(NewsInsights.org) – A Democratic candidate running to replace Congress member Anna Eshoo (D-CA), who announced her impending retirement in November 2023, appears to have fallen into the same predicament as several other elected officials who hoped to reach Chinese-speaking constituents. Some are questioning his strategy in dealing with a business that the Department of Justice (DOJ) required to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in 2021.
California State Representative Evan Low (D) placed campaign ads totaling nearly $5000 in Sing Tao newspapers in February, according to a Federal Election Commission (FEC) campaign declaration. A spokesperson for Low’s campaign defended the action, saying, “Sing Tao is a major news outlet for Chinese speakers in the Bay Area.”
The Jamestown Foundation, a conservative think tank, and the Hoover Institution, a self-professed non-partisan public policy think tank, independently established ties between Sing Tao News Corporation and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Nevertheless, Sing Tao US has disputed The DOJ’s assessment of it as a foreign agent.
Yet, Low wasn’t alone in advertising with the Chinese-speaking news outlet. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have used Sing Tao News to reach Asian and Pacific Islander constituents, including Eshoo, the legislator Low hopes to replace. She spent more than $3000 with the news agency between 2011 and 2022.
Others who have advertised through Sing Tao include
- Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spent more than $5000 between 2020 and 2022
- Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) invested $7300 in print ads in October 2022
- Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) disclosed expenditures of $13,300 to the outlet between 2012 and 2022
- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) paid $3370 for advertising during his 2016 Presidential campaign
- Rep. Kevin Mullins (D-CA) sunk $1440 into campaign ads in January 2022
- Former Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) invested $6,600 in advertising in his 2016 campaign
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) disclosed $1,100 in advertising payments in 2012
More recently, newly elected Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) paid over $7200 for advertising to the outlet, claiming he didn’t know Sing Tao was a registered foreign agent. As a strong critic of the CCP and its treatment of Ughyar Muslims, he vowed never to give the organization another cent because of its association with the Chinese government.
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