For some reason, the Chinese Communist Party thinks that it has a potential ally in Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell, who is now running for governor of California.
The present-day victim of another CCP influence campaign, in 2020 Swalwell was in the news because of his involvement with one Christine Fang, a young woman who had raised funds for his 2014 reelection campaign.
He wasn’t her only target. From 2011 to 2015, Fang helped and spied on many political campaigns in California and around the country. The goal was to influence U.S. politicos in ways that could benefit the Chinese government. In 2015, after the FBI had begun investigating Fang and other Chinese spies, she abruptly returned to China. By then, after being alerted to her activities, Swalwell had cut ties with Fang. The whole episode was bad luck. Could happen to anybody not on the lookout for CCP agents intent on influencing U.S. politicians.
Now it’s years later. Enter Zhu Keliang, a major contributor to Swalwell’s current gubernatorial campaign. Zhu has all the background appropriate to a person eager to influence U.S. politicos on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (Fox News, February 27, 2026).
Zhu donated another $25,000 to Swalwell’s campaign earlier this month after he had already donated $5,000 to Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign in November and previously donated over $10,000 to his House campaigns.
Zhu is a partner at DeHeng Law Offices PC, a top Beijing law firm that has deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party and has also donated thousands to Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign….
While the firm [“established by the CCP’s Ministry of Justice in the early 1990s before being renamed the DeHeng Law Offices in 1995”], which has over two dozen offices in China, portrays itself as independent, the firm and its lawyers [have long cooperated] with the Chinese government’s departments and major state-owned enterprises. Many of the firm’s China-based attorneys also have a history of working in Chinese politics.
Zhu, who is originally from China, touts several examples of how he has helped Chinese state-owned enterprises and other Chinese companies get a foothold in the United States, according to his bio on the law firm’s website….
After a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit intended to stop a Texas law banning Chinese nationals from owning or leasing land in the state, Zhu described the legislation as “unfair, unconstitutional and un-American,” according to AsAmNews, a daily news site focused on Asian-American and Pacific-Islander communities. Zhu similarly expressed disfavor with a Florida law meant to prevent individuals from countries that are foreign adversaries to the United States, such as China, from buying up land.
State Armor Action’s Michael Lucci swats Swalwell for taking “even more money from Keliang Zhu after Zhu’s connections to the CCP were made public.”
Again, though, this could happen to any American politician who little heeds the whys and wherefores of CCP-entangled munificence and perhaps does not read exposés about contributors.
At least Swalwell is no longer on the House Intelligence Committee.
Also see:
DeHeng Law: “Keliang (Clay) ZHU”
Fox News: “Unearthed photo [shown above] of Swalwell meeting with top CCP official raises alarm bells: ‘Very disturbing’ ” (January 31, 2026)
“A previously unreported 2013 Facebook post by China’s San Francisco consulate shows then-freshman Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., touting ‘great potential’ for U.S.-China cooperation during a meeting with a senior CCP diplomat, which came during the same time period when Swalwell was allegedly targeted by Chinese espionage efforts.”
