AOC, other politicians paid thousands in campaign cash to Chinese foreign agent

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Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a handful of other federal politicians - including two Democrats and one Republican - have shelled out thousands in campaign payments to a Chinese foreign agent, a Fox News Digital review of campaign finance records has found.

Reps. Kevin Mullin, D.-Calif., Grace Meng, D.-N.Y, and Nicole Malliotakis, R.-N.Y. joined Ocasio Cortez in pushing campaign cash to Sing Tao U.S., a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based Sing Tao News Corporation Ltd, for advertising expenses during the midterm election cycle.

Those campaigns, in other words, had sent their money to a Chinese-owned entity that the Department of Justice forced to register as a Chinese foreign agent in August 2021 as tensions rose between Washington and Beijing. 

Rep. Ocasio Cortez's campaign has shelled out $1,500 to Sing Tao Newspapers, which is a Chinese foreign agent. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

After the DOJ determined that Sing Tao U.S. constituted foreign political activity, the campaigns had all disbursed their cash to the company. 

Ocasio-Cortez's campaign dropped nearly $1,500 on advertisements with Sing Tao Newspapers during the midterm election cycle after it had registered as a foreign agent, while Reps. Mullin, Meng, and Malliotakis paid between $1,000 and $7,000 to various Sing Tao entities as part of their campaign advertising expenses, Federal Election Commission filings show.

Sing Tao's United States operations include Chinese language publications in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. It also has a radio station in Burlingame, California. 

Rep. Grace Meng has also paid more than $1,000 to Sing Tao for advertising expenses.

The paper is considered pro-Beijing and receives more than half of its content from the Chinese company Star Production (Shenzhen) Limited, Axios previously noted.

While Sing Tao U.S. has maintained it's free from Chinese Communist Party influence, China's government maintains one of the "world's most restrictive media environments, relying on censorship to control information in the news, online, and on social media," the Council on Foreign Relations wrote. 

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis also dished out thousands to Sing Tao during the midterm elections.  (Fox News Digital / Jon Michael Raasch)

The Chinese government has cut off media access to its citizens, monitored and squashed publications, and thrown dissident journalists in prison as part of its tight-knit media control operation. 

None of the campaigns returned a Fox News Digital request for comment