Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
Amid strained US ties, China finds unlikely friend in
Utah (3/3)
ALAN SUDERMAN and SAM METZ
Mon, March 27, 2023 at 12:08 a.m. PDT
(continue)
CHINA'S ‘ADVANTAGES’
Le has served as a board member of the China Overseas Friendship Association, which has ties to the United Front Work Department -- a Chinese Communist Party organization the U.S. government says engages in covert and malign foreign influence operations.
A United Front publication profiled Le in 2020 after he attended a meeting in Beijing of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a prestigious advisory body controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
“I deeply feel the advantages of China’s system,” Le told the publication.
Le told the AP he was interviewed by the FBI in 2007 and 2018 about his Chinese government ties. He said his advocacy has always been self-directed.
“I don’t consider myself a lobbyist because I’m not a lobbyist. I’m just someone who cherishes the relationship between the U.S. and China,” Le said in an interview in his Weber State office.
Adams, the Senate president, said he feels otherwise.
“I do believe he’s lobbying,” Adams said. “He advocates very hard on China.”
LAWMAKER'S SON TURNED CHINA ADVOCATE
Emails and other records show Stephenson advised the Utah senate president on how to make a good impression with a Chinese ambassador and assisted a Chinese province in its unsuccessful efforts to build a ceramics museum in Utah.
“I’ve heard more than once from the mouths of Chinese government officials that China is prioritizing their relationship with Utah,” Stephenson told lawmakers at a committee hearing. That testimony came shortly after Stephenson accompanied Republican state Sen. Jake Anderegg on a trip to Shanghai and Beijing that included meetings with officials at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A few months after that trip, Stephenson provided Anderegg with the draft language for a pro-China resolution the state senator introduced in 2020 expressing solidarity with China during the pandemic, Anderegg told the AP.
The resolution passed with near unanimous approval.
A Chinese diplomat’s efforts to win passage of a similar resolution in Wisconsin failed, with the state’s senate president publicly blasting it as a piece of propaganda.
Anderegg told the AP that he was interviewed by FBI agents seeking information about the Utah resolution’s origins.
“It seemed rather innocuous to me,” Anderegg said of his resolution. “But maybe it wasn’t.”
Stephenson said the FBI has not contacted him and no Chinese government official played a role in the resolution.
TIES TO ALLEGED FRONT GROUPS
Stephenson has links to Chinese groups allegedly active in covert foreign influence operations, documents show.
He is a partner in the Shanghai-based consulting firm Economic Bridge International. The company’s chief executive, William Wang, is a Chinese citizen and council member of the China Friendship Foundation for Peace and Development, according to an online biography. The group is affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front.
Stephenson, also once worked for the China Academy of Painting, which has been used by China’s Ministry of State Security as a front for meeting and covertly influencing elites and officials abroad, according to Alex Joske, the author of the recently published book “Spies and Lies: How China’s Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World.”
Stephenson said he worked only briefly — without pay — for the China Academy of Painting. He added he did not witness any spy agency involvement.
WORK ALIGNED WITH CHINESE GOVERNMENT'S DESIRES
Stephenson said he’s never taken any action at the direction of the Chinese government and never accepted compensation from it.
“I work to promote Utah’s economy, to help American companies succeed in China, and to encourage healthy people-to-people and commercial ties,” Stephenson said.
His work sometimes aligned with what Chinese government officials were seeking and in ways experts say likely helped the Chinese Communist Party's messaging.
Stephenson urged Utah’s elected officials to make videos to air on Shanghai television to boost the spirits of that city’s residents early in 2020 as they battled COVID-19, according to emails obtained by AP.
“You cannot buy this type of positive publicity for Utah in China,” Stephenson said in an email pitching the videos.
The request originated with the Shanghai government, according to Stephenson’s email, and came as officials in China were scrambling to tamp down public fury at communist authorities for reprimanding a young doctor, who later died, over his repeated warnings about the disease's dangers.
Many lawmakers recorded videos reading sample scripts Stephenson provided, and a compilation of those videos was uploaded to a Chinese social media website. The compilation ends with dozens of lawmakers in unison shouting “jiayou!”- a Chinese expression of encouragement -- on the Utah House and Senate floors.
Translation
（繼續）
中國的“優勢”
Le曾擔任中國海外聯誼會的董事會成員，該協會與統戰部有聯繫 - 美國政府稱這是一個中國共產黨組織，從事秘密和惡意的外國影響活動。
在Le參加了中國人民政治協商會議在北京舉行的一次會議後, 一份統一戰線出版物在 2020 年對他進行了介紹，這是一個由中國共產黨控制的享有盛譽的諮詢機構。
Le告訴該刊物:“我深深感受到了中國制度的優勢”。
Le告訴美聯社，就他與中國政府的關係, 他在 2007 年和 2018 年接受了 FBI 的詢問。 他說他的提倡一直是自發的。
Le在韋伯州的辦公室接受採訪時說 :“我不認為自己是說客，因為我不是說客。 我只是一個珍惜美中關係的人” 。
參議院議長Adams表示，他有不同的看法。
Adams說: “我確實相信他在遊說”; “他大力提倡中國。”
立法者之子成為中國代言人
立法者經常表示，另一位提倡改善與中國關係的猶他州居民是Dan Stephenson，他是前州參議員的兒子，也是一家中國諮詢公司的員工。
電子郵件和其他記錄顯示，Stephenson 建議猶他州參議院議長如何給中國大使留下好印象，並協助中國一個省份在猶他州建造一座陶瓷博物館，但未獲成功。
Stephenson多年來一直在猶他州宣傳中國，並吹噓自己與當地政府官員關係密切。
Stephenson在委員會聽證會上對立法者說: “我不止一次從中國政府官員口中聽到，中國正在優先考慮與猶他州的關係” 。Stephenson的這些說話,是在他陪了同共和黨參議員Jake Anderegg 訪問上海和北京，其中包括會見了中國外交部的官員之後不久講的。
Anderegg告訴美聯社，在那次旅行幾個月後，Stephenson向他供了該州參議員在 2020 年提出的親中國決議草案，在大流行期間對表達與中國團結。
該決議幾乎獲得一致通過。
一名中國外交官試圖在威斯康星州通過一項類似的決議，但以失敗告終，該州參議院議長公開抨擊這是一種宣傳。
Anderegg告訴美聯社，他接受了聯邦調查局特工的詢問，以尋求有關猶他州決議起源的資料。
Anderegg談到他的決定時說: “這對我來說似乎無傷大雅”; “但也許不是。”
Stephenson說，聯邦調查局沒有聯絡過他，也沒有中國政府官員在決議中發揮作用。
與所謂前線團體的聯繫
文件顯示，Stephenson有與據稱有活躍影響外國秘密行動的中國團體有聯繫。
Stephenson是上海經濟橋國際諮詢公司的合夥人。 根據一份網上傳記，該公司的首席執行官William Wang是中國公民，也是中國友好和平發展基金會的理事。 該組織隸屬於中國共產黨的統戰部。
據最近出版的 “間諜和謊言：中國最大的秘密行動如何愚弄世界” (Spies and Lies: How China’s Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World) 一書的作者Alex Joske 稱，Stephenson 還曾在中國美術學院工作，中國國家安全部利用該院作為會見和暗中影響國外精英和官員的幌子。
Stephenson說他只在中國美術學院短暫地工作過，沒有報酬。 他補充說，他沒有目睹任何間諜機構參與其中。
符合中國政府意願的工作
Stephenson表示，他從未按照中國政府的指示採取任何行動，也從未接受過中國政府的補償。
Stephenson說： “我致力於促進猶他州的經濟，幫助美國公司在中國取得成功，並鼓勵健康的人與人和商業關係。”
他的工作有時與中國政府官員尋求的目標一致，而專家表示他的工作可能有助於中國共產黨傳遞信息。
根據美聯社獲得的電子郵件，Stephenson敦促猶他州民選官員製作短片以在上海電視台播出，以提振該市居民在 2020 年初抗擊 COVID-19 的精神。
Stephenson在推銷這些短片的電子郵件中說： “在中國，你買不到對猶他州的這種正面宣傳。”
根據Stephenson的電子郵件，這一請求源自上海市政府，當時中國官員正忙於平息公眾對共產黨當局的憤怒情緒，因為共產黨當局譴責了一名年輕醫生，因為他重複警告這種疾病的危險, 而該醫生後來由於這種疾病死亡。
許多立法者錄製了Stephenson提供的閱讀示例稿的短片，並將這些短片彙編上傳到中國社交媒體網站。 彙編結束時，數十名立法者在猶他州眾議院和參議院齊聲高喊 “加油！”- 這是一種中國式的鼓勵方式。
So, it seems that in a democratic state where human right and freedom are respected, the country could be vulnerable to the penetration and influence from a hostile authoritarian state. In a free society, one can speak out ideas and opinions freely, and the right of expression is respected. Indeed, politicians need to response to people’s opinions (or so-called public opinions) as they need the votes. But public opinion in a democratic country can be distorted by agents sent from hostile authoritarian countries. In a democratic society, government policy making is bottom up basically, and in an authoritarian country, the process is top down and opposite ideas will be suppressed. Also, in terms of political system, China is a centralized government while the US has its ruling power shared between the federal government and the states. In introducing and implementing a new government policy, I think a centralized government would have the upper hand in terms of efficiency etc.
Note:
Spies and Lies by Alex Joske is a
ground-breaking exposé of elite influence operations by China’s little-known
Ministry of State Security. Revealing for the first time how the Chinese
Communist Party has tasked its spies to deceive the world, it challenges the
conventional account of China’s past, present and future. (https://www.amazon.ca/Spies-Lies-Chinas-Greatest-Operations/dp/1743797990)
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