A Chinese spy cultivated deep connections with U.S. Democratic politicians for years, including with Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, to send political intelligence and personal information back to communist China, according to reporting by Axios.
Axios reporters spoke to U.S. intelligence officials and former acquaintances of the spy, Fang Fang or Christine Fang, to outline how under the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), one of the country’s primary spying agencies, she collected private information on U.S. bureaucrats, especially those in California’s Bay Area.
According to U.S. intelligence officials and a former politician, between 2011 and 2015, Fang socialized, networked with Rep. Judy Chu and then-Rep. Mike Honda, campaigned for now-Rep. Rho Khanna, volunteered for Bill Harrison, the mayor of Fremont, California at the time, fundraised for people such as Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and in some cases, developed romantic or sexual relationships with politicians to gain intelligence and send it back to her handlers, who were believed to be stationed in mainland China. She also reportedly used her close ties to government officials and politicians to place “subagents” as employees or interns in some political and congressional offices.
Fang developed a relationship with Russia hoaxer Swalwell, who began serving on the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and as a ranking member of its Central Intelligence Agency Subcommittee in 2015. Reports from a political operative and intelligence official indicate that Fang raised millions for Swalwell’s re-election in 2014 and helped place at least one intern in his Washington, D.C. office.
“According to those same two people, she interacted with Swalwell at multiple events over the course of several years,” Axios reported.
Despite his repetitive harping on the GOP and Trump about Russia collusion, the failed presidential candidate’s office told Axios that “Rep. Swalwell, long ago, provided information about this person — whom he met more than eight years ago, and whom he hasn’t seen in nearly six years — to the FBI” and no longer has contact with the Chinese spy.
Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.
