On September 19, former Rep. Frank Guinta (R-NH) became a lobbyist for the Massachusetts branch of a railroad company that the Pentagon has designated as an arm of the Chinese military, lobbying records show.

The Department of Defense has placed CRRC, the conglomerate Guinta is lobbying for through ML Strategies, on its list of “Chinese military companies” for four straight years. Inclusion on the Pentagon’s 1260h entity list signifies that a firm is owned or otherwise controlled by the Chinese military, according to federal law. Firms that knowingly collaborate with the Chinese Communist Party to develop military technology or fulfill defense contracts are also included under the designation.

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“Any American who registers to lobby on behalf of a blacklisted Chinese military company should also register as a traitor to the United States,” Michael Lucci, founder of the national security group State Armor, told the Washington Examiner. “In fact, Nebraska’s new state law (LB 644) that went into effect on October 1 effectively requires a traitor attestation for lobbyists like Frank Guinta who saddle up with China’s military instead of America’s men and women in uniform.”

“Congress should adopt legislation similar to Nebraska’s, and so should every state, so that Americans like Frank Guinta must make a clear, transparent, public decision to write their name down on behalf of a regime that commits genocide and is building a military to kill Americans using companies like the one Guinta now counts as a client,” Lucci added.

CRRC’s relationship with the Chinese military is fairly explicit, according to public reports.

“We will implement the military-civil fusion development strategy and expand the application of technology and products,” CRRC corporate documents translated by Radarlock, an independent research group, read. The term “military-civil fusion development strategy” refers to the Chinese government’s stated plan to leverage its private industry assets to acquire technological advances in a ploy to develop the People’s Liberation Army into a world-class military force, according to the State Department. 

To this end, lawmakers allege that the CRRC’s predecessors “forced technology transfer agreements on many of the world’s leading rail companies,” and press reports show that the conglomerate uses its vast resources in attempts to acquire firms possessing sensitive research.

Additionally, the firm is deeply involved in China’s Belt and Road strategy, which foreign policy experts claim Beijing uses to gain influence in the developing world by saddling governments with large debt obligations to the CCP. 

During his tenure in Congress between 2015 and 2017, Guinta served on the Financial Services, Oversight, Budget, and Transportation committees. His experience with transportation and infrastructure could serve him well on his quest to represent CRRC’s interests, as the firm claims to control over 80% of the global rail market. 

Guinta was relatively silent on China during his term in Congress, never mentioning the country on his official Twitter account and only making passing references in the congressional record. 

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CRRC has faced criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike over concerns that the firm’s dominance could threaten national security. 

In 2022, for instance, Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and John Garamendi (D-CA) sent a letter urging the Treasury Department to impose sanctions on CRRC, alleging that the firm utilizes forced Uyghur labor and that its increased market share in the United States could harm national security owing to CRRC’s relationship with the PLA.

Customs officials have even detained train cars manufactured by CRRC in recent months over slave labor concerns.

Gallagher and Garamendi pointed out that the CRRC leaned on the financial backing of the CCP to undercut its competition in Australia to become the dominant player there and warned that the same fate could come to America, as the conglomerate already provides railcars to transit agencies in Boston and Los Angeles. The former congressman’s lobbying activity could serve to facilitate such expansion. 

Guinta, ML Strategies, and CRRC did not respond to requests for comment.