U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland this week, calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate left-leaning organizations’ ties to the Chinese regime. “According to the New York Times, many progressive organizations have received funding from Neville Roy Singham, a leftist U.S. citizen who lives in Shanghai and has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Yet, none of the entities tied to Singham have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The U.S. must enforce its laws more fiercely in the face of foreign adversaries who abuse our open system to advance their malign interests,” Rubio’s office noted. The letter is below. Dear Attorney General Garland: I write to express my concern over certain far-left organizations that are reportedly tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and operating with impunity in the United States. Combatting Beijing’s malign influence must be a key objective for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Unfortunately, it appears the DOJ is either unaware or ambivalent to this growing threat. It appears that organizations tied to Neville Roy Singham, a U.S. citizen, have been receiving direction from the CCP. Mr. Singham is the founder of Thoughtworks, a Chicago-based software consultancy, and for many years, promoted far-left causes. Mr. Singham reportedly created a dark money system that allows him to send funds to a number of far-left organizations. At the core are a series of non-profits, such as the “United Community Fund” and “Justice and Education Fund,” that have almost no real-world footprints, listing their addresses only as UPS store mailboxes in Illinois, Wisconsin, and New York. According to the New York Times, reporters, “tracked hundreds of millions of dollars to groups linked to Mr. Singham that mix progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points.” One such organization that is allegedly backed by Mr. Singham is Tricontinental, a Massachusetts-based think-tank that advocates for socialist revolution. Another is Code Pink, an organization that has received more than $1.4 million from two groups linked to Mr. Singham. Code Pink and an affiliated organization, “No Cold War,” deny the Uyghur genocide, assert Beijing’s erroneous territorial claims, and have publicly sparred with Hong Kong pro-democracy movements. Moreover, Mr. Singham has funded CCP party-to-party trainings at the Nkrumah School in South Africa. In these sessions, African political leaders are taught that America is engaged in a “hybrid war” against the People’s Republic of China (PRC) by distorting information about Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. As the bipartisan, bicameral U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission notes, the CCP’s party-to-party trainings are “the primary mechanism Beijing employs to spread its ideology of authoritarian governance on the African continent.” According to the New York Times, many of the organizations Mr. Singham financially supports are linked directly or indirectly to the CCP. Non-profit filings show that nearly $1.8 million flowed from one of the UPS store nonprofits to Chinese media company Maku Group. In 2021, Maku and Tricontinental agreed to work with a Shanghai university to “tell China’s story” in Chinese and English. Maku’s website shows young people gathering in Mr. Singham’s office, facing a red banner that reads, “Always Follow the Party,” with an image of General Secretary of the CCP, Xi Jinping, in the background. Mr. Singham also started a newsletter “Dongsheng News” that promotes pro-CCP talking points in foreign languages. Despite operating out of the PRC, the address for Dongsheng News leads to People’s Forum, a New York-based events space that is funded by Mr. Singham. Corporate documents show that in 2019, Mr. Singham started a consulting business with a group of entities located in the PRC. Those partners are active in the propaganda apparatus, co-owning with the municipal government of Tongren a media company that promotes CCP policies. Given this, I request that DOJ immediately investigate the following organizations, and all related organizations linked to Mr. Singham, for potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act: 1. Code Pink 2. No Cold War 3. Tricontinental 4. United Community Fund 5. Justice and Education Fund 6. People’s Support Foundation 7. New Frame 8. People’s Forum 9. Dongsheng News The CCP is our greatest adversary, and we cannot allow it to abuse our open system to promote its malign influence any longer. Thank you for your prompt attention to this important matter.
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