IN BRIEF: A top Biden pick for Ambassador to India – Eric Garcetti – has collaborated with Chinese Communist Party influence groups and praised Chairman Xi Jinping as a “remarkable leader,” The National Pulse can exclusively reveal.
In full:
Joe Biden is expected to nominate current Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for the role of Ambassador to India despite Garcetti’s long history of collaboration with groups tied to the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department (UFWD).
The billion-dollar Chinese effort aims to “to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party” and “influence foreign governments to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies,” according to the federal U.S.-China Security and Economic Review Commission.
Garcetti has collaborated with them.
The Mayor visited China in 2014 at the invitation of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), dubbed the “public face” of the United Front influence group. It is described as “avowedly an arm of the party-state.”
The U.S. State Department has described the CPAFFC as seeking to “directly and malignly influence” U.S. state and local leaders.
Deputy Secretary-General of CPAFFC, Zhang Heqiang, authored an article for the group’s magazine entitled “Saying Farewell to Mayor Garcetti at Beijing Airport” where he reveals that Garcetti praised Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping as “remarkable”:
“He spoke of President Xi Jinping as a remarkable Chinese leader, whose foreign policy succeeded in helping China build an image of responsible major country in the international community.”
The article also describes how Garcetti visited with Chinese companies labeled “military collaborators” such as Huawei and “signed quite a few cooperation agreements.”
Zhang recounts how the pair messaged on WeChat – a Chinese platform identified as a national security threat by the Trump administration – and that Garcetti sent him a photo of Xi while lauding the CPAFFC official:
“I was surprised to know that Mayor Garcetti took the Beijing subway all by himself and that during his stay in China he even learned to use WeChat and built WeChat friend-groups. He praised WeChat instant messaging system as really good and more convenient than Facebook, and added me as a WeChat friend. Right away he sent a photo of President Xi Jinping waving his hand and jested with me saying that President Xi was very satisfied with my work and was waving hello to us.
On my way home, I unexpectedly received a voice message from Mayor Garcetti on WeChat: “Mr. Zhang, thank you for your hospitality. I look forward to seeing you again.”
Garcetti has collaborated with additional Chinese Communist Party influence groups, including the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF).
CUSEF attempts to “effectively disseminate positive messages to the media, key influencers and opinion leaders, and the general public” regarding the Chinese Communist Party, according to Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) filings with the Department of Justice.
The National Pulse has previously revealed CUSEF sponsoring trips to China for mainstream corporate media outlets in exchange for “favorable coverage” and for current and former elected U.S. officials “chosen based on their […] open-minded perspective to China.”
CUSEF’s website boasts of Garcetti’s involvement in its annual “Expert Delegation” in partnership with the D.C.-based and Obama administration alumni-heavy Center for American Progress (CAP).
“The leader of the 2016 delegation was Mr. John Podesta, the founder of CAP and former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton. Other notable delegates included Los Angeles Mayor Mr. Eric Garcetti,” CUSEF notes before adding that high-level Chinese Communist Party officials and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General were also in attendance.
Garcetti has also participated in launch events for CUSEF research papers, including those shaping U.S.-China relations in favor of closer ties between the two countries.
The L.A. Mayor has appeared repeatedly on Chinese state-run media outlets to criticize former President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese industry, noting “it’s very incumbent upon us to show our own leaders domestically that a lot of Americans depend on this relationship for their wellbeing.”
Garcetti joins D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser as yet another Democrat captured by the influence operations of the Chinese Communist Party.
