Chinese-American community groups in San Francisco display PRC flags and receive CPPCC appointments, suggesting Beijing influence

34 Sing, one of San Francisco’s six major community organizations representing Chinese immigrants, became the first major Chinese group to fly the flag of the PRC on its building. Then a second Tong declared its fealty to Beijing, and a competition broke out between the PRC and Taiwan in San Francisco’s Chinatown to see which side could fly the most flags. This competition can be vividly seen from the seventeenth floor of a public housing project overlooking Chinatown, where PRC and Republic of China flags sit atop adjacent buildings stretching into the horizon. The value of these associations to Beijing can be seen in this example: When China’s president Xi Jinping visited the United States in September 2015, one of the leaders of San Francisco’s local Chinese American community associations was listed as first among twenty prominent Chinese Americans honored by the Chinese president.?! Chinese Americans and the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference Several Chinese Americans are so trusted by Beijing that they are direct participants in China’s most prominent national united front body, the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The preamble of China’s constitution defines the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference as “a broadly based representative organization of the united front which . . . will play a still more important role in the country’s political and social life, in promoting friendship with other countries and in the struggle for socialist modernization and for the reunification and unity of the country.” In practice, the CPPCC has served as an important advisory committee to help legitimize Chinese Communist Party’s rule both domestically and abroad. Beijing has been appointing Chinese Americans to the CPPCC for years. In some cases, authorities in Beijing seem to have had problems finding appropriately influential Americans to take seats on the committee, such as in 2017, when a Chinese property developer and educator (who appears to still be a Chinese citizen) was one of seven “Americans” listed as CPPCC members.” In doling out prestigious positions on the CPPCC, China seeks to show overseas Chinese that prominent members of their community want to be connected with China’s government. The American contingent to the thirteenth CPPCC (announced in March 2018) was no exception. Perhaps the most remarkable in years, the list of thirty- five overseas representatives included four highly successful Chinese American academics, scientists, and businessmen.”? The appointment of Chinese Americans to positions on this advisory body to the Chinese Communist Party raises difficult questions of divided national loyalty. Americans should, of course, be free to participate in whatever organizations they see fit, since freedom of association is hardwired into the constitutional DNA of the United States. However, the CPPCC is not an independent civil society NGO, but an organization controlled, managed, The Chinese American Community HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020493