Report links US anti-Israel groups to Beijing-backed network aiding China

In November 2023, just weeks after the Hamas invasion of Israel, thousands of anti-Israel protesters rallied in Washington, DC, to call for a halt to the war in Gaza.

The crowd, the largest pro-Palestinian protest in the US capital in years, chanted for an intifada and smeared red paint reminiscent of blood on concrete posts outside the White House.

While it looked like a wholly grassroots effort reflecting growing American anger over Israel’s counteroffensive following the massacre, the protest was actually backed by a financial network linked to the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, and to pro-China propaganda, according to a report released earlier this month.

The report, “CCP Influence in US pro-Palestinian Activism,” by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, describes a propaganda network with a central role in anti-Israel protest movements in the US.

The author of the report, former FBI agent Jennifer Baker, outlined the network’s finances, anti-Israel activism, and messaging that dovetailed with positions held by the Chinese government. Baker is a retired federal agent with 25 years of experience in counterintelligence, national security, and criminal investigations.

The network centers around Neville Roy Singham, an American living in Shanghai. Singham has long had ties to China, and in 2017, sold his tech company ThoughtWorks for about $785 million.

His engagement with China strengthened following the sale as he backed US nonprofits that organize against Israel and for positions in favor of the CCP, the report said, citing previous reporting on Singham, including by the nonprofit Network Contagion Research Institute, along with publicly available documents such as nonprofit tax filings.

The New York Times reported in August 2023 that it had “tracked hundreds of millions of dollars to groups linked to Mr. Singham that mix progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points.”

“Singham works closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide,” reported the broadsheet.

Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans, is a prominent activist and the co-founder of CodePink, a far-left group that campaigns against Israel. Evans has written a book titled “China is Not Our Enemy.”

One of Singham’s media platforms has collaborated with Shanghai’s propaganda office, some of his other outlets have partnered with a Chinese university to disseminate pro-China messaging, and he has joined CCP workshops, the report said.

“While individual protesters may be motivated by genuine outrage over the war in Gaza, the infrastructure surrounding their activism reveals deeper strategic intent,” the report said. “At its core, Beijing’s involvement is about power and positioning: using domestic dissent in the US to project weakness abroad, while casting China as a principled champion of peace and justice.”

Far-left activist groups, the People’s Forum, the ANSWER Coalition, and the International People’s Assembly have ties to Singham’s network. The three groups, along with CodePink, organized the Shut It Down for Palestine campaign that took off after the start of the Gaza war, according to the report.

Funding linking the groups is difficult to track because donors can contribute to nonprofits through funds that shield their identity, but the People’s Forum acknowledged its support from Singham in 2021. The funding network runs through nonprofits with nondescript names like the Justice and Education Fund and the United Community Fund.

The People’s Forum, the most prominent of the groups, is based in New York City and often organizes anti-Israel events, such as protests and free courses on Zionism. On October 8, 2023, the People’s Forum, the ANSWER Coalition, and several pro-Palestinian groups applauded the Hamas attacks as they rallied against Israel in Times Square.

The two groups and the Chinese embassy did not respond to requests for comment. Singham himself is unreachable, with even Congressional inquiries saying they are unable to serve him a subpoena.

“We mobilize in the belly of the beast because we understand that we have a unique role to play in combating material support for Zionism, and weakening the handmaiden of US global imperialism,” the groups said in a joint statement regarding the protest at the time.

BreakThrough News, a digital media outlet that has received funding from the People’s Forum, operates out of the same building and shares some of the same staff, has more than 1 million subscribers on YouTube, and publishes content that is in line with CCP positions. After October 7, the outlet shifted its focus from leftist, pro-China talking points to coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, leading to a surge in its viewership, the George Washington University report said.

The activist network frames the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as “part of a broader struggle against US ‘imperialism’ — rhetoric that mirrors CCP propaganda,” the report said. “This anti-US, anti-Israel stance is precisely in line with Beijing’s messaging that the US and its allies are the source of global conflict.”

The report argued that the pro-China messages surrounding the war “are part of a bigger Chinese strategy to influence global opinion, discredit the West, and expand China’s power.”

“This alignment is not coincidental, but reflects how CCP propaganda efforts amplify themes that are already prevalent in anti-Israel, anti-Western circles worldwide,” the report said.

The goal is to undermine US influence in the Middle East and to stoke division between the West and countries in the Global South like Brazil and South Africa. The messaging surrounding the Palestinian cause also helps China’s image in those regions and Arab and Muslim countries. At the same time, activism in the US amplifies internal domestic divisions as the protest groups often espouse anti-government and anti-capitalist positions, the report argued.

“China and the protest movement support each other’s claims that the US and Israel are in the wrong, while China presents itself as standing for peace and justice,” it said.

In addition to Evans, Singham has other family ties to leftist groups in New York. His niece is the political director of Jews for Economic and Racial Justice, a progressive group that is backing Zohran Mamdani’s run for city mayor, The New York Post reported this month.

Code Pink has denied receiving funding from the CCP.

Last month, the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform demanded that Singham provide documents on his funding and control over far-left groups, saying his activities may violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

US Rep. Anna Paula Luna said this month that Singham was “hiding” from the inquiry.

Some members of Congress have been accused by critics of launching agenda-driven investigations claiming nefarious funding sources of progressive groups based on little evidence or discredited conspiracies.

Last year, Sen. Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio, who was then a senator and the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, requested that the Justice Department investigate Singham due to his reported anti-Israel activism and ties to China.

The Coalition for a Safer Web, an advocacy group led by Marc Ginsberg, former US ambassador to Morocco and ex-White House adviser for the Middle East, called for a crackdown on the Singham network in a report released last month.