China Influences New York Elections: Consulate Mobilizes Community Groups

Chi­na has been found to influ­ence New York City elec­tions through sys­tem­at­ic oper­a­tions tar­get­ing local politi­cians who oppose Beijing’s poli­cies. On August 25, 2025, The New York Times report­ed that the Chi­nese Con­sulate in Man­hat­tan has mobi­lized com­mu­ni­ty groups to under­mine can­di­dates who chal­lenged the regime while back­ing oth­ers sup­port­ing Com­mu­nist Par­ty poli­cies. The arti­cle begins:

In New York City, social clubs backed by Chi­na under­mined a con­gres­sion­al can­di­date who once chal­lenged the regime on Chi­nese tele­vi­sion. They helped unseat a state sen­a­tor for attend­ing a ban­quet with the pres­i­dent of Tai­wan. And they con­demned a City Coun­cil can­di­date on social media for sup­port­ing Hong Kong democracy.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/nyregion/china-influence-elections-new-york.html

Key Points

• Chi­nese intel­li­gence agent Qim­ing Lin hired a pri­vate inves­ti­ga­tor to tar­get con­gres­sion­al can­di­date Yan Xiong, dis­cussing hir­ing pros­ti­tutes for com­pro­mise and sug­gest­ing “vio­lence would be fine too” to pre­vent his election.
• State Sen­a­tor Iwen Chu lost re-elec­tion after attend­ing a recep­tion with Taiwan’s pres­i­dent, with Chi­nese con­sulate offi­cials pres­sur­ing home­town asso­ci­a­tion lead­ers to with­draw sup­port and flip endorse­ments to her opponent.
• Over 50 orga­ni­za­tions with Bei­jing ties mobi­lized to fund-raise or endorse can­di­dates, includ­ing 19 reg­is­tered tax-exempt non­prof­its that vio­lat­ed fed­er­al law pro­hibit­ing elec­tion activities.
• May­or Eric Adams has secured endorse­ments from lead­ers of at least nine home­town groups in his re-elec­tion cam­paign, with some non­prof­it char­i­ties ille­gal­ly endors­ing his can­di­da­cy despite IRS prohibitions.

Chinese AI & Elite Networks Drive Influence Operations in New York City

Recent­ly, Chi­nese influ­ence oper­a­tions in New York City have notably esca­lat­ed in sophis­ti­ca­tion and ambi­tion, reflect­ing Beijing’s dual-track strat­e­gy of cul­ti­vat­ing elite net­works and orches­trat­ing tar­get­ed dig­i­tal cam­paigns to steer polit­i­cal out­comes and mute crit­i­cism of its poli­cies. A prime exam­ple is the case of Lin­da Sun, who alleged­ly fun­neled mil­lions in pan­dem­ic con­tracts to pro-Bei­jing busi­ness­men while covert­ly serv­ing as a senior agent for China’s Unit­ed Front Work Depart­ment, illus­trat­ing how Chi­nese oper­a­tives use eco­nom­ic lever­age and insid­er access to influ­ence both pan­dem­ic response and diplo­mat­ic out­reach at the high­est lev­els of New York government.

Par­al­lel to these covert efforts, AI-dri­ven influ­ence plat­forms oper­at­ed by Chi­nese firms are being deployed to sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly track U.S. polit­i­cal fig­ures, devel­op counter-nar­ra­tives on divi­sive issues, and manip­u­late pub­lic dis­course across major social net­works, a tac­tic doc­u­ment­ed in explo­sive report­ing on GoLaxy’s tar­get­ed pro­fil­ing of Amer­i­can law­mak­ers. These dig­i­tal oper­a­tions are com­ple­ment­ed by on-the-ground mobi­liza­tion through Unit­ed Front-linked orga­ni­za­tions, which exploit local grievances—such as hous­ing and pub­lic safety—to ral­ly Chi­nese-Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ties and build polit­i­cal cap­i­tal for Bei­jing-aligned can­di­dates, as seen when a may­oral cam­paign aide with deep ties to Chi­nese state enter­pris­es resigned amid scruti­ny over his con­nec­tions to the CCP’s influ­ence apparatus.

Col­lec­tive­ly, these oper­a­tions high­light a cal­cu­lat­ed blend of elite cap­ture, algo­rith­mic pro­pa­gan­da, and grass­roots mobi­liza­tion, posi­tion­ing New York as a crit­i­cal node in China’s expand­ing glob­al influ­ence architecture—where the lines between legit­i­mate civic engage­ment and state-direct­ed inter­fer­ence are increas­ing­ly blurred.

Exter­nal References:

1. How Chi­na Influ­ences Elec­tions in Amer­i­ca’s Biggest City
2. Ex-Aide to New York Gov­er­nor Pleads Not Guilty to New Pan­dem­ic Fraud Charge
3. New Report Shows How Chi­na Uses AI to Aug­ment its Online Intel­li­gence Operations

Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.