“The Communist Party’s UFWD never rests,” says author Gordon Chang, student of China. “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” (“Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ Leader’s Campaign Bankrolled By Dem Power Broker Tied To Chinese Intel Agency,” Daily Caller, April 14, 2025).
Chang was responding to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s discovery that in 2021, mayoral candidate Michelle Wu “received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fundraiser who is listed by a Chinese intelligence agency as an official.”
Recruiting
The United Front Work Department or UFWD is the CCP’s network of influence and intelligence operations; it “also operates as a recruiter for the Chinese government, according to reports from the CCP, Chinese state media and civic associations led by Yu.”
Gary Yu, founder of Boston International Media Consulting, worked to raise over $300,000 for Wu’s mayoral campaign. Yu has often met with CCP intelligence officers in China.
Yu also agreed to headhunt U.S. talent for at least half a dozen Chinese regional governments, including the cities of Hangzhou and Guangzhou….
For instance, in November 2019, the CCP announced that Yu agreed to establish an “Overseas Talent Recruitment Work Station” in North America for the party’s Organization Department in Nanning, a city located in the Guangxi Autonomous Region.
The Organization Department oversees China’s malign talent recruitment programs, like the Thousand Talents Plan, which incentivizes participants to “return to China to augment its scientific and military capabilities,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
“Wu’s ultra-leftism makes her the perfect candidate for CCP recruitment and capture,” Chang told Daily Caller. “Or do we have it backward? Is her ultra-leftism the result of CCP recruitment and capture? More than just the people of Boston would like to know.”
They’re a front
“China’s strategy to influence state and local policymakers is executed, in part, through hundreds of ostensibly ‘civil society’ organizations that are actually affiliated with the CCP’s UFWD,” says Michael Lucci, founder of State Armor, an organization which seeks to counter that influence.
“Public officials need to thoroughly vet any organization and individual that has ties to China’s government” and work with state and federal law enforcement as necessary. “It is well-known that China’s government seeks to influence U.S. politics and place agents within our governance systems to further the CCP’s agenda. We need to stop letting them get away with it.”
Last year, FBI investigators discovered that in New York State, the governor’s mansion had long been infiltrated by a spy for China, Linda Sun. Sun had worked as a top aide for both Governor Cuomo and Governor Hochul.
Also see:
State Armor: “Protecting States From the China Threat”
“Protecting Critical Infrastructure ● Building Supply Chains of Freedom ● Stopping Influence Operations ● Preparing for Conflict.”
