China lobbyists’ donations erupt in US Senate race
Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s campaign for re-election received a $1,000 donation from a lobbyist for a Chinese telecommunications company that the Federal Communications Commission labeled a national security threat, Fox News recently reported, although her Republican opponent Adam Laxalt also has received donations from Chinese lobbyists.
Cortez Masto received $1,000 on Sept. 26 from Thomas Green, a lawyer who has lobbied for Huawei, a Chinese multinational technology corporation that develops and sells telecommunications equipment and electronics, according to OpenSecrets.org, a nonpartisan research group that tracks money in U.S. politics.
Green, senior counsel at Sidley Austin, an American multinational lobbying firm, has also donated to other Democratic candidates for several years, including $1,000 to U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen in 2018.
It is not clear if or how much Green received from Huawei as a lobbyist, as OpenSecrets shows that Huawei paid $0 to Green.
Curbing Chinese influence
Cortez Masto’s campaign spokesperson Sigalle Reshef said in a statement that Cortez Masto has led efforts to curb the influence of the Chinese government through introducing the Ensuring American Leadership over International Standards Act to study the impact of the Chinese government’s influence in setting global standards for emerging technologies and authoring a bill to combat “deepfakes” used by China.
In 2020, the FCC labeled the company as a national security threat because it has “close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s military apparatus,” which would obligate the company to cooperate with China’s intelligence services, said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in a 2020 news release.
“We cannot and will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to exploit network vulnerabilities and compromise our critical communications infrastructure,” Pai said in the release.
The Department of Justice is also investigating Huawei and recently charged 13 people with involvement in attempts by the Chinese government to influence U.S. operations, according to Forbes.
Cortez Masto’s Republican opponent for U.S. Senate, former Attorney General Adam Laxalt, called on her to return the donation.
“Catherine Cortez Masto’s losing campaign is being bankrolled by a lobbyist currently working for a Chinese government-connected company,” said Laxalt campaign communications director Courtney Holland in a statement.
Other China ties
Reshef said in a statement that while Cortez Masto has led efforts to curb the influence of the Chinese government, Laxalt has come out against bipartisan legislation to hold them accountable and boost American manufacturing, “all to protect his substantial investments in Chinese companies that support Chinese government surveillance.”
Laxalt opposed the Chips and Science Act that Cortez Masto supported, which invested in the production of American-made semiconductors and scientific research and technological leadership and aimed to strengthen U.S.’s economic and national security.
While Cortez Masto received a $1,000 donation from a lobbyist for a Chinese government, Laxalt owns between $1,000 and $15,000 in stock in both the Chinese technology company Tencent and internet retailer Alibaba, according to his May financial disclosure. Those companies were reportedly engaged in espionage, assisting Chinese authorities in hunting down criminal suspects, silencing dissent and creating surveillance cities, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Laxalt also has taken contributions from lobbyists and foreign agents for China, including $3,000 from Bryan Lanza, a lobbyist working for lobbying group Mercury, whose clients include Alibaba and Hikvision, a Chinese company. Laxalt’s campaign did not return a request for comment on those donations.
Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on Twitter.