A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a U.S. Tech Mogul

The protest in London’s bustling Chinatown introduced collectively a wide range of activist teams to oppose an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes. So it was peculiar when a road brawl broke out amongst largely ethnic Chinese demonstrators.

Witnesses mentioned the combat, in November 2021, began when males aligned with the occasion’s organizers, together with a gaggle known as No Cold War, attacked activists supporting the democracy motion in Hong Kong.

On the floor, No Cold War is a unfastened collective run largely by American and British activists who say the West’s rhetoric towards China has distracted from points like local weather change and racial injustice.

In truth, a New York Times investigation discovered, it’s a part of a lavishly funded affect marketing campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. At the middle is a charismatic American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham, who is called a socialist benefactor of far-left causes.

What is much less recognized, and is hidden amid a tangle of nonprofit teams and shell firms, is that Mr. Singham works intently with the Chinese authorities media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide.

From a suppose tank in Massachusetts to an occasion area in Manhattan, from a political celebration in South Africa to news organizations in India and Brazil, The Times tracked tons of of tens of millions of {dollars} to teams linked to Mr. Singham that blend progressive advocacy with Chinese authorities speaking factors.

Some, like No Cold War, popped up in recent times. Others, just like the American antiwar group Code Pink, have morphed over time. Code Pink as soon as criticized China’s rights report however now defends its internment of the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs, which human rights consultants have labeled against the law towards humanity.

These teams are funded via American nonprofits flush with not less than $275 million in donations.

But Mr. Singham, 69, himself sits in Shanghai, the place one outlet in his community is co-producing a YouTube present financed partly by the town’s propaganda division. Two others are working with a Chinese college to “spread China’s voice to the world.” And final month, Mr. Singham joined a Communist Party workshop about selling the celebration internationally.

Mr. Singham says he doesn’t work on the path of the Chinese authorities. But the road between him and the propaganda equipment is so blurry that he shares workplace area — and his teams share workers members — with an organization whose objective is to coach foreigners about “the miracles that China has created on the world stage.”

Years of analysis have proven how disinformation, each homegrown and foreign-backed, influences mainstream conservative discourse. Mr. Singham’s community reveals what that course of appears like on the left.

He and his allies are on the entrance line of what Communist Party officers name a “smokeless war.” Under the rule of Xi Jinping, China has expanded state media operations, teamed up with abroad retailers and cultivated international influencers. The objective is to disguise propaganda as impartial content material.

Mr. Singham’s teams have produced YouTube movies that, collectively, racked up tens of millions of views. They additionally search to affect real-world politics by assembly with congressional aides, coaching politicians in Africa, working candidates in South African elections and organizing protests just like the one in London that erupted into violence.

The result’s a seemingly natural bloom of far-left teams that echo Chinese authorities speaking factors, echo each other, and are echoed in flip by the Chinese state media.

Because the community is constructed on the again of American nonprofit teams, tax consultants mentioned, Mr. Singham could have been eligible for tax deductions for his donations.

The Times untangled the online of charities and shell firms utilizing nonprofit and company filings, inner paperwork and interviews with over two dozen former workers of teams linked to Mr. Singham. Some teams, together with No Cold War, don’t appear to exist as authorized entities however are tied to the community via area registration data and shared organizers.

None of Mr. Singham’s nonprofits have registered below the Foreign Agents Registration Act, as is required of teams that search to affect public opinion on behalf of international powers. That normally applies to teams taking cash or orders from international governments. Legal consultants mentioned Mr. Singham’s community was an uncommon case.

Most of the teams in Mr. Singham’s community declined to reply questions from The Times. Three mentioned they’d by no means obtained cash or directions from a international authorities or political celebration.

Speculation about Mr. Singham first emerged on Twitter amongst self-described anti-fascists. Reports adopted within the publication New Lines and the South African investigative outlet amaBhungane. The authorities in India raided a news group tied to Mr. Singham throughout a crackdown on the press, accusing it of getting ties to the Chinese authorities however providing no proof.

The Times investigation is the primary to unravel the funding and doc Mr. Singham’s ties to Chinese propaganda pursuits.

Mr. Singham didn’t provide substantive solutions to questions on these ties. He mentioned he abided by the tax legal guidelines in international locations the place he was lively.

“I categorically deny and repudiate any suggestion that I am a member of, work for, take orders from, or follow instructions of any political party or government or their representatives,” he wrote in an e-mail. “I am solely guided by my beliefs, which are my long-held personal views.”

Indeed, his associates say Mr. Singham has lengthy admired Maoism, the Communist ideology that gave rise to fashionable China. He praised Venezuela below the leftist president Hugo Chávez as a “phenomenally democratic place.” And a decade earlier than transferring to China, he mentioned the world may study from its governing method.

The son of a leftist tutorial, Archibald Singham, Mr. Singham is a longtime activist who based the Chicago-based software program consultancy Thoughtworks.

There, Mr. Singham got here throughout as an enthralling showman who prided himself on creating an egalitarian company tradition. He was unabashed about his politics. A former firm technical director, Majdi Haroun, recalled Mr. Singham lecturing him on the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara. Mr. Haroun mentioned workers typically jokingly known as one another “comrade.”

In 2017, Mr. Singham married Jodie Evans, a former Democratic political adviser and the co-founder of Code Pink. The marriage ceremony, in Jamaica, was a “Who’s Who” of progressivism. Photos from the occasion present Amy Goodman, host of “Democracy Now!”; Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream; and V, the playwright previously often known as Eve Ensler, who wrote “The Vagina Monologues.”

It was additionally a working occasion. The invitation described a panel dialogue known as “The Future of the Left.”

Mr. Singham had a plan for that future. He had quietly funded left-wing causes whereas at Thoughtworks. But his activism was about to accentuate. Six months after his marriage ceremony, he bought Thoughtworks to a non-public fairness agency. A duplicate of the sale settlement put the worth at $785 million.

“I decided that at my age and extreme privilege, the best thing I could do was to give away most of my money in my lifetime,” he mentioned in his assertion.

The Network Takes Shape

While different moguls slapped their names on foundations, Mr. Singham despatched his cash via a system that hid his giving.

At its middle have been 4 new nonprofits with dust-dry names like “United Community Fund” and “Justice and Education Fund.” They have nearly no real-world footprints, itemizing their addresses solely as UPS retailer mailboxes in Illinois, Wisconsin and New York.

Because American nonprofit teams don’t have to disclose particular person donors, these 4 nonprofits labored like a monetary geyser, throwing out a bathe of cash from an invisible supply.

In their public filings, none checklist Mr. Singham as a board member or donor. “I do not control them,” he mentioned in his assertion, “although I have been known to share my opinions.”

In actuality, Mr. Singham has shut ties to all 4.

The largest is run by Ms. Evans. The group’s founding bylaws say that Mr. Singham can fireplace her and the remainder of the board. They additionally require that the group dissolve after Mr. Singham’s loss of life.

The different three teams have been based by former Thoughtworks workers, based on interviews with different former Thoughtworks workers members and résumés posted on-line.

In his assertion, Mr. Singham acknowledged giving his cash to unnamed intermediaries that match the outline of those 4 UPS retailer nonprofits. And a number of teams that obtained donations from them have recognized Mr. Singham because the supply.

One of them is the Massachusetts-based suppose tank Tricontinental. Its govt director, Vijay Prashad, recounted Mr. Singham’s financing in 2021. “A Marxist with a massive software company!” he wrote on Twitter.

Tricontinental produces movies and articles on socialist points. Mr. Prashad didn’t reply questions on Mr. Singham, however mentioned the group adopted the regulation. “We do not and have never received funds or instructions from any government or political party,” he mentioned in a press release.

From the UPS retailer nonprofits, tens of millions of {dollars} flowed world wide. The Times tracked cash to a South African political celebration, YouTube channels within the United States and nonprofits in Ghana and Zambia. In Brazil, data present, cash flowed to a gaggle that produces a publication, Brasil de Fato, that intersperses articles about land rights with reward for Xi Jinping.

In New Delhi, company filings present, Mr. Singham’s community financed a news website, NewsClick on, that sprinkled its protection with Chinese authorities speaking factors. “China’s history continues to inspire the working classes,” one video mentioned.

These teams function in coordination. They have cross-posted articles and shared each other’s content material on social media tons of of instances. Many share workers members and workplace area. They manage occasions collectively and interview each other’s representatives with out disclosing their ties.

‘Hijacked’ in South Africa

Several instances a 12 months, activists and politicians from throughout Africa fly to South Africa for boot camps on the Nkrumah School, set in a preferred safari space.

They come to study to prepare employees and left-wing actions. Once on campus, although, some attendees are stunned to seek out Chinese subjects seeping into the curriculum.

At a current session, studying packets mentioned that the United States was waging a “hybrid war” towards China by distorting details about Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Xinjiang area the place Uyghurs have been held in camps.

The packets praised Chinese loans, calling them “an opportunity for African states to construct genuine, and sovereign, development projects.” No point out was product of China’s function in a current debt disaster in Zambia.

“They’re being rounded up to be fed Chinese propaganda,” mentioned Cebelihle Mbuyisa, a former worker who helped put together supplies for the workshop. “Whole social movements on the African continent are being hijacked by what looks like a foreign policy instrument of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Those who objected have been shouted down or not invited again, 4 previous attendees mentioned.

U.S. tax data present that one of many UPS retailer nonprofits, the People’s Support Foundation, donated not less than $450,000 for coaching on the college. On Instagram, Ms. Evans described a photograph of the grounds as “Roy’s new place.”

The $450,000 was simply a part of Mr. Singham’s efforts in South Africa. In all, the inspiration has despatched $5.6 million to teams that run the varsity; a news group; and the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party, a fringe celebration launched forward of the 2019 election.

Former celebration members mentioned they have been perplexed that, regardless of extreme native unemployment and poverty, the celebration appeared taken with China. Mr. Singham, for instance, urged them to attend a web-based lecture by a Chinese tutorial, Li Bo of Fudan University, an e-mail reveals.

After a celebration member known as China’s presence in Africa “a second colonization,” leaders responded defensively in a WhatsApp group. “When it came to us questioning certain behaviors from the Chinese state, that was a no-no,” mentioned Lindiwe Mkhumbane, a former member.

In a press release, the celebration mentioned its members have attended workshops on progressive points however that it had by no means pressured anybody to attend.

Mr. Singham additionally funded a web-based news start-up, New Frame, based on a recording obtained by The Times. One worker, Aragorn Eloff, mentioned Mr. Singham interviewed him for a job.

The outlet employed proficient reporters and paid them effectively. Readership was small, however the said objective was “quality, not clicks.”

Its former prime editor has denied that New Frame had a pro-China slant. But a former reporter, Anna Majavu, mentioned that an editor eliminated criticism of Chinese labor practices from a narrative on mining. “The resistance from the editor was purely political,” she mentioned.

And in June 2022, an editor, Darryl Accone, wrote a resignation letter criticizing New Frame’s tender protection of China and Russia. The “unavoidable conclusion,” he wrote, “is that this is an ideological directive emanating from above and outside New Frame.”

‘Always Follow the Party’

Mr. Singham’s workplace, adorned in pink and yellow, sits on the 18th ground of Shanghai’s swanky Times Square.

A go to reveals that he’s not alone.

He shares the workplace with a Chinese media firm known as Maku Group, which says its objective is to “tell China’s story well,” a time period generally used for international propaganda. In a Chinese-language job commercial, Maku says it produces textual content, audio and movies for “global networks of popular media and progressive think tanks.”

It will be laborious to inform the place Maku begins and Mr. Singham’s teams finish.

Nonprofit filings present that almost $1.8 million flowed from one of many UPS retailer nonprofits to Maku Group. And in 2021, based on a Chinese-language news launch, Maku and Tricontinental agreed to work with a Shanghai college to “tell China’s story” in Chinese and English.

Maku’s web site reveals younger folks gathering in Mr. Singham’s workplace, dealing with a pink banner that reads, in Chinese, “Always Follow the Party.” Resting on a shelf is a plate depicting Xi Jinping.

Maku Group didn’t reply to a request to remark. After The Times started asking questions, its web site went down for upkeep.

In 2020, Mr. Singham emailed his pals to introduce a e-newsletter, now known as Dongsheng News, that covers China in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Drawing tales from the state media, it blends lighthearted news with bureaucratic official prose.

Dongsheng’s editors, in China, come from Tricontinental, however its tackle results in the People’s Forum, a Manhattan occasion area additionally funded by Mr. Singham. Dongsheng “provides unique progressive coverage of China that has been sadly missing,” Mr. Singham advised pals.

His ties to the propaganda machine date again not less than to 2019, when, company paperwork present, he began a consulting enterprise with Chinese companions. Those companions are lively within the propaganda equipment, co-owning with the municipal authorities of Tongren a media firm that promotes anti-poverty insurance policies.

The small, southwest metropolis of Tongren may appear a distinct segment matter. But organizations in Mr. Singham’s community have printed not less than a dozen gadgets about peasants there.

Code Pink

Ms. Evans, 68, was as soon as a Democratic insider who managed the 1992 presidential marketing campaign of the California governor Jerry Brown.

After the 2001 terrorist assaults, she reinvented herself as an activist. She turned recognized for pink peace-sign earrings and sit-ins that ended along with her arrest.

She helped kind Code Pink to protest the looming conflict in Iraq. The group turned infamous for disrupting Capitol Hill hearings.

Ms. Evans has organized round progressive causes like local weather change, gender and racism. Until a number of years in the past, she readily criticized China’s authoritarian authorities.

“We demand China stop brutal repression of their women’s human rights defenders,” she wrote on Twitter in 2015. She later posted on Instagram a photograph with the Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei.

Since 2017, a few quarter of Code Pink’s donations — greater than $1.4 million — have come from two teams linked to Mr. Singham, nonprofit data present. The first was one of many UPS retailer nonprofits. The second was a charity that Goldman Sachs gives as a conduit for shoppers’ giving, and that Mr. Singham has used prior to now.

Ms. Evans now stridently helps China. She casts it as a defender of the oppressed and a mannequin for financial progress with out slavery or conflict. “If the U.S. crushes China,” she mentioned in 2021, it “would cut off hope for the human race and life on Earth.”

She describes the Uyghurs as terrorists and defends their mass detention. “We have to do something,” she mentioned in 2021. In a current YouTube video chat, she was requested if she had something damaging to say about China.

“I can’t, for the life of me, think of anything,” Ms. Evans responded. She in the end had one criticism: She had bother utilizing China’s phone-based fee apps.

Ms. Evans declined to reply questions on funding from her husband however mentioned Code Pink had by no means taken cash from any authorities. “I deny your suggestion that I follow the direction of any political party, my husband or any other government or their representatives,” she mentioned in a written assertion. “I have always followed my values.”

Few on the American political left would focus on the couple publicly, fearing lawsuits or harassment. Others mentioned that criticism would undermine progressive causes. But Howie Hawkins, the 2020 Green Party presidential nominee, mentioned he had soured on Code Pink and others within the Singham community that introduced themselves as pro-labor however supported governments that suppressed employees. “To defend that, or excuse that, really pushes them outside what the left ought to be,” he mentioned.

Code Pink just isn’t alone amongst left-wing teams in elevating considerations about anti-Asian discrimination and tensions between Beijing and Washington.

But Code Pink goes additional, defending the Chinese authorities’s insurance policies. In a 2021 video, a workers member in contrast Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrators to the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 that 12 months.

In June, Code Pink activists visited workers members on the House Select Committee on China unannounced. In the workplace of Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts, activists denied proof of pressured labor in Xinjiang and mentioned the congressman ought to go to and see how completely happy folks have been there, based on an aide.

“They are capitalizing on very legitimate concerns in order to push this pro-authoritarian narrative,” mentioned Brian Hioe, an editor with New Bloom, a progressive Taiwanese news website. “And their ideas end up circulating in a way that affects mainstream discourse.”

Chinese state media accounts have retweeted folks and organizations in Mr. Singham’s community not less than 122 instances since February 2020, a Times evaluation discovered, largely accounts linked with No Cold War and Code Pink.

This May, Mr. Singham attended the opening of a media institute in Shanghai. Organizers distributed tote luggage studying “Communications as solidarity.”

A photograph reveals Mr. Singham sitting up entrance, subsequent to Yu Yunquan, an official from a publishing group below the Communist Party’s highly effective Central Committee.

Just final month, Mr. Singham attended a Chinese Communist Party propaganda discussion board. In a photograph, taken throughout a breakout session on the right way to promote the celebration overseas, Mr. Singham is seen jotting in a pocket book adorned with a pink hammer and sickle.

Joy Dong, Michael Forsythe, Flávia Milhorance, Liu Yi and Suhasini Raj contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy and Michelle Lum contributed analysis.