August 10, 2023

How a rich U.S. leftist uses a web of shell non-profits to push Chinese propaganda

The piece below is longer than I like, but you need to know what it says to know how China is winning (and that the biden regime won't do anything to block that, since China owns biden).

The amazing part of this is that the research comes from...the New York Times.  I'm surprised that it slipped by the normally pro-China editors.
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In London in November of 2021 a leftist group called No Cold War attacked activists supporting the democracy movement in Hong Kong--which tells you the attackers worked for the Chinese communists.

On the surface, No Cold War is a loose collective run mostly by American and British activists who protest that the West’s focus on Chinese aggression has distracted from issues like climate change and racial injustice.  Ah yes, throw up "Global Warming" and raaaacism--or anything--to distract from Chinese aggression.

Astonishingly, the New York Times actually investigated "No Cold War" and found it's part of a group of non-profit shell companies funded by a left-wing American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham, 69, a socialist and benefactor of far-left causes.  The group runs an elaborate propaganda campaign that pushes the Chinese communist agenda.   

From a think tank in Massachusetts to an event space in Manhattan, from a political party in South Africa to news organizations in India and Brazil, The Times tracked $275 million dollars to groups linked to Mr. Singham that mix "progressive" causes with Chinese government talking points.

One of these is the American antiwar group Code Pink, which once criticized China’s rights record but now loudly defends its human-rights abuses.  It's a curious reversal.

Mr. Singham now lives in China, where one group in his network is co-producing a YouTube video financed in part by Shanghai’s propaganda department. Two other groups are working with a Chinese university to “spread China’s voice to the world.” And last month, Mr. Singham joined a Communist Party workshop about promoting the party internationally.

Mr. Singham claims he does not work "at the direction of the Chinese government."  It's a carefully-worded denial.  He shares office space—and his groups share staff members — with a company whose goal is to educate foreigners about “the miracles that China has created on the world stage.”

He and his allies are waging what Communist Party officials call a “smokeless war,” using overseas outlets and "influencers" to disguise propaganda as independent content.  The result is dozens of far-left groups designed to appear independent, all echoing Chinese government talking points.

Because the network is based on U.S. nonprofit groups, tax experts say Singham may have been eligible to claim tax deductions for his donations to his network.

Using nonprofit and corporate filings, internal documents and interviews with over two dozen former employees of groups linked to Mr. Singham, the Times untangled the web of charities and shell companies.  Some groups, including No Cold War, don't seem to exist as legal entities but are tied to the network through domain registration records and shared organizers.

Critically, none of Mr. Singham’s U.S. nonprofits have ever registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which is required by federal law for groups that seek to influence public opinion on behalf of foreign powers.  But since the groups are funded by a nominal U.S. citizen and claim they don't work for a foreign power, they claim to be exempt from that law.  Experts said Mr. Singham’s network was "an unusual case."

Most advocacy groups love publicity, but the groups in the network declined to answer questions from The Times. Three said they had never received "money or instructions" from a foreign government or political party.

Mr. Singham didn't offer substantive answers to questions about his ties to the Chinese government. He said he obeyed the tax laws in countries where he was active.  Instead he emailed “I am solely guided by my beliefs, which are my long-held personal views.”

Indeed, his associates say Mr. Singham has long admired Maoism, the Communist ideology that gave rise to modern China. He praised Venezuela under the socialist president (later dictator) Hugo Chávez as a “phenomenally democratic place.”  Later he said the world could learn from China's approach to governing.

The son of a leftist academic, Archibald Singham, Mr. Singham is a longtime activist who founded the Chicago-based software consultancy Thoughtworks.

There he came across as a charming showman.  He was unabashed about his politics. A former company technical director recalled Mr. Singham as an admirer of the communist revolutionary Che Guevara.

In 2017 Singham married Jodie Evans, a former Democratic political adviser and the co-founder of Code Pink. The wedding, in Jamaica, was a “Who’s Who” of the Left.  Part of the festivities was a panel discussion called “The Future of the Left.”

Six months after his wedding, Singham sold his company to a private equity firm for $785 million.

While other rich leftists started foundations in their names, Mr. Singham set up a funding system that concealed his giving.  At its center were four new nonprofits with bland names like “United Community Fund” and “Justice and Education Fund.” They had (and have) almost no real-world footprints, existing almost solely as mailboxes at UPS stores in Illinois, Wisconsin and New York.

It's important to note that nonprofit groups aren't required to disclose their donors--although IRS employee Lois Lerner demanded that *conservative* groups disclose their donors to get non-profit status.  Funded by millions of dollars from Singham, these four nonprofits then gave tons of money to every possible leftist organization.

Not one of the groups lists Mr. Singham as a board member or donor in their public filings. “I do not control them,” he said in his statement, before coyly adding “although I have been known to share my opinions.”

In reality, Mr. Singham has close ties to all four.  The largest is run by Code Pink co-founder and Singham's wife Jodie Evans.  The other three groups were founded by former employees of Singham's software company.

One of them is a Massachusetts think tank called Tricontinental, which produces videos and articles on socialist issues.  Its director wouldn't answer questions about Mr. Singham but said his organization followed the law. “We have never received funds or instructions from any government or political party,” he said.

The four nonprofits have sent millions of dollars to leftist causes around the world. The Times tracked money to a South African political party, YouTube channels in the United States and nonprofits in Ghana and Zambia. In Brazil, records show, money flowed to a group that produces a publication, Brasil de Fato, that intersperses articles about land rights with praise for Xi Jinping.

In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Mr. Singham’s network financed a news site, NewsClick, that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points.  One video fawned, “China’s history continues to inspire the working classes.”

‘Hijacked’ in South Africa

Several times a year, activists and politicians from across Africa fly to South Africa for boot camps. They come to learn to organize workers and left-wing movements. Once on campus, though, some attendees are surprised to find Chinese topics seeping into the curriculum.

At a recent session, reading packets praised Chinese loans to African nations, calling them “an opportunity for African states to construct genuine, sovereign, development projects.”

[For Americans who don't follow international events, for over a decade China has been making deals with corrupt African leaders in which China loans a country billions of dollars, with the loan secured by, say, a 50,000 acre lease on a cobalt-rich area, or petroleum.  The country can't repay (and never could--that was the plan!--and China just picked up the asset.  Google "belt and road"]

A former employee who helped prepare materials for the workshop said participants “are being rounded up and fed Chinese propaganda."  Those who objected were shouted down or not invited back, four past attendees said.

U.S. tax records show that one of the sham nonprofits, the "People’s Support Foundation," donated at least $450,000 for training at the school. On Instagram, Ms. Evans described a photo of the grounds as “Roy’s new place,” tying her husband, Singham, to the South African training camp.

In all the "People's Support Foundation" has sent $5.6 million to groups that run the school; a news organization; and the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party, launched ahead of the 2019 election.

Former party members said they were perplexed that despite severe local unemployment and poverty, the new party seemed more interested in China.
A former member said they weren't allowed to question any behavior by China.

‘Always Follow the Party’

Mr. Singham’s office is on the 18th floor of Shanghai’s swanky Times Square.  He shares the office with a Chinese media company called Maku Group, which says its goal is to “tell China’s story well,” a term commonly used for foreign propaganda.  It can be hard to tell where Maku begins and Mr. Singham’s groups end.

Nonprofit filings show that nearly $1.8 million flowed from one of the UPS store nonprofits to Maku Group.
Maku’s website shows young people gathering in Mr. Singham’s office, facing a red banner that reads, in Chinese, “Always Follow the Party.” Resting on a shelf is a plate depicting Xi Jinping.

Maku Group did not respond to a request to comment. After The Times began asking questions, its website went down for maintenance.

In 2020, Mr. Singham emailed his friends to introduce a newsletter, now called Dongsheng News. Dongsheng’s editors, in China, come from Tricontinental, but its address leads to a Manhattan "event space" soothingly called "the People’s Forum,"  also funded by Mr. Singham.

Code Pink

Ms. Evans, 68, was a Democratic insider who once managed the 1992 presidential campaign of California governor Jerry Brown.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Evans became an activist.  She helped form Code Pink to protest the looming war in Iraq. The group became notorious for disrupting Capitol Hill hearings.

Ms. Evans has organized around progressive causes like climate change, gender and racism.  And until a few years ago, she criticized China’s authoritarian government.  In 2015 she tweeted “We demand China stop brutal repression of their women’s human rights defenders.”

But in a quick about-face, Ms. Evans now loudly supports China, describing it as a defender of the oppressed and a model for economic growth without slavery or war. “If the U.S. crushes China,” she said in 2021, it “would cut off hope for the human race and life on Earth.”  This is what passes for sound thinking among leftists.

She describes the Uyghurs as terrorists and defends their mass detention. “We have to do something,” she said in 2021. In a recent YouTube video chat, she was asked if she had anything negative to say about China.  She said she couldn't think of anything.

Ms. Evans declined to answer questions about funding from her husband but said Code Pink had never taken money from any government. “I deny your suggestion that I follow the direction of any political party, my husband or any other government or their representatives,” she said in a written statement. “I have always followed my values.”

Few on the American political left would discuss the couple with the Times, fearing that any criticism would undermine progressive causes.  But Howie Hawkins, the Green Party's presidential nominee in 2020, said he'd soured on Code Pink and others in the Singham network that presented themselves as pro-labor but actually supported governments that suppressed workers.

In June, Code Pink activists visited the office of Representative Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts) denying there was evidence of forced labor in China  and saying the congressman should visit and see how happy people were there, according to an aide.

Source.

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fdnyuz.com%2F2023%2F08%2F05%2Fa-global-web-of-chinese-propaganda-leads-to-a-u-s-tech-mogul%2F

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