A foundation controlled by a man who held at least four Chinese government positions, including roles in Beijing's intelligence and security apparatus, purchased a historic Washington, D.C. building just 650 feet from the White House grounds.
The Philip Qiu and Family Foundation closed on the Securities Building at 729 15th Street NW on July 21, 2026, paying $8.4 million for the century-old property northeast of the executive mansion, according to a deed filed with the District of Columbia Recorder of Deeds. The Daily Caller News Foundation identified the foundation's owner, Philip Qiu, known by his Chinese name Qiu Feili, as a senior CCP intelligence official, citing university records and DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements.
Qiu did not respond to multiple requests for comment. No federal investigation or government action has been publicly confirmed in response to the purchase. But national security experts who reviewed the transaction told the DCNF the sale demands immediate federal scrutiny, and possibly a forced divestiture.
Qiu's background reads less like a philanthropist's résumé and more like a career built inside China's security state. A 2024 Instagram post from the University of New Haven stated that Qiu began his "career as a detective in the Criminal Investigation Team in Shanghai", a unit of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, a subordinate of China's Ministry of Public Security. Bryan Dean Wright, a former CIA operations officer, described the MPS as "a mash-up of DHS and FBI" and "the overt, visible, heavy hand of the state and party."
By October 2011, Qiu had enrolled in a master's program at Shanghai Jiaotong University. A university announcement translated by the DCNF described his performance during a military-style training exercise in striking terms:
"Classmate Qiu Feili, who has undergone special forces training, served as a commander in the Red-Blue Battle, and not only directed his troops to successfully capture enemy positions, but also killed one-third of the opposing forces with 42 shots, achieving the best individual sniper record."
That is not the biography of a casual donor. It is the record of someone trained inside China's coercive apparatus, and later entrusted with positions across multiple arms of the CCP's influence machinery.
The DCNF investigation found Qiu held at least four Chinese government positions and at least three roles in organizations controlled by the United Front Work Department, the CCP's primary agency for overseas influence operations. A report from the House Select Committee on the CCP described UFWD operations as a "blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations" that Beijing uses to steer foreign policy and "gain access to advanced foreign technology."
Qiu joined the Shanghai Overseas Chinese Foundation as a director in May 2017. SOCF is described as the "only charity in the Shanghai UFWD system." By May 2021, he had risen to chairman. He also served on the executive committee of the Shanghai branch of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, another UFWD-controlled body, and holds the title of honorary chairman of the Hong Kong Immigration Department Staff Association.
The CCP's influence operations targeting American institutions are not limited to real estate. Congressional investigators have identified networks like the Singham operation as CCP-directed efforts aimed at shaping U.S. policy from within.
In that honorary role with the Hong Kong staff association, Qiu organized events in 2023 and 2024 that introduced Hong Kong students to the Shanghai SWAT team. Wright told the DCNF that the UFWD "provides cover for MSS operations sort of like what the State Department allegedly does for the CIA abroad when a spy pretends to be a diplomat."
"Bottom line: there is no real line between intel and non-intel agencies or officers in China. Anybody can be compelled for any role at any time, you don't say no to President Xi."
Qiu's own words, translated by the DCNF from Chinese government announcements, leave little ambiguity about his loyalties. In 2021, he declared:
"The CCP is like a kind, but firm parent. It has guided our people out of hardship, led China's sons and daughters to build a new country and is steering us toward great national rejuvenation."
At a 2021 SOCF meeting, Qiu pledged the foundation would "continue to execute General Secretary Xi Jinping's directive to 'comprehensively implement the party's overseas Chinese affairs policy, unite the hearts of overseas Chinese and serve overall interests.'" He referred to the CCP as "our party" during SOCF party-building events and represented SOCF's party branch at Shanghai ACFROC party meetings.
A party branch, as defined by China's Supreme People's Procuratorate, is the smallest "grass-roots" CCP organization, required of any Chinese institution with three or more party members. Qiu was not a passive participant. He was an organizational leader inside the CCP structure.
Qiu co-founded the Chinese American Museum in Washington, D.C. in 2017 alongside Chen Xiaoping, also known as Neil Chen. Chen previously chaired SOCF and held positions in Shanghai branches of both ACFROC and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has stated that CPPCC delegates "serve as proxies for CCP interests."
CAMDC's website states the museum "is not funded, controlled, or influenced by any foreign government" and aims to "advance the understanding, knowledge, and appreciation of the Chinese American experience." Yet the DCNF found that the Chinese government co-sponsored at least eight of the museum's programs, with four receiving support from UFWD-controlled religious entities.
Since 2023, CAMDC has co-sponsored three Buddhist events in Washington with Shanghai's Longhua Temple, including one held at the Library of Congress. Each was headlined by Zhao Cheng, the temple's abbot, who also serves as a Shanghai CPPCC standing committee member and deputy director of the UFWD's municipal Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee. Longhua Temple itself operates under the UFWD's Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee.
The pattern mirrors what congressional investigators have found elsewhere. The House Ways and Means Committee subpoenaed three nonprofits over $39 million tied to Shanghai-based tech tycoon Neville Singham, exposing how CCP-linked funding flows through ostensibly independent American organizations.
CAMDC and Chen did not respond to the DCNF's multiple requests for comment. The Philip Qiu and Family Foundation's headquarters, a historic property half a mile north of the White House, shares its address with six other entities Qiu controls, including CAMDC.
The intelligence ties extend beyond Qiu himself. SOCF's secretary general has served as a director of the Shanghai International Culture Association, which former Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Alex Joske identified as a front for China's Ministry of State Security, Beijing's premier civilian intelligence agency. Wright described the MSS as "roughly the CIA, with a dash of the FBI."
That means the charity Qiu chairs has direct organizational overlap with an entity linked to China's top spy agency. And the man running that charity just bought a building roughly 200 meters from the White House.
CCP penetration of American institutions extends well beyond property purchases. Congressional investigators found that Harvard co-authored more than 140 papers with Chinese military-linked universities, and a separate probe revealed that Missouri State University trained over 1,500 Chinese state managers in MBA programs the CCP helped design.
Wright told the DCNF the Securities Building's proximity to the White House creates specific, concrete intelligence risks:
"This property allows access for big splashy intel ops as well as for more classic ops, like a listening post or Stingray-like systems to collect phone calls, text messages, and digital exhaust. That's all great for collecting targeting information to later 'bump' or recruit targets out in the world, who otherwise work inside a key U.S. government building."
Wright went further, warning about newer threats the location could enable:
"But what's especially alarming are emerging ops that properties like this allow, like hidden drone swarms or shipping container missiles. This kind of property is where the next 9/11 will come from. It's coming."
Gordon Chang, an author and China expert, offered a blunter prescription:
"No Chinese citizen should be permitted to own, lease, or occupy any real estate that gives him or her the ability to surveil any sensitive federal installation. No ifs, ands, or buts."
Michael Lucci, the founder and CEO of State Armor, a national security-focused policy and advocacy nonprofit, pointed to a pattern beyond this single transaction:
"CCP intelligence agents have been caught buying property around military installations and critical infrastructure where they commit espionage in preparation of sabotage. Now, even more of our most important national assets are being put at risk by the proximity of a man who has multiple CCP intelligence and security affiliations just 200 meters from executive facilities that should be completely off limits from adversary actors. We need government action to force the sale of the commercial property controlled by the CCP associate and a ban on this happening in the future."
As of the DCNF's August 13 report, no federal agency has publicly acknowledged the transaction or announced any review. No charges have been filed. No regulatory order has been issued. The property sale stands.
The gap between what the record shows and what the government has done about it is the real story. A man with documented ties to at least four CCP government posts, at least three UFWD-controlled organizations, and an entity linked to China's top spy agency now controls a building close enough to the White House to hit with a well-thrown baseball. He praised the CCP as a "kind, but firm parent," pledged to execute Xi Jinping's directives on overseas Chinese policy, and has not answered a single question about any of it.
Washington spends billions on counterintelligence every year. Apparently nobody thought to check the deed filings down the street.
