Several U.S. senators, including Mitt Romney and Mike Lee, are demanding answers from the Attorney General on reported Chinese intelligence centers all over the country, including in Salt Lake City.
In a letter to the Attorney General, the senators expressed concerns about service centers in the U.S. that are run by the Chinese Communist Party.
State Rep. Candice Pierucci has been pushing back on Chinese influence in the U.S. for the last three years,
“We have had our guard down, and we're kidding ourselves if we think that China is our best friend and that they have America's interests at heart, which they absolutely do not," she said.
Pierucci recently passed a bill prohibiting the Chinese Communist Party from buying land in Utah, but there needs to be a national response to Chinese intelligence centers, she said.
"It's reactionary," said Pierucci. "We're playing whack-a-mole, and China has been able to weasel their way into sub-national politics and communities because of a lack of a national approach to this.”
The Chinese Communist Party works through nonprofits, using service centers as a front, she said.
“The Chinese Communist Party is going way beyond that of a diplomatic mission here, and where they're able to keep an eye on Chinese nationals who are living in our country to try to pressure and influence local communities, and going way beyond what is described as their diplomatic mission," said Pierucci.
In the letter, the senators wrote that the Department of Justice has warned that China’s Ministry of Public Security conducts covert “intelligence and national security operations far beyond China’s borders,” including “illicit, transnational repression schemes” on U.S. soil.
“The Chinese Communist Party has a, a long list of egregious human rights violations, individual freedom violations. You could go through a long list. They do not share our values, they do not share our objectives as a country, and we need to make sure that we know exactly what's going on on our own soil and in our state.”
In the letter, the senators requested the department of justice answer several questions about investigating any illegal activity, demanding a response by the end of this month.
FOX 13 News reached out to both Utah senators and the DOJ but did not hear back.
