‘Huge Red Flag’: Inside Biden Nominee Eric Garcetti’s Ties To Members Of Alleged Chinese Intel Front Groups
Eric Garcetti, President Joe Biden’s nominee for ambassador to India and former Los Angeles mayor, met with several members of alleged Chinese Communist Party (CCP) front groups on multiple occasions, including on U.S. soil, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found. Moreover, the DCNF also found that a mayoral fund set up by Garcetti nearly a decade ago received well over $1 million in donations during Garcetti’s tenure from two wealthy individuals tied to alleged CCP influence and intelligence fronts.
Garcetti’s nomination has been held up in the Senate for over 20 months in the wake of allegations he helped cover up a sexual assault during his time as Los Angeles’ mayor. However, as the Senate is expected to take up Garcetti’s nomination in the coming days, experts on Chinese influence and intelligence operations are raising red flags about the former mayor’s ties to alleged CCP front groups.
Then-Mayor Garcetti met and headlined events with members of multiple alleged front groups serving the United Front Work Department (UFWD), a CCP agency which “coordinates and conducts influence operations,” according to a report from the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC). Furthermore, over the years, the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, which Garcetti created in 2014, received multiple donations from the foundation of business magnate Walter Wang and East West Bank, where Dominic Ng serves as president and CEO.
At the time of their donations, Wang, who runs American pipe manufacturer JM Eagle and is on the board of Taiwan’s Formosa Chemicals, and Ng were listed as “executive directors” of two groups China experts have identified as CCP influence and intelligence fronts — the China Overseas Exchange Association (COEA) and the related China Overseas Friendship Association (COFA). The DCNF determined this by matching Wang and Ng’s Chinese names with the alleged front groups’ archived rosters.
Multiple experts, such as former CIA officer Nicholas Eftimiades, recently told the DCNF that COEA and COFA, which merged in 2019, are UFWD front groups.
A 2013 archived version of COEA’s website features several photos of both Wang and Ng meeting in Beijing with COEA’s leadership as well as members of related organizations and the CCP, the DCNF found.
Garcetti, Wang and Ng did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
“Large donations from philanthropists with ties to United Front organizations funding political campaigns are a huge red flag,” Ina Mitchell, a Chinese intelligence expert and the co-author of “The Mosaic Effect: How The Chinese Communist Party Started A War In America’s Backyard,” told the DCNF.
https://dailycaller.com/2023/03/13/eric-garcetti-dominic-ng-walter-wang-qiu-yuanping-india-ambassador-li-xiaolin-cusef-cpaffc-coea-cofa/