Congress is set to scrutinize how foreign adversaries, particularly China, attempt to sway American public opinion and policymaking in a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
A key witness, China expert Matthew Johnson, stated that Beijing's most effective tactic is leveraging American organizations to disseminate its messages, thereby making them seem organically generated within the U.S. rather than dictated by the Chinese government.
"The idea is that it's not the Communist Party talking, it's actually institutions and individuals in the United States who are talking," Johnson, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, told Fox News Digital. "That's actually the best outcome because then it looks organic... it looks like it's somehow being produced from within our society as opposed to by external actors."
Johnson indicated that a current priority for Beijing is to impede U.S. advancements in artificial intelligence and data-center infrastructure, areas he described as critical to strategic competition with the United States. China's influence strategy, he explained, combines grassroots activism with efforts to shape the thinking of academics, policy experts, and other influential figures.
His testimony comes amid ongoing congressional examination of the funding network associated with Neville Roy Singham, a Shanghai-based tech tycoon whose nonprofits are under investigation by Congress and a federal criminal probe. Singham has reportedly directed significant funds into pro-China, pro-communist nonprofit organizations, including CodePink. Singham and these organizations have denied receiving direction from the Chinese government.
Johnson is scheduled to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia during a hearing titled "Trojan Horses: Covert Foreign Malign Influence Operations in America." Lawmakers are expected to investigate how foreign governments, including those of China, Cuba, and Iran, may utilize nonprofits, activist networks, and other entities to shape U.S. public opinion and policy.
"My goal is to raise the curtain to expose these operations and stop them from undermining our national security, capitalism and the American Dream," Committee Chairman Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., told Fox News Digital.
Johnson elaborated that the hearing addresses what lawmakers term "malign foreign influence," defined as actions by foreign governments to shape American public discourse and policy by steering conversations toward their own strategic interests. "The real issue is whether there is actually a balance and whether we have enough transparency to allow us to assess whether there's a balance," Johnson said.
He further explained that China does not need to persuade Americans to support the Chinese Communist Party to advance its goals. Instead, Beijing benefits when the public discourse shifts away from viewing China as a strategic competitor.
"The idea that we don't want war with China, we want peace... these are all noble goals," Johnson said. "But... its strategic function is that it masks the fact that Beijing actually does seek a world order that is more shaped by Beijing in which the United States plays a lesser role."