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Congress will examine how foreign adversaries — particularly China — seek to influence American public opinion and policymaking at a hearing in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
One of the expert witnesses told Fox News Digital ahead of the hearing that Beijing’s greater advantage lies in shaping debate inside the United States through American organizations rather than direct Chinese propaganda.
Matthew Johnson, a China expert and senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, said Beijing increasingly seeks to influence debates over national security and other strategic issues by working through American institutions and organizations, making its messages appear homegrown rather than directed by the Chinese government.
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A photo illustration shows a Chinese flag waving in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., ahead of a House hearing examining alleged foreign malign influence operations involving China and other foreign adversaries. (Fox News Digital Photo Illustration)
“The idea is that it’s not the Communist Party talking, it’s actually institutions and individuals in the United States who are talking,” Johnson told Fox News Digital. “That’s actually the best outcome because then it looks organic… it looks like it’s somehow being produced from within our society as opposed to by external actors.”
Johnson said one of Beijing’s current priorities is slowing U.S. advances in artificial intelligence and data-center infrastructure—an area he said Chinese leaders view as central to strategic competition with the United States. He said China’s influence strategy combines grassroots activism with efforts to shape thinking among academics, policy experts and other influential voices.
His testimony comes as Congress continues examining the funding network linked to Shanghai-based Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, whose nonprofits have become the subject of congressional investigations and a federal criminal probe.
Fox News Digital previously reported that Singham directed at least $285 million into six pro-China, pro-communist nonprofit organizations beginning in 2017, including CodePink. Singham and the organizations have denied taking direction from the Chinese government, and neither Singham nor the organizations have been charged with wrongdoing.
David Chung, organizing director at the pro-China The People’s Forum, prepares for an anti-war demonstration in Union Square in New York City, left. Tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham attends The Red Party in New York City on Feb. 14, 2018, right. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital; Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images)
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Johnson is scheduled to testify Tuesday before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia, which will hold a hearing titled “Trojan Horses: Covert Foreign Malign Influence Operations in America.” Lawmakers are expected to examine how foreign adversaries, including China, Cuba and Iran, may use nonprofits, activist networks and other organizations to shape U.S. public opinion and policy.
“My goal is to raise the curtain to expose these operations and stop them from undermining our national security, capitalism and the American Dream,” committee Chairman Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., told Fox News Digital.
Johnson said the hearing focuses on what lawmakers describe as “malign foreign influence”—efforts by foreign governments to shape American public debate and policymaking by steering conversations toward their own strategic interests rather than those of the United States.
“I try to break down influence in terms of looking at ways in which the framework of very sensitive strategic conversations is being steered in ways that seem to map onto China’s strategic interests, not American strategic interests,” Johnson said.
He said the concept of a “Trojan horse” reflects Beijing’s preference for influencing American debate through domestic institutions and individuals rather than direct government messaging.
“From an American perspective, we want to be sure that it’s Americans who are leading the debate on this issue, not Beijing,” Johnson said.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects members of the People’s Liberation Army during a military event in Beijing. Congress is set to examine China’s alleged influence operations inside the United States at a House hearing Tuesday. (Li Gang/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Among the organizations that have received funding from Singham’s network is CodePink, the anti-war activist group co-founded by Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, Singham’s wife. CodePink has spent years organizing disruptive protests inside Congress, campaigning against U.S. policy toward China, Cuba and Israel, and promoting its “China Is Not Our Enemy” campaign, which argues the United States should pursue cooperation with Beijing rather than confrontation. House Ways and Means Committee Republicans have accused the group of promoting narratives aligned with Chinese Communist Party interests, allegations CodePink denies.
Asked why campaigns such as CodePink’s “China Is Not Our Enemy” matter, Johnson said they promote an image of China that serves Beijing’s strategic interests by downplaying the broader geopolitical competition between the two countries.
“The idea that we don’t want war with China, we want peace… these are all noble goals,” Johnson said. “But… its strategic function is that it masks the fact that Beijing actually does seek a world order that is more shaped by Beijing in which the United States plays a lesser role.”
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Johnson said China does not have to convince Americans to support the Chinese Communist Party to advance its interests. Instead, he said, Beijing benefits when public debate shifts away from viewing China as a strategic competitor.
“The real issue is whether there is actually a balance and whether we have enough transparency to allow us to assess whether there’s a balance,” Johnson said.
Fox News’ Asra Q. Nomani contributed to this report.