Suspected Chinese Operative Attempts to Target Bay Area Representatives
On Tuesday, a new article revealed that a suspected Chinese operative spied on several of the Bay Area’s congress members in attempts to infiltrate the American Government. The Axios story showed that Bay Area representatives Ro Khanna and Eric Swalwell were targets of the deduced Chinese spy Christine Fang.
Based on multiple investigation accounts, Christine (known for her alias name “Fang Fang”) tried to gain the favor of the two Bay Area representatives from 2011 to 2015. The law forbids international operatives to give donations for political movements.
However, records revealed that Fang got rejected by both targeted congress members. Moreover, investigators have stated that they have retrieved no evidence of the Chinese spy bribing Swalwell during the times they were together for diplomatic affairs. In 2014, Fang helped Swalwell promote his political campaign at the time and even proposed to find volunteers for him. In response to the inspections conducted against the suspected Chinese spy, Swalwell’s office commented that Swalwell gave his full cooperation with the FBI in solving the case and cut all of his ties with Fang.
According to the official statement released by Swalwell’s office, Swalwell provided all of the information he has about Fang to the Federal Bureau of Investigations. The account also reveals that the congressman met Fang eight years ago and hasn’t seen her for almost six years.
Additionally, Fang also volunteered to help promote Ro Khanna’s campaign in 2014, which ended up losing in that year’s state elections. During the investigation of her case, Fang fled from the U.S. in 2015.
One senior intelligence officer stated that Axios got informed by U.S. administrators that Fang failed to collect any classified information regarding the country’s governmental affairs. The senior operative also noted that many people mistook the investigation as a “big deal.”
Fang’s Student Experiences in California and Intelligence Agent Scandal
Christine Fang is a Chinese national and was famous for being a student at Cal East Bay from years 2011 to 2015. Based on official records, she participated in many of the state’s cocktail parties, student events, fundraisers, and campaign rallies. Fang also volunteered to help promote several politicians’ political campaigns at the time, making her look like a young woman striving to make a difference in the history of California’s diplomatic system.
However, the United States organization Axios discovered something more about the young Chinese native. According to the country intelligence officials’ investigations, they revealed that Christine was a suspected spy, working under China’s government in attempts to gather confidential information from America’s government. Christine, whose alias was “Fang Fang,” got picked by China’s leading civilian spy firm to try and establish connections with local and statewide politicians. Axion explained that the Chinese intelligence agency instructed Fang to target politicians destined to play more vital roles in the Northern California district. Due to that detail, Fang focuses her mission on getting close with Bay Area representatives – particularly Khanna and Swalwell.
The targeted congress members got interviewed by the Chronicle regarding the suspected Chinese operative. According to their formal conference, both Khanna and Swalwell admitted that they have vague memories of their interactions with Fang at the time. Additionally, they said that it was difficult to remember someone who stopped attending political events for the past five years and beyond.
Former Fremont Mayor Bill Harrison has shared several of his memories with Fang. According to Harrison, he remembered the young Chinese woman as someone who had a nice car and wondered how she got it despite only being a college student at the time. Based on past documents, Fang also volunteered for Harrison’s office, assisting in arranging conferences and participating in political negotiations.
Fang did not give her comments on the matter despite multiple requests from news organizations.
