Zach Vertin, a Senior Advisor to President Joe Biden’s Ambassador to the United Nations, met with officials from a Chinese Communist Party think-tank linked to the regime’s United Front Department: an effort that seeks to “neutralize opposition” to the Chinese Communist Party’s “preferred policies.”
While serving as an analyst at the International Crisis Group, Vertin met with leaders from the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, a Chinese Communist Party-run think tank.
Tung Chee-Hwa sits on the think tank’s board while also serving as the Vice-Chairman of the “highest-ranking entity overseeing” China’s United Work Front Department, according to the U.S.-China Security and Economic Review Commission. The effort aims “to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party” and “influence foreign governments and other actors to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies.”
In addition to advising the think tank, Tung has repeatedly attended SIIS events including its 50th anniversary, hosted SIIS leaders at his events, and even funded SIIS research.
Tung is also the Founding Chairman of the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), which seeks 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” – a program that SIIS has repeatedly participated in.
And despite the think tank’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s influence operations, Vertin met with an SIIS Deputy Director and a research fellow as revealed by the think tank’s website.
Vertin has a long-standing relationship with his new boss, United Nations (UN) Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who also ties to the Chinese Communist Party through her former consulting firm and speaking engagements at Confucius Institutes.
“I first met Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield when she was our lead diplomat in Liberia, and was then lucky to work with her during the Obama years when she served as Assistant Secretary of State for Africa,” Vertin, an alum of the Obama administration, said. “We have stayed in touch since, and she generously invited me to speak to her classes while she was teaching at Georgetown University,” he added.
