There are two kinds of Chinese media: the actual, state-run media that answers to the Chinese Communist Party, and the U.S. and other Western media that rent themselves out to the CCP’s interests. This story focuses on the former.
Axios reported earlier this month that Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) had a relationship with a woman who turned out to be a spy for China’s communist government. The full nature of the relationship with Swalwell has not been confirmed, but Fang Fang (or Christine Fang, as she called herself) slept with at least two U.S. mayors and engaged in fundraising and campaign staffing for Swalwell. She established relationships with many California officials as they were on the political rise, according to the Axios report. In 2015, the FBI caught onto her and warned Swalwell about her. This was the same year the House Democrats under Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had been briefed on the spy and her relationship with Swalwell, elevated him to the House Intelligence Committee.
Swalwell spent the entire Trump presidency blaming Russia for all manner of ills, but never blaming China for anything, even after the CCP attempted to cover up the coronavirus outbreak. This attempted coverup cost the world valuable time and allowed the virus to spread around the globe. More than 200,000 Americans have reportedly died due to the virus.
The Global Times (masthead motto: “Discover China, Discover the World”) is a bona fide mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party. It has published this anonymously-sourced article that Swalwell probably does not find helpful at all.
A tale cooked up by US news website Axios earlier this month which alleged that a suspected Chinese spy got access to California politicians and a congressman in a political intelligence operation run by China many years ago was complete fiction, and such fabrication shows that some US personnel deliberately use the Cold War mentality to poison China-US relations, a source told the Global Times on Monday.
The alleged Chinese woman was an international student, Axios claimed, and citing FBI agents and her acquaintances, it accused her of trying to gain access to and influence US political circles.
One California politician Axios named was California Congressman Eric Swalwell, who denied the accusations and noted the report was political retaliation for his criticism and impeachment of the incumbent president.
Right. The FBI had a time machine and went back to 2015 to brief Swalwell, Pelosi and others, and by the way caused a sufficient stir to cause Fang to flee back to China. Because those briefings and her swift departure all happened before Trump was president.
The Global Times story reads like a parody of a mainstream media story, complete with an anonymous source who just happens to confirm everything the CCP wanted to say.
Chinese observers also scoffed at the fake story, noting such reports reflected the degradation of US politics and moral corruption of American media.
“…degradation of US politics and moral corruption of the American media.” You’ll get no arguments on that in this space. That doesn’t say anything about the veracity of the Axios story, though.
Some House Republicans have called on Swalwell to step down from the House Intelligence Committee, given the fact that we have no idea what compromising information Fang may have spirited away back to China. Thus far, Pelosi backs Swalwell’s presence on the committee and the access to some of the nation’s deepest secrets that comes with having a seat on it.
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