House Ways and Means Committee chairman says China is ‘throwing gasoline on the fire’ of anti-AI protests
Rep. Jason Smith told Fox News Digital that pro-China nonprofits are fueling opposition to U.S. data centers as lawmakers urge Treasury and the IRS to investigate their tax-exempt status.
FIRST ON FOX: As President Donald Trump prepares to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping about the future of artificial intelligence, two top House Republicans are warning that the Chinese Communist Party is "throwing gasoline on the fire" by undermining America's effort to build out AI infrastructure.
In a new letter disclosed to Fox News Digital, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano to determine whether money has been funneled from overseas through America’s charitable system to block the data centers needed for the U.S. to compete with China.
Specifically, they raised questions about hundreds of millions of dollars that American-born communist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham pumped into nonprofits and organizations that are now among the leading organizations fighting data center development throughout the country. Recipients of Singham's largesse include the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the ANSWER Coalition, both self-described pro-China communist groups. Earlier this month, activists from both groups carried signs in a Chapel Hill, N.C., protest, merging anti-Trump sentiments with support for communist Cuba and opposition to data centers and AI development, including the message, "SHUT IT DOWN!"
"Under no circumstances can we allow an adversary, and our most serious competitor in AI infrastructure, to weaponize our own tax code and harm an emerging American industry," the lawmakers wrote in the letter, sent on Tuesday.
FROM AUSTIN TO NEW YORK, PRO-CHINA NETWORK FUELS WEEK OF ANTI-US PROTESTS AS XI MEETS TRUMP
Demonstrators protest against AI and data centers as they march on the campus of the University of North Carolina toward the site of the G20 Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Sept. 2, 2026. They carry signs branded with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a pro-China communist group. (Matt Ramey/AFP via Getty Images)
The lawmakers allege that influence operations linked to China are exploiting tax-exempt organizations, nonprofit networks and social media campaigns to fuel opposition to the data centers needed to power America’s AI industry.
The lawmakers urged the agencies to investigate whether tax-exempt organizations connected to the network have operated for the "private or political benefit of foreign-aligned interests" and whether donor-advised funds and intermediary entities were used to "launder the origin of foreign-directed money into American advocacy."
A Fox News Digital investigation found that Singham funneled $285 million since 2017 to six U.S. nonprofits, including his wife Jodie Evan's group, CodePink, through two shell corporations and a donor-advised philanthropy fund run by Goldman Sachs, which said it closed the Singham account in 2024.
The nonprofits have functioned with tax-deductible status while actively involved in promoting communist regimes such as China, coordinating street protests and fomenting anti-American rage. They have denied being part of any foreign influence operation, and Singham hasn't responded to requests for comment.
Smith said China is helping fuel opposition to American artificial intelligence infrastructure by giving a base to Singham as he funds U.S. nonprofit groups involved in anti-data-center protests.
"This is the Chinese helping throw the gasoline on the fire," Smith told Fox News Digital. "The American people need to know that this is not just an organic movement."
Smith said Americans have legitimate concerns about data centers, including their effect on electricity costs and water usage. But he said foreign-backed organizations shouldn't be allowed to exploit those concerns to slow U.S. technological development.
Smith said that "the Chinese want to stall and slow down the advancement of AI in the United States because they want to win the AI war."
"Tax exempt is a privilege. It is not a right," Smith said. "We need to make sure that we’re not subsidizing tax dollars to help create hostility and unrest in our country."
Smith also called for greater transparency regarding the flow of money among organizations connected to Singham. He added that the broader issue extends beyond the tax code and could include questions about compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act violations. "Transparency is the biggest thing," he said.
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A Tempe resident wearing a t-shirt from the Party for Socialism and Liberation speaks in opposition of a proposed AI data center in Chandler, Ariz., at a city council meeting on Dec. 11, 2025. (City of Chandler, Arizona)
Moolenaar said organizations presenting themselves as grassroots opposition groups are actually advancing the Chinese Communist Party’s agenda in the U.S. "Groups that portray themselves as grassroots are really more astroturf — very fake — being funded by entities that are working in partnership with the Chinese Communist Party," Moolenaar told Fox News Digital.
"The concern is that they are manipulating the messaging and opposition to different American investments, whether it’s data centers or other technological advances, trying to turn the American people against these technologies so that China would be able to have dominance in this area," he said.
Moolenaar pointed to the use of grassroots organizations, community groups, propaganda and online bots.
"We don’t want foreign entities of concern — countries that may be opposed to American interests — using our system against the American people and trying to manipulate them," Moolenaar said.
He said the lawmakers are seeking greater transparency into the organizations’ funding and tax-exempt status, including whether their political activity violates federal rules.
"When you see them actively speaking out against American interests and realize that groups like CodePink are aggressively funded by this network, that raises serious concerns," Moolenaar said.
The chairman said China’s influence efforts exploit the openness of American society.
"The Chinese Communist Party always has the goal of dividing Americans, manipulating and getting their propaganda out," he said. "They don’t have the freedoms that we enjoy, and they try to exploit our freedoms and use that against us."
China remains both a major trading partner and a strategic competitor, Moolenaar said, but the United States must avoid becoming dependent on Beijing.
"They are a serious adversary," he said. "They are a trading partner, which is true, and we need to have a relationship with them," Moolenaar said. "But at the same time, we do not want to be manipulated, we do not want to become more dependent, and we certainly do not want to be under their thumb."
CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin holds up a poster from a campaign the nonprofit started, called "China Is Not Our Enemy." (Getty Images)
The lawmakers noted that a bicameral group of congressional committees, including the Ways and Means Committee, the House Select Committee on the CCP and the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been examining how influence operations linked to the CCP allegedly exploit America’s tax-exempt sector to "sow discord and undermine our democracy."
"The CCP consistently identifies political issues under public debate in our country and seeks to corrupt those debates," Smith and Moolenaar wrote in their letter. The CCP, they added, seeks to "heighten divisions between Americans and to degrade our civic processes."
The lawmakers specifically pointed to opposition campaigns targeting the construction of data centers, which are critical to the nation’s AI infrastructure.
A June report from OpenAI identified two clusters of ChatGPT accounts likely originating in China that were used in covert influence operations targeting U.S. debates over AI and technology policy. One campaign, dubbed "Data Center Bandwagon," generated social media comments and images claiming that data-center construction was raising electricity prices for average families. OpenAI said it found no evidence that the operation achieved meaningful breakout beyond its own activity, but said it demonstrated how foreign operators can exploit existing local concerns to amplify distrust.
CHINESE BOT FARM CAUGHT RED-HANDED TRYING TO INFLUENCE HEATED AI DATA CENTER DEBATE
Bitcoin Policy Institute releases a map of protests against data centers by activists from the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a part of the network funded by American Marxist tycoon Neville Roy Singham. (Bitcoin Policy Institute)
The lawmakers also cited a report from the Bitcoin Policy Institute that identified 21 campaigns against data centers led by the Party for Socialism and Liberation across 14 states. The report said those campaigns contributed to 10 data-center moratoria, a permanent data-center ban and four rejected or scrapped projects, representing nearly $23.68 billion in proposed investment.
The Party for Socialism and LIberation and the ANSWER Coalition are supported by the Singham network, and a Fox News Digital investigation has traced links between prominent activism against data centers by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the ANSWER Coalition and other organizations in the Singham network, including BreakThrough News, the People’s Forum, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and CodePink.
"Our tax code should not be used as a shield for foreign money waging a disinformation war on American AI infrastructure," Smith and Moolenaar wrote. "This is yet another shocking and dangerous example of how malign foreign actors are funneling dollars into the United States to further CCP interests."
Demonstrators from the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the ANSWER Coalition protest against AI and data centers as a police officer looks on during the G20 Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Sept. 2, 2026. (Matt Ramey/AFP via Getty Images)
The lawmakers asked Treasury and the IRS to determine whether tax-exempt organizations supporting the network have violated the requirements of their status.
Their request includes examining whether organizations operating under Section 501(c)(3) have acted for the "private or political benefit of foreign-aligned interests," rather than for genuine charitable purposes. They also asked whether donor-advised funds and intermediary entities were used to "launder the origin of foreign-directed money into American advocacy."
The letter follows earlier oversight by the Ways and Means Committee and the House Select Committee on the CCP into the tax-exempt sector and organizations allegedly connected to Singham’s network.
The lawmakers emphasized that opposition to data centers is a legitimate subject for public debate but said Americans should know whether foreign adversaries are attempting to influence those debates through nonprofit organizations, social media campaigns or covert funding channels.
"The American people deserve to know which actors adversarial to the United States are trying to undermine these decision-making processes," they wrote.
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