Earlier this week, I broke the story of a Chinese lobbying effort to persuade NYC mayor Eric Adams not to attend, or send other top city officials to, a banquet for Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen during her trip to Manhattan in March 2023.

Read it here.

The piece isn’t primarily a story about New York politics. It’s a look at the tactics that America’s foremost adversary uses to push around, or otherwise influence, U.S. elected officials on their home turf.

I’ve tracked this around New York, but as official Washington continues its pivot away from blind engagement with China, Beijing has upped its efforts to influence state and local officials across the U.S.

City Hall still has not explained the absence of Adams administration officials from the high-level 2023 event, which otherwise attracted politicos such as New Jersey governor Phil Murphy. But a letter addressed to Adams by a top Chinese diplomat the afternoon before the gathering is one factor that NYC officials were tracking, I reported.

As mayor, Adams has interacted with Chinese officials in unusual ways, going beyond the sort of economic-development efforts that one might expect from a municipal official. The piece notes his attendance at a gala hosted by a Chinese-regime propaganda organ in NYC two months ago. A flurry of recent law-enforcement activity surrounding Adams’s administration, as well as the Chinese consulate general in New York, could mean that City Hall’s interactions with the Chinese government will stay relevant.

For the time being, one thing, at least, seems clear: Adams would not say that New York City is the Taipei of America.