EXCLUSIVE: Newsom’s China Whisperer Is The Daughter Of Mastermind Building Chinese-American Database For Beijing

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s liaison to China is the daughter of a computer scientist building a genealogical database for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who has considerable ties to Chinese intelligence and military personnel, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.

Amy Tong has held multiple cabinet positions in Newsom’s administration, such as serving as the Government Operations Agency secretary, and is now listed as “senior counselor to the governor,” government records show. Newsom has repeatedly sent Tong to negotiate with CCP officials and Chinese intelligence personnel, and “appointed Tong to lead people-to-people exchanges with China,” according to a July 2024 Chinese state media report.

Yet, Tong’s father, Peter B.C. Huang, is the founder of a California-based nonprofit with offices in China that collects sensitive personal information from Chinese-American families for the Chinese government, which intelligence experts warn Beijing will use to surveil and harass U.S. citizens.

“China’s regime coerces ethnic Chinese in other countries by, among other things, threatening harm to relatives, especially relatives remaining in China,” Gordon Chang, China expert and author of “Plan Red: China’s Project To Destroy America,” told the DCNF.

“The more the regime knows about family members, the easier it is to find pressure points,” Chang said. “The genealogical database will facilitate the regime’s ability to weaponize ethnic Chinese around the world, turning them into spies and worse.”

Huang and his nonprofit, the Dazhonghua Family Tree Development Association (DAZUPU), have longstanding ties to a CCP influence and intelligence agency called the United Front Work Department (UFWD). Chinese government and DAZUPU reports translated by the DCNF reveal that the organization’s leaders have included high-ranking Party members, military officers and other government personnel.

Tong, Huang and DAZUPU did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

A spokesperson for Newsom said Tong “has been vetted, including formal consultation with appropriate federal agencies,” but did not respond to the DCNF’s questions about her family’s Chinese government ties. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Meet The Chinese ‘Congressman’ Accused Of Abusing 21 Kids In US Surrogacy Scheme)

‘Control The Diaspora’

DAZUPU has established multiple partnerships with the Chinese government and is also a member of a UFWD agency, according to its records.

DAZUPU’s platform allows users to upload personal and familial genealogical information, including, but not limited to, name, date of birth and photos. The home page of the nonprofit advertises genealogies for more than 50 Chinese surnames, accounting for over 189,000 profiles — more than 18,000 of which are in the U.S. — and the database also contains additional surnames not featured on the home page.

Another piece of information missing from DAZUPU’s home page is the nonprofit’s constitution, which reveals that the group has the “ultimate goal of delivering the platform and related genealogical databases to the care of China’s national cultural institutions for preservation,” according to a DCNF translation.

The nonprofit’s chairman, Huang, whose Chinese name is Huang Bingcong, has also repeatedly linked DAZUPU’s mission with CCP propaganda. In one instance, Huang wrote that promoting “Chinese genealogical culture” contributes to “the realization of the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” according to a DCNF translation of an October 2014 post on DAZUPU’s website.

Huang’s relationship with the CCP and a UFWD arm called the All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC) extends back almost 40 years to when he was an associate professor of microelectronics at South China Normal University (SCNU) in Guangdong province.

In May 1986, SCNU’s dean, CCP secretary, UFWD, ACFROC and Foreign Affairs Office directors held a farewell banquet for Huang and his wife, who were then preparing to move to California with their children, according to a 2024 announcement from SCNU’s ACFROC branch. ACFROC attempts to “manage relationships with and generate support for the CCP among elite individuals inside and outside [China], including by gathering human intelligence,” according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Once stateside, Huang reportedly maintained contact with the university by sending back photos, SCNU’s UFWD director said, and Huang returned to SCNU with his wife and children ten years later for another banquet hosted by the same officials, the announcement and an accompanying photo reveal.

After a career in computer science, Huang used his technical skills to launch DAZUPU in June 2006, according to Chinese-language posts from the nonprofit and Chinese state media translated by the DCNF.

Several months after its launch, Huang held DAZUPU’s first conference in Shanghai in November 2006, which headlined academics as well as speakers from Chinese state media and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS), DAZUPU’s records state, according to a DCNF translation. The FBI has assessed that Chinese intelligence officers have used “SASS affiliation as cover identities,” according to the DOJ.

Huang then began forming partnerships with a number of Chinese government entities.

In May 2011, DAZUPU sealed a deal with Huaqiao University — which operates “directly under” the UFWD — ostensibly in order to develop a website for “overseas Chinese” to find relatives in China, according to a DCNF translation of an announcement on the website of the Sun Clan, which is one of many ancestral associations cooperating with the nonprofit. Huang also recruited a Huaqiao professor at that time to serve as a DAZUPU “honorary director,” the announcement states.

The month before the Huaqiao deal, Huang had pitched his database plan to ACFROC’s deputy chairman during an April 2011 meeting in the UFWD arm’s Beijing headquarters, the Sun Clan announcement states. Three years later, DAZUPU became an ACFROC member in February 2014, according to the nonprofit’s records.

DAZUPU’s leaders also agreed to share its genealogical database with the National Library of China during a November 2014 meeting in Beijing, an announcement on the nonprofit’s website states. During those talks, both parties resolved to “uphold socialism’s outstanding traditional culture,” citing statements Xi Jinping had made the month prior during the 30th anniversary of the China International Culture Exchange Center (CICEC), according to a DCNF translation.

CICEC is a front for China’s premier civilian intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security, which uses CICEC to “influence foreign policy debates,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

“The Chinese government is interested in building such a database because they assert control over ethnic Chinese across the globe, regardless of their citizenship,” Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor, a nonprofit focused on countering the CCP, told the DCNF. “Their goal is intelligence gathering and building out more extensive apparatus for transnational repression against ethnic Chinese who are citizens of other countries.”

Several senior People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers have also repeatedly attended DAZUPU events, according to the nonprofit.

Fang Guojun, a major general in the PLA, is listed as an “honorary consultant” by DAZUPU, according to a DCNF translation of an announcement on the nonprofit’s website. A photo album posted on the Chinese social media platform Meipian pictures Fang in military dress at DAZUPU conferences in December 2010 and October 2013, and photos accompanying posts on DAZUPU’s website also show Fang attending two meetings the nonprofit held with the National Library of China in September and October 2014.

Fang attended these meetings with his wife, a senior colonel in the PLA’s Political Work Department Liaison Bureau, which is “responsible for political warfare and for collecting and analyzing intelligence information regarding senior-level officers from the United States,” according to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.

“Under the guise of ‘protecting interests,’ efforts to control the diaspora — including through the aggressive overtaking of community-based organizations by the United Front — have grown significantly under Xi Jinping,” Laura Harth, the China In The World director of Safeguard Defenders, a Spain-based human rights organization, told the DCNF. “It appears evident that any measure to systematically map their presence on foreign territories may pose a significant threat, in particular of increased transnational repression. The PLA’s interest should only heighten concerns.”

Tong’s Own Connections To The CCP

While there is no evidence that Tong has personal ties to China’s intelligence network, as a public servant she has repeatedly met with officials from a UFWD affiliate that the U.S. State Department warns is “tasked with co-opting subnational governments.”

Tong did not respond to the DCNF’s questions about whether or not she has been involved with DAZUPU.

Chinese government and state reports show that Tong has represented California at least four times at events sponsored by the UFWD’s Chinese People’s Association for Friendship With Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), including in November 2023, July and October 2024.

The DCNF has previously reported on CPAFFC’s involvement with Harvard, rural mayors, and prominent Democrat lawmakers including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, New York Rep. Grace Meng, former San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Newsom, former California Gov. Jerry Brown, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her predecessor, Eric Garcetti.

On one occasion, Tong attended a CPAFFC-backed event with the San Francisco Chinese Consulate in March 2024, according to a Chinese government announcement. During a speech at the event, Tong said California was willing to continue to strengthen people-to-people exchanges with China, the announcement and accompanying photos show.

The Director of National Intelligence has warned that CCP “influence operations can be deceptive and coercive, with seemingly benign business opportunities or people-to-people exchanges sometimes masking [China’s] political agendas.”

In addition to meeting with CPAFFC on Newsom’s behalf, Tong has also represented California during at least five other events featuring Chinese government officials, including alongside Newsom in August 2023 at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between California and Hainan province to “combat climate change,” according to a California Government Operations Agency X post and the MOU.

In October 2024, Tong also attended a signing ceremony between CCP officials in the city of Chengdu and the California-China Climate Institute establishing “Sino-American Youth Future Climate Leader Training Activities,” according to a DCNF translation of a Chinese government announcement.

Including benefits, Tong earned over $330,000 as Government Operations Agency secretary in 2024, according to the State Controller’s Office.

“Family members of U.S. public officials acting on behalf of the CCP Party-state raise suspicions, but are not automatically disqualifying,” State Armor’s Lucci said. “What is more concerning is if the same U.S. public official is running point on interfacing with United Front organizations and other CCP Party-state entities on behalf of the American people. That does not make sense.”

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