By Another Democrat has been caught with deep connections to China. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s 2021 mayoral campaign received over $300,000 in fundraising support from a prominent community organizer with alleged links to a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence apparatus, according to a new investigation by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The fundraiser, Gary Yu—founder of Boston International Media Consulting and chairman of the North American Hangzhou Association—was instrumental in rallying financial support for Wu’s campaign, particularly within Boston’s Chinese American community, the outlet noted.
“The Communist Party’s UFWD never rests,” author and China expert Gordon Chang told the DCNF. “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.”
Wu has risen to national prominence as a central figure in the Democratic resistance to Trump’s border and deportation policies. Wu recently defended her city’s refusal to cooperate with immigration officials during her March 19, 2025 “State of the City” address, during which she criticized “presidents who think they are kings,” prompting the White House to fire back the next day with a press release labeling Wu a “radical mayor” who “puts violent criminal illegal aliens first.”
“Wu’s ultra-leftism makes her the perfect candidate for CCP recruitment and capture,” Chang said. “Or do we have it backward? Is her ultra-leftism the result of CCP recruitment and capture? More than just the people of Boston would like to know.”
Yu has repeatedly met with high-ranking CCP intelligence leaders in China and is listed as an official by two regional branches of a UFWD arm, according to Chinese government announcements, state media reports and records from Chinese civic associations led by Yu.
Mayor Wu, a rising progressive figure within the Democratic Party, has made headlines for her outspoken critiques of federal immigration policy and her city’s refusal to assist in federal deportation efforts.
During her State of the City address, Fox News wrote, the mayor spoke about her congressional testimony, recalling, “Two weeks ago, I went down to D.C. because Congress had some questions about how we do things here in Boston. It might have been my voice speaking into the microphone that day, but it was 700,000 voices that gave Congress their answer: This is our city.”
“No one tells Boston how to take care of our own. Not kings, and not presidents who think they are kings. Boston was born facing down bullies,” she continued.
She explained that while she was in D.C., she kept an eye on what was happening back in Boston, saying she was happy to see locals protesting with signs reading, “We stand with immigrants,” “You belong here,” “Somos una ciudad de inmigrantes” [We are a city of immigrants], and “Boston doesn’t back down.”
Critics argued these episodes reflected a troubling pattern of political accommodation to Chinese government interests—sometimes subtle, sometimes overt—that risked compromising U.S. sovereignty and national security. Last Fall, concerns intensified over alleged ties between prominent Democratic officials and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence networks.
Congresswoman Grace Meng, a Democrat from New York, for example, came under fire for her appearance at a 2008 banquet in Queens that honored Lin Jun, a senior official with the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), an organization linked to the CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD). In Mandarin remarks captured on video, Meng referred to Lin as “our chairman” and thanked him for his “leadership” and support of the overseas Chinese community. While no evidence surfaced that Meng was a member of ACFROC, the footage raised alarms among national security observers.
The scrutiny surrounding Meng followed broader investigations into CCP influence. A former aide to Governors Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul, Linda Sun, was indicted for allegedly accepting years of gifts from Chinese government officials—including shipments of salted duck—in exchange for actions that benefited CCP-aligned interests. According to prosecutors, Sun blocked Taiwanese access to the governor’s office, removed references to Taiwan in state materials, and prevented state officials from addressing China’s persecution of Uyghurs.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who served as the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, also faced attention for remarks he made in 1991 while teaching in Nebraska, during which he appeared to praise the Chinese communist system for its emphasis on equality and state-provided necessities. Reports indicated that Walz had traveled to China more than 30 times and was married on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown—a date he once acknowledged he would never forget.
In 2023, then Speaker of the House kicked Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell off the House Intelligence Committee after it was revealed that he had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a Chinese spy.
In 2020, Swalwell was accused of having a sexual relationship with a Chinese spy. Axios wrote, “A suspected Chinese intelligence operative developed extensive ties with local and national politicians, including a U.S. congressman, in what U.S. officials believe was a political intelligence operation run by China’s main civilian spy agency between 2011 and 2015, Axios found in a yearlong investigation.
The woman at the center of the operation, a Chinese national named Fang Fang or Christine Fang, targeted up-and-coming local politicians in the Bay Area and across the country who had the potential to make it big on the national stage.
Fang took part in fundraising activity for Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign, according to a Bay Area political operative and a current U.S. intelligence official. Swalwell’s office was directly aware of these activities on its behalf, the political operative said. That same political operative, who witnessed Fang fundraising on Swalwell’s behalf, found no evidence of illegal contributions.”
National security advocates told The Daily Caller that the case underscores a larger concern: the quiet and often overlooked risks of foreign influence in local and state politics.
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