A Brooklyn-based activist took part in a session of a key organ within the Chinese Communist Party’s political-influence ecosystem, traveling to Beijing to sit for one of its meetings in March.
Prior to joining that body, John Chan, the activist, was already well known in the community for his pro-CCP advocacy. He has appeared in public with China’s diplomats in the U.S. numerous times and participated in demonstrations backing Beijing’s priorities.
He has also cultivated longstanding relationships with top New York City politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Mayor Eric Adams, Representative Grace Meng, and New York Republican officials.
Chan joined the Chinese People’s Political and Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in March, according to an image of an invitation obtained by National Review. Chinese state media also reported that he participated in the gathering and took a subsequent trip to Fuzhou, China.
The CPPCC is an important organ that sets policy for Beijing’s united front, the unique Leninist strategy through which the CCP coordinates the activities of non-party members, including overseas Chinese, to form a society that it controls. Its chairman is Wang Huning, the fourth-highest ranked official in the party; he is widely viewed as Xi Jinping’s political theorist.
The CPPCC helps to connect the party to the outside world and transmit regime directives that united-front-linked individuals and organizations implement everywhere they go, including in foreign democracies such as the United States. Chan took part in the meeting as an overseas observer, a status that is functionally equivalent to that of formal membership, since the forum’s main purpose is to gather Chinese elites in one place to receive messaging.
The invitation obtained by NR told Chan to join the CPPCC’s second plenary session of the conference’s 14th national committee, held March 4–10 in Beijing.
In a video segment about the meeting from China’s state-owned CCTV, Chan appears at a desk in the Great Hall of the People — the massive Beijing auditorium where China’s high-profile rubber-stamp political meetings take place.
There’s growing U.S. government concern about united-front work, which the House Select Committee on the CCP recently described as “a unique blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations.”
Just ahead of his trip to China in March, two FBI agents interviewed Chan at his office in Brooklyn for two hours, a source familiar with the incident told NR. He didn’t return a call, or respond to a text message, from a National Review reporter this week. The FBI declined to comment.
Analysts had previously characterized Chan’s work alongside Chinese diplomats to push pro-CCP legislation in New York, and his participation in coordinated pro-CCP demonstrations on U.S. soil, as united-front activity. His participation in the CPPCC now gives him an official affiliation with a noteworthy body in the united-front system.
Chan immigrated from China’s Fujian province in the 1990s; during his trip to the CPPCC in March, he also traveled to his hometown of Langqi, an island off the city of Fuzhou, a report in the state-owned Fujian Daily Southeast Network said. He has founded a constellation of nonprofit organizations and businesses through which he has cultivated ties to prominent New Yorkers.
Chan, also known by his Chinese name Chen Shanzhuang, positions his work as advocacy for the interests of the Asian-American community. However, he has also engaged in outright advocacy for top CCP priorities, opposing congressional legislation addressing CCP abuses in Hong Kong and against Uyghurs. He has made public comments endorsing both Xi Jinping’s vision for “national rejuvenation” and the draconian national-security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020.
On the personal biography page for the American Chinese Commerce Association (Hong Kong), one group that he founded, Chan proudly describes his work to organize People’s Republic of China flag-raising ceremonies. During one of these events, “his eyes filled with tears,” the webpage states.
Last December, Chan took a group of Republican New York state lawmakers, including William Barclay, the top GOP member of the state assembly, on a “friendship delegation” to China sponsored by the commerce association. The group traveled in China with staff from the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, a united-front organization that works to influence U.S. officials.
Chan has also cultivated political connections to New York City leaders such as Mayor Eric Adams. Adams accepted an award from Chan and NYC councilwoman Susan Zhuang during a rally event in Brooklyn this year.
That event was hosted by Asian American Community Empowerment, a Chan-led outfit that describes itself as a civil-rights group for Asian Americans in New York. It’s often referred to by its old acronym, BRACE — Brooklyn Asian American Community Empowerment, the group’s previous name.
Zhuang even sent out fundraising solicitations on BRACE’s behalf using her office’s official letterhead, emails reviewed by NR show.
The New York Daily News, which first reported on the solicitations, quoted ethics experts who warned that Zhuang might have broken ethics laws.
Zhuang has attended several events hosted by Chan’s organizations, including a gala for BRACE last fall, and Chan endorsed Zhuang in her 2023 campaign for City Council. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.
City Hall did not respond to a request for comment. Adams’s team has previously said that the mayor is not friends with Chan and does not endorse BRACE. Adams attended another BRACE-sponsored event in 2019, according to the group’s website.
The mayor has also had contact with Chan through the ACCA. He attended a Chinese flag-raising ceremony organized by the outfit in 2013, according to a press release on the website of his state senate office.
Winnie Greco, a senior aide to Adams who has come under intense scrutiny for her extensive ties to Chinese officials and united-front affiliates in New York, declared in 2000 that she worked for one of Chan’s companies. In federal campaign-finance filings regarding a donation she made that year to the campaign of Hillary Clinton, she referred to herself as an employee of a company called Meiwah Entertainment Production Inc. Public disclosures show that the business was founded by Chan. Greco attended an annual gala for BRACE last September, images from the event show. She didn’t return a call on Wednesday.
Meng has also had extensive contact with Chan — a donor to her 2014 and 2020 congressional campaigns — throughout her political career, speaking at events Chan hosted for several different causes, many with a focus on the rights of Asian-American New Yorkers. In 2022, Chan attended an event in support of Meng’s reelection.
A report from China’s state-run Xinhua News outlet says that Meng spoke at a 2018 gala for BRACE, calling the organization “a tireless advocate for the Asian-American Community.” She presented Chan and one of his deputies with a “president’s volunteer service award,” a commendation for community volunteers signed by the president but given out by certifying organizations vetted by Americorps.
The following year, Meng was the sole member of Congress listed as an honorary co-sponsor of an American Chinese Commerce Association (Hong Kong) event that Chan hosted at the U.S. Capitol to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the U.S.-China diplomatic relationship, according to the Voice of Chinese, a news website that caters to the overseas Chinese community.
It was also attended by Chinese diplomats, including then-ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai and lawmakers such as Representatives David Trone and Jerry Nadler and Senator Chris Van Hollen. At the event, Meng presented another award to Chan.
Meng also attended the opening ceremony for a new BRACE office in Queens, standing next to Chan and delivering a brief speech at the 2020 event.
In a statement to NR, Meng said that she’s not aware of Chan’s views or ideology and that Chan has never lobbied her about China. “I am constantly attending community events and he is a well-known community leader,” she said, adding that other elected officials were in attendance at events she joined with Chan. Meng said that the 2018 service award she gave to Chan was “from President Trump.”
“I firmly oppose any effort by a foreign government or political party — from anywhere — to influence or undermine American society and democracy,” said Meng.
After his interview with the FBI, Chan has stepped back from public events, the source familiar with that conversation said, adding that Chan was absent from recent political fundraisers for candidates he supports.
One of his top confidants, Raymond Huang, has instead stepped in to oversee political activity in New York for Chan’s network, the source said.
Like Chan, Huang is also involved in pro-CCP activism. The two men played a prominent role in pro-Beijing demonstrations against Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen during her visit to New York last year.
Huang also has heft in New York political circles. He was celebrated by the Conservative Party of King’s County, which gave him the “Ronald Reagan Americanism Award” at an event last month. The office of Representative Nicole Malliotakis issued a commendation for him, which he received at the event, in Brooklyn. Malliotakis’s communications director told NR that the congresswoman doesn’t know Huang, she wasn’t present at the event or aware of his ties, and that it’s customary for local groups to request certificates of recognition.
In a brief phone interview Thursday afternoon, Huang told NR: “I know John Chan, but I don’t want to say anything about him.” He said that he heard something about the FBI, but that he’s “not sure” that Chan was interviewed. Huang also denied that Chan had asked him to step into his shoes for political fundraising activities.
Asked whether the Chinese consulate general organized the anti-Taiwan protests last year, Huang said that he heard about them “from the community,” adding, “I hear that John Chan organized that.”
“We are family,” Huang said, when asked whether he supports Taiwan’s unification with China. He added that he doesn’t “want to have any problem with Taiwan and China.”