California’s two-term treasurer, Fiona Ma, has met with high-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials and intelligence personnel dozens of times in the last several decades, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.
During these many meetings in the U.S. and China, the Democratic frontrunner in California’s 2026 lieutenant governor race has introduced American lawmakers to Chinese intelligence officials and also repeatedly presented awards to CCP members and influence operatives, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports.
“We really should be more integrated,” Ma said during a 2023 interview with state-run media outlet CGTN. “The more that we can get along, work together, I think would create more peace in the world as well as better economic opportunities for both countries.”
“CCP elite capture is alive and well,” Peter Schweizer, New York Times bestselling author of “Red Handed,” told the DCNF. “Any politician who continues to engage in these types of behavior is not a target, but is complicit in CCP activities. Ignorance is no longer an excuse.”
Ma’s ties to China recently came under scrutiny following an April Politico report revealing that in September 2023 she offered to help secure U.S. internships and employment opportunities for students attending the Pegasus California School, which was founded in the coastal city of Qingdao by Ma’s campaign finance committee chair. Pegasus’ students, who are Chinese nationals, have allegedly received unlawful California high school diplomas through a partnership with the Val Verde Unified School District, according to a 2026 Riverside County Office of Education audit of the district, which did not accuse Ma of wrongdoing.
Ma did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
[Image created by DCNF with Chinese government, state media, World Journal and Hantian photos]
‘Flashing Red Light’
Ma has met with officials from the CCP and a Chinese government influence and intelligence agency called the United Front Work Department (UFWD) at least 30 times, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports.
The UFWD’s operations are a “blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations” that Beijing uses to steer foreign policy and “gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.
Born in New York to Chinese immigrants from a prominent military family, Ma began taking U.S. lawmakers to China in 1999 while working as an aide for the late California Democratic Sen. John Burton, state-run China Daily reported.
Ma led that delegation alongside an individual who also holds a position with the Chinese government as an advisor to Sichuan province, according to an interview Ma conducted with Chinese state media and a DCNF translation of a Chinese government announcement.
That advisor has also participated in several other China trips Ma has organized for U.S. lawmakers since she became a public servant in 2002, including a December 2014 trip during which Ma introduced over 20 California State Legislature members to Chinese government and UFWD officials while visiting Sichuan on a trade delegation, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements.
Since Ma’s January 2019 inauguration as California treasurer, she has met with Chinese government and CCP intelligence officials over 20 times, including three meetings in China in 2023, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports.
[Image created by DCNF with Chinese government, state media, San Francisco Chronicle, SF Gate, and Sequoia Media photos]
Ma has also personally awarded CCP members and Chinese intelligence officials with commendations on behalf of her office at least 10 times since 2018, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports.
California’s chief financial officer presented one award to the chairman of the Chinese People’s Association For Friendship With Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) during his February 2023 visit to the U.S., a photo accompanying an announcement from that UFWD affiliate shows. CPAFFC has “sought to directly and malignly influence state and local leaders to promote [China’s] global agenda,” the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center has warned.
Although there is no evidence that CPAFFC has ever sought to influence Ma, other Chinese government officials have reportedly pressured the politician to adopt their preferred policy positions in the past.
In one instance, while serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in August 2005, the Chinese government allegedly successfully pressured Ma to withdraw her support for an art exhibit organized by practitioners of Falun Gong, which is a spiritual movement that the CCP banned in 1999, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Several years later, while serving as a California State Assemblywoman, Ma allegedly killed a resolution honoring Tibet in March 2009 following intense Chinese government lobbying, The Sacramento Bee reported.
Frequent meetings with Chinese government and CCP intelligence officials by lawmakers should set off a “flashing red light for our national security and intelligence agencies,” former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Cella told the DCNF.
“[E]lected and appointed officials, staff, and executive leaders and workers in all sector and strata, need to be educated about the nature of the CCP, how these threats emanate and manifest, how to be on guard against them, and to counter them, the importance of refusing to participate in these meetings, and certainly reporting them to the FBI,” Cella said.
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