officials believe was a political intelligence operation run by China’s main civilian spy agency between 20, Axios found in a yearlong investigation.
Last week, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, Trump's spy chief, said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed article that China posed "the greatest threat to America today.A suspected Chinese intelligence operative developed extensive ties with local and national politicians, including a U.S. But one current senior US intelligence official said the case was big nonetheless "because there were some really, really sensitive people that were caught up" in the intelligence network.Īxios' report was published on Tuesday, a day after President Donald Trump retweeted a Tucker Carlson report with a video that appeared to show a Beijing professor saying "We have people at the top of America's core inner circle of power and influence."
US officials do not believe Fang received or passed on classified information. In mid-2015, Fang abruptly left the US and returned to China, surprising many of her Bay Area political contacts. Fang was put under FBI surveillance, and in 2015, senior US intelligence officials started tipping off the politicians Fang was getting close to, one official said. Fang came on the radar of US counterintelligence officials as they were investigating another person suspected of being a Chinese spy, a current counterintelligence official said. A sexual encounter involving Fang and an Ohio mayor was also caught on FBI surveillance, a US official told Axios. 
Former Cupertino Mayor Gilbert Wong told Axios that one of the mayors was an older man "from an obscure city" who referred to Fang as his "girlfriend" in conversation. A US intelligence official and a former elected official said Fang engaged in sexual or romantic relationships with at least two mayors of Midwestern cities, though Axios didn't identify either mayor. Fang expanded her network nationally by attending conferences for mayors, sources told Axios. She developed close ties to his office, helped bring in big donors, and even placed an intern in his office in Washington, DC. Fang started getting close to Swalwell when he was a councilmember for Dublin City, California. Fang "soon became a mainstay at Bay Area political events," volunteered on campaigns, and helped fundraise for Democratic politicians like Swalwell and Gabbard, the report said. Fang used her position as the president of school groups to cultivate relationships with politicians. Fang was in her late 20s or early 30s when she came to the US and enrolled at California State University East Bay in 2011, friends and acquaintances said.
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