China’s global campaign to gain friends and influence politics has flourished in an unlikely spot: Utah, a deeply religious, conservative state that has few visible links with the world’s most powerful Communist nation.
An AP investigation found China and its American-based advocates spent years cultivating relationships with officials and legislators in the state.
Beijing’s influence in Utah shows “how pervasive and persistent China has been in trying to influence America,” said Frank Montoya Jr., a retired FBI counterintelligence agent now living in Utah.
“Utah is an important foothold,” he said. “If the Chinese can succeed in Salt Lake City, they can also make it in New York and elsewhere.”
The AP found those efforts paid dividends both domestically and overseas: Lawmakers delayed legislation that Beijing disliked, killed resolutions conveying resentment of its actions, and expressed support in ways that enhanced the Chinese government’s image.
Its efforts in Utah are emblematic of Beijing’s larger efforts to bolster allies locally, at a time when relations with the United States and its Western allies have turned testy.
A Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington told the AP that China “values its relationship with Utah” and any “words and deeds that stigmatize and smear these sub-national exchanges are driven by ulterior political purposes.”
U.S. officials have said that local leaders are in danger of being manipulated by China, and they see this influence campaign as a threat to national security.
Security experts said the Chinese campaign is pervasive and tailored to local communities. In Utah, The Associated Press found, Beijing and China-friendly advocates are appealing to lawmakers who are affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as Mormons, which is the state’s dominant religion and has long dreamed of expanding into China.
Beijing’s Utah campaigns drew concerns from state and federal lawmakers, and attracted attention from the Department of Justice.
A state legislator told The Associated Press that the FBI interviewed him after he introduced a resolution in 2020 that expressed solidarity with China at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.
A professor from Utah who has supported closer ties between Washington and Beijing told the AP he was interviewed twice by the FBI. The FBI declined to comment.
Its efforts in Utah are emblematic of Beijing’s wider efforts to bolster allies locally, at a time when relations with the United States and its Western allies are turning testy. U.S. officials have said that local leaders are in danger of being manipulated by China, and they see this influence campaign as a threat to national security.
Security experts said the Chinese campaign is pervasive and tailored to local communities. In Utah, The Associated Press found, Beijing and China-friendly advocates are appealing to lawmakers who are affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as Mormons, which is the state’s dominant religion and has long dreamed of expanding into China.
Beijing’s Utah campaigns drew concerns from state and federal lawmakers, and attracted attention from the Department of Justice.
A state legislator told The Associated Press that the FBI interviewed him after he introduced a resolution in 2020 that expressed solidarity with China at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.
A professor from Utah who has supported closer ties between Washington and Beijing told the AP he was interviewed twice by the FBI. The FBI declined to comment.
It is not uncommon for countries, including the United States, to conduct diplomacy on the ground. U.S. officials and security experts stressed that many Chinese language and cultural exchanges do not carry hidden agendas.
However, few countries have courted local leaders in such an aggressive manner, raising concerns about national security, they said.
Authorities in other countries, including Australia, Canada, and Britain, have raised similar alarms.
These concerns come at a time of growing friction between the U.S. and China over trade, human rights, Taiwan’s future, and China’s implicit support of Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Tensions were further raised last month when a suspected Chinese spy plane was discovered in American airspace and shot down. U.S. officials provided few details on what states and localities were targeted by the Chinese government.
The AP focused its inquiry on Utah, as China appears to have developed significant numbers of allies in the state, and its sympathizers are known to lawmakers. Based on dozens of interviews with key players and an examination of hundreds of pages of records, texts and emails obtained through public records requests, the AP found that China has frequently won legislative and public relations victories in Utah.
China-friendly lawmakers, for instance, delayed a move for a year to ban Confucius Institutes funded by Chinese money at the state’s universities, according to a bill sponsored by one.
Chinese language and culture programs were described as propaganda tools by American national security officials. The University of Utah and Southern Utah University closed down their institutions last year.
Emails obtained by The Associated Press showed that letters were coordinated between the Chinese embassy and Chinese students’ teachers, leading to extensive coverage by state-controlled media outlets in China.
China’s interests in Utah are not limited to its officials and supporters, which are involved in diplomacy, commerce, and education. U.S. officials noted China’s civil espionage service, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), has shown an interest in Utah, according to court records.
Ron Hansen, the former Utah U.S. intelligence officer, has pleaded guilty to trying to sell sensitive intelligence to China. Hansen said Chinese intelligence services instructed him to evaluate the views of different American politicians toward China. The FBI found names of elected officials in Utah among classified files she had stored on her laptop, according to court records.
Hansen was sentenced in 2019 to 10 years in federal prison. Hansen was a prominent figure in Utah politics, according to court records and interviews, helping organize the inaugural annual United States-China State Governors Forum, held in 2011 in Salt Lake City. The U.S. State Department canceled the forum in 2020 because of concerns over Chinese influence efforts.
In an annual threat assessment released earlier this month, the US intelligence community reported China is “redoubling” its local influence campaigns as it faces increasing opposition domestically. Beijing believes, according to the report, that “local officials are far more amenable to pressure” than their federal counterparts.
Authorities in other countries, including Australia, Canada, and Britain, raised similar alarms. These concerns come at a time of growing friction between the U.S. and China over trade, human rights, Taiwan’s future, and China’s implicit support of Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
Tensions were further raised last month when a suspected Chinese spy plane was discovered in American airspace and shot down. U.S. officials provided few details on what states and localities were targeted by the Chinese government.
The AP focused its inquiry on Utah, as China appears to have developed significant numbers of allies in the state, and its sympathizers are known to lawmakers.
Based on dozens of interviews with key players and an examination of hundreds of pages of records, texts and emails obtained through public records requests, the AP found that China has frequently won legislative and public relations victories in Utah.
China-friendly lawmakers, for instance, delayed a move for a year to ban Confucius Institutes funded by Chinese money at the state’s universities, according to a bill sponsored by one. Chinese language and culture programs were described as propaganda tools by American national security officials. The University of Utah and Southern Utah University closed down their institutions last year.
In 2020, China scored an image-boosting coup when Xi sent a note to a Utah class of fourth-graders, thanking them for cards they sent him for Chinese New Year.
Emails obtained by The Associated Press showed that letters were coordinated between the Chinese embassy and Chinese students’ teachers, leading to extensive coverage by state-controlled media outlets in China. “Grandpa Hsieh actually wrote me back.
Portraying China’s most authoritarian leader in decades as a kindly grandfather is a familiar trope in Chinese propaganda.
Xi’s writings have also received favorable notice in Utah. The AP found that groups of as many as 25 Utah lawmakers have regularly traveled to China once a year since 2007. The lawmakers used some campaign donations to pay for trade missions and cultural exchanges, and relied on China and hosting organizations to cover the rest.
During their trips, they cultivated relationships with government officials and were quoted by Chinese state media in ways that supported Beijing’s agenda.
“Utah is not like Washington D.C.,” then Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, told the Chinese state media outlet in 2018 as the former president ratcheted up pressure on Beijing over trade. “Utah is a friend of China, an old friend with a long history.”
In an interview last month with The Associated Press, Hudes said that his trips to China had left him feeling “bullish” about the country and prospects for improved trade. However, he said that now he believes that these visits were just excuses by Chinese officials to sway him and other lawmakers.
China’s interests in Utah are not limited to its officials and advocates, which are involved in diplomacy, trade, and education. U.S. officials noted China’s civil espionage service, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), has shown an interest in Utah, according to court records. In January, Ji Chaoqun, a former graduate student, was sentenced to eight years in prison for charges related to espionage for China.
The Chicago-area student told a secret agent that his spy handlers had instructed him “to go out and meet with people, a few American friends.” He was baptized in the Latter-day Saint Church, according to his Facebook page and court records, and told an undercover agent that he is going more often lately to Utah.
Utah does not require state officials to detail their overseas travels or personal finances, making it hard to identify lawmakers’ financial connections to China. Some of Utah’s more pro-China lawmakers, however, do have China-related personal business connections.
Sen. Curt Bramble told the Courthouse News Service last year that his roles as a part-time lawmaker and a business consultant sometimes overlap, and that he has “clients in China—a dozen of them sometimes—some of them for legislative tours, some for consulting. In the AP interview, Bramble said that none of his clients were in China; they were just doing business there.
He declined to identify them by name. Bramble, a Republican representing a conservative district, has also dismissed concerns about too much Chinese influence in Utah.
The AP found many Utah-China connections were made by two state residents who had connections with the Chinese government or organizations that experts said were supposed cover groups for China, including its civil-spying agencies. The two men lobbied both for and against resolutions, arranged meetings between Utah lawmakers and Chinese officials, accompanied lawmakers on trips to China and provided advice on how best to cultivate goodwill with Beijing, according to emails and interviews.
In reviewing APs findings, legal experts said the men’s connections with Chinese officials suggested that they should register with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA.
“If I were representing either of these individuals, I would have significant concerns about FARA exposure,” said Joshua Ian Rosenstein, an attorney who handles such matters.
The law generally requires anyone working on behalf of a foreign entity to influence lawmakers or public opinion, but its scope is subject to considerable debate, and its implementation has been uneven.
One such person, Taowen Lee, has been advocating China for decades before religious and political leaders in Utah. Le, a Chinese national, moved to Utah in the 1980s and has been an Information Technology Professor at Weber State University since 1998. Le converted to the Mormon faith in 1990. From 2003 until 2017, Le had one other job, a paid spokesman for China’s Liaoning province.
The provincial government is controlled mostly by Beijing, and Liaoning has had a long-standing “sister” relationship to Utah. Le’s propaganda continued after she said she left the Liaoning payroll, emails and interviews showed.
He often forwarded messages from Chinese government officials to Utah lawmakers, and helped arrange meetings between Chinese Embassy officials and state officials.
A signature of Le’s approach is using his religion in his pitches to lawmakers. He quotes Scripture from the Bible and Book of Mormon in his emails, texts, and letters, peppering positive comments about China from the Church’s President-Prophet, Russell Nelson. Chinese officials have tried to foster a friendlier relationship with the church.
When they visit Utah, Chinese diplomats and officials frequently meet top members of the church, along with lawmakers, emails and other records show. Expanding into China has been a major focus of the church, which plays an outsize role in Utah politics as well as in the state’s overall identity. Many state residents live overseas as missionaries, and a handful of Utah’s public schools run strong Chinese-language immersion programs in grades K-12.
While the church has traditionally been a vocal supporter of religious liberty, Lee is trying to prevent Utah lawmakers from supporting religious figures or groups who are being discriminated against by the Chinese government.
When a Utah legislator sponsored a resolution condemning China’s well-documented and violent suppression of its Muslim minority, Uighurs, in 2021, Le berated the lawmaker via text message and likened unflattering media portrayals of the Chinese government to those of church founder Joseph Smith, Jr.
Le has served on the board of directors for China Overseas Friendship Association, a group with links to the United Front Works Department, the Chinese Communist Party group that the US government says is engaged in secretive, malicious foreign influence operations.
A United Front publication profiled Le in 2020, after he attended a meeting in Beijing of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the prestigious advisory body controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Le told The Associated Press that the FBI interviewed him about his ties to the Chinese government in 2007 and 2018.
He said his defense was always ad-hoc. Another Utah man who lawmakers said has often argued for better relations with China is Dan Stevenson, son of a former state senator and an employee at a China-based consulting firm.
“I’ve heard more than once from the mouths of Chinese government officials that China is prioritizing their relationship with Utah,” Stephenson told lawmakers at a committee hearing.
Emails and other records show that Stephenson advised the president of Utah’s Senate about making good impressions on a Chinese ambassador, and helped the Chinese province with an abortive attempt to establish a ceramics museum in Utah.
Stephenson has promoted China to Utah for years, boasting that he is well connected to state officials there. Months after that trip, Stephenson provided Anderegg with draft language for a pro-China resolution that a state senator introduced in 2020, which expressed solidarity with China during the pandemic, Anderegg told The Associated Press.
The resolution passed by nearly unanimous vote. An attempt by Chinese diplomats to get a similar resolution passed in Wisconsin failed, and the state’s Senate President openly attacked it as propaganda.
Eidelg told The Associated Press he was interviewed by FBI agents seeking information on the Utah resolution’s origins.
The documents showed Stevenson had connections to Chinese groups that were said to have been involved in secretive foreign influence operations.
He is a partner at the Shanghai-based consultancy firm Economic Bridge International. The firm’s managing director, William Wang, is a Chinese national and board member of the Friendship Foundation of China, which promotes peace and development, according to his online bio. The organization is affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front.
Stephenson, according to Alex Choeske, the author of a recent book, Spying and Lying: How China’s Greatest Covert Operation Fooled the World, was once employed at China’s Painting Academy, a company that has been used as a cover for meetings with elites and officials overseas by the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
Stephenson said that he worked only briefly, and for no pay, at the China Academy of Painting. Stephenson said he was never given a task by the Chinese government, nor was he ever compensated by them.
His work has at times coincided with what Chinese government officials were seeking, and in ways experts said probably helped the Communist Party’s messaging.
Stephenson encouraged elected officials in Utah to create videos that would be shown on television in Shanghai, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press, in an effort to raise spirits among residents in the city as it grappled with COVID-19 early in 2020.
The request originated with the Shanghai government, according to the emails from Stephenson, and came as officials in China were struggling to quell public anger over Communist authorities chastising a young doctor, who later died, over her repeated warnings of the diseases dangers.
Many lawmakers recorded videos reading from sample scripts provided by Stephenson, and a collection of these videos was uploaded to China’s social media site. The compilation ended with scores of lawmakers yelling the Chinese expression of encouragement in unison, “Jiayou!”
