politics

Jan 20, 2026 at 09:25 AM EST

Members of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America have been cultivating ties with officials of the Chinese Communist Party and agreeing to take pro-China positions, according to extensive minutes of internal meetings seen by Newsweek.

The minutes of the DSA meetings show participants discussing contacts with officials from China’s ruling party in the name of "anti-imperialism," with some members saying the organization should avoid topics that are sensitive for Beijing, such as China's threats to invade Taiwan, its security crackdown in Hong Kong and abuses of the Uyghur Muslim minority. They also discuss visits to China. Chinese officials did not take part in the meetings themselves but met with members in China and encouraged the DSA to set up exchanges, according to the minutes.

"China wants to interface with the DSA," one New York-based political activist told a meeting on October 8 last year of the China Working Group of the DSA's International Committee, which helps set policy and advises leaders. "If we develop a killer two-week itinerary, hire locals, and develop further connections with the CPC [Communist Party of China], then we're golden," says the person, whose name is redacted.

The DSA International Committee and Mamdani’s New York City Hall did not respond to requests for comment. Mamdani was not recorded as being present at any of the meetings minuted. Although Mamdani has been a longstanding member of the Democratic Socialists, he has distanced himself from elements of the group’s national platform. He has also not made extensive public comments on China. Getty Images. Newsweek/Illustration

Mamdani’s victory in the mayoral election last year highlighted the rise of the Democratic Socialists as a political force and particularly in New York, where China has long sought to influence the leadership of a city with one of the largest Chinese populations outside China. It has used lobbying and campaign donations from dozens of local groups linked to the Chinese Communist Party, on which Newsweek has reported extensively.

While the minutes of the DSA meetings do not indicate any wrongdoing, they do raise new questions over the extent of Chinese influence within the group and more broadly in the United States. They are also an indicator of how China’s Communist Party seeks to build ties with influential political groupings in the United States. The DSA’s website describes the group’s New York chapter as “Zohran’s political home” and says his victory would not have been possible without it.

The DSA member who gave Newsweek access to the materials on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation said they were uncomfortable with the Communist Party links and what they said were efforts to avoid discussing controversial issues.

"The materials document a sustained pattern of ideological alignment, narrative filtering, and network overlap consistent with influence conducted at the discursive and organizational level," said the person, who is a member of the International Committee. “We value democracy and openness, and this directly contradicts that.”

Asked about contacts between the DSA, Mamdani's administration and the Chinese Communist Party, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., told Newsweek: "Local exchanges and cooperation are the important component of China-U.S. relations, serving as the foundation, vitality, and source of strength for the relations between the two countries."

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The dozens of internal documents go back to 2021. They include a detailed slideshow of an August 2025 visit to Guizhou and a trip by members to the Xinjiang region, apparently in 2023. The minutes show members of the China Working Group, led by Anlin Wang, discussing strategy and debating with members of like-minded groups such as Code Pink and the Britain-based Friends of Socialist China. Wang did not respond to a request for comment via the International Committee.

"Anti-imperialism should be at the forefront of everything we do in DSA," says one member at a meeting in May 2021.

In a meeting in June 2023, Wang comments: “I think one thing we would like to see is robust internationalism / anti-imperialism."

Also in June 2023, members praise what they say is a Code Pink tactic of avoiding discussion of politically sensitive Communist Party policies.

On June 12, 2023, the minutes show that Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans briefed the Democratic Socialists on her organization's "China Is Not Our Enemy" (CINOE) campaign and advised the group: "Stay out of the weeds. Focus on points that are easier to sell.” One of those is poverty alleviation programs in China, with the minutes showing the DSA group planning events to communicate that in the United States. Code Pink did not respond to a request for comment.

At a later meeting in June 2023 to discuss Code Pink's advice, a person says: "I like Jodie. They stick to the CINOE message and don't get stuck in the weeds. They don't get caught up in One China or Xinjiang or Hong Kong. It's good rhetorically. Makes me wonder if we should stay farther out of the weeds as well." The person's name was redacted by the source.

The minutes also show some members thought that reports of abuse of Uyghurs by the Communist Party in China's far-western Xinjiang region had been exaggerated and were part of a "propaganda campaign" by U.S. media.

"There are real problems with the Chinese government," one person said in a 2021 meeting, "but we are not going to stop what the Chinese are doing as DSA. We have to confront the propaganda campaign by U.S. media and even the left. For instance, one million Uyghurs being brutalized in Xinjiang is an exaggeration. It's not a genocide or Holocaust."

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The documents include a slideshow from members’ trips to China. A photograph of a Uyghur woman is accompanied by the written comment: "Our visit to Xinjiang was very revealing! A young woman we met in the Bazaar spoke near-perfect English. She told us she learned it in a training school." What China refers to as vocational training schools have been described by United Nations human rights experts as a network of detention and brutalization camps.

An image of a mechanical harvester in cotton fields in Xinjiang is accompanied by the comment in parentheses: "No slaves!!" A note with a picture of the Id Kah Mosque in the southern Xinjiang city of Kashgar says: "worshippers…come and go freely."

The minutes also show that during the August 2025 trip, to China's southwestern Guizhou province, DSA members and other U.S. left-wing group members were hosted by officials at the Communist Party School there. The Guizhou foreign affairs department helped manage the trip. The Party officials encouraged them to set up "official exchanges."

Photographs show members attending Party School seminars, and officials explained Guizhou's poverty alleviation scheme to the visitors including a development concept known as "Social Pairing" that matches eastern parts of China to the Uyghur west. According to Chinese officials, the policy "prioritizes safeguarding and improving people's well-being." Critics say it is a mechanism for surveillance and control.

The Guizhou Party School acknowledged receipt of an email from Newsweek seeking comment but did not reply further.

Members also discuss building ties with the Shanghai-based website China Academy and an affiliated outlet called Wave Media. Both have ties to a network of pro-Communist Party media.

But the minutes show that not everyone agreed on the approach to China.

One member—whose name was redacted—tried to push back against the consensus, voicing concern about the group not debating the rights of Chinese people: "Saying we can't talk about their rights until we defeat American imperialism doesn't work for me," the person says.

But that person was contradicted and described as unkind. "In the future let's try to have conversation that encourages debate," another person tells them. The objector apologized.

The person who shared the minutes said: "This isn't what I signed up for and I imagine it's not what a majority of members signed up for. There's no way you can be a part of the organization and promote the things they're doing.”