WASHINGTON — The FBI has held classified briefings warning a handful of U.S. lawmakers that the Chinese Communist Party is working to create fake stories to portray them in a negative light because of their hawkish views of Beijing and support for Taiwan, two U.S. officials familiar with the briefings told NBC News.
The U.S. officials, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the briefings, said that one of the false stories being concocted by the CCP, cited by FBI briefers, is that these lawmakers are espousing pro-Taiwan views because they were taking “bribes” from Taiwan.
“The CCP is trying to undermine congressional support for Taiwan’s democracy, to paint it as corrupt and not in the American public interest,” one of the two U.S. officials told NBC News. “It will not work.”
The officials said the briefings occurred in the fall.
A third source, a House lawmaker who specializes in national security matters, said they had been informed about the alleged CCP scheme but had not personally received a briefing.
The FBI had no comment. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to an emailed request for comment about this story.
The classified discussions were described as “defensive” briefings, the U.S. officials said, meaning the alleged CCP scheme had not been carried out yet, but the FBI wanted to share critical information with the intended targets as a way to pre-empt the attacks.
The FBI commonly provides defensive briefings to senior officials when the bureau learns they have been targeted by foreign intelligence operations.
Tensions between Beijing and Washington have escalated in recent years, particularly over the future of the island of Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy and a critical U.S. ally in Asia that China claims as its territory.
In 2022, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., an outspoken critic of China’s human rights violations, made an unannounced visit to Taiwan and was awarded the highest civilian honor by its president. She was the highest-ranking U.S. official to set foot in Taiwan since former Speaker Newt Gingrich did it in 1997, and the move infuriated officials in Beijing, which launched military exercises around Taiwan including live-fire drills.
Other lawmakers have made similar trips to Taipei. In February, bipartisan members of the special House committee investigating the CCP traveled to Taiwan to congratulate Lai Ching-te, the pro-independence candidate who had been elected president just weeks earlier. And this past May, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, led a bipartisan group of six lawmakers on an official congressional visit to Taiwan to meet with Lai.
Several members of the House Intelligence Committee and select House committee on the CCP declined to comment when asked if they had received a classified briefing on the matter. Lawmakers are prohibited from speaking publicly about any such classified briefings.
Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., the chairman of the select House committee on the CCP, had no comment about any specific plot by the CCP, but said it was no secret Beijing has been targeting U.S. officials and other Americans.
“The CCP will try to discredit our way of life, our freedoms and will use every means necessary,” Moolenaar told NBC News. “So you know, whether it’s hacking high-level officials’ communications, we can expect all these things.”
Starting with the 2022 midterm elections, China has adopted increasingly sophisticated and aggressive tactics to try to aggravate political divisions in American society and undermine congressional candidates that Beijing deems hostile to the regime’s interests, especially over the status of Taiwan, according to U.S. intelligence officials and researchers.
In the 2024 presidential contest, China did not appear to favor either candidate but instead focused on specific downballot races with covert disinformation campaigns, using artificial intelligence tools and fake accounts mimicking Americans. The candidates targeted included McCaul; Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala.; and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., according to an analysis from Microsoft. A Chinese Embassy spokesperson said at the time that the claims were “full of malicious speculations” and that China had “no intention” to and would “not interfere in the U.S. election.”
U.S. intelligence officials and analysts say China’s efforts to stoke polarization and undercut Americans’ confidence in the democratic process are part of a long-term effort that includes global information operations designed to tarnish America’s image abroad.
China’s disinformation efforts have coincided with what U.S. officials say is a concerted effort to steal intellectual property and U.S. military secrets through espionage and cyber hacks.
Earlier this month, the White House said that a Chinese hacking campaign targeting the U.S. and other countries was more sweeping and serious than previously known. The CCP had spied on the texts and calls of U.S. citizens by hacking at least eight American telecommunications companies, according to a White House official.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington responded to that allegation this month by saying: “China firmly opposes the US’s smear attacks against China without any factual basis.”
