The Epoch Times recently obtained leaked government documents from a trusted source that reveal the go-betweens who have helped the Chinese regime establish its sister city programs with other countries. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has promoted its agenda through sister city partnerships with the West, and U.S. lawmakers have sounded the alarm of the threats posed by such programs.
Chinese-Australian Trade Association
One of the leaked documents revealed that a Chinese-Australian trade association helped to form some of the sister city partnerships between Australia and China.At the end of 2017, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO) of Jilin Province received an invitation letter from an organization called the Australian International Trade Association (AITA). The letter stated that the “Belt and Road China-Australia Cities Summit and Business Forum” would be held in Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory, in June 2018. The director of Jilin’s OCAO, Wang Zhiwei, was invited to attend the event.
After the CCP launched its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), AITA’s activities revolved around building sister city relationships between Australia and China. The head of AITA, Michael Guo, held more than one job title that was tailored specifically for the different programs under BRI, including the secretary of the Belt and Road Education Alliance and the secretary of the Belt and Road China-Australia Logistics Supply Chain e-commerce Alliance. Guo immigrated to Australia from Beijing in the 1980s.
Former Chinese Student
Another leaked document revealed that Chinese national Luo Renkai helped the CCP to establish a sister city relationship with Spain a few years after he completed his studies in the western country.Luo resides in Hengyang city, Hunan Province. He is currently the vice chairman of the Municipal Young Entrepreneur Association and the head of Hunan Kaile International, a trade organization.
According to a work report submitted by Luo to the Hengyang municipal government, Luo studied at the Chinese Communist Liberation Army Foreign Languages Institute before he attended a university in Spain in 2004. He returned to China in 2014 and became the general manager of Hengyang Mingcheng Real Estate Property Co., Ltd., and concurrently a member of the Hunan Overseas Chinese Federation.
Luo returned to Spain in April 2017 to establish a sister city relationship between Toledo and Hengyang under the direction of Hengyang authorities, according to a document, titled, “Request for Instructions on Organizing Chinese and Western Cultural Exchange Activities,” issued by the Hengyang Municipal Committee of the CCP’s Youth League on Nov. 9, 2018. Luo successfully got Toledo to sign a sister city agreement with Hengyang, and obtained authorizations from some enterprises and universities in Toledo to sign various exchange projects with Hengyang.
Chinese-American Community Leader
A diplomatic cable sent by the Chinese Consulate in the U.S. city of Chicago to authorities in Henan Province revealed the identity of the intermediary who helped promote the sister city program between the state of Kansas and Henan.On July 6, 2017, the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago sent an urgent telegram to Henan’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office and local authorities of Zhengzhou city, notifying them of a visit by a Chinese-American community leader, named “Forest” Rong Lei, and asked the local government to receive him well. The purpose of Rong’s visit was to inform the Henan authorities about his various activities in supporting the sister city program such as his role with the Confucius Institute in Kansas. The Consul General also attached Rong’s personal information to the document.
Rong is the chairman of the Chinese American association of Kansas. The information from the Consul General revealed that Rong and the association have hosted and participated in many activities arranged by the CCP’s United Front Department.
The diplomatic cable stated that Rong’s Chinese American association is “the most influential overseas Chinese group in Kansas.”
US Government Sounds the Alarm
The United States government has recently highlighted the threats posed by sister city programs with the CCP.“They fall under the authority of something called the Chinese People’s Association of Friendship with Foreign Countries. Sounds benign. But that group is part of China’s United Front Work Department—the CCP’s official overseas propaganda tool. It’s one of the CCP’s three ‘Magic Weapons,’ in the words of Chairman Mao, along with ‘armed struggle’ and ‘party-building,’” Pompeo said in a speech, titled, “State Legislatures and the China Challenge.”
The Chinese People’s Association of Friendship with Foreign Countries manages China’s sister city relationships.
The United States has 157 such partnerships with Chinese communities, according to Sister Cities International, a U.S. nonprofit that serves cities, counties, and states with sister relationships.