China’s soft-power trap in your backyard: How the CCP uses sister cities to undermine America
Battles are escalating regarding America's sister-city agreements with China. Critics express concerns about national security, while advocates of sister cities argue that the program fosters relationships that promote world peace.
There are over 100 "friendship" or "sister" city partnerships between the U.S. and China, according to a 2023 membership directory from Sister Cities International. Only Mexico and Japan have more sister-city agreements with the U.S.
'We are being overwhelmed by China on our own soil, so this is indeed an emergency.'
Sister Cities International, a nonprofit, was founded by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 as part of his People-to-People program, which he believed was crucial for "helping build the solid structure of world peace."
"If we are going to take advantage of the assumption that all people want peace, then the problem is for people to get together and to leap governments — if necessary to evade governments — to work out not one method but thousands of methods by which people can gradually learn a little bit more of each other," Eisenhower stated during the People-to-People Conference in 1956.
During a 1961 speech at the World Conference on Local Governments, Eisenhower stated that 150 U.S. communities had already "established regular communication with their counterparts in more than 40 countries of the free world."
The sister-city program gained rapid momentum, but the first U.S.-China relationships were not formed until 1979. Although the program was created to promote global harmony, its expansion to communist nations has raised concerns in recent years amid increasing tensions with the CCP.
Some politicians and China experts believe sister cities are one of the Chinese Communist Party's many soft-power propaganda methods.
Gordon Chang, a Gatestone Institute senior fellow, told Blaze News, "China uses every point of contact to infiltrate, influence, corrupt, and take down our society. The sister-city relationships seem innocuous, but there is nothing innocent in anything the Communist Party does. Nothing."
"I would like to see President Trump use his emergency powers to prohibit these sister-city tie-ups," he added. "We are being overwhelmed by China on our own soil, so this is indeed an emergency."
One of the most notable spying cases in recent years can be connected to the United States' sister-city program. Christine Fang, also known as Fang Fang — a suspected Chinese spy who infiltrated political circles, allegedly assisted Rep. Eric Swalwell's (D-Calif.) re-election campaign, and even reportedly formed romantic relationships with two mayors — attended the 2014 Sister Cities International conference in Washington, D.C. As a volunteer in the office of former Fremont, California, Mayor Bill Harrison, Fang reportedly coordinated discussions to establish a sister-city relationship between Fremont and a city in China.
Arkansas and Texas draw a line
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed House Bill 1352 into law in April, broadening a previous 2021 law prohibiting higher education institutions from hosting Confucius Institutes. The latest legislation extended that ban to "similar institutes related to the People's Republic of China, including without limitation a Chinese cultural center."
The bill also barred municipalities from having sister-city partnerships with a "prohibited foreign party." The legislation aimed to force Little Rock to end its relationship with Changchun, China, an agreement formed in 1994.
However, instead of complying with the new law, the Little Rock Board of Directors is trying to circumvent it by changing the partnership from a "sister city" to a "friendship city."
According to Sister Cities International, friendship cities are "less formal."
"In some cities, 'friendship city' is often used as a first stage in the relationship, and after it is strengthened and the partners are sure they want a long-term relationship they will become 'sister cities,'" Sister Cities International's website reads.
Sam Dubke, Sanders' director of communications, told Blaze News, "Governor Sanders has been clear Arkansas cities are prohibited from having sister cities in Communist China. The City of Little Rock's rebrand does not make their sister city agreement legal, and Governor Sanders will enforce Arkansas law."
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) in June signed similar legislation prohibiting sister-city agreements with any "foreign adversary," including China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
The legislation is slated to take effect in September, and it will potentially impact relationships in Austin, Fort Worth, and San Antonio.
Fort Worth City Councilman Michael Crain, who lived in Beijing for eight years, has already opposed the governor's ban, calling the city's partnership with Guiyang "really just a beautiful relationship across the board, because people understand people on a one-to-one exchange."
"Our city council and mayor sanctioned this relationship 15 years ago," Crain told WFAA-TV in May. "Their government is also involved because that's how you do the exchanges, but I think as you unpack it, this is about understanding other cultures, how they operate, and how we operate. That, in essence, we're a global society."
While Texas and Arkansas seek to clamp down on sister-city agreements over potential CCP influence in the U.S., a city in Iowa recently opted to renew its partnership with China despite warnings from its Republican governor.
Davenport Mayor Mike Matson announced in April that the city had signed an agreement to extend its sister-city status with Langfang, China, for another five years, even with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R) expressing concerns last year that China has "grown significantly more aggressive on the world stage, constantly looking for any opening to assert themselves at the expense of our country."
'The history of the program demonstrates that all of China's partnerships aim to deliver asymmetric returns to China.'
Federal-level action
Building on these state-level efforts, federal lawmakers are taking action to address the issue at a national scale. In response to the growing threat from China, Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) in April introduced the Sister City Transparency Act, which aims to take a closer look at these relationships. If passed, the legislation would direct the comptroller general to conduct oversight of sister-city agreements with countries "with significant public sector corruption," including China and Russia.
Earlier this month, Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) introduced the Washington Sister Cities Act to prohibit the U.S. Capitol from having a sister-city relationship with "foreign adversarial regimes," including the CCP.
A press release from Stefanik's office noted that the "primary focus" of the legislation is to force Washington, D.C., to end its partnership with Beijing, which was established over 40 years ago. Stefanik argued that the CCP has "weaponized" the sister-city agreements "to advance their malign disinformation campaign," ultimately forming a "pathway to spy on our government."
Moolenaar called D.C.'s relationship with Beijing "troubling," citing China's "worsening human rights conditions."
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China's united front strategy
The CCP's management of its sister-city partnerships has been tied to its United Front Work Department.
According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, the CCP's UFWD is responsible for coordinating influence operations to "neutralize sources of potential opposition" to its policies and authority. A 2018 report from the commission explains that the department "mostly focuses on the management of potential opposition groups inside China, but it also has an important foreign influence mission."
"To carry out its influence activities abroad, the UFWD directs 'overseas Chinese work,' which seeks to co-opt ethnic Chinese individuals and communities living outside China, while a number of other key affiliated organizations guided by China's broader United Front strategy conduct influence operations targeting foreign actors and states," the report reads.
The commission goes on to state, "It is precisely the nature of United Front work to seek influence through connections that are difficult to [publicly] prove and to gain influence that is interwoven with sensitive issues such as ethnic, political, and national identity, making those who seek to identify the negative effects of such influence vulnerable to accusations of prejudice."
Nathan Picarsic, senior fellow focusing on China at the nonpartisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies, elaborated on how China manages its sister-city relationships.
"Sister-city relationships are framed as mutually beneficial artifacts of people-to-people diplomacy," Picarsic told Blaze News. "But as is the case with most of China's international engagements, sister-city ties with a Chinese city trace back to Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party's centralized vision for global influence."
"The Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), which is an organ of China's United Front, manages formal sister-city relationships," he continued. "And the history of the program demonstrates that all of China's partnerships aim to deliver asymmetric returns to China: whether that was inbound investment and technology access in the 1990s or subnational influence to subvert national security concerns in the current moment. China looks to use sister cities as a way to cultivate friendly voices and to localize China's arguments on a global basis."
Sister Cities International did not respond to a request for comment.
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