Bill Gates has advised and addressed various groups within the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front, the country’s top propaganda effort that the U.S. government identifies as seeking to influence the West to “take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies.”

Gates has served on a Steering Committee for the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), founded by the Chairman of the “highest-ranking entity overseeing” within China’s United Work Front, according to the U.S.-China Security and Economic Review Commission.

The effort, according to the congressional government report, aims “to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party” and influence Western elites to “take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies.” In practice, the group has set out 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.

Gates served on a CUSEF Steering Committee “providing valuable advice and comment” on a 2013 report entitled “US-China Economic Relations In The Next Ten Years: Towards Deeper Engagement And Mutual Benefit.”

The separate Chinese Steering Committee features a host of communist party apparatchiks including executives from state-run banks, universities, and party leadership bodies.

The 400-page report is authored by American academic and business leaders in addition to their Chinese Communist Party-linked counterparts and advocates for “even more business to business collaboration in science and technology,” “relaxation of U.S. export controls of high-tech products,” and more policies encouraging close U.S.-China ties.

Separately, members of CUSEF-sponsored delegations for American college students have met with China-based officials from the Gates Foundation.

But Gates’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front runs even deeper—and darker.

Gates, alongside former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, spoke and “extended his congratulations” at a forum hosted by the China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC) in 2012:

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the “Beijing Charity Gala Ball”, the China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC), together with Caijing Magazine and “Beijing Charity Gala Ball” committee, initiated the “First China Philanthropy Forum” in Beijing on November 30th. More than 300 public-spirited celebrities engaging in various fields from America, Europe, Australia and China attended the forum. Li Zhaoxing, chairman of the organization committee of the forum and chairman of the CAIFC, made the opening speech. Blair, former British Prime Minister delivered a keynote speech and Bill Gates, the prominent American philanthropist, extended his congratulations on the forum by video presentation.

The CAIFC, however, has been described by the U.S. government as “a front organization for the former General Political Department” of the Chinese Communist Party, performing “dual roles of intelligence collection and conducting propaganda and perception management campaigns.”

“CAIFC has additional ties to the Ministries of State Security, Civil Affairs, and Foreign Affairs, and it is a platform for deploying undercover intelligence gatherers. In addition to sending intelligence collectors abroad, CAIFC sponsors trips to China by foreign military and veteran groups, businesspeople, and former politicians which typically include contact with hand-picked People’s Liberation Army personnel,” the U.S.-China Security and Economic Review Commission report adds.