of those lawmakers have been Democratic Party politicians, according to a DCNF review.
Pang also linked Bass to well-heeled “Chinese-American” donors during her mayoral run, the website revealed.
Big-time Donor
Ng is an even bigger hitter. He and East West Bank, the website disclosed, have donated “upwards of $1 million” to Bass and her mayor’s fund:
Ng contributed $1,500 to Bass’ mayoral campaign in April 2022, according to the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, and the East West Bank Foundation has donated between $100,000 and $999,999 to the Mayor’s Fund For Los Angeles during the current reporting period, the nonprofit’s website states.
Ng’s link to Chinese intelligence goes through the China Overseas Exchange Association (COEA). Not surprisingly, UFWD controlled COEA until 2019, when the Chinese Overseas Friendship Association absorbed it.
Ng’s East West Bank denied any connection to UFWD.
Still, Bass thinks the world of Ng, the website continued. She gave him the “Twice a Citizen” award in June.
First Links
In June, the Daily Caller disclosed that the UFWD — again, controlled by China’s Communist Party — had penetrated the Bass administration.
“An official in Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ administration is the son of a Chinatown powerbroker and Democratic donor who has praised the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and works with foreign intelligence agencies,” the website reported:
Adam Ma has held multiple positions in Bass’ office, his LinkedIn profile states, and now serves as both the city’s liaison for Asian-Americans and director of commission appointments, according to the Los Angeles government website. His father, who raised tens of thousands of dollars for Bass’ mayoral campaign, previously lauded the Communist Party for creating a “strong China” and is listed as an official by multiple arms of a Chinese government influence and intelligence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD).
Gordon Chang, author of Plan Red: China’s Project to Destroy America, was unequivocal.
“The Communist Party’s UFWD has, in fact, penetrated Karen Bass’s office,” he told the website:
There is a high probability that, wittingly or unwittingly, she is implementing Chinese Communist plans to take down our country. She may be a loyal American, but she has almost certainly become a danger to America.
Ma’s father is Ma Shurong, who “has extensive ties to high-ranking CCP leaders and has served as an official within multiple UFWD agencies, according to Chinese government reports,” the website reported.
The site detailed Shurong’s many globe-trotting activities on behalf of China.
Unhappily, Bass’ working with hostile foreign intelligence organizations is not a one-off.
When President Joe Biden was imprudently considering Bass as a possible veep candidate, her past with the Venceremos Brigade — a Cuban intelligence front — resurfaced.
“An event blurb in an October 1975 issue of the communist Daily World newspaper describes Bass, then 22, as ‘leader of the Venceremos Brigade in southern California,’” Tablet reported in 2020:
Bass herself explained her work for the brigade to a doctoral candidate working on a 1996 Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the Fielding Institute, titled “Women Activists of Diverse Backgrounds: A Qualitative Study of Perceived Influences and Values.” “Another critical influence for Bass began, at age 19, and spanned the next five years: Cuba,” reads the document, written by Dawn Noggle, who is currently the director of mental health services for the Maricopa County correctional system. “As a ‘brigadista’ and then organizer for the Venceremos Brigades, Karen visited Cuba every 6 months.”
When the Venceremos activists went to Cuba, they learned to make bombs.
Wu’s Link
In April, as The New American reported, the Daily Caller revealed Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s link to China.
His name is Gary Yu, the website revealed. A “recruiter” for the Chinese government, Yu showered Wu’s campaign with big bucks.
Yu founded Boston International Media Consulting, and “helped raise over $300,000 for Wu with the help of a Chinese civic association he leads,” the Daily Caller reported:
However, Yu — whose Chinese name is Yu Guoliang — is listed as an official by an agency of a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence and intelligence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), and also operates as a recruiter for the Chinese government, according to reports from the CCP, Chinese state media and civic associations led by Yu.
Chang’s assessment: “There is no ethnic Chinese official in America who is not targeted. It’s time for law enforcement to investigate the CCP’s ties to Gary Yu and Yu’s ties to Mayor Michelle Wu.”
