The groups are taking advantage of tax-exempt status to interfere with U.S. politics, a lawmaker says.
WASHINGTON—A network aligned with Marxist ideology and tied to a pro-Beijing millionaire received further scrutiny at a Feb. 10 hearing as lawmakers investigated the network’s potential Chinese communist ties.
The millionaire, Neville Roy Singham, is in China and has participated in at least one Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda forum in Shanghai that promoted the CCP’s agenda.
Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) chaired a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Tuesday in which he shone the spotlight on the network, which comprises more than a dozen groups that frequently collaborate on socialist causes or have monetary ties to each other.
Singham, he said, is “cozy—extremely cozy—with the Chinese Communist Party.” And the nonprofits in this network, he said, have been acting as a vector for the CCP, exploiting their tax-exempt status to interfere with U.S. politics.
“The CCP is taking advantage of our tax-exempt sector to poison our dialogue and cause division in our political system. That should alarm every single person, whether you are a Republican or whether you’re a Democrat,” he said.
The night before the hearing, the congressman wrote to two of the groups, BreakThrough News and Tricontinental, asking them to turn over a list of documents for committee investigation. Those include group members’ communications with Singham since 2017; a list of individuals and organizations that have donated more than $5,000 over the same period; and details on the projects and entities they have sponsored.
The committee found Singham’s business ties are “far more entrenched in CCP-aligned networks” than public reports have suggested, Smith said. He noted several of the businessman’s China ventures, including one Chinese media entity, Shanghai Maku Cultural Communication, which describes its mission as to “tell China’s story well,” a slogan meaning to disseminate information that aligns with the CCP’s narratives.
Several groups in the network have taken a prominent role in organizing various protests against immigration enforcement and supporting pro-Palestinian causes. The violence that sometimes arose from these protests has attracted congressional attention, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Fla.) in August 2024 citing the flag burning and defacing of Columbus Circle during one protest outside Washington’s Union Station weeks prior. The protest was organized by Answer Coalition, coinciding with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress.
By Eva Fu
