U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) called on the Department of Justice to take action on Chinese surveillance centers in cities across the U.S. in a July 11 tweet. In the tweet, she shared a video from her recent appearance on Fox News.
"The Chinese Communist Party is setting up centers in the U.S. to surveil on Americans," Blackburn wrote in the tweet. "The DOJ must investigate this serious threat to our national security."
Organizations the CCP calls "Overseas Chinese Service Centers" (OCSCs) have established CCP intelligence efforts operating under the guise of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) in several key U.S. cities, including San Francisco, St. Paul, St. Louis, Omaha, Charlotte, Houston, and Salt Lake City, a report in American Military News said.
The article said that these centers, with activities that range from routine administrative tasks to more concerning actions, were opened between 2014 and 2017. OCSC branches have been in contact with China's national police authority, the Ministry of Public Security.
A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation said the OCSC branches, which function as nonprofit organizations, were initially established to help with official government tasks, including passport application reviews, but have also organized cultural events that featured Chinese propaganda and performers linked to the CCP. They have even invited members of Congress, the Daily Caller said.
In a video embedded in her tweet, Blackburn blamed the Biden Administration for the CCP becoming "very aggressive." The CCP has continued to use "soft propaganda," such as the spy balloon, Confucius Institutes at universities, and these so-called cultural centers, she said.
A Chinese spy balloon entered U.S. airspace in January and traveled over the continental U.S. in early February, CBS News reported. China has insisted it was a weather balloon that blew off course, but wreckage recovered after it was shot down on February 4 found that it was "clearly for intelligence surveillance” and was "likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications," CBS said.
New York's Alfred University closed its Confucius Institute in June after Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, criticized a Defense Department grant the university had received to study advanced weaponry, according to Fox News.
Blackburn and seven additional Republican senators have urged the FBI and the Department of Justice to look into the OCSCs further, another Daily Caller article said. The senators wrote a letter on July 10 saying that the centers are specifically designed to focus on Chinese Americans who hold dissenting opinions that oppose the principles of the CCP. The Daily Caller said that while lawmakers know Chinese individuals are being spied on in the U.S. through these centers, Blackburn wants to know whether American citizens are being watched as well.
