House Republicans Target Far-Left Nonprofits Taking Orders From Beijing

When Chaos Has a Return Address

Here’s what keeps me up at night. Not the protests themselves, mind you. Americans have every right to gather and voice their grievances. That’s the whole point of the First Amendment. What bothers me is finding out those protests might be getting their marching orders from Shanghai.

Chairman Jason Smith just pulled back the curtain on something most Americans don’t even know exists. A sprawling network of supposedly independent nonprofits, all feeding from the same trough, all singing the same anti-American tune. And that trough? It’s filled by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech millionaire who traded his citizenship’s responsibilities for a comfortable life in Communist China.

Think about that for a second. An American expat, living large in Shanghai, funneling money into U.S. tax-exempt organizations that just happen to promote Chinese Communist Party talking points. What are the odds?

The Money Trail Doesn’t Lie

Smith sent letters Monday night to two organizations at the heart of this mess: BreakThrough BT Media Inc. and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Both enjoy tax-exempt status. Both produce content that looks like journalism or academic research. And both, according to congressional investigators, are part of Singham’s influence operation.

This isn’t about silencing dissent. Let’s be clear on that. This is about foreign interference dressed up in nonprofit clothing. The House Ways and Means Committee has jurisdiction over tax-exempt organizations for exactly this reason. When you get special treatment from the IRS, you don’t get to play footsie with hostile foreign governments.

The letters describe what investigators call a “full-spectrum operation.” That’s military speak for hitting every angle at once. Money flows from Singham’s network into these nonprofits. The nonprofits produce ideological content, research papers, news articles, social media posts. Then that content gets weaponized on American streets through coordinated protests.

You saw it in Minneapolis over the weekend. Forty-two arrests. Anti-ICE protesters throwing ice and bottles at federal agents. (The ice thing is darkly ironic, isn’t it?) Groups like the People’s Forum, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the ANSWER Coalition orchestrating the chaos. BreakThrough News filming it all. Tricontinental writing glowing reviews afterward.

One protester, an 18-year-old named Tye Burrus, held up a homemade sign showing a hammer and sickle smashing an ice cube. He described himself as a “Marxist-Leninist-Maoist.” At least he’s honest about it. But here’s the question nobody’s asking: who paid for the organizing? Who trained the activists? Who coordinated the messaging?

Follow the money and it leads back to Singham every single time.

The Privilege Problem

Smith told reporters something that should be obvious but apparently isn’t: “Tax-exempt status is a privilege not a right. Nonprofits must remain accountable.”

That’s the whole ballgame right there. Americans subsidize these organizations through foregone tax revenue. In exchange, nonprofits are supposed to serve legitimate charitable, educational, or social purposes. They’re not supposed to function as unregistered foreign agents. They’re definitely not supposed to coordinate with the Chinese Communist Party to destabilize American cities.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act exists for exactly this scenario. If you’re working on behalf of a foreign government, you register. You disclose. You operate in the open. These groups are doing none of that. Instead, they’re hiding behind nonprofit status, claiming they’re just doing journalism or research while they pump out propaganda that aligns perfectly with Beijing’s strategic interests.

Congressional investigators have spent the past year documenting this pattern. It’s not isolated incidents. It’s a synchronized ecosystem. Funding flows from Singham. Media narratives get crafted by organizations like BreakThrough and Tricontinental. Those narratives get amplified on social media. Then street-level mobilization happens through groups that all share the same ideology, the same funding sources, the same talking points.

This is sophisticated stuff. This is how modern influence operations work. You don’t need Soviet-style agents with dead drops and microfilm anymore. You just need wealthy ideologues willing to bankroll American organizations that hate America.

What Happens Next

The Tuesday hearing will shine more light on this network. Smith’s committee has subpoena power and the jurisdiction to strip tax-exempt status from organizations that abuse it. That’s the leverage here. These groups can say whatever they want under the First Amendment. But they can’t demand taxpayer subsidies while doing it.

None of this means every protest is foreign-funded or every left-wing organization is compromised. That would be absurd. But when you find the same names, the same funding sources, the same messaging appearing across dozens of supposedly independent groups, you’ve got a problem that needs investigating.

The Chinese Communist Party wants to weaken America from within. That’s not conspiracy theory; that’s stated policy. They’ve watched us for decades, studied our vulnerabilities, identified our pressure points. And they’ve figured out that American nonprofit law, designed to encourage civic participation, can be exploited to fund division and chaos.

Singham didn’t respond to requests for comment. Neither did his organizations. That tells you something too. When you’re doing legitimate nonprofit work, you don’t hide from congressional oversight. You welcome it. You prove your compliance. You show your books.

Their silence speaks volumes. And Chairman Smith is right to keep asking questions until he gets answers.

American Conservatives