CCP-tied activists desperately trying to keep Chinese land grabs alive near U.S. bases

A network tied to the Chinese government is mobilizing activists to protest two Republican-sponsored U.S. national security bills, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.

Midwest affiliates of United Chinese Americans (UCA), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, first packed a March 17 Ohio House hearing with dozens of opponents to H.B. 1, an Ohio bill which would prohibit citizens of “foreign adversary” nations from acquiring property near military installations, before allegedly chasing down proponents in the capitol hallway to pepper them with questions.

Several days later, UCA and its Iowa chapter staged a protest on March 21 at the Hawkeye State’s capitol against H.F. 2513, which would ban Iowa’s universities from hiring H-1B visa holders from foreign adversary nations.

While the UCA network frames recent activism as opposition to “discriminatory” and “anti-immigrant” bills, a significant number of UCA’s leaders have served as members of the Chinese government and/or in arms of a Chinese influence and intelligence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), raising concerns about foreign interference in American politics.

The U.S. China Economic and Security Commission, which is a U.S. legislative branch commission, has detailed the nefarious workings of the UFWD.

“Chinese leader Xi Jinping describes the ‘united front’ political war machine as his number one weapon to erode American power and ultimately displace the U.S.,” Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor, told the DCNF.

“One way they do this is by interfering in statehouses across the country, packing committee rooms with CCP loyalists, like we saw in the Ohio statehouse,” said Lucci, who testified in favor of H.B. 1. and engaged directly with the activists on March 17.

UCA president Haipei Shue told the DCNF that his organization has never had a relationship with the Chinese government, but acknowledged that he previously worked for the Chinese government before moving to the U.S. and that another board member has a “casual official tie with a Chinese city.”

“Tell me who has not worked in Chinese government?” Shue said. “Are you going to weaponize that employment fact to suggest that all these people are suspicious? They should not be trusted?”

However, Shue did not address Chinese government and state media reports flagged by the DCNF indicating that several other current UCA board members have also held Chinese government positions or that UCA has promoted UFWD youth programs.

‘CCP Propaganda’

A UCA community partner that promotes UFWD initiatives called the Ohio Chinese American Association (OCCA) and its sister organizations coached activists to testify against H.B. 1, according to DCNF translations of social media posts and the network’s documents.

“CCP-linked individuals shouldn’t own property near sensitive infrastructure in Ohio or any other state,” Jacqueline Deal, a State Armor advisory board member who testified in favor of H.B. 1, told the DCNF. “They also shouldn’t be surprised to find themselves exposed when they try to interfere in our democracy by testifying without disclosing their CCP ties.”

Republican Ohio State representatives Angela King and Roy Klopfenstein introduced H.B. 1 in January 2025, which would prohibit citizens of China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela from owning land within 10 miles of military bases and critical infrastructure in Ohio, such as water treatment facilities. The bill has now had four hearings in the state’s Republican-majority House and is nearing a potential vote, according to House Speaker Matt Huffman, the Toledo Blade reported.

The Buckeye State is home to several sensitive U.S. military installations including Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where the National Air and Space Intelligence Center is garrisoned, as well as the Defense Supply Center Columbus, which “provides weapons system and platform support to U.S. forces and federal agencies worldwide.”

Several states, including Alabama, Florida and Missouri have also moved to limit or outright ban Chinese nationals from owning land following news reports highlighting CCP-tied entities purchasing plots near U.S. military sites.

However, UCA and its national affiliate network maintain such bans are “anti-Chinese” and “xenophobic.”

OCAA — which lost its nonprofit status in November 2025 for failing to file with Ohio’s Secretary of State — claims that H.B. 1 “discriminates based on national origin” and would “threaten fundamental civil liberties,” according to a March 13 OCAA-sponsored statement. It is unclear if OCAA has appealed the loss of its nonprofit status.

Two days before H.B. 1’s March 17 hearing, OCAA and related nonprofits circulated a template promoting their talking points as well as instructions on how to testify. OCAA and its affiliates also provided “Stop H.B. 1” t-shirts to the bill’s opponents, according to social media posts.

Footage from the hearing shows H.B. 1 opponents wearing matching purple “Stop H.B. 1” shirts, all testifying with very similar language against the bill.

UCA “community partnership representative” and OCCA chairman, Vincent Wang, urged lawmakers in his opposing testimony to “reject fear-based policymaking and instead craft evidence-driven solutions to the real challenges Ohioans face — rising cost of living, workforce availability, healthcare access, and long-term economic competitiveness.”

Lucci told the DCNF that after he and Deal testified, they exited the still on-going hearing and were allegedly followed out by approximately five H.B. 1 opponents, including Wang, who purportedly “began ceaselessly pestering” Deal.

“Wang followed me into the hallway to pepper me with questions about how I found out what I knew about him,” said Deal, whose testimony noted UCA’s Chinese government ties and OCAA’s relationship with UCA. “He seemed to be upset by transparency.”

Lucci claims he then posed “one simple question” to Wang: “Should the CCP be kicked out of Ohio?”

“Wang refused to answer over and over, but even when he finally conceded that the CCP is the enemy of the U.S., he still couldn’t bring himself to admit the obvious truth that the CCP should be kicked out of Ohio,” said Lucci, who called the confrontation “highly unusual behavior in a state legislature.”

Ohio business filings also identify Wang, whose Chinese name is Wang Wenkui, as the registered agent for Ohio-based Global Media Collaborations LLC (GMC), which Wang has used to develop close ties with Chinese state media outlets like CCTV, according to DCNF translations of reports from Erie Chinese Journal, an Ohio-based Chinese language news outlet. OCCA and Wang did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

Yet, GMC is not Wang’s only organization with Chinese government ties.

OCAA’s website also spotlights several CCP ties, including posts promoting a UFWD-run summer camp in China for ethnically-Chinese children as well as announcements detailing OCAA’s participation in UCA’s “Food of Love” program. That program, which ostensibly exists to donate food to local communities, is actually an initiative that was launched by the UFWD‘s All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC) during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to DCNF translations of ACFROC announcements.

The Chinese government has been accused of orchestrating a global campaign during the pandemic to hoard medical supplies and later donate such goods to countries with “political conditions, such as public statements of gratitude,” according to federal reports. The Food of Love program is a related pandemic-era initiative that aims to highlight the contributions of the Chinese community to pandemic relief worldwide while also contributing to a shared sense of identity with China and Chinese culture, according to the ACFROC announcements.

UCA’s president Shue denied knowledge that ACFROC had launched the Food of Love program, but did not address the ACFROC announcements or a UCA webpage about the food drive that directly links to the UFWD’s website, both of which the DCNF flagged in an email.

“Ohio lawmakers should power forward through this wave of CCP propaganda and advance H.B. 1,” Lucci said.

“The CCP is pre-positioning across the country near our military installations and critical infrastructure to cause mass disruptions,” Lucci added. “The CCP and all their spies and beholden businesses should be kicked out of Ohio.”

‘Party-State Affiliations’

Several nonprofits including UCA and its Hawkeye State chapter, the Chinese Association of Iowa (CAI) — which is led by Swallow Yan, according to IRS Form 990s disclosed by ProPublica, a member of both UCA and ACFROC’s overseas committee — co-organized the protest against H.F. 2513 in Des Moines on Saturday, according to DCNF translations of UCA and Chinese government announcements.

H.F. 2513 passed through Iowa’s House on March 3 and would prohibit the state’s universities from entering into employment contracts with citizens of foreign adversary nations holding H-1B visas, which allow U.S. employers to hire “nonimmigrant aliens as workers in specialty occupations,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

There are 117 H-1B holders in Iowa’s public universities, 104 of which are Chinese nationals, Iowa’s Board of Regents told state lawmakers in February 2026, Iowa’s Gazette reported.

Concerns about China’s activities on American campuses have spiked in recent years following media reports and federal cases involving Chinese academics who have participated in UFWD-tied technology transfer programs like the Thousand Talents Plan, often while receiving large U.S. government research grants.

Despite growing concerns, UCA and its affiliates claim H.F. 2513 is “discriminatory” and would “hurt Iowa’s universities, economy, and hard-earned reputation,” according to an announcement for the protest that the nonprofit posted on X.

Around 150 activists attended the protest at Iowa’s state capitol on Saturday, the Des Moines Register reported, with accompanying photos showing protestors carrying signs stating “Education Not Discrimination” and “Fear Is Not A Policy.”

UFWD front groups have organized “protests against topics deemed threats to the stability of CCP rule” and have also encouraged “overseas Chinese to get involved in politics to advocate for Beijing’s interests” in order to “turn Americans against their own government’s interests and their society’s interests,” according to a 2018 U.S.-China Economic And Security Review Commission report.

It is standard operating procedure for UFWD front groups to disguise their opposition to U.S. national security laws by appealing to classic American values, Lucci warned.

“These CCP-intelligence tied actors obscure their party-state affiliations and hide their true intentions by laundering their propaganda into American terminology such as ‘property rights’ and ‘American Dream,’” Lucci told the DCNF. “They are here to hurt our economy and national security.”

CAI and Yan could not be reached for comment.

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