With the 2022 midterm elections just around the corner, an influential Chinese-American nonprofit bashed California Republican Michelle Steel’s campaign ads as “racist.”
Now that same organization, the Committee of 100, is under scrutiny for close ties with the Chinese Communist Party and Beijing-supported firms.
The CCP’s inhumanity and brutality on the people of China is unacceptable.
I stand with the courageous protesters in China who want freedom and justice.
We must never take for granted the freedom we have in America.
— Michelle Steel (@MichelleSteelCA) November 30, 2022
A Washington Free-Beacon report revealed the group, which theoretically supports the advancement of U.S.-China relations, may not be the nonpartisan entity it purports to be.
Steel ran ads critical of Democratic challenger Jay Chen’s previous endorsement of the Confucius Classroom program, a controversial effort by the CCP to support the placement of China-friendly teachers and materials in U.S. K-12 classrooms.
According to the Committee of 100, these ads promoted “anti-Asian hate and violence.”
Of course, these accusations garnered coverage in mainstream news outlets such as NPR and the Los Angeles Times. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee jumped on board to proclaim that Chinese Americans rejected Steel, a Korean American.
A closer look at the Committee of 100, however, revealed an organization with several members, staff, and former leaders harboring close ties to the CCP.
As the Examiner reported, committee member Ronnie Chan is on the governing board of the China-United States Exchange Foundation. This is in fact a Chinese foreign agent funded by the CCP.
One of Chan’s colleagues, Yu Meng, served for three years as an official with the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. Yu was reportedly recruited to the position by China’s Thousand Talents Program, which the FBI found is involved with “non-traditional espionage against the U.S.”
Further, Committee of 100 senior communications director Charles Zinkowski is the former media relations director in the U.S. for Huawei. This controversial tech company is blamed for assisting the Chinese government to monitor Uyghur Muslims in its western concentration camps.
Far from being an entity that merely “represents Chinese Americans,” as the U.S. media described them, the Committee of 100 is much more than a group seeking closer and peaceful ties. And for Rep. Steel to be branded a “racist” by the organization should be considered a badge of honor.
