Locally Rocky Mountain Power led in this effort to gain your "consent" to CONTROL your source of electricity, specifically related to your Central Air.
It's been about 20 years now since I, logically thinking, refused this "program" marketed by our local power provider because I understood I don't want a corporation making decisions for me and controlling my environment for a Service I pay for! Seeing the "forest through the trees" has provided protection for me...to an extent. It did not protect Coloradoans from this unlawful intrusion as a local power provider prevented 22,000 residents from adjusting their thermostats as temperatures soared into the 90's. In this case it was "SMART Thermostats" that facilitated the "takeover" by the Utility and prevented the customer from overruling that control. The power provider used the excuse of the power grid not being sufficient to handle the load and the grid going down. I have been saying for over a decade, "why are they no longer fortifying the grid while pushing all of this stack-n-pack high density European Block housing"? THIS is the problem in Colorado and other states across America! It does feel like a deliberate act in succession with the SMART Home take over.
The agenda that parallels this is "SMART Appliances". It is hard to find any new appliance that doesn't have SMART Chip Technology as standard equipment nowadays. These SMART Appliances have transmitters installed that may be always on or transmit intermittently say 5 times an hour. Either way this Electromagnetic Frequency(EMF) can be damaging and has effected many peoples health. It also brings privacy issues as it transmits usage data that can be sold/acquired by corporations and individuals in order to sell products and services you may not want. With the addition of SMART Thermostats, Ring type doorbells, Alexa, Siri and all devices WIFI corporations are creating, and marketing to you, "CONTROL" over your property! AT&T, Google, Apple, Amazon and countless others, they will SELL you a service that will control it all...and get you to pay for the privilege!
Case in point. Meet Brandon Jackson, Alexa "owner" using that system to control systems in his home. He purchased SEVERAL Alexa devices to automate his systems. In May of 2023 an Amazon Package was delivered to his home. Jackson had a SMART Doorbell on his home that was programed to say, “Excuse me, can I help you?” The Amazon deliveryman reported to Amazon that he met "racial slurs" while delivering the package. Jackson reviewed all of the video footage from his home surveillance system and found the delivery was made at 6:05 p.m. while no one was home, by a delivery person wearing headphones. The next day he ran into multiple problems communicating with his systems through Alexa. Taking some time to investigate why he was running into trouble, he discovered Alexa's (multiple) not working, so he contacted the company. When the representative on the phone looked into the matter he was met with accusations of racial remarks upon delivery of his package; and that Amazon was just protecting it's employee by deactivating and locking his Alexa/Echo devices. Jackson was without control of his automated systems for a WEEK! Jackson was told by email "an investigation was being done" and "they would let him know the findings by email." He spent the the whole Memorial Day week in limbo when his access to Alexa/Echo was restored two days after the holiday with absolutely now apology or explanation of the investigative findings. He now advocates that everyone who purchases a device like this or technology or hardware have complete control over their purchase! He also disclosed that he used Siri to override Alexa main control, so he "wasn't in the dark!" He has made a conscious effort to not make purchases from Amazon any more. Jackson his now advocating for private property rights and trying to send a warning to people to stay away from controlled systems that control your SMART devices/home.
No matter WHO tries to take control of our private property IT IS UNLAWFUL! This type of "Nanny" behavior and using Social Media and the "Thought Police" is DANGEROUS! We are seeing more cases of Americans being CANCELLED, LOCKED OUT, and SILENCED because the powers that should not be are making decisions to put us in exile for reasons without foundation. Take the Case(s) of the Bunkerville Standoff and the Burns Protest. The FBI/DOJ was so lazy that they used Facebook and other social media posts/YouTube video to bring the case against the Defendants, and what they called co conspirators, threatening to take them into custody and put them on trial for just speaking out about a subject. They have also made it a nightmare to live a free life by manipulating systems to lock you out of your freedom to make purchases of firearms etc. There are untold cases where these types of things have happened, and IT'S OUT OF CONTROL! America is a far cry from a "free society" and we must speak out and say, "NO!"
Utah has experienced its own China-related espionage case, but despite Utah DOJ's Warning Utah Officials continue to allow PLA/CCP et al to hide in Salt Lake's Chinese Civic Center.
Secret Police station in New York City on behalf of the Chinese government.
In April of 2020Utah U.S. Attorney John W. Huber shared highlights of the Department of Justice’s China Initiative with law enforcement agents and officers, private sector business representatives, university officials, and others at a Salt Lake City Security Webinar. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI sponsored the webinar.
Utah Republican Rep. Chris Stewart, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said, “These centers aren’t there to help people get a business license or help resolve a domestic dispute,” “They’re here to pressure, to use coercion and to use malicious influence.” It appears those who populate Utah's positions of influence have forgotten history all together because "cozying up" to the despotic Communist Regime of XI/Mao/Marx and the like will get Utahan's the same!
Daily Caller published an article June 17, 2023 that further outlines the truth behind the Department of Justice' Warning, much outlined in a 2016 Report to the U.S./China Economic and Security Review Commission, a 567 page report, (pg 303). The DC article is posted below.
"A Chinese intelligence agency quietly operates “service centers” in seven American cities, all of which have had contact with Beijing’s national police authority, according to state media reports and government records reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF).
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work Department (UFWD) — which at least one U.S. government commission has characterized as a “Chinese intelligence service” — operates so-called “Overseas Chinese Service Centers” (OCSCs) that are housed within various U.S.-based nonprofits. OCSCs were ostensibly set up to promote Chinese culture and assist Chinese citizens living abroad, according to Chinese government records.
State media reports, Chinese government records and social media posts show that during a 2018 trip to China, U.S.-based OCSC representatives met with Ministry of Public Security (MPS) officials. During the meeting, state security officials demonstrated how they’re leveraging new technology to conduct “cross-border remote justice services” overseas.
In April 2023, the DOJ charged two men for allegedly opening a secret police station in New York on behalf of MPS in order to “monitor and intimidate dissidents” and others critical of China.
There’s no evidence U.S.-based service centers operate as, or house, secret police stations, and the DOJ has yet to mention these entities in any statements or legal filings. Nonetheless, OCSCs’ association with China’s United Front system and contact with MPS raised red flags for legal and intelligence experts.
“The national security threat is real,” Will Mackie, a career federal prosecutor and former trial attorney for the counterintelligence section of the DOJ’s National Security Division, told the DCNF.
“Simply put, we should know which foreign government agents — including ‘unofficial’ actors — are operating in our country for whatever reason,” Mackie said, adding that American nonprofits performing Chinese governmental duties is “inconsistent” with diplomatic protocol, if not “illegal.”
GOP lawmakers expressed serious concern over OCSCs operating within the U.S.
“These centers aren’t there to help people get a business license or help resolve a domestic dispute,” Utah Republican Rep. Chris Stewart, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told the DCNF. “They’re here to pressure, to use coercion and to use malicious influence.”
Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn told the DCNF it was a “direct violation of our nation’s sovereignty” for the CCP to “set up shop on our soil to threaten, surveil and kidnap Chinese American citizens with a dissenting opinion.”
According to Chinese government documents and reports from China experts, the UFWD took control of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office in 2018. The U.S.-China Economic Security and Review Commission describes the UFWD as the CCP organ “responsible for coordinating [foreign and domestic] influence operations” as well as a “Chinese intelligence service.”
UFWD’s “overseas Chinese work” aims to “co-opt ethnic Chinese individuals and communities living outside China, while a number of other key affiliated organizations guided by China’s broader United Front strategy conduct influence operations targeting foreign actors and states,” according to the commission.
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office Director Chen Xu also serves as the UFWD’s deputy director, according to the Chinese government. Qiaowang reported Chen Xu spoke at a conference held in Beijing in May that included OCSC officials from around the world. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office and the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, a key united front group, according to China experts.
“In the next five years, relying on overseas Chinese organizations that have the public’s trust, we will guide and support the construction of Overseas Chinese Service Centers in cities where overseas Chinese are concentrated and where there’s an urgent need for constructing harmonious overseas Chinese communities,” Qiu Yuanping said in her 2014 speech.
Shortly thereafter, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office provided the initial funding to establish OCSC branches around the world and tasked them with a variety of seemingly mundane duties in support of China’s foreign ministry, according to Chinese state-run media and government reports. Duties range from processing Chinese passport and travel permit applications to so-called “consular protection” activities that include emergency, medical and disaster response work, according to reports.
Despite this directive, a Chinese Embassy spokesperson told the DCNF that the centers are simply formed by “warm-hearted” volunteers and have no “affiliation with any Chinese government agency.”
Since 2014, OCSCs have expanded to at least 60 locations worldwide, according to multiple reports from Qiaowang, a Chinese news service that acts as a propaganda arm for the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.
Qiaowang reports also reveal the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office’s efforts to establish service centers in at least seven U.S. cities.
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office announced in 2015 the Chinese Civic Center in Houston, Texas, would also house an OCSC, a Chinese state-run media outlet reported. Qiu Yuanping personally attended the grand opening of the Houston OCSC in February 2016, according to the Chinese government.
In September 2016, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office unveiled more OCSC locations, including one in Omaha, Nebraska, Qiaowang reported. The Omaha OCSC is housed within the Nebraska Chinese Association, according to Qiaowang.
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office also announced the Chinese American Association of Minnesota in St. Paul would house an OCSC branch in 2016. The group’s co-director received a commemorative plaque in October 2016, according to Qiaowang.
In September 2017, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office announced the final batch of service centers, including one in Salt Lake City, Utah, according to Qiaowang. The Salt Lake City OCSC is located within the Utah Chinese Civic Center, according to the group’s website. The Utah Chinese Civic Center’s website also states that it hosts an OCSC that’s “licensed” by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office also established an OCSC in St. Louis, Missouri, according to Qiaowang. The St. Louis service center is located within the Chinese Education and Culture Center, and a top Chinese consulate official from Chicago attended the branch’s opening ceremony, according to the consulate’s website.
The final U.S. OCSC location announced during the 2017 ceremony was in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to Qiaowang. The Charlotte OCSC is housed within the Carolinas Chinese Chamber of Commerce, according to a report from Qiaowang.
The Chinese American Association of Commerce, the Chinese Civic Center in Utah, the Chinese American Association of Minnesota and the St. Louis Chinese Education and Culture Center did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
A receptionist at Houston’s Chinese Civic Center confirmed the organization hosted a “Chinese service center” in a phone call with the DCNF. Similarly, a woman who only identified herself as an “associate” of the Nebraska Chinese Association confirmed the organization housed a “Chinese center” while speaking with the DCNF.
When the DCNF called the Carolinas Chinese Chamber of Commerce, a man who identified himself as a “founding member” of the Charlotte “Chinese service center” answered the phone. He confirmed the service center was housed within the Charlotte-based nonprofit.
‘Overseas Chinese Police Contact Points’
Chinese government records and state-run media reports reveal that U.S.-based OCSC representatives met with officials from China’s Ministry of Public Security. The FBI has accused the ministry of conducting “transnational repression” schemes in the U.S. targeting Chinese dissidents and human rights activists.
MPS’ most notorious transnational repression scheme is operation Fox Hunt. The operation uses “unsanctioned, unilateral and illegal practices, including coercion, extortion and intimidation” to “forcibly repatriate” alleged Chinese criminals living overseas, according to a 2020 DOJ complaint.
Between 2014 and 2018, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office sponsored a series of China trips for OCSC officials, according to Chinese government and state-run media reports. During these visits, participants frequently discussed how OCSC branches could assist Chinese law enforcement while abroad.
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office convened an OCSC conference in Beijing in January 2018 that featured multiple work meetings across China focused on international law enforcement, according to multiple Chinese state media reports.
Representatives from all seven of the U.S.-based OCSCs attended the Beijing conference, according to multiple reports from the conference and photos reviewed by the DCNF.
In Beijing, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office head Qiu Yuanping announced that improving “legal services” and developing an “online platform” would be among her organization’s annual goals, Qiaowang reported.
On the third day of the conference, OCSC representatives traveled to Zhejiang province and met with MPS officials at a police station that serves as the nerve center for multiple “Overseas Chinese Police Contact Points” around the world. Representatives from all seven U.S.-based OCSCs visited the Zhejiang police station, according to state media reports and government social media posts.
During the visit, OCSC officials posed for photos with uniformed MPS officers and participated in a series of demonstrations of an MPS-developed “internet + law enforcement” platform. The MPS platform provides “cross-border remote justice services for overseas Chinese,” according to China News Service and Qiaowang reports.
In one demonstration, the Zhejiang police station used the MPS platform to contact “special duty police officers” in Milan, Italy, according to Chinese government social media posts. These “special duty police officers” then delivered a report on their operations to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.
Following the video call, an Overseas Chinese Affairs Office official instructed OCSC representatives “to learn” from the police station’s “model” in order to “better provide for the well-being of overseas Chinese,” according to a Chinese government social media post.
The OCSC delegation also visited an “Extraterritorial Video Trial Court” specializing in domestic affairs, according to the Zhejiang court’s social media account. OCSC representatives participated in an international video call with the court’s “Overseas Chinese Police Contact Point” in France, according to a report from a United Front organization.
During this call, police contact point officials in France — several of whom belong to an OCSC in Paris — explained how they used MPS technology to remotely handle legal matters such as divorces and property disputes, according to the United Front group.
The “Extraterritorial Video Trial Court” had “tried” 77 international cases and mediated 18 disputes using the virtual MPS platform, according to a January 2018 social media post from the court. The post did not elaborate on the specifics of any litigation or the enforcement of any international legal judgments.
After the court call, an Overseas Chinese Affairs Office official leading the OCSC delegation called on attendees to learn from the court’s experience and build a global internet legal service to realize “the Chinese people’s dream,” the court reported.
It’s unknown whether or not U.S. service centers now utilize any of the technology showcased during their visit with MPS officials, but details of the trip alarmed national security experts who spoke with the DCNF.
“This is the internationalization of monitoring and control,” said Steve Yates, former deputy national security adviser to former vice president Dick Cheney. “An organized government effort to extend sovereign government operations internationally — and to use charitable and affinity organizations as the cover through which to engage in espionage and police activity — crosses a pretty significant line.”
Chinese government and state-run media reports indicate that OCSC branches outside the U.S. often perform law enforcement functions, including by serving as MPS “Overseas Chinese Police Contact Points” and conducting “armed patrols” in a number of countries, such as South Africa.
Several OCSC branches outside the U.S. also house MPS police stations from Fuzhou province, such as Dublin, Ireland’s OCSC, according to its social media account. The Dublin OCSC said its office is designed to assist Chinese nationals with government services, including issuing overseas ID card renewals and conducting physical exams for driver’s licenses.
There is, however, no evidence that U.S.-based service centers host MPS police stations like the one the FBI raided in New York City last year.
Texas Republic Rep. Morgan Luttrell, who is a member of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations, characterized the OCSC program as a “serious national security threat.”
“As the Chinese government uses every tool at its disposal to infiltrate the U.S. and grow its influence on the global stage, we must take bold action to counter the CCP’s malign activity,” Luttrell told the DCNF."
AP Article: Amid Strained U.S. Ties, "China Finds 'Unlikely' Friend In Utah"
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — China’s global campaign to win friends and influence policy has blossomed in a surprising place: Utah, a deeply religious and conservative state with few obvious ties to the world’s most powerful communist country.
An investigation by The Associated Press has found that China and its U.S.-based advocates spent years building relationships with the state’s officials and lawmakers. Those efforts have paid dividends at home and abroad, the AP found: Lawmakers delayed legislation Beijing didn’t like, nixed resolutions that conveyed displeasure with its actions and expressed support in ways that enhanced the Chinese government’s image.
Its work in Utah is emblematic of a broader effort by Beijing to secure allies at the local level as its relations with the U.S. and its western allies have turned acrimonious. U.S. officials say local leaders are at risk of being manipulated by China and have deemed the influence campaign a threat to national security.
Beijing’s success in Utah shows “how pervasive and persistent China has been in trying to influence America,” said Frank Montoya Jr., a retired FBI counterintelligence agent who lives in Utah.
“Utah is an important foothold,” he said. “If the Chinese can succeed in Salt Lake City, they can also make it in New York and elsewhere.”
Security experts say that China’s campaign is widespread and tailored to local communities. In Utah, the AP found, Beijing and pro-China advocates appealed to lawmakers’ affiliations with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormon church, which is the state’s dominant religion and one that has long dreamed of expanding in China.
Beijing’s campaign in Utah has raised concerns among state and federal lawmakers and drawn the attention of the Justice Department.
A state legislator told the AP he was interviewed by the FBI after introducing a resolution in 2020 expressing solidarity with China early in the coronavirus pandemic. A Utah professor who has advocated for closer ties between Washington and Beijing told the AP he’s been questioned by the FBI twice. The FBI declined to comment.
‘DECEPTIVE AND COERCIVE’
Beijing’s interest in locally focused influence campaigns is not a secret. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, said during a trip to the U.S. in 2015 that “without successful cooperation at the sub-national level it would be very difficult to achieve practical results for cooperation at the national level.”
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington told the AP that China “values its relationship with Utah” and any “words and deeds that stigmatize and smear these sub-national exchanges are driven by ulterior political purposes.”
It is not unusual for countries, including the U.S., to engage in local diplomacy. U.S. officials and security experts have stressed that many Chinese language and cultural exchanges have no hidden agendas. However, they said, few nations have so aggressively courted local leaders in ways that raise national security concerns.
In its annual threat assessment released earlier this month, the U.S. intelligence community reported that China is “redoubling” its local influence campaigns in the face of stiffening resistance at the national level. Beijing believes, the report said, that “local officials are more pliable than their federal counterparts.”
The National Counterintelligence and Security Center in July warned state and local officials about “deceptive and coercive” Chinese influence operations. And FBI Director Christopher Wray last year accused China of seeking to “cultivate talent early—often state and local officials—to ensure that politicians at all levels of government will be ready to take a call and advocate on behalf of Beijing’s agenda.”
Those concerns have arisen amid escalating disputes between the U.S. and China over trade, human rights, the future of Taiwan and China’s tacit support for Russia during its invasion of Ukraine. Tensions worsened last month when a suspected Chinese spy balloon was discovered and shot down in U.S. airspace.
LEGISLATIVE AND PR VICTORIES
U.S. officials have provided scant details about which states and localities the Chinese government has targeted. The AP focused its investigation on Utah because China appears to have cultivated a significant number of allies in the state and its advocates are well-known to lawmakers.
Relying on dozens of interviews with key players and the review of hundreds of pages of records, text messages and emails obtained through public records’ requests, the AP found China won frequent legislative and public relations victories in Utah.
China-friendly lawmakers, for example, delayed action for a year to ban Chinese-funded Confucius Institutes at state universities, according to the legislation’s sponsor. The Chinese language and cultural programs have been described by U.S. national security officials as propaganda instruments. The University of Utah and Southern Utah University closed their institutes by last year.
Emails obtained by the AP show the Chinese Embassy and the students’ Chinese teacher coordinated the letter exchange, which resulted in heavy coverage by state-controlled media in China.
A Chinese state media outlet reported the Utah students jubilantly exclaimed: “Grandpa Xi really wrote back to me. He’s so cool!” Portraying China’s most authoritarian leader in decades as a kindly grandfather is a familiar trope in Chinese propaganda.
Xi’s letter garnered positive attention in Utah, too. A Republican legislator said on the state Senate floor that he “couldn’t help but think how amazing it was” that the Chinese leader took the time to write such a “remarkable” letter. Another GOP senator gushed on his conservative radio show that Xi’s letter “was so kind and so personal.”
Dakota Cary, a China expert at the security firm Krebs Stamos Group, said in making such comments Utah lawmakers are “essentially acting as mouthpieces for the Chinese Communist Party” and legitimizing their ideas and narratives.
“Statements like these are exactly what China’s goal is for influence campaigns,” he said.
SPY AGENCY INTEREST
China’s interest in Utah is not limited to its officials and advocates who are engaged in diplomacy, trade and education. U.S. officials have noted that China’s civilian spy agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), has shown an interest in Utah, court records show.
In January, former graduate student Ji Chaoqun was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges related to spying for China. The Chicago student told an undercover agent he’d been tasked by his spy handlers “to meet people, some American friends.” He was baptized at a Latter-day Saints church and told the undercover agent he’d “been going to Utah more often lately” before his arrest, according to his Facebook page and court records.
Ron Hansen, a former U.S. intelligence official from Utah, pleaded guilty to trying to sell classified information to China. Hansen said China’s spy service had tasked him with assessing various U.S. politicians’ views towards China. The FBI found the names of Utah elected officials among sensitive files he stored on his laptop, court records show. Hansen was sentenced in 2019 to serve 10 years in federal prison.
Hansen was well known in Utah political circles and helped organize the first ever annual U.S.-China National Governors Forum, which was held in 2011 in Salt Lake City, according to court records and interviews. The U.S. State Department cancelled the forums in 2020 due to concerns about Chinese influence efforts.
‘UTAH IS NOT LIKE WASHINGTON D.C.’
The AP found groups of up to 25 Utah lawmakers routinely took trips to China every other year since 2007. Lawmakers have partially used campaign donations to pay for the trade missions and cultural exchanges, while relying on China and host organizations to pay for other expenses.
On the trips, they’ve forged relationships with government officials and were quoted in Chinese state-owned media in ways that support Beijing’s agenda.
“Utah is not like Washington D.C.,” then Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, told the Chinese state media outlet in 2018 as the former president ratcheted up pressure on Beijing over trade. “Utah is a friend of China, an old friend with a long history.”
In an interview last month with the AP, Hughes said the trips to China made him “bullish” about the country and prospects of improving trade. However, he said he now believes the visits were pretexts for Chinese officials to influence him and other lawmakers.
“It’s a trip not worth taking,” Hughes said.
Utah doesn’t require public officials to report in detail their foreign travel or personal finances, so it’s difficult to determine lawmaker’s financial ties to China. Some of Utah’s most pro-China legislators, however, have China-related personal business connections.
Sen. Curt Bramble told Courthouse News Service last year that his role as a part-time legislator and as a business consultant sometimes overlap and that he “had clients in China — a dozen at times — some of them on legislative tours, some on consulting.”
In an interview with AP, Bramble said none of his clients are based in China; they only do business there. He declined to name them.
Bramble, a Republican who represents a conservative district, also rejected fears of undue Chinese influence in Utah.
“China’s not going anywhere. China’s going to be a world force. They’re going to be a player for the foreseeable future and trying to understand what that implies for the United States or for the state of Utah and get a concept of that seems to be a valuable endeavor,” he said.
TIES FORGED BY TWO UTAH RESIDENTS
Many of the Utah-China ties have been forged by two state residents with links to the Chinese government or to organizations that experts say are alleged front groups for China, including its civilian spy agency, the AP found.
The two men advocated for and against resolutions, set up meetings between Utah lawmakers and Chinese officials, accompanied legislators on trips to China and provided advice on the best way to cultivate favor with Beijing, according to emails and interviews.
In reviewing the AP’s findings, legal experts said the men’s connections with Chinese officials suggest that they should register with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA. The law generally requires anyone who works on behalf of a foreign entity to influence lawmakers or public perception, but its scope is the subject of significant debate and enforcement has been uneven.
“If I were representing either of these individuals, I would have significant concerns about FARA exposure,” said Joshua Ian Rosenstein, an attorney who handles such matters.
One of the men, Taowen Le, has championed China to religious and political leaders in Utah for decades. Le, a Chinese citizen, moved to Utah in the 1980s and has been a professor of information technology at Weber State University since 1998. Le converted in 1990 to the Mormon faith.
From 2003 through 2017, Le had another job -- as a paid representative of China’s Liaoning provincial government. Provincial governments are largely controlled by Beijing and Liaoning has had a longstanding “sister” relationship with Utah.
Le’s advocacy continued after he said he left Liaoning’s payroll, emails and interviews show. He has frequently forwarded messages from Chinese government officials to Utah lawmakers and helped the Chinese Embassy set up meetings with state officials.
After embassy officials tried unsuccessfully last year to get staff for Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to schedule a get-together with China’s ambassador to the U.S., Le sent the governor a personal plea to take the meeting.
“I still remember and cherish what you told me at the New Year Party held at your home,” Le wrote in a letter adorned with pictures of him and Cox posing together. “You told me that you trusted me to be a good messenger and friendship builder between Utah and China.”
State Senate President Stuart Adams turned to Le when Utah was scrambling to obtain large quantities of drugs that Adams thought could be used as potential treatment against the coronavirus in early 2020, emails and interviews show.
Le, who belongs to the same congregation as Adams, said in an email to another lawmaker that he was able to get the Chinese Embassy to assign two staffers to work “tirelessly” on the request until it was fulfilled.
RELIGIOUS SALES PITCH
A hallmark of Le’s approach is to utilize his religion in his pitches to lawmakers. He quoted scripture from the Bible and the Book of Mormon in his emails, text messages and letters, and sprinkled in positive comments that Russell Nelson, the church’s president-prophet, has made about China.
Chinese officials have tried to cultivate friendly ties with the church. When visiting Utah, China’s diplomats and officials often meet top church members as well as lawmakers, emails and other records show.
Expanding to China has been a top goal for the church, which plays a heavy role in Utah politics and the state’s overall identity. Many of the state’s residents lived abroad as missionaries, and several of Utah’s public schools have robust K-12 Chinese immersion programs.
While the church has historically been an outspoken advocate for religious freedom, Le sought to stop Utah lawmakers from supporting religious figures or groups discriminated against by the Chinese government.
When a Utah lawmaker sponsored a resolution in 2021 condemning China’s well-documented and brutal crackdown of its minority Muslim Uighurs, Le chastised the legislator in text messages and compared unflattering media coverage of the Chinese government to that of the church’s founder, Joseph Smith Jr.
“Pray to God and seek guidance from the Holy Spirit as you ponder about these issues instead of solely relying on those biased media reports,” Le said.
The resolution failed that year and a similar one introduced in January did not receive a hearing.
CHINA’S ‘ADVANTAGES’
Le has served as a board member of the China Overseas Friendship Association, which has ties to the United Front Work Department -- a Chinese Communist Party organization the U.S. government says engages in covert and malign foreign influence operations.
A United Front publication profiled Le in 2020 after he attended a meeting in Beijing of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a prestigious advisory body controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Le told the AP he was interviewed by the FBI in 2007 and 2018 about his Chinese government ties. He said his advocacy has always been self-directed.
“I don’t consider myself a lobbyist because I’m not a lobbyist. I’m just someone who cherishes the relationship between the U.S. and China,” Le said in an interview in his Weber State office.
Adams, the Senate president, said he feels otherwise.
“I do believe he’s lobbying,” Adams said. “He advocates very hard on China.”
LAWMAKER’S SON TURNED CHINA ADVOCATE
Another Utah resident whom lawmakers said regularly has advocated better relations with China was Dan Stephenson, the son of a former state senator and employee of a China-based consulting firm.
Emails and other records show Stephenson advised the Utah senate president on how to make a good impression with a Chinese ambassador and assisted a Chinese province in its unsuccessful efforts to build a ceramics museum in Utah.
Stephenson has promoted China in Utah for several years and has boasted of being well connected with government officials there.
“I’ve heard more than once from the mouths of Chinese government officials that China is prioritizing their relationship with Utah,” Stephenson told lawmakers at a committee hearing. That testimony came shortly after Stephenson accompanied Republican state Sen. Jake Anderegg on a trip to Shanghai and Beijing that included meetings with officials at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A few months after that trip, Stephenson provided Anderegg with the draft language for a pro-China resolution the state senator introduced in 2020 expressing solidarity with China during the pandemic, Anderegg told the AP.
The resolution passed with near unanimous approval.
A Chinese diplomat’s efforts to win passage of a similar resolution in Wisconsin failed, with the state’s senate president publicly blasting it as a piece of propaganda.
Anderegg told the AP that he was interviewed by FBI agents seeking information about the Utah resolution’s origins.
“It seemed rather innocuous to me,” Anderegg said of his resolution. “But maybe it wasn’t.”
Stephenson said the FBI has not contacted him and no Chinese government official played a role in the resolution.
TIES TO ALLEGED FRONT GROUPS
Stephenson has links to Chinese groups allegedly active in covert foreign influence operations, documents show.
He is a partner in the Shanghai-based consulting firm Economic Bridge International. The company’s chief executive, William Wang, is a Chinese citizen and council member of the China Friendship Foundation for Peace and Development, according to an online biography. The group is affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front.
Stephenson, also once worked for the China Academy of Painting, which has been used by China’s Ministry of State Security as a front for meeting and covertly influencing elites and officials abroad, according to Alex Joske, the author of the recently published book “Spies and Lies: How China’s Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World.”
Stephenson said he worked only briefly — without pay — for the China Academy of Painting. He added he did not witness any spy agency involvement.
WORK ALIGNED WITH CHINESE GOVERNMENT’S DESIRES
Stephenson said he’s never taken any action at the direction of the Chinese government and never accepted compensation from it.
“I work to promote Utah’s economy, to help American companies succeed in China, and to encourage healthy people-to-people and commercial ties,” Stephenson said.
His work sometimes aligned with what Chinese government officials were seeking and in ways experts say likely helped the Chinese Communist Party’s messaging.
Stephenson urged Utah’s elected officials to make videos to air on Shanghai television to boost the spirits of that city’s residents early in 2020 as they battled COVID-19, according to emails obtained by AP.
“You cannot buy this type of positive publicity for Utah in China,” Stephenson said in an email pitching the videos.
The request originated with the Shanghai government, according to Stephenson’s email, and came as officials in China were scrambling to tamp down public fury at communist authorities for reprimanding a young doctor, who later died, over his repeated warnings about the disease’s dangers.
Many lawmakers recorded videos reading sample scripts Stephenson provided, and a compilation of those videos was uploaded to a Chinese social media website. The compilation ends with dozens of lawmakers in unison shouting “jiayou!”- a Chinese expression of encouragement -- on the Utah House and Senate floors.
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By ALAN SUDERMAN and SAM METZMarch 27, 2023 reported from Washington. AP writer Fu Ting (Chinese Reporter) in Washington contributed to this story.
Comrade Chi Haotian the Vice-Chairman of China's Military Commission told us HOW China would take over America. China has for many years advocated deceitful and covert warfare against its enemies. This is their Modus Operandi. Like many children, we must now ask, "are we there yet"?
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