An electric vehicle executive identified in his own company's corporate disclosures as a Chinese Communist Party member has poured more than $450,000 into Democratic campaigns this cycle, including tens of thousands to two Senate nominees who never returned a request for comment.
Pin Ni, the top executive at Wanxiang America and luxury EV maker KARMA Automotive, donated $61,000 to Democratic candidates and committees in the second quarter of 2026 alone, the Washington Free Beacon reported, citing newly published campaign finance disclosures. That brought his total Democratic giving for the current campaign cycle to $450,400, a figure that dwarfs the $66,300 he gave to Republicans over the same period.
Among the biggest beneficiaries: Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, the Democratic nominee running to replace retiring Sen. Dick Durbin, who collected $52,000 from Ni this cycle, and former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, the Democratic Senate nominee there, who received $19,000. Neither campaign responded to the Free Beacon's request for comment. Neither did the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which took $41,250 from Ni.
Ni has lived in the United States for more than three decades. He completed a graduate program at the University of Kentucky and founded Wanxiang's U.S. subsidiary in Illinois in 1994. But archived corporate disclosures from his parent company, the Hangzhou-based Wanxiang Group, identify him as a "comrade" of the Chinese Communist Party, a formal designation of membership.
That membership is not incidental to the company's identity. Wanxiang Group, a billion-dollar green energy conglomerate, states in its own corporate materials that it "listens to the Party, follows the Party's lead, holds high the banner, and prioritizes Party building." At the company's celebration of the CCP's 105th anniversary last month, Wanxiang CEO Lu Weiding, Ni's brother-in-law and a deputy to China's National People's Congress, praised the Party's global standing.
Lu Weiding told attendees:
"The Chinese Communist Party's advanced and leading position in the world stems from its 'truthfulness.'"
Chinese President Xi Jinping has personally commended the company, saying Wanxiang "always walks on a correct path" and "is always in a position to lead the trend." Xi met with Ni and Lu Weiding during his 2023 visit to the United States. The CCP's Central Committee posthumously awarded Wanxiang's founder, Lu Guanqiu, Ni's late father-in-law, a high-level honorary title in 2021. Fox News reported that Xi praised Lu Guanqiu for being "in line with the Party Central Committee."
Lu Weiding himself holds another role that raises questions. He serves as vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, a state-run organization that plays a central role in China's "united front" strategy, the CCP's long-standing effort to co-opt foreign elites and institutions to serve Beijing's interests.
The Free Beacon documented a striking pattern: Ni hosts Democratic politicians for tours of Wanxiang America's Illinois facilities, and donations follow shortly afterward.
Stratton toured the facilities in April 2025. Two weeks later, Ni wrote a $30,000 check to a Stratton-supporting PAC. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers visited in October 2021. One day later, Ni donated $10,000 to his campaign. Sen. Cory Booker toured in July 2024. Less than three months afterward, Ni gave $5,000 to his campaign.
In October 2025, Ni hosted Reps. Sean Casten of Illinois and Laura Gillen of New York. Weeks later, each received the maximum individual contribution of $7,000. That same month, representatives of the Democratic Governors Association, along with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, then the DGA's chairman-elect, visited the facility. Ni had already donated $10,000 to the DGA four months earlier.
The pattern extends to gubernatorial races. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill received a total of $60,000 from Ni, and Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger collected $50,000, as the Free Beacon previously reported. The New York Post reported that Ni's contributions to Sherrill included $60,000 to the One Giant Leap super PAC backing her gubernatorial campaign and an additional $5,800 directly to her campaign account.
Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan think tank focused on national security, told the Free Beacon the scale and pattern of Ni's contributions demand scrutiny regardless of party.
"Substantial political giving by an executive whose company publicly celebrates his Communist Party membership, and who leads an organization tied to Beijing's influence networks, warrants greater scrutiny and transparency."
Singleton added that campaigns should apply the same due diligence whether the recipient is a Democrat or a Republican. But his sharpest warning concerned what the money might buy beyond goodwill:
"The risk is that political contributions can help individuals embedded in Beijing-linked business and united front networks gain access, shape policy debates, and blunt scrutiny of the Chinese Communist Party's activities. That is a classic malign-influence concern."
Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor, a group that tracks foreign influence operations, went further in comments to other outlets. The Washington Examiner reported that Ni has been recognized as an "outstanding Communist Party Member" 15 times during his tenure at Wanxiang Group. Lucci told the New York Post that Ni "has an extensive history of assisting the CCP's political warfare and influence operations upon the U.S., and of generally aligning with and carrying out party commands."
Beyond his corporate role, Ni chairs the Chicago chapter of the China General Chamber of Commerce. A 2019 book by Larry Diamond of the Hoover Institution and Orville Schell of the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations described the CGCC as "the public-facing arm of the CCP's united front strategy to boost its influence abroad."
The CGCC-Chicago board's membership roster underscores the concern. It includes an executive from the state-run Bank of China and representatives of CATL, Robosense, CRRC, China Cargo Airlines, and COSCO Shipping Lines, all five of which the Pentagon classifies as Chinese military companies under Section 1260H of federal law. COSCO, the Pentagon says, "acts on behalf of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and is classified as a military-civil fusion contributor to China's defense industrial base." The United States sanctioned COSCO in 2019 for transporting Iranian crude oil to China.
And as of June, the board added another name: Gotion High-Tech, a Hefei, China-based green energy firm whose corporate bylaws require the company to "carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China." Gotion scrapped plans to build a factory in Michigan after local residents raised alarms about the company's CCP ties. It opened a facility in Illinois instead, with state government support.
Stratton, who is now running for Senate on Ni's donations, championed the Gotion factory when it was announced in 2023. She called the facility "a game-changer in our state's economy, creating new jobs and showing our continued commitment to making Illinois a renewable energy manufacturing powerhouse."
Ni's footprint extends well beyond campaign checks. He serves as a trustee at the China Institute, which honored him as a "bridge builder" between China and America. He is an original partner of the Confucius Institute, which the U.S. State Department designated a "foreign mission", a formal acknowledgment that it functions as an arm of the Chinese government. And he serves as executive chairman of the Future Wanxiang Fund, a nonprofit described as working to implement Xi Jinping's call to attract more American talent to China.
Ni has also directed $165,000 since 2021 to the Max Baucus Institute, a China-friendly think tank in Montana. That tracks with his Republican giving: nearly 40 percent of his $66,300 in GOP contributions this cycle supported Montana candidates, including $14,000 to Sen. Steve Daines and $8,300 to Rep. Darin LaHood of Illinois. He also gave $100,000 to the Forward Party.
In December 2025, a senior Chinese embassy official named Zhou Zheng visited Wanxiang's Illinois headquarters. A Wanxiang readout of the meeting said Zhou "affirmed Wanxiang's extensive connections with various sectors of society in the United States and its significant social influence, and thanked Wanxiang for its efforts." The readout did not specify what those efforts entailed.
Wanxiang's American ambitions have not been limited to auto parts. The company acquired A123 Systems, a battery firm that had obtained U.S. military contracts and federal funding, as well as Fisker Automotive, a faltering American car company. Those acquisitions gave a CCP-aligned conglomerate a direct stake in American defense supply chains, a fact that drew little sustained scrutiny at the time.
Breitbart reported that Sen. Tommy Tuberville raised concerns about Wanxiang's CCP ties as early as 2023. Ni himself appeared to acknowledge the political headwinds facing Chinese-linked businesses in America. Speaking to Bloomberg in May 2024, he said of U.S. partners' reluctance to work with Chinese-background companies: "Sooner or later they're going to have a government issue."
Ni's Q2 2026 donations also reached Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, Rep. Greg Landsman of Ohio, Pennsylvania congressional nominee Janelle Stelson, and PACs affiliated with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. None of the campaigns responded to comment requests.
The Free Beacon reached out to each campaign and committee that received Ni's money. Not one responded. The DSCC did not comment. Stratton's campaign did not comment. Cooper's campaign did not comment. The silence is itself a data point: when a man whose own company celebrates his CCP membership writes six-figure checks to American political campaigns, the recipients owe voters an explanation for why they took the money, and what, if anything, they offered in return.
Campaign finance law permits donations from U.S. citizens and permanent residents. It bars contributions from foreign nationals. Whether Ni holds U.S. citizenship or permanent residency remains unclear from public records. No campaign has addressed the question.
When half a million dollars flows from a card-carrying member of the Chinese Communist Party into the coffers of American politicians, and every last one of them refuses to talk about it, the silence tells you everything the donations don't.
