<![CDATA[Asian-American conservatives feeling the sting of Cindy Yang affair, Republican group's founder says]>
Over a bowl of grits in a South Florida cafe, a short drive from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort " the epicentre of media scrutiny into influence peddling campaigns targeting the US president " Cliff Zhonggang Li gave a lesson in ancient Chinese history.
He told the story of Yue Fei, a storied general of the Southern Song dynasty, who was executed in 1142 on the orders of a corrupt minister despite having led a successful military campaign against invading northern armies.
In the 900 years since Yue's death, the minister's response when asked to justify his decision to execute Yue " mo xu you, or "no need [for evidence]" " has entered the Chinese lexicon as an idiom to refer to "trumped-up charges".
It's a saying that 53-year-old Li, who founded and runs a political committee representing the interests of Asian-American conservatives, uses a lot.
Li said it's taking its toll on the community, with his own committee's activity dwindling to a stop.
"We're literally falling apart," Li said of his group, the National Committee of Asian-American Republicans " known also as the "Asian GOP" " which he founded in 2016 at the recommendation of the Republican National Committee.
The recent wave of scrutiny began in March when a selfie with Trump thrust massage parlour entrepreneur Cindy Yang into the national spotlight, triggering numerous media investigations into her courting of Chinese clients seeking access to the Trump family and her work for an organisation with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Cliff Li, executive director of the National Committee for Asian-American Republicans (right), was with Cindy Yang (centre) when she brought tech executive Lucas Lu (left) to a December 2017 fundraiser for US President Donald Trump as a guest of the group. Photo: Handout
Yang, the Asian GOP's former head of fundraising and director of community outreach in Florida, has not been charged with any crime.
According to Li, who remains in regular contact with Yang, the former spa owner also has not been contacted by investigators despite becoming a person of interest in an FBI-led inquiry into possible Chinese intelligence operations targeting Trump and his Mar-a-Lago estate, an investigation first reported by The Miami Herald.
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Li was never aware of a company run by Yang " GY Investments " whose website advertised access to prominent Trump administration officials at a price, he said.
On top of those counter-intelligence investigations, the US Department of Justice has also been called upon by pro-democracy advocacy group Common Cause to investigate whether Yang was involved in a "straw donation" scheme " illegally using another person's money to make a political contribution in their name to evade prescribed limits and circumvent prohibitions against donations by foreign nationals.
A new committee backed by former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon says it aims to tell American citizens and policymakers about "the existential threats presented from the People's Republic of China". Photo: AFP
Though Li said he welcomed scrutiny of those engaged in political processes, he believed that Democrats and left-leaning publications were "jumping" onto the issue to score political points, a move he said threatened to undo years of work to encourage political engagement within the Asian-American community, an ethnic group with historically low voter turnout.
"The people no longer want to get involved," said Li, who spends his time between Washington, where the Asian GOP is headquartered, and South Florida, where the committee's Palm Beach chapter is now nothing more than "just a name".
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Li said that none of the committee's branches around the country were planning any events, while in some cases, chapter leadership was cutting off ties with the organisation.
The Massachusetts chapter, whose leadership included elected and appointed state officials, recently detached itself "because who knows what's going on?" he said. He added, "I don't blame them."
Despite media reports that suggested a strategic link between Beijing and the Asian-American committee, Li says he and others in the group have a hawkish view of the Chinese government. Photo: Xinhua
Li said media reports that have suggested some of the Asian GOP's grass-roots organisers collected information at the behest of Beijing have been particularly galling for those in the committee who, like him, consider themselves hawkish when it comes to their attitudes towards the Chinese government.
"People [are] talking to me almost crying, saying 'I didn't do anything', because [we] have some people who really hate the Chinese regime," said Li, whose own impetus to leave China to study in the US was Beijing's deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in June 1989.
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Though Li claimed he had never knowingly been approached by Chinese government operatives seeking either to exert influence within the ethnic Chinese community in the US or collect information from its members, he said he believed the threat was real and deserved attention.
"I believe there is a 'present danger' from [the] Beijing regime to this country," he said, in a nod to a new committee backed by Steve Bannon that aims to "educate and tell American citizens and policymakers about the existential threats presented from the People's Republic of China".
Bannon's heavily Republican Committee on the Present Danger: China had conservative heavyweights such as Senator Ted Cruz of Texas (right, with Trump) speak at a gathering in Washington. Photo: AP
A reincarnation of a cold war-era lobbying group that was focused on the Soviet Union, the Committee on the Present Danger: China " launched in March " is overwhelmingly Republican in its membership.
It recently invited a number of conservative heavyweights to speak at a gathering in Washington, including Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and former US speaker of the House and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.
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The committee's existence, Li asserted, is overdue. In the face of Beijing's controlling rule, he said, "the US public and the US government need to do whatever they [can] do to protect this country ... to protect the beacon of freedom".
"However, what we are against is abusing it," Li said, voicing concern that hawkishness against Beijing was contributing to the "demonisation" of Chinese-Americans in the US and could lead to a return to McCarthyism " the unsubstantiated defaming of people in the manner of Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy to expose supposed communist infiltration of the US government in the 1940s and 1950s.
US Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Wisconsin Republican, crusaded against the supposed post-war communist infiltration of the US government in the 1940s and 50s. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Li said he was preparing legal action against a local newspaper, The Palm Beach Post, and MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" after recent reporting alleging the Asian GOP violated campaign finance law in not declaring revenue from a 2017 gala celebrating Trump's inauguration.
Money raised by guests' attendance fees " which started at US$75 each " was not included in any Asian GOP filing to the Federal Election Committee, The Palm Beach Post reported. Political committees are required by law to declare all revenue.
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Li said the absence of filings was the result of cheques and electronic payments from the evening not being made payable to the Asian GOP, and instead going directly to the event's venue, Washington's Mayflower hotel, to cover the cost.
A fundraiser involved in the event who was quoted by The Palm Beach Post, however, contradicted that claim. He told the newspaper that cheques were indeed made payable to the Asian GOP " although he did not see any himself.
Li said Yang has not been contacted by investigators despite becoming a person of interest in an FBI-led inquiry into possible Chinese intelligence operations targeting Trump and his Mar-a-Lago estate (shown). Photo: Reuters
The Mayflower, owned by Marriott, declined to respond to questions about how payment for the event was made.
An interview Li gave to The Palm Beach Post for that story only added to his woes, when he was quoted as saying that he knew where the money went but added: "I don't want to tell you."
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He said the paper had pulled the last part of the quote out of a separate sentence in which he had said his intention was not to cover up what happened to the payments but to communicate that he did not wish to comment further on the matter because of the way it "demonise[d] our community".
The line was a focal point in a subsequent televised segment on "The Rachel Maddow Show", which drew heavily on The Palm Beach Post's reporting of the inauguration event.
MSNBC declined to comment on the matter, and The Palm Beach Post did not respond to requests for comment.
"People read that then you have hundreds of thousands " if not millions " of people say, 'Oh, Cliff Li is one of those China crappy ...'" he said, not finishing the sentence.
"They view me almost like Charles Lee now," he said, referring to the event peddler who feigned United Nations affiliations and advertised access for Chinese clients to influential political figures globally. "And worse."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
