CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY TARGETS U.S. STATE & LOCAL OFFICIALS TO ADVANCE INFLUENCE AGENDA – NEW FDD REPORT

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 15, 2021 – China uses relationships that Beijing builds with state and local leaders as tools for advancing a strategic campaign of malign influence in the United States, according to a new report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).

Authors Nathan Picarsic and Emily de la Bruyère write in “All Over the Map: The Chinese Communist Party’s Subnational Interests in the United States” that China’s long-standing “subnational diplomacy” – directly targeting U.S. state and local officials – promotes Chinese interests in America. Beijing uses state and local political ties asymmetrically to benefit from and to influence U.S. economic, technological, and information ecosystems.

“Nate and Emily have researched an indispensable report into the ways the Chinese Communist Party targets governors, mayors, and other state and local players with political influence activities,” said former Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger, chairman of FDD’s China Program. “As the U.S. federal government has wised up to Beijing’s strategy, Beijing’s ‘United Front’ agents have come to view U.S. subnational officials and executives as a softer target, and are widening their campaign of covert, coercive, and corrupting political warfare.”

“Beijing understands that subnational political leaders respond to different incentives than do federal officials and authorities — and that those incentives may create favorable conditions for China’s influence campaigns,” write Picarsic and de la Bruyère, senior fellows in FDD’s China Program.

“States and localities often prioritize the creation of jobs and economic growth” they add. “Beijing appeals to such economic interests to shift attitudes, open doors for China and Chinese entities, and foster relationships that can offset growing resistance in Washington to Beijing’s global agenda.”

The report finds that Beijing has short- and medium-term goals: In the immediate, state, and local governments can exert pressure on the federal government. In the longer term, Beijing views subnational officials as future national leaders to be co-opted.

“A core component of China’s approach is that trade and investment allow influence,” the authors write. “State and local entities tend to be most responsive to economic incentives – such as trade and employment – on a short time horizon and least concerned with strategic or security frameworks.”

Picarsic and de la Bruyère emphasize that not all features of China’s engagement in the United States are malign or manipulative. “Not all mechanisms of cooperation, dialogue, and understanding between the United States and China constitute fronts for government influence campaigns. However, understanding the range of mechanisms for subnational partnerships that the CCP deploys is a necessary precursor to identifying where and when threats may exist,” they write.

The authors say Washington is starting to acknowledge Beijing’s bid for subnational influence. For example, in August 2020, the State Department designated the Confucius Institutes’ head office in the United States as a PRC foreign mission, a status requiring it “to regularly provide information to the State Department about PRC citizen personnel, recruiting, funding, and operations in the United States.” Two months later, the State Department issued another foreign-mission designation, this time targeting six Chinese-domiciled media companies operating in the United States: Yicai Global, the Jiefang Daily, Xinmin Evening News, the Beijing Review, the Economic Daily, and Social Sciences in China Press.

Still, the authors say that while Beijing’s asymmetric influence campaign is coordinated and carefully implemented, the U.S. response is “scattershot.”

The authors recommend that the United States create a strategic framework for identifying both the organizing nodes of China’s subnational influence campaign and the vulnerabilities of state and local governments. The report lays out the foundation for such a framework by profiling the strategic goals behind China’s state and local influence efforts, the architecture of players that implement those efforts, the specific tools and mechanisms Beijing employs, and potential indicators of vulnerability at the state and local level.

“Americans are increasingly familiar with the CCP’s military aggression, economic exploitation, cyber threats, and grave human rights violations,” write Picarsic and de la Bruyère. “It is time for them to recognize that the CCP also shapes opinion within the United States.”

To contact FDD media relations, please email [email protected].

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FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan policy institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Connect with FDD on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

About FDD’s China Program:

FDD takes a whole-of-institution approach in studying and countering the threats from the Chinese Communist Party. FDD’s China program, comprised of leading experts on these threats, works closely with FDD’s centers on American power: the Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP) headed by General H.R. McMaster; the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI) chaired by Dr. Samantha Ravich; and, the Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP) led by the Hon. Juan Zarate. FDD also studies China across our multiple regional areas spanning the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe, Africa, Canada, and Latin America.