The campaign of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has continued to send campaign money to a Chinese agent.
According to records, the New York Democrat campaign paid Sing Tao Newspapers $442 for print advertising on May 25, according to its campaign.
Ocasio-Cortez’s committee is the only one that appears to have placed ads in the newspaper during the second quarter. Her campaign had previously sent $5,000 to this company for the exact same purpose.
Sing Tao U.S., based in Hong Kong, is a subsidiary company of Sing Tao News Corporation Ltd. The Justice Department demanded that the Chinese-owned company register as an agent of China in August 2021 as tensions between Washington and Beijing increased.
Ocasio-Cortez spent nearly $1,500 in advertising with Sing Tao U.S. before she made her latest payment.
Sing Tao operates in the United States with Chinese-language publications in New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The company also operates a radio station located in Burlingame.
Axios reported that the paper was considered pro-Beijing, and received over half of its content from Star Production (Shenzhen) Limited.
The Council on Foreign Relations reported that while Sing Tao U.S. claims to be free of Chinese Communist Party influence the Chinese government has one of “the world’s most restrictive media environment, relying on the censorship in order to control the information on the news, on the internet and on social media.”
As part of its control over media, the Chinese government has blocked media access for its citizens. It also monitors and suppresses publications and throws dissident journalists into prison.
Ocasio Cortez’s campaign has not responded to our request by the deadline for comment.
