Hidden Hand by Clive Hamilton & Mareike Ohlberg

Author:Clive Hamilton & Mareike Ohlberg [Clive Hamilton & Mareike Ohlberg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hardie Grant Publishing
Published: 2020-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

The Hong Kong connection

CCP-linked money has been finding its way into the coffers of influential think tanks via the China-United States Exchange Foundation, which also funds the United States Heartland China Association, and the Sanya Initiative (see chapter three). CUSEF was founded in Hong Kong in 2008, and its chair is shipping magnate Tung Chee-hwa. Tung was Hong Kong’s first chief executive (1997–2005) and is also a major funder of CUSEF. 46 The foundation has links to China’s military and also cooperates with the PLA front organisation the China Association for International Friendly Contact (see chapters three and ten).47

Tung Chee-hwa is also vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and in 2019 he accused the US and Taiwan of ‘orchestrating’ the protests in Hong Kong.48 CUSEF’s vice chairman is Victor Fung, Group Chairman of Li & Fung, a supply-chain manager for US and EU companies, and another important united front figure in Hong Kong. Fung, too, is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and an adviser to the mayor of Beijing and the Nanjing municipal government.49 His Fung Foundation funds China research.50

CUSEF’s special representative in the United States is Fred Teng. Teng is president of the America China Public Affairs Institute, whose mission is to ‘increase knowledge, understanding, and more accurate perceptions about China within the US government and among key policy and opinion leaders’.51 It works closely with the CCP and the Chinese government to organise delegations of US leaders to China, and advocates a bilateral free trade agreement and a security partnership between China and the US, covering anti-terrorism, cybersecurity and law enforcement.52

CUSEF’s New York PR company is BLJ Worldwide (whose website states: ‘we develop sophisticated and intelligent communications campaigns’). It is registered as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agent Registration Act.53 To influence Congress on China issues, it has hired lobbying firms, including the Podesta Group,54 which in 2016 and 2017 also lobbied on behalf of Chinese telecom-equipment maker ZTE.55 One of the Podesta Group’s former principals was John Podesta, a powerful player in Democratic Party politics. After leaving the group in the hands of his brother, John Podesta became chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, and later, in 2016, chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. From 2003 to 2011 Podesta was president of the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank sometimes regarded as a parking lot for senior Democrat staffers during Republican presidencies. As such, it’s an excellent target for CCP influence, and its staff have had a high-level visit to Beijing brokered by CUSEF. The two organisations have had a partnership since 2011, occasionally working with the Shanghai Institute for International Studies,56 which is attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.57 In 2015 the Center for American Progress and CUSEF jointly organised a high-level dialogue in Beijing.58

In addition to providing funds to the Brookings Institution, the Atlantic Council, the Carter Center, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,59 CUSEF has endowed a chair in China Studies

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