EXCLUSIVE: Anti-ICE Org Backing National Protests Led By Member Of CCP-Tied Group

The leader of a Chinese American political action committee involved in organizing upcoming protests against federal immigration enforcement under the “No Kings” banner is also a director of a taxpayer-funded group with extensive ties to Beijing’s intelligence network, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has discovered.

Asian Americans For Progressive America (AAPA) is a California-based political action committee promoting an upcoming national protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) targeted enforcement operations, according to announcements and flyers. AAPA’s president, Elaine Peng, also serves as an executive for United Chinese Americans (UCA), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that has received U.S. government grants worth roughly $370,000 for a mental health program it runs called WAVES, for which Peng is the “director of training.”

UCA claims to be focused on “enriching and empowering Chinese American communities through civic engagement” and has often invoked racial discrimination as the reason it holds protests against U.S. national security initiatives and immigration enforcement. However, translated Chinese government and state media reports reveal a significant number of the nonprofit’s leaders have also served as members of the Chinese government, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and/or Beijing’s intelligence arms, raising concerns among analysts about foreign influence.

Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor, a nonprofit focused on countering the CCP, told the DCNF he believes UCA is “associated with the CCP’s sprawling worldwide network of CCP loyalists.”

UCA president Haipei Shue denied his organization has Chinese government ties, telling the DCNF “UCA’s work has always been fully compliant with U.S. laws and policies, and our efforts are aligned with the national interest of the United States.”

“I am proud of [UCA], an organization made up of Chinese Americans who love this country and contribute to it in countless ways — through scientific achievement, military service, healthcare, entrepreneurship, and more,” said Shue, who has worked for the Chinese government and state-run media outlets, according to UCA’s website and state media reports.

AAPA and Peng did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

‘NO KINGS’

AAPA is sponsoring and organizing planned protests in Oakland, California, on June 14 against the Trump administration, as Los Angeles and other cities across the nation struggle to grapple with riots opposing ICE deportation raids, according to a mobilize.us announcement.

“[W]e rise up to say NO KINGS!!” the announcement reads.

A website for the “No Kings” protests states: “They’ve defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services. The corruption has gone too. far. No thrones. No crowns. No kings.”

Peng is also promoting the upcoming Oakland protest on social media.

ICE’s “targeted enforcement operations,” which began in Los Angeles on June 6, have apprehended illegal aliens previously convicted of homicide, drug trafficking and lewd acts with a minor. Several of the arrested have been apprehended while looting or assaulting law enforcement officers. In one case, the Department of Homeland Security announced the arrest of Emiliano Garduno-Galvez — an illegal alien from Mexico — for attempted murder after he threw a Molotov cocktail at law enforcement during the Los Angeles riots.

‘CCP Loyalists’

The DCNF identified more than 10 individuals listed as UCA personnel who have been members of the CCP, Chinese government and/or Chinese intelligence front groups, according to Chinese government and state media reports.

UCA’s founding honorary advisory board included two individuals who are CCP members, as well as officials within fronts for both the intelligence arm of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and China’s premier civilian intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), Chinese government reports reveal.

One of those former advisors, Wang Jisi, has belonged to four MSS front groups, the DCNF previously discovered, and is also listed as a director by the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies (CFISS), which is controlled by the “Intelligence Bureau within the PLA’s Joint Staff Department,” according to ex-CIA officer Peter Mattis.

UCA’s president, Shue, told the DCNF that Wang has “no affiliation” with UCA, but refused to discuss an archived UCA website link listing Wang as an honorary advisory board member. Wang could not be reached for comment.

Six UCA personnel have also held positions with arms of the United Front Work Department (UFWD), a Chinese influence and intelligence service, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC). The USSC is a legislative branch commission created by the United States Congress in October 2000 to monitor, investigate and submit to Congress an annual report on the national security implications of the relationships between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.

One UCA board member, who also heads the nonprofit’s Utah chapter, serves as the deputy director of the Salt Lake City Overseas Chinese Service Center (OCSC), according to the Utah Chinese Civic Center, which hosts that OCSC. The UFWD runs 60 OCSC branches worldwide, all of which have met with China’s Ministry of Public Security to learn how to operate unsanctioned, overseas courts, the DCNF previously reported.

UCA has also promoted UFWD initiatives, nonprofit announcements show, including one food-drive program run by a UFWD agency called the All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), according to ACFROC.

Counting Shue, six UCA executives and advisors have also worked for the Chinese government, the DCNF determined after a review of publicly-available documents.

UCA board member Stephanie Sun previously held Chinese “government roles,” local news outlet City & State Pennsylvania reported, including working for the China Cultural Center in Seoul, which is run by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, according to the Chinese government.

Shue told the DCNF it was “simply incorrect” Sun had worked for China’s diplomatic system, but refused to answer questions about her ties after being sent links to multiple posts, such as one University of Pennsylvania announcement, stating she “worked for government diplomatic agencies in both China and South Korea.”

However, Sun’s profile was subsequently scrubbed from UCA’s website sometime between May 25 and May 27 after the DCNF sent Shue a link to Sun’s UCA profile stating she “worked for both governments and 3 Fortune 100 international corporations in 3 countries, China, South Korea, and the U.S.” Shue did not respond to questions about why the profile was deleted and Sun did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

‘Talking Points’

UCA and its subsidiaries, UCA Action and UCA Political Action Committee (UCA PAC), have repeatedly protested U.S. national security initiatives, claiming such policies will foment racial discrimination, according to announcements from the nonprofits.

In one instance, UCA published an open letter in December 2020 demanding the removal of a “paranoid and xenophobic” section within the Senate’s “Fairness For High-Skilled Immigrants Act” that would have blocked “any alien affiliated with the military forces of [China] or the [CCP]” from “ever becoming permanent residents or citizens.”

In another instance, UCA filed an amicus brief on July 13, 2020 supporting a lawsuit brought by Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology against an ICE directive that would have stripped visas from foreign students enrolled in fully-online programs. The directive was rescinded the following day, court records show.

More recently, UCA sent a June 1 newsletter condemning the U.S. State Department’s May 2025 decision to revoke visas for Chinese students with “connections to the [CCP] or studying in critical fields.”

“Haipei Shue, President of UCA, expresses deep concern over rising discrimination against Chinese students and communities in the U.S., including visa revocations,” the letter states. “Warning of a resurgence of Cold War-style bias, UCA urges Chinese Americans to unite, engage civically, and defend their rights and the American dream.”

UCA has also organized several other demonstrations against U.S. national security programs, including a January 2022 protest opposing a Department of Justice (DOJ) initiative to counter Chinese espionage, which the nonprofit alleged was aligned with “racist and xenophobic tropes.” That DOJ program, known as the “China Initiative,” was terminated in February 2022.

The nonprofit has also held protests against state bills in Florida and Texas prohibiting citizens from “countries of concern,” like China, from purchasing land, for the sake of securing critical infrastructure and U.S. military sites, according to UCA announcements.

AAPA was among 71 organizations, including UCA, which sent a joint letter to the Texas legislature opposing two such bills: HB 17 and its companion SB 1. UCA likewise organized multi-city protests in March 2025 against the bills, which they characterized as “discriminatory,” UCA announcements reveal.

The nonprofit’s members also testified at hearings against the legislation that month and the next, a review of witness lists found.

Chuck DeVore, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel now serving as the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s chief national initiatives officer, testified in support of the legislation in March and told the DCNF that during the hearing opponents submitted “remarkably consistent talking points that focused on racism.”

“I quickly found on my phone a statement from the Chinese Embassy in 2023 that appeared in the Washington Post in opposition to Texas’ 2023 version of the measure,” DeVore said. “The claims in this statement were echoed by those testifying that day. It was pretty apparent to me what was going on.”

A Chinese Embassy spokesperson had claimed that prohibiting Chinese nationals from purchasing land in the U.S. “may also fuel Asian hatred in the U.S. and racial discrimination, thus running counter to American values,” in the Aug. 21, 2023 Washington Post article cited by DeVore.

Beijing tasks its operatives with opposing policies deemed hostile to its objectives, Dr. Lawrence Sellin, a national security and United Front expert, told the DCNF.

“It is an indisputable fact that China, through its proxies, has been trying to acquire property near U.S. military bases and critical infrastructure,” Sellin said. “It was thus necessary for UCA to frame [opposition to] those state laws as ‘Asian discrimination.’”