(José Niño, Headline USA) A new investigation has uncovered that Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s 2021 campaign received over $300,000 in donations raised by a fundraiser with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s intelligence arm.
According to a Daily Caller report published last Monday, Gary Yu, who has documented connections to the CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), was responsible for raising the funds. Yu raised the $300,000 in 2021 through his organization, New England Chinese American Alliance.
Yu’s CCP ties raise questions about the extent to which Wu’s 2021 campaign was foreign-funded, experts say.
“The CCP’s United Front Work Department, which contributed to Mayor Wu’s 2021 election campaign, is a Chinese state security entity — a spy agency for Beijing,” Lt. Col. (Ret.) Bob Maginnis, senior fellow for National Security at the Family Research Council, said to The Washington Stand (TWS). “Therefore, the UFWD’s contributions to Wu’s campaign is evidence of a foreign government interfering in a U.S. election, which might be illegal.”
Wu is not the only Democratic official under scrutiny for ties to Beijing. In September 2024, a former senior aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who had also served under former Governor Andrew Cuomo, was arrested alongside her husband for allegedly accepting millions in bribes from the CCP in exchange for acting as agents of the Chinese government.
These developments come as U.S. intelligence agencies issue fresh warnings about foreign recruitment efforts.
Earlier this month, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center cautioned that “foreign intelligence entities, particularly those in China, are targeting current and former U.S. government employees for recruitment by posing as consulting firms, corporate headhunters, think tanks and other entities on social and professional networking sites.”
The FBI echoed this message on X, stating, “China and other foreign intelligence entities are targeting former and current U.S. government employees on social and professional networking sites.”
China and other foreign intelligence entities are targeting former and current U.S. government employees on social and professional networking sites.
The #FBI, in partnership with @NCSCgov and @DCSAgov, has issued guidance and resources at: https://t.co/eUMxiOTKfS pic.twitter.com/47wI23C2eN
— FBI (@FBI) April 10, 2025
China experts, such as author Gordon Chang, are calling on federal authorities to investigate cases like Wu’s.
“The Communist Party’s UFWD never rests,” Chang told The Daily Caller. “There is no ethnic Chinese official in America who is not targeted. It’s time for law enforcement to investigate the CCP’s ties to Gary Yu and Yu’s ties to Mayor Michelle Wu.”
Maginnis agreed.
“The Chinese communist regime has a robust presence and influence inside the U.S.,” he said to TWS.
Wu’s political career began with her election to the Boston City Council in November 2013 at the age of 28, making her the first Asian-American woman to serve on the Council. She quickly rose to leadership, being unanimously elected President of the City Council in January 2016, becoming the first non-White woman to hold that position.
She served as Council President until Jan. 1, 2018, while continuing her role as City Councilor until Nov. 16, 2021, when she assumed the mayor’s office.
In 2021, Wu made history by winning the mayoral election in Boston, becoming the first woman and first non-White person elected to lead the city.
The spotlight now turns to lawmakers and law enforcement to determine what steps will be taken to address potential breaches of campaign finance law and national security.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
