Probably not. If, in light of everything already known about Mamdani, New York City’s pro-commie, pro-intifada voters and mental-blank voters are still giving this mayoral candidate a plurality in election surveys, enough of a plurality to win the general election against a divided and obtuse opposition, it doesn’t seem that damaging information about the types of persons who support him will turn the tide.
The reporting is that top donors of Mamdani’s PAC “worked for firm accused of being national security threat with alleged China ties” (New York Post, September 13, 2025).
AppLovin
Omer Hasan, until recently a vice president of operations for a firm called AppLovin, in September gave $250,000 to the Mamdani-backing PAC New Yorkers for Lower Costs. Mohammad Javed, a former director of engineering for the same company, which he left in 2021, gave the PAC $251,500.
Neither has been “accused of any wrongdoing, and it’s unclear why they left the fast-growing Silicon Valley company, which is trying to acquire TikTok’s former [former?] China assets.”
But:
Short-selling firm Culper Research issued a February report accusing AppLovin of illicit backdoor app installations that trick users into downloading malicious software, The Street reported.
In June, Culper issued another scathing report, this time alleging AppLovin is both a bad investment and a national security risk because Chinese national Hao Tang controls at least 9.8% of the company.
“Our research reveals Hao Tang has numerous ties to the CCP, money laundering and human trafficking operations,” said the report, referring to China’s ruling communist party….
Applovin CEO Adam Foroughi denied the company has operational ties to China during an April interview with Fox News but said “we are a public company. We got investors all over the world.”
There’s a little more to the story, though, than Hao Tang’s supposedly nonoperational current 9.8% ownership or the company’s Foroughi-touted worldwide appeal to investors. The Street reports that according to Culper Research, AppLovin “has misrepresented ‘the scope of both its Chinese shareholders and its Chinese operations,’ compromising U.S. national security.” So Culper is saying that Foroughi is lying.
As quoted by The Street, Culper Research also says that AppLovin “has been backed since at least 2017 by Chinese national Hao Tang, who—through a web of offshore shell companies and aided by AppLovin’s vague if not deliberately obfuscated disclosures—controlled up to 28% of AppLovin Class A shares ahead of the Company’s 2021 IPO, and continues to control at least 9.8% of Class A shares.”
Enter TikTok
The Street says that much of Culper’s “bearish thesis” focuses on “Hao Tang and his alleged ties to Applovin…. However, it also highlights Applovin’s quest to acquire TikTok’s former [former?] China assets, which Foroughi framed earlier this year as an opportunity ripe with potential.”
Culper says: “Tang’s network is involved in money laundering, human trafficking, illegal gambling, and data-harvesting. These are all activities the U.S. government has time and time again called out in China. In our view, Tang’s background disqualifies AppLovin’s pursuit of TikTok’s ex-China business, and AppLovin’s misleading disclosures around Tang’s ownership suggest a cover-up.”
Culper Research wants the feds to evaluate whether a major U.S. tech company like AppLovin, with ties to people like Tang who must answer to the Chinese Communist Party, can be trusted with data on American TIkTok users that is to be withdrawn from a major tech company, ByteDance, because it must answer to the Chinese Communist Party.
Another question is, will the hundreds of thousands of dollars contributed to the Lower Costs PAC by former principals of CCP-lovin’ AppLovin give Chinese Communist Party influence operators a means of exerting influence on a Mamdani administration?
Also see:
Culper Research: “AppLovin (APP): Behind the Red Curtain—CCP Intelligence, Human Trafficking, Money Laundering; Undisclosed Stock Pledges; Secret Chinese e-Commerce Deals”
“So who is Hao Tang—AppLovin’s longtime Chinese backer…? In what follows, we detail—using entirely public sources—Hao Tang’s numerous connections to Chinese espionage, propaganda, data harvesting, human trafficking, money laundering, murder-for-hire, and other such unsavory operations.” A 30-page report.
