Newly declassified FBI files reveal that a suspected Chinese intelligence operative used an Asian American civic nonprofit to build relationships with U.S. politicians, place interns in congressional offices, and funnel illegal campaign donations, and one California Democrat admitted to a sexual relationship with her.
Fang "Christine" Fang arrived in the United States around 2011 on a student visa, after attending Beijing's University of International Relations, a school Chinese media reports have linked to China's Ministry of State Security. Within a few years, she had embedded herself in the Asian Pacific American Public Affairs organization, known as APAPA, a nonprofit that says its mission is to advance Asian and Pacific Islander communities "through increased leadership and civic engagement." The FBI came to suspect Fang was using that mission as cover for something far less civic-minded.
The bureau opened a predicated investigation codenamed "Freshman Fifteen" on March 17, 2014, targeting both Fang and then-Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., for potential campaign finance violations and quid pro quo exchanges involving internships, Just The News reported. The declassified memos were released by the White House Government Transparency Task Force as part of a broader effort to expose foreign threats to U.S. political systems.
In a May 2015 interview with FBI agents, Swalwell acknowledged he had "physical relations" with Fang on a "handful of occasions." He told investigators he considered their encounters casual, they never dated and never had a romantic relationship. Their last sexual encounter occurred in March 2015, Newsmax reported, citing the declassified FBI interview summary.
Swalwell had met Fang in 2012, before entering Congress, and considered her his "main point of contact" with APAPA. That relationship gave Fang a direct channel into his congressional office.
One FBI interview report from March 2016, obtained by the New York Post, put it bluntly:
"The only difference between FANG and other organizational contacts, was that SWALWELL and FANG occasionally hooked up and FANG had a thing for him."
Swalwell was not the only elected official compromised. The declassified records detailed sexual relationships Fang had with at least two other politicians she met through the APAPA network in the Midwest, including an unidentified Ohio mayor. The FBI captured one of those encounters, inside a car, through electronic surveillance.
The FBI's investigation went beyond personal entanglements. A declassified bureau memo stated plainly what agents believed Fang was doing:
"Investigation has revealed that Fang Fang, a Chinese foreign national residing in the United States, is the facilitator of a scheme to trade internships in Congressman Eric Swalwell's Congressional office in return for campaign contributions."
FBI financial records indicated Fang used conduits, middlemen, to make prohibited foreign-national campaign contributions to Swalwell at least twice in 2013 and at least twice in 2014, Fox News reported. Swalwell himself admitted to investigators that his campaign finance system was inadequate to detect the alleged straw donations. His staff had placed Fang's recommended interns in his congressional office.
Fang also repeatedly encouraged Swalwell to visit China. The FBI had initially tried to recruit Fang as a confidential source under the codename "RUSTY THUMBS" before pivoting to a criminal investigation. Her parents were identified in bureau files as "known MSS intelligence officers", MSS being China's Ministry of State Security, the country's primary civilian spy agency.
Prosecution never came. Fang left the United States in 2015, apparently after becoming aware she was under surveillance. A May 2017 FBI memo stated that prosecution was "non-viable due to national security reasons," and the State Department barred Fang from re-entering the country. The bureau's probe ran from May 2014 to May 2017.
APAPA told the New York Post that its "current national leadership has no information" showing Fang ever held an authorized position with the organization. But the nonprofit's role in the story did not end with Fang's departure.
The group continues to operate internship programs with elected officials across the country. Its website shows that New York state Sen. Samra Brouk and Assemblyman Ron Kim, both Democrats, have hosted APAPA interns. New York City Council Member Susan Zhuang previously volunteered with the organization while working as an aide to state Assemblyman William Colton, who received a "Community Champion Award" from APAPA in 2023.
Jackie Deal, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, did not hold back about the organization's orientation. She told the Post:
"APAPA is a locus of pro-CCP activity. Its mission is explicitly political."
APAPA's leadership has faced scrutiny from China-focused watchdogs over associations with organizations linked to the Chinese Communist Party's United Front system, Beijing's sprawling network for projecting political influence abroad.
Henry Yin, APAPA's national chair, presents another set of questions. A Chinese American businessman based in Fremont, California, Yin is associated with several United Front-linked groups. Chinese government-controlled publications cited by the Post described him as an "overseas Chinese leader in California and Silicon Valley" and reported his travels to China between 2013 and 2023 to promote technology investment.
Yin's LinkedIn profile identifies him as a senior adviser to Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. Khanna himself wrote on social media in 2019 that Yin would serve as his "Senior Advisor on Foreign Trade and Economic Development." But Khanna's office told the Post that Yin "has never held a formal role with the Congressman," describing him instead as a respected member of the Fremont community.
That contradiction matters. Khanna is the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, the very committee charged with confronting Beijing's influence operations. His office has not explained how a man Khanna publicly named as a senior adviser on foreign trade never actually held a formal role.
Yin has not been accused of wrongdoing and did not respond to the Post's requests for comment.
The FBI never accused Swalwell of a federal crime in connection with Fang. The House Ethics Committee opened an investigation in 2021 into his interactions with the suspected operative, then closed the inquiry in 2023 without taking further action.
Swalwell's legal counsel, Sara Azari, told reporters that the declassified memos confirmed what Swalwell had maintained for years. Breitbart reported her statement:
"There is nothing new here. The government's own memorandum confirms what Congressman Swalwell has said for more than a decade: he did nothing wrong, and there was no basis to charge him with any offense."
But the political fallout kept spreading. Swalwell dropped his race for California governor in April after multiple women accused him of sexual assault and other misconduct, allegations he denied. The Fang episode, once treated as a partisan talking point, now sits in the public record as a documented FBI counterintelligence case.
APAPA's board, meanwhile, includes figures with direct ties to Democratic officeholders. Marilyn Cachola Lucey, the group's chief operating officer, previously worked as policy director for California state Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan. Board member Andrew Truman Kim previously served as an aide to Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif.
Fang herself told Chinese media after leaving the United States that the FBI and CIA had tried to recruit her, claiming they offered U.S. citizenship and $1 million in exchange for her cooperation. She reportedly now works for a technology company in China.
The newly public records fill in significant gaps, Swalwell's own admissions, the FBI's evidence of illegal donations, the scope of the internship scheme. But they leave other questions wide open. The identities of the two Midwest politicians Fang targeted remain redacted. The Ohio mayor caught on FBI surveillance has not been named. And no public accounting explains how APAPA's internship pipeline continued to operate in elected offices across California and New York years after the FBI documented its exploitation by a suspected Chinese spy.
A nonprofit that Beijing's influence apparatus can use to place people inside American government offices is not a civic organization. It is a vulnerability. And the elected officials who kept taking its interns after the FBI rang the alarm have some explaining to do.
