Representative Grace Meng Congratulates Pro-Chinese Communist Party Activist for His ‘Leadership’

Representative Grace Meng (D., N.Y.) celebrated the “leadership” of a pro-Chinese Communist Party activist at a banquet dinner celebration in New York last week. At the event, she stood next to Chinese diplomats, including deputy consul-general Wu Xiaoming, whom the Justice Department linked to an illegal Chinese government police outpost in Manhattan.

Like many other big-name New York politicians, Meng has participated in several events involving the Chinese consulate-general or other Chinese government entities. Meng drew criticism from Hong Konger pro-democracy advocates who criticized her for taking part in a Dragon Boat Festival backed by the Hong Kong authorities in August.

The banquet last Saturday in Flushing, Queens, marked the 82nd anniversary of the founding of the Fukien American Association, a local community group for immigrants from China’s Fujian province founded in the 1940s.

The evening’s festivities featured speeches from several dignitaries, including Chinese consul-general Huang Ping, Meng, and Chen Heng, the chairman of the Fukien American Association.

Meng stood next to Wu during a photo opportunity at the start of the event while the national anthems of China and the United States played over loudspeakers.

In a speech, Chen emphasized the importance of integrating new immigrants into American society, supporting the participation of Chinese people in politics, and advancing the rights and welfare of overseas Chinese communities, according to Sinovision, a U.S.-based outlet for the Chinese diaspora that Reporters Without Borders says is controlled by the Chinese authorities.

Speaking next in Chinese, Meng celebrated what she views as the Fukien American Association’s contributions to the community and told the crowd that given that this year is a presidential election year, it is more important than usual to register voters, according to Sinovision.

“I just wanted to congratulate president Chen for his leadership in our community and once again wish everyone a happy and healthy new year,” she then said in English, before presenting a certificate to Chen. Meng’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Meng’s embrace of Chen and the Fukien American Association is noteworthy considering the group’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

Last year, Chen participated in protests against Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen’s trip to Manhattan, leading a group of demonstrators across the street from her hotel. He told China Daily, a propaganda outlet, that Tsai’s visit “hurts our feelings.”

In November, he joined other pro-CCP activists in the New York area on a trip to San Francisco, where they demonstrated to show their support for Chinese general secretary Xi Jinping, who was in town for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.

After this article was first published, Meng told National Review in a statement that she is “Not sure about this person’s views but this is a known local organization, and I am constantly attending local community events throughout my district.” She added: “Other elected officials have been in attendance at their functions and it’s common to give certificates at local events.”

Multiple Chinese government entities issued congratulatory letters for the banquet, according to Fjsen.com, a website operated by the Fujian Daily propaganda newspaper.

A letter from the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC) hailed the Fukien American Association’s work to promote non-governmental exchanges between the U.S. and China.

A separate letter from the Fujian province-level of ACFROC referred to the Fukien American Association as an important bridge connecting overseas Fujianese people.

These two groups are associated with the Party’s united-front network, which executes Beijing’s approach to controlling non-party members through an expansive web of front organizations. In a 2020 report, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute called ACFROC a “peak united front body for ethnic Chinese with overseas links.”

The Chinese consulate-general also issued a congratulatory letter, according to Fjsen.com.

The Fukien American Association has cultivated close ties to the Chinese consulate-general in New York, with Chen popping up at other events with Chinese diplomats across town. The Chinese consulate-general and a lawyer representing Chen in a lawsuit about the Fukien American Association did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment.

Huang and Wu also appear regularly at community events alongside New York politicians, despite their controversial histories. Huang has previously called the CCP a “great party,” while also denying Chinese government human-rights abuses.

Wu is one of the unnamed “senior consular officials” that the Justice Department said, in court filings, visited China’s illegal police station in Manhattan in 2022. Footage posted to a pro-Beijing news website for the overseas Chinese community shows that Wu was one of those officials, and that he gave a brief speech in the office that hosted the police station while standing next to its banner.

Responding to questions about her participation in the event alongside the Chinese officials, Meng said: “I have no connection to them and obviously wasn’t consulted on the invite list. Also, nobody spoke to me about China while at the event. In addition, various consul generals representing different countries often attend community events.”

Meng received a campaign donation from Harry Lu, one of the defendants in the police station case. At the time of his arrest last April, Lu was an officer of the Fukien American Association and a former leader in the America ChangLe Association, a pro-Beijing community group that the federal government accused of hosting the police outpost in its office. He appeared at the anti-Taiwan demonstration in which Chen participated last year.

Lu donated $600 to Meng in 2022. The Daily Caller reported that Meng has attended several events with Lu since 2016.

After Lu’s arrest, Meng’s campaign said that she donated funds in an equal amount to a local nonprofit, and that while she likely encountered Lu at community events, she had no relationship with him.