Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
Amid strained US ties, China finds unlikely friend in
Utah (1/3)
ALAN SUDERMAN and SAM METZ
Mon, March 27, 2023 at 12:08 a.m. PDT
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — China’s global campaign to win friends
and influence policy has blossomed in a surprising place: Utah, a deeply
religious and conservative state with few obvious ties to the world’s most
powerful communist country.
An investigation by The Associated Press has found that China and its U.S.-based advocates spent years building relationships with the state’s officials and lawmakers. Those efforts have paid dividends at home and abroad, the AP found: Lawmakers delayed legislation Beijing didn’t like, nixed resolutions that conveyed displeasure with its actions and expressed support in ways that enhanced the Chinese government’s image.
Its work in Utah is emblematic of a broader effort by Beijing to secure allies at the local level as its relations with the U.S. and its western allies have turned acrimonious. U.S. officials say local leaders are at risk of being manipulated by China and have deemed the influence campaign a threat to national security.
Beijing’s success in Utah shows “how pervasive and persistent China has been in trying to influence America,” said Frank Montoya Jr., a retired FBI counterintelligence agent who lives in Utah.
“Utah is an important foothold,” he said. “If the Chinese can succeed in Salt Lake City, they can also make it in New York and elsewhere.”
Security experts say that China’s campaign is widespread and tailored to local communities. In Utah, the AP found, Beijing and pro-China advocates appealed to lawmakers’ affiliations with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormon church, which is the state’s dominant religion and one that has long dreamed of expanding in China.
Beijing’s campaign in Utah has raised concerns among state and federal lawmakers and drawn the attention of the Justice Department.
A state legislator told the AP he was interviewed by the FBI after introducing a resolution in 2020 expressing solidarity with China early in the coronavirus pandemic. A Utah professor who has advocated for closer ties between Washington and Beijing told the AP he’s been questioned by the FBI twice. The FBI declined to comment.
'DECEPTIVE AND COERCIVE'
Beijing’s interest in locally focused influence campaigns is not a secret. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, said during a trip to the U.S. in 2015 that “without successful cooperation at the sub-national level it would be very difficult to achieve practical results for cooperation at the national level.”
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington told the AP that China “values its relationship with Utah” and any “words and deeds that stigmatize and smear these sub-national exchanges are driven by ulterior political purposes.”
It is not unusual for countries, including the U.S., to engage in local diplomacy. U.S. officials and security experts have stressed that many Chinese language and cultural exchanges have no hidden agendas. However, they said, few nations have so aggressively courted local leaders in ways that raise national security concerns.
In its annual threat assessment released earlier this month, the U.S. intelligence community reported that China is “redoubling” its local influence campaigns in the face of stiffening resistance at the national level. Beijing believes, the report said, that “local officials are more pliable than their federal counterparts.”
The National Counterintelligence and Security Center in July warned state and local officials about “deceptive and coercive” Chinese influence operations. And FBI Director Christopher Wray last year accused China of seeking to “cultivate talent early—often state and local officials—to ensure that politicians at all levels of government will be ready to take a call and advocate on behalf of Beijing’s agenda.”
Authorities in other countries, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, have sounded similar alarms.
Those concerns have arisen amid escalating disputes between the U.S. and China over trade, human rights, the future of Taiwan and China’s tacit support for Russia during its invasion of Ukraine. Tensions worsened last month when a suspected Chinese spy balloon was discovered and shot down in U.S. airspace.
LEGISLATIVE AND PR VICTORIES
Relying on dozens of interviews with key players and the review of hundreds of pages of records, text messages and emails obtained through public records’ requests, the AP found China won frequent legislative and public relations victories in Utah.
China-friendly lawmakers, for example, delayed action for a year to ban Chinese-funded Confucius Institutes at state universities, according to the legislation’s sponsor. The Chinese language and cultural programs have been described by U.S. national security officials as propaganda instruments. The University of Utah and Southern Utah University closed their institutes by last year.
In 2020, China scored an image-boosting coup when Xi sent a note to a class of Utah fourth-graders thanking them for cards they’d sent wishing him a happy Chinese New Year. He encouraged them to “become young ‘ambassadors’ for Sino-American friendship.”
Emails obtained by the AP show the Chinese Embassy and the students’ Chinese teacher coordinated the letter exchange, which resulted in heavy coverage by state-controlled media in China.
A Chinese state media outlet reported the Utah students jubilantly exclaimed: “Grandpa Xi really wrote back to me. He’s so cool!” Portraying China’s most authoritarian leader in decades as a kindly grandfather is a familiar trope in Chinese propaganda.
Xi's letter garnered positive attention in Utah, too. A Republican legislator said on the state Senate floor that he “couldn’t help but think how amazing it was” that the Chinese leader took the time to write such a “remarkable” letter. Another GOP senator gushed on his conservative radio show that Xi’s letter “was so kind and so personal.”
Dakota Cary, a China expert at the security firm Krebs Stamos Group, said in making such comments Utah lawmakers are “essentially acting as mouthpieces for the Chinese Communist Party” and legitimizing their ideas and narratives.
“Statements like these are exactly what China’s goal is for influence campaigns,” he said.
SPY AGENCY INTEREST
China’s interest in Utah is not limited to its officials and advocates who are engaged in diplomacy, trade and education. U.S. officials have noted that China’s civilian spy agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), has shown an interest in Utah, court records show.
In January, former graduate student Ji Chaoqun was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges related to spying for China. The Chicago student told an undercover agent he’d been tasked by his spy handlers “to meet people, some American friends." He was baptized at a Latter-day Saints church and told the undercover agent he'd “been going to Utah more often lately” before his arrest, according to his Facebook page and court records.
Ron Hansen, a former U.S. intelligence official from Utah, pleaded guilty to trying to sell classified information to China. Hansen said China's spy service had tasked him with assessing various U.S. politicians’ views towards China. The FBI found the names of Utah elected officials among sensitive files he stored on his laptop, court records show. Hansen was sentenced in 2019 to serve 10 years in federal prison.
Hansen was well known in Utah political circles and helped organize the first ever annual U.S.-China National Governors Forum, which was held in 2011 in Salt Lake City, according to court records and interviews. The U.S. State Department cancelled the forums in 2020 due to concerns about Chinese influence efforts.
(to be continued)
鹽湖城（美聯社）- 中國在全球去贏取朋友和影響政策的行動在一個令人驚訝的地方開花結果：猶他州，一個宗教虔誠和保守的州份，與世界上最強大的共產主義國家幾乎沒有明顯的聯繫。
美聯社的一項調查發現，中國及其在美國的擁護者花了數年時間與該州的官員和立法者建立關係。 美聯社發現，這些努力在國內外都取得了成果：州立法者推遲了北京不喜歡的立法，否決了表達對其行為不滿的決議，並表示支持可以提升中國政府形象的方法。
中國在猶他州的工作象徵著北京在與美國及其西方盟友的關係變得尖銳之際，為在地方層面爭取盟友而做出的更廣泛努力。 美國官員表示，地方領導人有被中國操縱的風險，並認為其影響力的推動, 對美國國家安全構成威脅。
住在猶他州的退休聯邦調查局反間諜特工Frank Montoya Jr. 說北京在猶他州的成功表明“中國在試圖影響美國方面是多麼普遍和持久” 。
他說: “猶他州是一個重要的立足點”; “如果中國人能在鹽湖城取得成功，他們也能在紐約和其他地方取得成功。”
安全專家表示，中國的行動範圍很廣，而且為個別社區度身定做。 美聯社發現，在猶他州，北京和親中國的倡導者呼籲立法者與耶穌基督後期聖徒教會(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)聯繫，該教會更為人所知的是摩門教，這是該州的主要宗教，也是長期以來一直夢想在中國擴張。
北京在猶他州的行動引起了州和聯邦立法者的關注，並也引起了司法部的注意。
一名州議員告訴美聯社，當他在 2020 年提出一項決議，表達在冠狀病毒大流行初期與中國團結一致後，曾經被 FBI 查詢。 一位主張華盛頓與北京之間建立更密切關係的猶他州教授告訴美聯社，他曾兩次受到聯邦調查局的訊問。 聯邦調查局拒絕置評。
北京對推動以地方為中心的影響力的興趣不是秘密。 中國領導人習近平在 2015 年訪問美國期間表示， “如果地方層面的合作沒有成功，國家層面的合作就很難取得實際成果。”
中國駐華盛頓大使館發言人告訴美聯社，中國 “重視與猶他州的關係”，任何“污名化和抹黑這些地方交流的言行都是出於不可告人的政治目的。”
國家開展地方外交, 包括美國在內, 並不罕見。
美國官員和安全專家強調，許多在中國語言和文化方面的交流沒有隱藏的議程。 然而，他們說，很少有國家會用達到引起該國國家安全擔憂的方式, 去積極地討好別國地方領導人。
在本月早些時候發布的年度威脅評估中，美國情報界報告稱，中國面對國家層面日益加強抵制中國，正在“加倍”在當地開展影響力活動。 報告稱，北京方面認為 “地方官員比聯邦官員更容易受到影響”。
7 月，國家反情報和安全中心警告州和地方官員注意帶有 “欺騙和脅迫”的中國影響力行動。 聯邦調查局局長Christopher Wray 去年指責中國尋求 “儘早培養人才 - 通常是州和地方官員 - 以確保各級政府的政客準備好接聽電話並為北京的議程進行鼓吹。”
包括澳大利亞、加拿大和英國在內的其他國家的當局也發出了類似的警報。
這些擔憂是在美國和中國之間關於貿易、人權、台灣的未來, 以及中國在俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭期間默許支持的爭端不斷升級的情況下出現的。 上個月，當一個疑似中國間諜氣球在美國領空被發現並被擊落時，緊張局勢進一步惡化。
立法和公關勝利
美國官員很少提供有關中國政府針對哪些州和地方的詳細信息。 美聯社將調查重點放在猶他州，因為中國似乎在該州培養了大量盟友，而且在立法中人仕中, 擁護中國的人是廣為人知。
美聯社依靠對主要參與者的數十次採訪, 以及回顧通過公共記錄請而求獲得的數百頁記錄、短信和電子郵件，發現中國在猶他州總是經常贏得立法和公共關係上的勝利。
例如，根據該立法的發起人稱，對中國友好的立法者, 推遲了一年去禁止在州立大學的中資孔子學院的行動。 中國語言和文化節目被美國國家安全官員描述為宣傳工具。 猶他大學和南猶他大學在去年關閉了他們的孔子學院。
在2020 年，習近平給猶他州四年級的一班學生發送了一張便條，感謝他們寄來的賀卡，祝他農曆新年快樂，中國取得了一次形象提升的奇招。
他鼓勵學生們“成為中美友好的年輕‘大使’”。
美聯社獲得的電子郵件顯示，中國大使館和學生的中文老師協調了信件往來，導致中國官方媒體進行了大量報導。
一家中國官方媒體報導說，猶他州的學生們興高采烈地驚呼： “習爺爺真的給我回信了。 他太酷了！” 將中國幾十年來最專制的領導人描繪成一位慈祥的祖父，這是中國宣傳中一個熟悉的比喻。
習近平的信在猶他州也引起了積極關注。 一位共和黨議員在州參議院發言時說，他“忍不住想，中國領導人花時間寫出這樣一封“了不起的”信件，真是太棒了”。 另一位共和黨參議員在他的保守派廣播節目中滔滔不絕地說，習近平的信“非常親切，非常有個性”。
安全公司 Krebs Stamos Group 的中國問題專家Dakota Cary 表示，猶他州立法者在發表此類評論時, “基本上充當了中國共產黨的喉舌”，並使他們的想法和敘述合理化。
他說: “像這樣的言論正是中國影響力運動的目標”。
間諜機構興趣
中國對猶他州的興趣不僅限於從事外交、貿易和教育的官員和倡導者。 法庭記錄顯示，美國官員注意到中國的民間間諜機構國家安全部 (MSS) 對猶他州表現出興趣。
今年 1 月，前研究生Ji Chaoqun 因為從事与中國有關的間諜活動而被判處八年徒刑。 這名芝加哥學生告訴一名臥底特工，他的間諜管理者指派他 “去見一些人，一些美國朋友” 。 根據他的 Facebook 頁面和法庭記錄, 他在Latter-day Saints church受洗,並告訴臥底特工他在被捕前 “經常去猶他州”。
來自猶他州的前美國情報官員Ron Hansen承認試圖向中國出售機密信息。 Hansen說，中國間諜部門派他評估美國政界人士對中國的看法。 法庭記錄顯示，聯邦調查局在他存儲在筆記簿電腦上的敏感文件中發現了猶他州民選官員的姓名。 Hansen於 2019 年被判在聯邦監獄服刑 10 年。
根據法庭記錄和採訪，Hansen在猶他州政界享有盛譽，並幫助組織了首屆年度中美省州長論壇，該論壇於 2011 年在鹽湖城舉行。 美國國務院由於擔心中國的影響力，在 2020 年取消了這些論壇。
（待續）
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