Chinese spy Fang Fang developed relationships with a wide range of Democratic politicians, including California congressmen, gun-grabbing extremist and laughable 2020 Presidential also-ran Eric Swalwell.
A suspected Chinese intelligence operative developed extensive ties with local and national politicians, including a U.S. congressman, in what U.S. officials believe was a political intelligence operation run by China’s main civilian spy agency between 2011 and 2015, Axios found in a yearlong investigation.
Why it matters: The alleged operation offers a rare window into how Beijing has tried to gain access to and influence U.S. political circles.
While this suspected operative’s activities appear to have ended during the Obama administration, concerns about Beijing’s influence operations have spanned President Trump’s time in office and will continue to be a core focus for U.S. counterintelligence during the Biden administration. The woman at the center of the operation, a Chinese national named Fang Fang or Christine Fang, targeted up-and-coming local politicians in the Bay Area and across the country who had the potential to make it big on the national stage.
Through campaign fundraising, extensive networking, personal charisma, and romantic or sexual relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors, Fang was able to gain proximity to political power, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials and one former elected official. Even though U.S. officials do not believe Fang received or passed on classified information, the case “was a big deal, because there were some really, really sensitive people that were caught up” in the intelligence network, a current senior U.S. intelligence official said. Private but unclassified information about government officials — such as their habits, preferences, schedules, social networks, and even rumors about them — is a form of political intelligence. Collecting such information is a key part of what foreign intelligence agencies do. Among the most significant targets of Fang’s efforts was Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).
Fang took part in fundraising activity for Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign, according to a Bay Area political operative and a current U.S. intelligence official. Swalwell’s office was directly aware of these activities on its behalf, the political operative said. That same political operative, who witnessed Fang fundraising on Swalwell’s behalf, found no evidence of illegal contributions. Federal Election Commission records don’t indicate Fang herself made donations, which are prohibited from foreign nationals. Fang helped place at least one intern in Swalwell’s office, according to those same two people, and interacted with Swalwell at multiple events over the course of several years.
Here are the three parts of the story that pop out so far:
But there were other Democrats Fang ingratiated herself with:
Between 2011 and 2015, Fang’s activities brought her into contact with many of the Bay Area’s most prominent politicos.
She volunteered for Ro Khanna’s unsuccessful 2014 House bid, according to a former campus organizer and social media posts. (Khanna, a Democrat, was elected to the House in 2016.) Khanna’s office said he remembers seeing Fang at several Indian American political gatherings but did not have further contact with her. Khanna’s office said the FBI did not brief him on her activities. Khanna’s 2014 campaign staff said that Fang’s name does not appear in their staff records, though they said that their records do not include all volunteers. Fang helped with a fundraiser for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) in 2013, according to a flyer from the event Fang shared on Facebook. She appeared in photos over multiple years with a host of California politicians, including Khanna, Swalwell, Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and then-Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.). Gabbard “has no recollection of ever meeting or talking with her, nor any recollection of her playing a major role at the fundraiser,” a spokesperson said in an email to Axios. Fremont City Councilmember Raj Salwan, whose name appears on the flyer, told Axios he was unaware of Fang’s role in the event and her name was added to the flyer by other Asian American leaders. Chu’s office said they have no records of Christine Fang. Honda said he had no memory of meeting Fang.
Did Smallwang bang Fang Fang? He refuses to say. “CONGRESSMAN Eric Swalwell has refused to say if he had sex with an alleged Chinese spy — claiming the information is ‘classified’. He was one of a number of Democrats targeted in a honey trap operation to infiltrate political circles, according to bombshell reports last night.”
Snip.
Last night Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson claimed security agencies believe he was in a sexual relationship with the suspected spy.
And Donald Trump Jr told the show it meant Swalwell was a “threat to national security.”
Carlson told viewers: “US intelligence officials believe that Fang had a sexual relationship with Eric Swalwell.
“We asked Swalwell’s office about that directly today.
“His staff replied by saying that they could not comment whether Swalwell had a sexual relationship with Fang, because that information might be, quote, classified.”
Yes, this is the towering intellectual genius Democrats want on the House Intelligence Committee…
Tags: California, China, Communism, Democrats, Eric Swalwell, Fang Fang, House Intelligence Committee, Judy Chu, Mike Honda, Raj Salwan, Ro Khanna, spying, Tucker Carlson, Tulsi Gabbard
What is the name of China’s spy agency? Knowing the name of something really helps clarify the mind. Without a name, concepts are so much more nebulous. Russia had its KGB, Israel has the Mossad, Britain has MI5 / MI6, America has CIA, but China? Never hear a name. There’s probably a reason for that…
Ministry of State Security, Third Bureau.
As someone waggishly commented at Ace yesterday, it certainly doesn’t seem like it would be classified if he DIDN’T f*ck her!
So, use something like MSS3?
As in, “Ministry of State Security, Bureau 3?”
If one feels that isn’t sufficiently country-specific, one could use TAOCP-MSS3, as in, “Totalitarian A**holes Oppressing the Chinese People, Ministry of State Security, Bureau 3.”
Names are indeed clarifying.
Fascinating this one person made contact with do many democrats. How many other chinese operatives are there?
Sure looks like Swalwell tipped her off to leave the country. That complicity is not simply criminal. A pretty big felony.
OUTSTANDING title!!!!1111!!!!! OK, I’ve got my laughter under control, now.
Chinese and Russians target Democrats and Republicans all the time. More Republicans lately because they have been in power. What is your point?
@joe mama:
Re: “Chinese and Russians target Democrats and Republicans all the time.”
Of course!
Re: “More Republicans lately because they have been in power.”
Assumes facts not in evidence (“More Republicans lately”) together with a profound lack of awareness of how power works in D.C. (“[Republicans] have been in power”).
Re: “What is your point?”:
Whom are you addressing? A previous commenter, or Lawrence Person?
I won’t speak for another person, or even another Person, about what point they were making.
But in my own case, I assert that the current administration (not the Republicans writ-large, but that small and struggling set of underdogs comprised of the Trump Administration and those sincerely allied with it) has, through policy, seriously negatively impacted the interests of Putin’s and Xi’s totalitarian oligarchs.
The Democrats have not done so; if anything, they have consistently pushed for policy changes which assist Putin’s and Xi’s respective totalitarianisms in maintaining and projecting power. The GOP Establishment has been a mixed-bag, sometimes acting in ways which were beneficial to the Putin and Xi regimes, and sometimes harmful.
An objective observer would not, in fact, suspect the Trump coalition of having been routinely penetrated by Fang Fang (sorry) et al., precisely because (a.) they haven’t had what little power they hold for very long; and, (b.) it was vanishingly unlikely they’d still hold it after 2020.
The Democrats, by contrast, seem relatively well-managed by foreign interests: Once bought, they’ve stayed bought. And since (to the same “objective observer”) they seem likely to continue holding most of the important reins of power throughout the Federal bureaucracy, they’re the logical recipient of foreign largesse.
And the GOP-E, again, would be the second-most-logical recipient of foreign largesse. As fence-straddlers who’re treated as unwelcome interlopers by the Federal bureaucracy and varyingly tolerated by elite American society in general, they aren’t worth the same level of long-term investment-of-resources as Democrats. (That goes double for any Democrat who’s ever run for president; triple for any that seemed likely to be a serious contender. Swalwell qualified as the former, though not the latter.)
Clear enough?
threatens American citizens with nukes and F15’s while sleeping with chinese communist agents.
WHAT A REPRESENTATIVE! he is almost as good a representative as he is a traitor.
I should have gone into politics. Free pussy? Who knew? I love you Fang Fang; come back!
Best title ever!
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She probably wasn’t a spy, she was just an agent of influence, getting Democrats elected is good for China and the Chinese in the U.S. (everybody else not so much.) This story, and the story of the CP members in the West will go nowhere. It really comes down to China versus white America, and in that conflict the establishment sides with China. Literally the truth. Look at the pass the Chinese have been given over covid.
[…] “Did Smallwang bang Fang Fang?” asked Lawrence Person’s BattleSwarm Blog; the answer appears to be yes — BREAKING: Swalwell Had Sexual Relationship with Chinese Spy Fang Fang – McCarthy Says Swalwell Should ‘Not be on Intel’ Committee. […]
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