Why Are Chinese Nationals Writing Speeches for American Lawmakers

There’s something deeply wrong when foreign nationals from our primary geopolitical adversary are drafting speeches for members of Congress. Not proofreading them. Not offering cultural insights from a distance. Actually writing the words that come out of American lawmakers’ mouths.

White House correspondent Natalie Winters just exposed a pipeline that should alarm every American who still believes in national sovereignty. Chinese nationals have been working inside U.S. congressional offices, answering constituent calls, sitting in on policy briefings, and yes, putting words on paper that representatives then deliver as their own thoughts. Some of these staffers came through the U.S. Heartland China Association, an organization now under congressional investigation for ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s influence and intelligence apparatus. The participants themselves described their work as “citizen external propaganda.” They said the quiet part out loud, and we should believe them.

Lily Tang Williams knows a thing or two about the CCP. She fled China to escape it. Now running for Congress in New Hampshire as a Republican, she’s calling for legislation requiring U.S. citizenship to work in congressional offices. It’s such an obvious safeguard that the fact we need to propose it tells you how far we’ve fallen.

Think about what access these staffers had. They weren’t cleaning offices after hours. They were shaping policy, building relationships with lawmakers, observing the inner workings of American government, and reporting back. One former staffer went on to conduct commissioned research for China’s Ministry of Public Security and multiple CCP propaganda offices. The pipeline works both ways. It influences our legislators while feeding intelligence back to Beijing.

The CCP runs the most oppressive surveillance state on earth. It’s committing genocide against Uyghurs and other minorities. It operates secret police stations in foreign countries, including ours. It steals Western technology on an industrial scale and has compromised American universities and businesses so thoroughly that we’ve normalized the theft. This regime came off decades of forced abortions and continues to disappear dissidents who dare speak against it. And we’re letting people vetted by this government work in the halls of Congress.

Here’s what people miss about Chinese nationals coming to America. Some do fall in love with freedom and want to stay. Those people exist, and they’re often the most passionate defenders of liberty because they know what the alternative looks like. Williams is living proof. But these individuals are exceptions, not the rule. The vast majority of Chinese students, workers, and officials who come here needed CCP approval to leave. That approval comes with strings attached. You don’t get to just walk away from the Chinese Communist Party. It doesn’t work that way.

We’re not talking about refugees fleeing persecution. We’re talking about regime plants with official blessing. The distinction matters enormously. When someone escapes China despite the government, that’s one thing. When someone arrives with the government’s endorsement, that’s something else entirely.

Congress already has enough homegrown traitors without importing new ones. We’ve got plenty of domestic officials willing to sell out American interests for campaign cash or cushy post-government jobs. Adding foreign agents to the mix isn’t diversity. It’s stupidity dressed up as openness.

The counterargument writes itself. Someone will say this is xenophobic or discriminatory. They’ll talk about the value of diverse perspectives and cultural exchange. Fine. Have those exchanges at universities, at think tanks, at cultural centers. Not in congressional offices where national security decisions get made. There’s a difference between learning from other cultures and handing them the keys to your government.

You want Chinese perspectives on policy? Hire American citizens of Chinese descent. Consult with experts who’ve studied China for decades. Bring in people like Williams who actually escaped the regime and understand it from the inside. Don’t staff your office with people who needed permission from our biggest adversary to be here.

The fact that this pipeline existed at all shows how naive we’ve been about Chinese influence operations. Beijing plays the long game. They don’t need to hack every computer when they can just put their people in the rooms where decisions happen. Why steal information when you can have it handed to you by a trusted staffer?

Williams’s proposed requirement is bare minimum common sense. U.S. citizenship to work in congressional offices shouldn’t be controversial. It should be automatic. The fact that it’s not already law demonstrates how thoroughly we’ve abandoned basic security protocols in favor of appearing welcoming and cosmopolitan.

We’re 250 years into this American experiment. We’ve survived foreign threats before, but usually because we recognized them as threats. The current danger isn’t that China is powerful. It’s that we’ve convinced ourselves that treating obvious security risks as security risks somehow makes us the bad guys. It doesn’t. It makes us sane.

Related: Federal Judge Strikes Down NFA Registration for Suppressors and Gun Rights Groups Move Fast