New research from a government commission prompts some important questions about the Biden administration’s handling of Chinese government-backed activities on U.S. soil. The biggest one: Why has the State Department declined for almost four years to make new additions to a list that restricts the activities of Chinese Communist Party-controlled entities in America?
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission is a panel that advises Congress on China policy, primarily through a gargantuan annual report that addresses the previous year’s developments and provides legislative recommendations. The commission also produces shorter research reports throughout the year, reflecting the findings of the panel’s staff.
Its latest research paper looks at the State Department’s office of foreign missions, which oversees Foggy Bottom’s relationships with foreign embassies and consulates here. A lot of its work involves administrative functions, such as helping foreign diplomats with their driver’s licenses. But it has also taken on an important function in the U.S. competition with China: restricting the activities of Chinese state and party personnel on U.S. soil.
At the beginning of America’s formal diplomatic relationship with the People’s Republic of China, the only foreign missions on the list for China were its embassy and its consulates.
But as the Trump administration reoriented America’s policy toward China, it made 17 additions to the list, primarily including propaganda outlets controlled by the Party. Other noteworthy designations were the Confucius Institute U.S. Center and the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification—a Washington, D.C.-based subsidiary of an organ controlled directly by the CCP’s United Front Work Department, Beijing’s powerful political influence bureau.
The logic was simple. Beijing heavily restricts the movements and activities of American diplomats posted to China, so our government should impose similar restrictions on personnel who report to Chinese regime-controlled entities in America, not to mention make clear that these organizations’ work in America is directed by the regime.
The first of this batch of designations was made in February 2020. They were preceded by a string of important policies put in place by the office of foreign missions throughout 2019 and 2020 to require that Chinese personnel notify Foggy Bottom in advance of their interactions with state and local U.S. officials, restrict the travel of Chinese military personnel posted to the U.S., and require advance notice of cultural events hosted outside of designated foreign missions.
For example: A gala event hosted by China Media Group — a subsidiary of the CCP’s central propaganda department — at a venue in New York City in January likely could have triggered some of those regulations, requiring notification due to the involvement of personnel at designated Chinese state media outlets and the attendance of NYC mayor Eric Adams.
But are Chinese regime-controlled missions in America complying with these rules? The trouble is, as the commission’s report notes, we don’t know. State does not make this information public. What we know for certain is this, another finding from the report: “even with the restrictions announced by OFM in 2019 and 2020 the United States remains less restrictive than China regarding whom foreign missions’ personnel may meet and where they may travel.” U.S. ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, recently gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal to publicly air his grievances about severe restrictions that China’s government has placed on U.S. diplomats’ work in the country; at one point, he said, they cut off electricity to a venue in which the embassy planned to host a concert.
Above all else, though, the commission’s most important analysis might be this: “the breadth of China’s overseas influence activities raises the question of whether other Chinese entities operating in the United States should be designated as foreign missions.” It added that following the 2020 foreign mission designations, Beijing could have moved some of its influence work to other united front groups that operate in America.
There are many such organizations, some of which have been implicated in activities organized by China’s diplomats in America, including pro-Beijing demonstrations at which people carrying People’s Republic of China flags assaulted anti-Beijing activists.
However, there have been no new foreign mission designations since October 28, 2020, according to the USCC.