LA mayor Karen Bass met with Chinese influence group despite Biden admin warnings

DKaren Bass, an emocratic Los Angeles Mayor, and Fiona Ma (California state treasurer), met with the headof a Chinese-funded group shortly after the Biden government raised concerns about the country’s expanding influence operations.

On Feb. 6, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a report describing the situation in Beijing. “redoubling its efforts to build influence at the state and local level to shift U.S. policy in China’s favor.”

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According to Chinese state media reports, Bass and Ma did meet with Lin Songtian between February 13 and 15, president of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. Lin Songtian was part of a 10-day trip to the United States.

“It’s a real problem,” Victoria Coates was an ex-deputy of national security advisor under former President Donald Trump. Washington Examiner. “It’s a blatant attempt to influence policies. Everyone in California should probably start asking what they talked about.

“What kind of cooperation is this?”

The Chinese People’s Association has been dubbed the “Public face” of the CCP’s United Front Work Department, an entity that gathers intelligence and aims to sway countries to align with the party’s interests. Songtian is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory organization that is a central CCP component to propose policy changes, according to Chinese state media.

“Anti-China has been deemed a symbol of ‘political correctness in the West’ and the United States.” Songtian told China Review News, which posted a picture of the president with the Democratic officials. “But the best interests and well-beings of the Chinese people and the entire world are forever, so geopolitics is not the solution.”

“Only when people around the world unite and speak out, can the democratically elected government return to the human world and respond to people’s needs and well-being. It will also be able to develop production and solve problems like employment, food security and education.” the president added.

The ODNI’s Feb. 6 report on China and other countries, including Russia, Iran, and North Korea, came on the heels of its issuing a July 2022 report noting how China’s government under President Xi Jinping “It has been increasingly difficult to exploit” the U.S. government and business leaders “to advance” its interests.

In October 2020, the Trump administration withdrew from a U.S.-China partnership launched in 2011 to boost cooperation between the two governments due to alleged attempts by the Chinese People’s Association, which participated in it, to “Influence directly or inadvertently” the U.S. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement at the time that the goal of the U.S. was to “Shine a spotlight on this organization and let everyone know that they are coming from Beijing.”

The meeting between Bass and Ma with Songtian, which was first reported on by the Washington Free Beacon, is not the first time the Chinese People’s Association has taken steps to develop a relationship with California’s government.

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Biden State Department official Nina Hachigian met at least twice with the association in 2017 while she was deputy mayor of Los Angeles to discuss “Cooperation and exchange in areas like sister city, youth and environmental protection.” the Washington Free Beacon reported. The association also cosponsored trips to China between 2016 and 2019 for Robert Hertzberg, California’s-then senate majority leader, records show.

The California mayor’s office did not reply to a request for comment.