Back in 2002, Salt Lake City, Utah, hosted the Winter Olympics. It wasn’t just a big deal then; it stayed that way for the next few years. You can still visit the Olympic Park in Park City, and the tower that held the Olympic flame is still up in Salt Lake. A year after the event, people were holding “Olympic Reunions.” I was going to stay away from the whole thing but eventually went since I decided I would never be that close to an Olympics ever again. I even bought tickets to one of the games. Women’s hockey: Germany vs. China. Okay, it wasn’t one of the big events, but I can say I went to the Olympics. And frankly, it was one of the best hockey games I’ve ever seen.*
One of my favorite political cartoons from that time was in The Salt Lake Tribune. It featured a buxom, blonde, presumably Mormon girl holding two tiny beer mugs with the caption: “The world is welcome here! In moderation.” And indeed it was. Utah has gotten a bit looser since I moved here, but there has always been an international presence to a certain degree. It was explained to me that the erstwhile young men who left for LDS missions were encouraged to marry a convert and bring them back home to the Beehive State. But Utah was and still is decidedly white. However, as the state gained economic traction through the tech boom on the silicon slopes and the collapse of California, more and more people began moving to Utah. And China started moving in on Utah a while ago.
China, of course, has visions of ruling the world and getting rich while doing so. Don’t take my word for it; ask Vivek Ramaswamy. And China, as part of its efforts, has found a foothold in the mountains and deserts of Utah. The Associated Press notes that China and its allies in America built relationships with people in power in Utah, including state legislators. The AP discovered that Utah lawmakers delayed passing legislation that China opposed, shot down resolutions that condemned the behavior of the country, and even helped China find ways to improve its image abroad.
State lawmakers delayed closing Confucius Institutes in Utah, and the ones at the University of Utah and Southern Utah University closed just last year. The institutes are thought to be propaganda outlets for Beijing. China also apparently used its influence to complain to Utah legislators about a resolution condemning the country’s treatment of Muslim Uyghurs. Incidentally, the 2021 resolution failed. Another resolution of condemnation was introduced in the Utah legislature in January. It did not even receive a hearing.
The AP reported that groups of 25 state legislators made goodwill trips to China every other year starting in 2007. Some of those were paid for by campaign donations for trade missions and “cultural exchanges.” Beijing and host organizations paid the balances. One-time Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes was once a proponent of these junkets because of the potential to boost trade. In retrospect, he believes that the trips were designed for China to increase its influence over Utah lawmakers.
The country’s charm offensive has extended to Utah schools:
In 2020, China scored an image-boosting coup when Xi sent a note to a class of Utah fourth-graders thanking them for cards they’d sent wishing him a happy Chinese New Year. He encouraged them to “become young ‘ambassadors’ for Sino-American friendship.”
Emails obtained by the AP show the Chinese Embassy and the students’ Chinese teacher coordinated the letter exchange, which resulted in heavy coverage by state-controlled media in China.
A Chinese state media outlet reported the Utah students jubilantly exclaimed: “Grandpa Xi really wrote back to me. He’s so cool!” Portraying China’s most authoritarian leader in decades as a kindly grandfather is a familiar trope in Chinese propaganda.
This past January, former graduate student Ji Chaoqun was given eight years in prison for spying for China. He had reportedly been baptized into the LDS faith as part of his cover. A former U.S. intelligence official from Utah, Ron Hansen, was handed a ten-year sentence for attempting to sell classified information to China. Hansen was a former political luminary in the state. He also organized the U.S.-China National Governors Forum in Salt Lake in 2011.
The Chinese government and its advocates even made inroads with the LDS church, which has members worldwide and would love to establish a presence in that county.
The issue is not unique to Utah. The AP noted, “U.S. intelligence community reported that China is ‘redoubling’ its local influence campaigns in the face of stiffening resistance at the national level. Beijing believes the report said that “local officials are more pliable than their federal counterparts.”
What makes Utah unique is that it is stereotypically known as a rather homogenous, bland, conservative state that also happens to have great skiing. It is the last place you would think the CCP would set up shop, which is why it is such a cautionary tale. May I suggest that when the country is “in between acute crises,” as Paul Harvey used to say, and we have resumed our normal level of chaos, you take a long hard look at your state government? You may be surprised at what you find.
*People also come here from all over the place to ski. And then there is the Sundance Film Festival. I’ve lived in Utah for more than 20 years, and my wife and I finally went to check it out for the first time during the last festival. My wife recognized one pop singer who I had never heard of, and it was unbearably cold, even for Park City in the winter. And I’m accustomed to dealing with -30º. So that’s saying something.
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