Former Congresswoman Explains CCP’s Hidden Influence in California

The former lawmaker warns that CCP influence on California’s campuses, ports, and border should be seen as a national security issue.

Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) speaks during a hearing about the Chinese Communist Party's forced organ harvesting before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China in Washington on March 20, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

A former congresswoman from California is shedding light on the Chinese regime’s reach in the state, across the United States, and around the world, as awareness of the influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) grows.

Michelle Steel, who served in Congress from 2021 to 2025 and sat on several committees dealing with China-related issues, raised concerns about the CCP’s influence on the U.S. higher education system in a recent interview with EpochTV’s “California Insider.”

For example, the prominent University of California–Berkeley “received $220 million from China,” Steel said.

Under the Higher Education Act of 1965, universities must report to the Department of Education every six months any foreign gifts or contracts that, individually or combined, are valued at $250,000 or more in a calendar year.

Tsinghua University, one of China’s top institutions, is governed by the country’s Ministry of Education.

In exchange for the money it received, the university allegedly provided exclusive tours of advanced semiconductor research facilities to Chinese delegations, including senior Chinese regime officials, according to another letter to the National Science Foundation from House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and Research and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.).

“Allowing adversarial nations to access research facilities at the leading edge of semiconductor design is unacceptable, especially when that access is given by a U.S. research institution that receives over $700 million annually in funds from the Federal government,” they wrote in the letter.

The Epoch Times reached out to UC–Berkeley for comment.

After the allegation drew public attention in 2023, campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof told student-run newspaper The Daily Californian in an email that although the funds were initially proposed for a Tsinghua–Berkeley Shenzhen Institute campus, the campus was never built and the investment did not take place.

Mogulof said the funds were used to construct a new campus for the Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, which he clarified is owned by Tsinghua University.

However, in a report by the Daily Beast, the university acknowledged that it failed to disclose a $19 million contract in 2016 with Tsinghua University.

In 2022, the CHIPS and Science Act lowered the reporting threshold to $50,000, requiring any foreign financial support at or above that amount to be reported to the director of the National Science Foundation.

Stricter rules also apply when sensitive countries are involved, Steel said.

“[Even] when you have coffee with those countries of concern—we’re talking about China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and any of these countries—then you have to report,” she said.

Steel said that in addition to the risk of intellectual property theft, large foreign grants can lead to foreign influence or control over university administrations.

“We saw so many universities, instead of the monies going down to the classrooms ... administrations [were] getting bigger and bigger,” she said. “Universities are not corporations that have to make profits. They have to reinvest that to the students.”

Steel also expressed concern that university students could be receiving propaganda from foreign regimes instead of a proper education.

Students pass through the Sather Gate of the college campus at the University of California–Berkeley, in an undated file photo. David A. Litman/Shutterstock

“Instead of teaching our kids how to think and how to be independent, some of the universities are brainwashing our kids, and they are getting [so much] money,” she said.

Port Security

Steel said she is also concerned about CCP infiltration at major U.S. ports.

“In California, we have [the] two biggest ports in the U.S., [Los Angeles] and Long Beach, and 80 percent of those cranes we bought from China,” she said.

The popularity of Chinese-made cargo cranes is largely attributable to their lower cost, typically about three-fourths the price of those made in other countries, Steel said. Each crane can cost up to $15 million.

Shipping containers wait to be transferred from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Oct. 14, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Currently, the Port of Los Angeles uses 84 container cranes, and the Port of Long Beach uses 73 cranes.

In March 2024, the House Homeland Security Committee reported that cellular modems were found on cranes purchased from Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries, a China-based manufacturer that produces nearly all Chinese-made cranes used at U.S. ports.

The modems, which are not included in equipment contracts, do not appear to support normal operations and could potentially be accessed remotely, the committee said.

Such cellular modems were also discovered in another port’s server room that houses those cranes’ firewalls and networking equipment.

Steel, who co-authored the report, said the modems installed in the cranes can track ship traffic and the types of goods being transported, potentially enabling espionage that could undercut trade competitors and disrupt supply chains.

“We heard that they always ask that those cranes to be in remote areas or inside because they put chips on it and ... they’re collecting all these data,” she said. “It’s a national security issue.”

Two giant Malaccamax gantry cranes delivered by the Chinese company Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries at the Fos-Sur-Mer harbour, on the outskirts of Marseille, France, on July 23, 2020. Clement Mahoudeau/AFP via Getty Images

Steel said China has also provided South Korea and Japan access to its state-backed LOGINK software, a digital logistics platform that enables real-time cargo tracking, giving it visibility into global supply chains and potential leverage in economic or geopolitical conflicts.

“We are not using their maritime tracking system, but our allies are using it. So you really have to watch it very closely,” she said. “You really have to advise other countries to stop using Chinese maritime tracking systems.”

Steel said the cranes could also be used to spy on U.S. Navy activities.

“It’s not just like a private shipping company is coming in. We’re talking about our naval ships going in and out, too,” she said. “That’s very, very dangerous.”

Before leaving Congress, Steel sponsored the Secure Our Ports Act, which would prohibit foreign adversaries from owning or operating critical infrastructure in the United States.

The legislation was reintroduced in January by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.). It would ban state-owned enterprises of foreign adversaries such as China, Russia, North Korea, or Iran—or any foreign entity partially owned by those governments—from owning, leasing, or operating port facilities in the United States.

Steel said the CCP’s influence also extends beyond the United States, describing China’s strategy as offering infrastructure development—such as dams, airports, ports, and railways—to poorer countries, eventually gaining control over key systems, especially when those nations are unable to repay their debts.

Fentanyl Crisis

Steel said fentanyl is another major issue she believes China is fueling.

Overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids such as fentanyl began rising sharply in California in about 2013, driven by the spread of illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which soon surpassed prescription opioids and heroin as the leading cause of overdose deaths.

In 2023, fentanyl was involved in more than 90 percent of the state’s 7,847 drug overdose deaths, according to the California Department of Public Health.

“A lot of fentanyl precursors [are] coming in,” Steel said. “When they use it inside of China, you have a death sentence. But [when it’s] taken outside of China, making money, they’re very loose.”

Steel said that although Congress was aware of China’s role in the fentanyl crisis, it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that the full scale of the problem became clear.

When the Chinese communist regime drastically reduced pharmaceutical exports during the pandemic, the sharp drop in fentanyl entering the United States revealed how much of it had originated from China, she said.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection canine team checks automobiles for contraband in the line to enter the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Ysidro, Calif., on Oct. 2, 2019. Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images

Agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration have also reported on the global flow of fentanyl and its precursors from China. The Department of Justice has issued indictments against Chinese networks accused of selling precursor chemicals to Mexican cartels, which then processed them into fentanyl for distribution in the United States.

Cartels, at the same time, have found some creative ways to smuggle fentanyl across the border, Steel said.

“They use the remote surfboards, and then they can just control it from Mexico’s side,“ she said. ”Then somebody [picks] it up from our side, so they don’t even have to go through the border.”

Steel said that although the flow of fentanyl has become more varied since it first entered the country, China remains behind the supply chain.

Human Rights

She also criticized human rights abuses in China, saying innocent people—such as Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghur Muslims—are being jailed and persecuted for their beliefs, and she alluded to the forced harvesting of organs from these populations.

She recalled attending hearings on the CCP at which some witnesses testified while covering their faces, fearing that their families in China could be targeted or imprisoned.

“It’s just awful, stories that you hear [from] these people [who] came to the hearings,” Steel said.

In some cases, she said, even the witnesses—legal American citizens—could be targeted by Chinese secret police operating inside the United States.

People at a press conference and rally in front of the America ChangLe Association, a now-closed secret Chinese police station, in New York City on Feb. 25, 2023. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Shen Yun Performing Arts, whose artists practice Falun Gong, has been targeted by the CCP in similar ways. Since March 2024, the company has received dozens of emailed threats of violence during its global tour. Over the years, Chinese officials have repeatedly tried to get Shen Yun’s performances canceled in various cities, through blackmail and economic pressure.

Recently, Steel encountered one such incident herself.

“I just got a letter from South Korea, and they are supposed to have performances in Daegu. Daegu just canceled it because the Chinese Embassy was actually pressuring them,” she said.

Steel said that the CCP uses such aggressive tactics against the performing arts company because its performances reveal a side of China that the regime does not want the world to see.

“You are trying to hide something. [That] means that you are not doing the right thing. That’s the bottom line for me,” she said.

Why Get Involved?

Steel’s efforts to uncover the CCP’s influence did not come without risk.

She recalled a conversation she had with then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) when he appointed her to the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

She recalled McCarthy telling her: “Michelle, I want you to be careful. Somebody is looking at your cellphone. When you open your cellphone ... you have to have those screens, that nobody from the sideways can read. And then you have to have double firewalls for your cellphone to make sure that nobody can hack them, because you know CCP is going to come after you.”

However, the risks did not deter her.

“I knew what I was getting into because both my parents fled from North Korea, from communism,“ she said. ”I always stand up for the democracy of the country.”

She said becoming a politician was not how she originally envisioned standing up for democracy.

“I never thought that I’m going to be a politician, because I had a very shy personality, and I couldn’t speak in front of two people,” she said.

Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) attends a press conference in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Oct. 4, 2021. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Her mindset shifted after her mother’s shop was penalized for underpaying sales tax during a transitional period. The state tax agency accused her of tax fraud and imposed a penalty.

That experience prompted her to run for the California State Board of Equalization in 2006, and she served for eight years before being elected to the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 2015.

“I had compassion for small-business taxpayers,” she said, saying that some such businesses are harassed and abused.

Running as a political “nobody,” Steel said her key to success was hard work, something she learned at a young age after moving to Japan, and later to the United States, where she constantly had to overcome language barriers and keep up with her peers.

“I slept about two to three hours. I was all over [during the election],” she said.

That work ethic carried Steel through her years in Congress, where Southern California’s coastal erosion was one of the first issues she tackled.

“My first term I was elected, we really need some more [sand] for my district, because I represented Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, and Laguna Beach,” she said.

Steel said she had meetings with every Congress member who had the power to approve sand restoration projects for her district.

“So, one time on the floor, one of the congressmen [said], ‘Oh, my Sand Lady is passing,’” she recalled.

Steel’s work has also earned praise from her colleagues. In a recent letter, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and Foxx, the Rules Committee chair, recommended her to President Donald Trump for the role of U.S. ambassador to South Korea.

In the letter obtained by The Epoch Times, the lawmakers cited Steel’s shared vision with Trump, her experience in tax and trade policy, and her fluency in Korean, Japanese, and English.

Living in America is like being in a dream factory, Steel said, where anything is possible if you work for it. It’s the freedom people have here that she values most.

“I’m just so grateful that I am an American, that ... somebody who has an accent can come this far and then served at the state, served at the county, and served in Congress,” she said.