China exerts new control over its young expats in the US

China is demanding acts of loyalty from its young professionals living and working in the US, sometimes putting them at odds with local law and immigration requirements, as it seeks more control over expatriates amid rising tensions between the two countries.

The demands are increasingly being placed on Chinese nationals who joined the country’s Communist party as students or young professionals before they left home, in the hopes of career advancement once they eventually return.

By some estimates, at least 10,000 members of the party are studying or working in the US. This is a small fraction of its 5.4mn Chinese diaspora but many are in top roles at leading universities and corporations in the technology and finance sectors.

The directives have included participating in webinars during which they are coached to promote China’s image in front of their American peers, paying membership dues to the Communist party, studying political material sent from China and checking in with party officials to ensure their continued loyalty, according to interviews and documents obtained by the Financial Times.

In interviews with 10 party members studying and working in the US, students said they had followed the demands to speak positively about China in public, while employees said they sought to hide their links to the party when applying for US work visas, denying membership when asked.

China’s orders have been imposed on its party members all over the world. But they have created particular concern in the US amid increasing scrutiny about China’s intentions, a potential ban on short-form video platform TikTok and fears of economic, industrial and national security espionage.

Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said the CCP’s global propaganda push and US laws against foreign influence may put party members in a “legal conundrum” in the world’s wealthiest capitalist economy as they struggle with conflicting rules.

“Communist party members must by party discipline follow orders from the central authority,” said Thomas. “But they may be banned by American laws from following those orders.”

It is not illegal for Chinese immigrants to remain members of its Communist party while in the US. But some in the US view the membership as a potential security risk, and it can raise other legal and immigration complications.

US lawyers said the efforts may also risk putting CCP members in violation of a law aimed at curbing foreign influence on American public opinion, known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The law requires individuals to register with the Department of Justice as foreign agents if they are conducting publicity work at the request of foreign governments or politicians.

“If you are trying to improve the image of a foreign government or a foreign country in the United States and you are doing it at the direction or request of a foreign political party, you could have a FARA issue,” said Tessa Capeloto, a Washington, DC-based partner at law firm Wiley Rein. “There is no limitation in terms of who can be deemed an agent.”

To date, no Chinese national has been charged or indicted under FARA as a result of carrying out Communist party demands.

The US state department said it conducts extensive security screening of visa applicants and will not approve them until all concerns are fully addressed.

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, anyone who “has been a member of or affiliated with the Communist or any other totalitarian party or subdivision or affiliate thereof” is ineligible for a green card. The number of green card approvals for Chinese applicants has fallen precipitously in recent years, down 17 per cent since 2016.

In response to questions from the FT, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said: “China always believes that strengthening and facilitating people to people and cultural exchanges can add more momentum to the growth of bilateral relations.”

In 2019, the Chinese Communist party’s central committee released a new rule requiring members studying abroad to “contact” party cells at home at least once every six months. A year later, the Communist Youth League began asking its 74mn members aged between 14 and 28 to “regularly report personal situations” while studying abroad.

More recently, the campaign has sought to mobilise overseas members to burnish its image.

In a report published in February, a party secretary at the global affairs office of Shanghai University said it should train overseas student members to become “disseminators” of positive China stories and strengthen their belief in “listening to and following the party”.

In interviews, Chinese student party members in New York, Boston, California and Washington told the FT they followed the requests from party cells in China as they were keen to maintain their membership, which they saw as an asset for their career development.

China’s economic downturn has made government agencies and state companies, known for their high employment security and preference for party members, a top destination for young job hunters.

The students said they regularly received political study materials, ranging from President Xi Jinping’s latest speeches to party history, from party cells back home. They also said they occasionally participated in online webinars on how to “tell a good China story” to their American peers.

“I need to stay in touch with the party so I can get good opportunities when I come back to China one day,” said a graduate student in Boston, who said he once raised talking points given by the party in class. The FT is withholding his name out of security concerns.

Five Chinese passport holders working at leading technology companies in California and New York said they had denied being a member of China’s ruling party in questionnaires for work visa applications prepared by immigration law firms this year on behalf of their employers. All of them, aged between 25 and 35, joined the party in college or early in their career in China.

The Chinese workers said they made the decision for fear their political affiliation may prevent them from obtaining US permanent residence or green cards in the coming years, which is off limits to Communist party members under US law.

Several leading immigration law firms in the US, led by BAL and Fragomen, have begun asking applicants for the popular H-1B work visa from technology companies such as Google to specify their Communist party and even youth league affiliations. The questions were introduced during the Trump administration.

Bo Cooper, a partner at Fragomen, said companies began requesting the information because many H1-B visa holders go on to apply for permanent residence, when Communist party membership becomes an issue. “This is a question that can become important later on,” he said.

Initially, some Chinese professionals chose to acknowledge their party membership for fear that lying could cause bigger problems, said multiple Chinese software engineers who worked with BAL on work visa applications in 2019 and 2020.

Yet as US-China relations continued to sour, many applicants considered it a better option to conceal their political affiliation in the hope the US government wouldn’t gain access to the information.

Erik Finch, a former visa officer at US consulates in China and an immigration officer at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services in Portland, said the agency had in recent years become “a lot more serious” about China’s green card applicants with ties to the party.

“Immigration officers were getting trained so they knew what to look for,” he said, adding it is “a lot easier” to identify party membership than marriage fraud where “evidentiary requirements are much stricter”.

Just as some Chinese students and professionals in the US are doing what they can to maintain their political affiliation, others are struggling to minimise the impact of party membership on their career and immigration status.  

While quitting the party presents one solution, it is difficult to implement in practice. The only legal way a China-based Communist party member can quit the organisation is to stop paying dues for six months. 

In the eastern Zhejiang province, a retired junior party official surnamed Li said he received calls almost every week from the local party chapter chasing due payments. 

“I made it clear to them [the local party cell] that I am not going to make the payment because I need to apply for a green card to move to the US to be with my son,” Li said. “They said we don’t mind you going abroad. But you need to pay dues as long as you are a party member.”