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Analysis: To Combat Beijing’s Influence Operations, US Officials Need Sharper Tools and a Deft Touch

In the News:

• Censorship and surveillance
• Harassment and detentions
• Hong Kong
• Beyond China

The arrest of a former top aide to New York’s governor reinforces the need for vigilance and strong enforcement, but a successful response will also depend on legal reforms and community trust. ​​​​​

By Yaqiu Wang

On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice announced that Linda Sun, a former top aide to New York governor Kathy Hochul and former governor Andrew Cuomo, had been charged with acting as an agent of the Chinese government. A few weeks earlier, in two separate cases, US authorities convicted Chinese dissident Wang Shujun and charged another, Tang Yuanjun, for spying on the overseas Chinese prodemocracy community on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

The prosecutions are just the latest in a series of such cases in recent years, as the US government steps up its response to CCP influence operations that undermine human rights and democracy on American soil. The growing focus on the threat is certainly needed and a positive development, but US officials face the challenge of maintaining a targeted, proportionate, and rights-respecting approach while also intensifying their overall efforts. Walking this line will require thoughtful policies, updated laws, and careful execution. 

Among the many allegations of fraud and criminal conspiracy in Sun’s indictment, one stands out for those who are already familiar with Beijing’s international censorship efforts: In 2021, Sun, using her position in the New York State government, reportedly excised a mention of Beijing’s grave human rights crimes against the Uyghur ethnic minority population from Governor Hochul’s speech celebrating Lunar New Year. 

The CCP, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, has launched a massive campaign to influence how the “China story” is told around the world. Suppressing information about the regime’s horrendous human rights abuses is a key part of this strategy.  

Freedom House has extensively documented Beijing’s global influence campaign, including through a 2022 study that examined actions taken by the CCP and its affiliates to reshape information flows in 30 countries, from the United States to Kenya and Indonesia. Our research found that while some tactics rely on the traditional tools of public diplomacy, many others are covert, coercive, and potentially corrupt. 

A key charge against Sun—as well as Wang and Tang—involves a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires anyone doing political or advocacy work on behalf of a foreign entity to disclose it and register with the Department of Justice. The indictment says Sun not only failed to register, but also actively concealed her work on behalf of Beijing. 

Although federal prosecutors have more strictly enforced FARA vis-à-vis Chinese and other foreign entities in recent years, Freedom House research found that enforcement remains incomplete. Some media organizations designated by the State Department as part of Beijing’s diplomatic presence in the United States were not registered. Even those that had been registered were lax in submitting required reports and informational materials. 

At the same time, FARA, first enacted in 1938, has itself faced criticism for its out-of-date and overly broad provisions. The law’s sweeping definitions of “foreign agent” and “foreign principal” make it harder to distinguish legal activity on behalf of a foreign power or entity from illegal activity, and can create an undue burden on nonprofits that engage in legitimate international development and humanitarian assistance work. Changes that would make FARA more effective in addressing its core policy goals and more relevant to the tactics of modern foreign influence campaigns are urgently needed. Both the Department of Justice and Congress are aware of this need, but attempts at reform have been caught up in partisan politics. 

The arrests of Sun and others have also generated concerns among the Chinese diaspora community. Some worry that efforts to root out spies tied to the CCP can cast a pall of suspicion over the whole community, affecting the views of both US authorities and the larger American public. There are certainly good reasons for such fears, given the history of racial targeting associated with anticommunist “red scares” and antiterrorist crackdowns in the United States. 

To prevent the worst outcomes, government responses to the CCP’s malign influence need to take into account possible negative spillover effects for the Chinese diaspora. Freedom House has long advocated for US law enforcement agencies to develop outreach strategies that will help them connect with diaspora communities targeted by the CCP. Indeed, building community trust is critical to the success of any effort to combat Beijing’s activities, and a number of agencies have made efforts in this direction. 

Further engagement should center on the protection of victims of espionage, transnational repression, disinformation, and other forms of CCP interference, instead of looking at the issue primarily through a national security lens. US authorities should also keep in mind that many people in the Chinese diaspora came from a country where law enforcement agencies are regular and unaccountable perpetrators of abuse, which could contribute to their distrust of US law enforcement officials. Rather than going to the community and immediately asking people to identify suspected CCP agents, investigators might start by asking, “What are your needs? What do you worry about? How can we help?”  

If diaspora residents come to see US authorities as just and accountable protectors rather than another threat to their community, the CCP will have already lost an important battle in its global influence campaign. 

Yaqiu Wang is the research director for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan at Freedom House. This article was also published by the Diplomat on September 7, 2024.

• Released journalist detained again: Lawyer-turned- journalist Zhang Zhan, released in May after four years’ imprisonment for her COVID-19-related reporting in Wuhan, was detained again on August 30. Zhang’s August detention is reportedly linked to her advocacy for the release of another human rights activist, Zhang Pancheng. According to Amnesty International, Zhang Zhan has faced repeated police harassment during the past month.
• Netizen punished over past VPN usage:  As per an August 15 report by local Chinese media, a netizen in Fujian Province was summoned to the local police station for investigation and later subjected to administrative punishment for using virtual private network (VPN) software in 2020 to bypass China's internet restrictions and “illegally access foreign websites.” The case generated heated discussion online over the fact that the punishment was given four years after the alleged offense.
• Defense lawyers reportedly denied access to evidence:  On August 16, a pretrial hearing concerning Chen Pinlin (also known as Plato) took place in a Shanghai court. Chen was arrested in January 2024 and charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” for releasing a documentary on the nationwide White Paper Movement in 2023. Chen’s lawyers were denied the right to make a copy of evidence submitted by prosecutors until the hearing concluded, in clear violation of the Chinese Pretrial Conference Procedures. Both of Chen’s lawyers filed complaints against the court, according to the human rights group Weiquanwang. 

• TikTok may promote pro–CCP content: Evidence suggests that TikTok amplifies pro–Chinese Communist Party (CCP) content and suppresses anti–CCP content, according to a report by the Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University. TikTok’s content and algorithmic manipulation might have gained traction in shaping users’ perceptions, the study suggests. The results of the researchers’ psychological survey of more than 1,000 Americans show that longer TikTok screentime is significantly associated with more positive perceptions of Beijing’s human rights records.
• Legal battle over diary ownership: A two-day trial commenced on August 19 in California to determine if Stanford University can retain the personal diaries and materials of Li Rui, a former secretary to Mao Zedong. This trial is related to the series of lawsuits filed by Li’s China-based widow since his death in 2019, in which she claims ownership of the materials and seeks their return to China. Between 2014 and 2018, Li reportedly instructed his daughter to transfer these materials, which document firsthand observations on party politics and key events like the Tiananmen Massacre, to Stanford for preservation in its extensive CCP historical archive. According to legal and academic critics, these lawsuits were likely orchestrated by the Chinese government to suppress sensitive historical accounts in the diaries. Li's widow mentioned in a 2019 interview with Voice of America that “Chinese authorities considered it inappropriate for Li’s daughter to take his diaries and requested their return, but she declined.”

• Access uncensored content: Find an overview comparing popular circumvention tools and information on how to access them via GreatFire.org, here or here. Learn more about how to reach uncensored content and enhance digital security here. 
• Support a prisoner: Learn how to take action to help journalists and free expression activists, including those featured in past issues of the China Media Bulletin here.
• Visit the China Media Bulletin Resources section: Learn more about how policymakers, media outlets, educators, and donors can help advance free expression in China and beyond via a new resource section on the Freedom House website.