The following is a joint investigation by the Breitbart News Foundation (BNF) and the Government Accountability Institute (GAI).
From a single brick building on North Eustis Street, a web of pro-Beijing nonprofits and businesses collaborate with the Overseas Chinese Service Center of Minnesota (Minnesota OCSC), which works directly with China’s United Front Work Department. The Breitbart News Foundation’s joint investigation with the Government Accountability Institute blew the lid off of this network in Part I of this series.
In Part II of this investigation, we reveal that a still-active University of Minnesota email account of former professor Dr. Bingwen Yan is listed on official Chinese Communist Party (CCP) websites as the contact for the Overseas Chinese Service Center of Minnesota. Yan is no longer a professor at the University of Minnesota, but any communications that have been taking place on that email address in the roughly ten tears since he was could prove useful to any investigation of whether the CCP is operating another “police station” in Minnesota.
As recently as last year, the FBI busted a united front operation in Manhattan, describing it as a “secret, illegal police station.” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has introduced the Expel Illegal Chinese Police Act, which would, among other things, revoke the visas of Chinese government and CCP personnel operating police stations and other illicit outfits in the United States. Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) has introduced a companion bill in the House, which would, among other things, impose sanctions, asset freezes, and visa restrictions on the individuals and entities operating the Chinese police stations. Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), who is chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, is one of the sponsors of Hinson’s bill.
Dr. Bingwen Yan is the “person in charge” of the Minnesota OCSC, and he has entrenched himself in Minnesota politics, donating to figures like Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and holding events where he has been prominently photographed with politicians. The former University of Minnesota professor is a scientist with multiple patents and is the founder of the Alliance of Minnesota Chinese Organizations (AMCO). During a 2017 ceremony, Yan officially became a CCP-appointed Consular Protection Liaison Officer, which deputized him to provide “security services” locally. Then in 2018, he attended a Ministry of Public Security training on “cross-border remote justice services,” linking him to CCP overseas operations.
Yang Shaowen, China’s Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, told Xinhua reporters that persons with the title of Police Liaison Officer have a dual identity as both diplomats and police officers. “Police Liaison Officer” is a title that is often used by the CCP interchangeably with the “Consular Protection Liaison Officer” title that was conferred upon Yan, and at times it appears to be synonymous with “police chief.”
The official email address listed on official Chinese government websites as the point of contact for the Minnesota OCSC is none other than Dr. Bingwen Yan’s University of Minnesota email address created more than a decade ago when he was a professor there: yanxx030@umn.edu.
See an archive of a website listing Yan’s University of Minnesota email address here and screen grabs from it below:
Screen grab from an official website listing Dr. Bingwen Yan’s University of Minnesota email address as a point of contact
English translation of the above screen grab listing Dr. Bingwen Yan’s University of Minnesota email address
This begs the obvious question: Has a U.S. taxpayer-funded public university email address been used to conduct CCP activity in the United States?
This is not the first time the University of Minnesota and China’s United Front have been connected. A Chinese spy arrested in Taiwan in 1980 said she had been recruited into the CCP’s United Front in 1977 while studying for a master’s degree in microphotography at the University of Minnesota. And two of the engines of United Front work—the Confucius Institutes and the widely-banned Chinese company Huawei—had strong partnerships with the University of Minnesota for years until the university abruptly ended both programs in 2019 after federal criticism. The University of Minnesota also has an extensive partnership with Sun Yat-sen University, which is linked to Beijing’s nuclear weapons program. The Washington Free Beacon reported that Sun Yat-sen has funneled over $3 Million to the University of Minnesota. Despite being flagged by U.S. authorities, the partnership continues.
Yet another “red” flag is that a Chinese company called Huitian (Beijing) International Logistics Co., Ltd registered its U.S. branch (HTL International Corporation) at the same official address as the Minnesota Overseas Chinese Service Center: “1399 N Eustis St.”
Screen grab of the Huitian International Logistics (HTL International) website contact page listing its U.S. branch address as “1399 N Eustis St.”
The building on the 1300 block of North Eustis Street in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Google Maps)
HTL’s website describes itself as one of the only comprehensive transport and logistics companies that is PRC-certified to ship Class 1 dangerous goods, such as explosives. It’s also one of only two Chinese entities that has authority to conduct their own quality checks on import/exports of commodities passing through Chinese customs. Many of HTL’s “Strategic Partners” are state-owned entities that have been banned in the U.S. for working with China’s military. Three of these companies—China Three Gorges Corp, Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), and the AVIC Group—are still currently listed as investment assets of the Minnesota State Board of Investment, the state agency that manages retirement funds.
A 2023 report released by the U.S. Secretary of Defense describes how China’s military has been actively integrating with Chinese transport companies by embedding military personnel within “civilian transportation companies (air, road, and sea) to plan and manage military transportation.”
Serious questions remain about the Minnesota OCSC’s connections in Minnesota. Some of those answers may lie in the email traffic on a domain belonging to a public university in America’s heartland.
In December 2024, the FBI announced that a Chinese-American in Brooklyn pled guilty in court for “his role in audaciously establishing an undeclared police station in the heart of New York City [at the direction of MPS] and attempting to conceal the effort when approached by FBI New York.”
There is arguably more smoke in Minnesota than there was in New York City when the FBI’s investigation of that “police station” was started.
Seamus Bruner is the Vice President and Executive Director, Research and Jedd McFatter is a Senior Research Fellow at Peter Schweizer’s Government Accountability Institute. McFatter is the author of FOOL’S GOLD and Bruner is the author of CONTROLIGARCHS. Follow Jedd McFatter and @SeamusBruner.
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