China influenced Utah legislation during long-running campaign: report

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An Associated Press investigation has revealed that China and its advocates based in the U.S. have been operating a successful influence campaign in the state of Utah. 

The AP reported Monday that as a result of the efforts, "Lawmakers delayed legislation Beijing didn’t like, nixed resolutions that conveyed displeasure with its actions and expressed support in ways that enhanced the Chinese government’s image." 

Utah professor Taowen Le sent a letter to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox in 2022 urging him to meet with a Chinese ambassador. Le, according to The Associated Press, is among China's most vocal advocates in the state.  (AP/Jon Elswick)

U.S. officials also said the campaign is a threat to national security. 

"Utah is an important foothold," Frank Montoya Jr., a retired FBI counterintelligence agent who lives in Utah, told the AP. "If the Chinese can succeed in Salt Lake City, they can also make it in New York and elsewhere." 

But a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington told the AP that China "values its relationship with Utah" and any "words and deeds that stigmatize and smear these sub-national exchanges are driven by ulterior political purposes." 

In Utah, the AP found, Beijing and pro-China advocates appealed to lawmakers’ affiliations with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormon church, which is the state’s dominant religion and one that has long dreamed of expanding in China. 

The AP based its findings on dozens of interviews and hundreds of pages of records, text messages and emails obtained through public records’ requests. 

It uncovered that China-friendly lawmakers, for example, delayed action for a year to ban Chinese-funded Confucius Institutes at state universities, according to the legislation’s sponsor. The Chinese language and cultural programs have been described by U.S. national security officials as propaganda instruments. The University of Utah and Southern Utah University closed their institutes last year. 

In 2020, China scored an image-boosting coup when its President Xi Jinping sent a note to a class of Utah fourth-graders thanking them for cards they’d sent wishing him a happy Chinese New Year. He encouraged them to "become young ‘ambassadors’ for Sino-American friendship." 

Emails obtained by the AP show the Chinese Embassy and the students’ Chinese teacher coordinated the letter exchange, which resulted in heavy coverage by state-controlled media in China. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.