by PHILIP LENCZYCKI at dailycaller.com
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey will investigate a so-called “service center” in his state operated by a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence service, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The United Front Work Department (UFWD), a CCP “intelligence service” that specializes in “coordinating [foreign and domestic] influence operations,” operates Overseas Chinese Service Centers (OCSCs) in at least seven U.S. cities, a DCNF investigation found. Launched between 2014 and 2017, the seven U.S. OCSC branches are located in San Francisco, California; St. Paul, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri; Omaha, Nebraska; Charlotte, North Carolina; Houston, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah, according to Chinese state media reports.
Bailey sent a letter to Missouri Republican Rep. Ann Wagner on Wednesday informing her that his office would “immediately investigate this matter.”
“The information you have shared with my office about a possible CCP outpost within the borders of Missouri is deeply concerning and will receive the full attention of my office,” Bailey wrote to Wagner on Wednesday. “The threat posed by the CCP is very real.”
Last week, Wagner notified Bailey’s office about the OCSC branch in St. Louis, telling the DCNF at that time that the U.S. “must put a stop” to any CCP efforts to “gain a foothold in America.”
The OCSC in Missouri is hosted by the Chinese Education and Culture Center in St. Louis and was established in 2017, according to Chinese state-run media. A Chinese consulate official from Chicago attended the opening ceremony of the St. Louis OCSC, according to the consulate’s website.