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    Chinese American leaders fear ‘collective suspicion’ after LA, San Bernardino county FBI searches
    • August 9, 2026

    It isn’t the federal investigation itself that many Chinese American leaders say worries them most.

    It’s the possibility that allegations involving a handful of people could cast suspicion on an entire community.

    Federal authorities last week searched the West Covina offices of EDI Media Inc., which describes itself as the nation’s largest Chinese-American multimedia company, along with properties tied to several San Bernardino County public officials. The FBI has released few details about the investigation.

    The searches come months after former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang was charged in a separate federal case with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. Wang agreed to plead guilty to the charge. While no one has been accused of wrongdoing in last week’s FBI probe, together, the cases have fueled discussion about alleged Chinese government influence. And they’ve sparked concerns among some Chinese-American leaders about how the broader community could be perceived.

    They stressed that allegations of corruption or unlawful foreign influence should be investigated wherever the evidence leads. But they also warned against conflating specific allegations with the broader Chinese-American community.

    “The public microscope is higher, brighter, stronger,” said Monterey Park Councilmember Vinh T. Ngo, who said the atmosphere could make some Chinese Americans more reluctant to seek office.“There’s that assumption that everyone’s kind of watching you, looking at you,” he said.

    Monterey Park City Councilmember Vinh Ngo speaks during a special City Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, in Monterey Park. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
    Monterey Park City Councilmember Vinh Ngo speaks during a special City Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, in Monterey Park. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

    Ngo said he has encountered James Su, founder and president of EDI Media, at public events but does not know him personally, and does not have enough information to comment on the investigation itself. He said that is likely true for many local officials who regularly cross paths with business owners, media executives and community organizers at public gatherings.

    But he said the broader concern is “guilt through association.”

    “That is always a concern,” said Ngo, who is a leader in a city where people of Asian descent make up nearly 66% of the population. “It’s the typical saying: one step forward, two steps back, because the moment there is someone who does something wrong, everybody is allocated together.’”

    When someone of Chinese or Asian descent is accused of wrongdoing, he said, others may assume: “That was a Chinese person. Oh, that was an Asian American. You must be part of that too.”

    Born in Vietnam to ethnically Chinese parents, Ngo immigrated to the United States at age 5 and said people often fail to distinguish among Chinese, Vietnamese and other Asian communities.

    “They just think you’re Asian, so you must all be the same,” he said.

    Ngo said the scrutiny can cut in two directions. During periods of heightened tension, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, Asian American elected officials may face suspicion from some people outside the community while also feeling pressure from within the community to speak more forcefully on behalf of Asian Americans.

    He said that dynamic could discourage some Chinese Americans from seeking public office.

    “Not everyone wants their life, their family, to kind of have to go through that,” Ngo said. “Why put yourself under a higher microscope of whoever it is. It could be the government, it could be the public, it could be the community — just examining every step you make.”

    Yet Diamond Bar City Council candidate Lee Mao said the current atmosphere has not changed his decision to seek office.

    Mao, who immigrated from Taiwan at age 10 and is making his second run for the City Council after narrowly losing in 2022, said friends have asked him whether the recent investigations gave him pause. His answer, he said, has remained the same.

    “My focus is very plain and simple. I’m serving for the community that I really want to engage in, and it’s a community that I want to give back to,” he said. “My mission has not changed.”

    Still, Mao said he has noticed unease within the Chinese American community following the recent FBI searches and understands why some people may feel discouraged.

    “I hope the candidates that are really qualified to serve the community continue to step up and move forward,” he said. “It would be a shame for them not to serve the community in the best of their capacity due to this noise I would say in the background.”

    Like Ngo, Mao said he hopes people judge the investigation based on individual conduct rather than ethnicity.

    He said the public should view the investigation as involving specific individuals rather than an entire community.

    “I would hope that the public can see this as an individual case…not as a Chinese-American case.”

    Between ‘a rock and a hard place’

    Audrye Wong, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who researches China’s foreign influence operations and diaspora statecraft, said the challenge is distinguishing legitimate security concerns from assumptions about Chinese Americans as a group.

    Chinese American communities are sometimes viewed as extensions of the Chinese government influence, Wong said, but many Chinese immigrants and dissidents have themselves faced Chinese government surveillance, harassment or transnational oppression.

    “Many of them are also victims,” she said.

    That can leave community members caught between “a rock and a hard place,” Wong said — facing potential intimidation or surveillance from Beijing while also worrying about scrutiny in the United States.

    She said concerns about discrimination are not unfounded, pointing to past episodes of anti-Asian prejudice and the hostility many Asian-Americans experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “The public microscope is higher, brighter, stronger. There’s that assumption that everyone’s kind of watching you, looking at you.” — Monterey Park Councilmember Vinh T. Ngo

    At the same time, Wong said, the Chinese government can amplify accounts of racial discrimination and anti-Asian hate to portray itself as a defender of Chinese communities overseas.

    Wong also cautioned against treating Chinese American organizations as a monolith.

    She said the Chinese American civic landscape includes long-established community and advocacy groups as well as organizations with closer links to Chinese government or United Front entities. Wong has described the United Front in her research as a network of official, quasi-official and grassroots groups “tasked with mobilizing friends and silencing enemies in support of the CCP’s interests.”

    Wong said assessing an organization’s ties can be difficult, but patterns that could warrant closer scrutiny include repeated participation by its leaders in Chinese government or United Front meetings, mobilization by Chinese diplomatic officials, or efforts to intimidate dissidents or suppress opposing viewpoints.

    Wong said local officials may not always understand that complicated organizational landscape. Politicians naturally interact with groups that organize community events or offer to mobilize voters, she said, and appearing at an event does not necessarily mean an official endorses the group’s views or policies.

    Greater transparency and awareness of foreign-influence tactics could help officials navigate those relationships, she said.

    For journalists and public officials, Wong said, the starting point should be distinguishing the Chinese government and specific individuals from Chinese Americans more broadly, rather than suggesting an entire community is being mobilized as an agent of Beijing.

    That distinction does not require minimizing legitimate foreign influence concerns, she said. Wong argued that Chinese government influence can itself harm Chinese Americans by placing people who are trying to participate in American civic life under suspicion because of their ethnicity.

    Scrutiny not new

    Clayton Dube, a longtime scholar of US-China relations, and director emeritus of the University of Southern California’s China-US Institute, said in an email response to the Southern California News Group that scrutiny of some Chinese American community and business leaders is not new.

    He pointed to congressional investigations into political fundraising and US-China high-tech economic exchanges in the 1990s, when U.S. companies and the federal government relied on Chinese rockets for satellite launches. More recently, he said, Chinese American scientists and researchers have faced heightened scrutiny.

    Dube said “clumsy and overzealous” investigations were too common under the Justice Department’s China Initiative, launched during the first Trump administration. Many cases were ultimately dropped, he said, though some Chinese American scholars pleaded guilty to what he described as administrative violations.

    Dube also emphasized the importance of Chinese Americans’ participation in civic and political life.

    “It is vital for Chinese Americans to be able to participate fully in American life, including in political affairs,” he said. “Their rights as Americans need to be protected and their participation encouraged.”

    Dube said the country should learn from periods in American history when ethnic minorities faced discrimination and persecution. Leaders at all levels and from all backgrounds should affirm those rights, he said, particularly during campaign seasons, when some “nurture suspicions hoping for political advantage.”

    ‘Very rattled’ community

    Long David Liu, a Republican candidate for the 49th Assembly District and a Chinese American trial lawyer, said he sees no evidence that the current investigation is based on racial profiling. But he said Chinese Americans have a legitimate concern about “collective suspicion.”

    Long David Liu, Assembly District 49 candidate. (Photo courtesy Liu campaign)
    Long David Liu, Assembly District 49 candidate. (Photo courtesy Liu campaign)

    He said legitimate investigations into corruption or foreign influence should proceed when grounded in specific conduct, but cautioned against allowing allegations involving individuals to cast suspicion on an entire community.

    Regardless of how the investigation ultimately unfolds, he said, it is already having a chilling effect.

    “A lot of people don’t want to talk about it…It’s really bad, actually,” he said.

    Liu said community leaders and business people are “very rattled.” Before the investigation drew widespread attention, he said, Chinese-language newspapers regularly carried photographs and announcements from banquets, celebrations and civic gatherings. More recently, he said, restaurants that typically host large community functions have not been receiving the same bookings.

    He said some organizations may believe canceling events or lowering their public profile will protect them from scrutiny. But he argued that retreating from ordinary activities could have the opposite effect by prompting outsiders to wonder why organizations are suddenly going quiet.

    “By trying to avoid being a target, you have become a target,” he said.

    Liu declined to discuss whether any particular person had contacted him for legal advice, citing attorney-client confidentiality. But he said community leaders more broadly have increasingly sought legal guidance.

    He also emphasized that cultural exchanges, community events and favorable views of China are not inherently illegal.

    “Like any community, ours benefits from the rule of law,” Liu said. “That means supporting legitimate government investigations into potential foreign influence or corruption when grounded in specific conduct—not ethnicity, language, cultural ties, or stereotypes.”

    Liu said one important legal distinction is whether someone is acting at the direction of a foreign government and whether federal registration requirements apply. He urged organizations to understand the distinction between lawful civic activity and conduct undertaken on behalf of a foreign principal.

    His practical advice was to be cautious if a foreign government asks someone to act on its behalf, particularly if money is involved.

    “If someone asks you to do something about it, then they offer you money to do it,” he said. “Do not do it.”

    He also noted that the execution of a search warrant does not establish guilt.

    Liu said the continued sealing of the search warrants in the recent FBI probe may suggest investigators do not want additional people alerted while the inquiry remains active. He said that, based on his experience as an attorney, he believes investigators could still be examining the roles of additional people, though he emphasized that this was his interpretation of the publicly available information rather than knowledge of the investigation itself.

    Stepping up in a crisis

    West Covina Councilmember Tony Wu said the current debate risks obscuring the contributions Chinese Americans have made to their communities.

    Wu said he met Su while campaigning for City Council in 2015, and was later interviewed several times by EDI Media. Su also served as president of the Chinese American Association of West Covina, an organization in which Wu and his wife have been active, and Wu said Su and EDI donated protective equipment and food to the community during the COVD-19 pandemic.

    Wu pointed to the early months of the pandemic, when he said Chinese immigrants from mainland China and Chinese American residents used overseas connections to obtain masks and other protective equipment for hospitals, public agencies and residents at a time when supplies were scarce.

    Henry Miao, left, prepares to ship a box of masks with West Covina Mayor Tony Wu. Miao, who owns Henrial, donated thousands of masks to the City of West Covina and distributed to healthcare and frontline workers in the community. (Photo courtesy of Henry Miao)
    Henry Miao, left, prepares to ship a box of masks with then West Covina Mayor Tony Wu. Miao, who owns Henrial, donated thousands of masks to the City of West Covina and distributed to healthcare and frontline workers in the community. (Photo courtesy of Henry Miao)

    “The people want to help,” Wu said, drawing a distinction between disputes involving governments and the actions of ordinary residents.

    He said lawful cultural and people-to-people exchanges should continue, while illegal activity — including efforts by a foreign government to suppress speech or engage in unlawful activity on U.S. soil — should be stopped.

    Wu said political rhetoric and sensational coverage can leave Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans feeling that they are being viewed collectively as potential spies or as insufficiently American.

    “You label a group of people,” he said.

    Wu said he has heard relatively little public discussion of the investigations within the Chinese American community.

    “They’re all pretty quiet,” he said.

    He said he believes some are reluctant to speak because they are worried about drawing attention to themselves.

    That reluctance was apparent during reporting for this story. Some organizations did not respond to requests for interviews, while others redirected questions to designated representatives or said they were not aware of members’ views on the investigation.

    Still, not every community leader described the same degree of concern.

    Chester Chong, president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said he had not personally seen the kind of fear described by some other Chinese Americans and said his organization remains focused on its own local programs and activities.

    President of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce Chester Chong (center) poses with Los Angeles Chinatown Royalty during the 127th Annual Golden Dragon Parade on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (Photo by Jacob Lewis, Contributing Photographer)
    President of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce Chester Chong (center) poses with Los Angeles Chinatown Royalty during the 127th Annual Golden Dragon Parade on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (Photo by Jacob Lewis, Contributing Photographer)

    “I think it’s most important to be American,” Chong said. 
”How to develop and love your hometown here, America.”

    Chong also emphasized that Chinese American organizations differ from one another and said he could not speak to what other groups were experiencing.

    ‘Because we’re Americans’

    Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, said she was concerned by reports of the federal investigations involving San Bernardino County elected officials and media executive James Su.

    Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, waves to the crowds during the 124th annual Golden Dragon Parade celebrating the Lunar New Year in Chinatown in Los Angeles on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)
    Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, waves to the crowds during the 124th annual Golden Dragon Parade celebrating the Lunar New Year in Chinatown in Los Angeles on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)

    “Corruption and foreign influence have no place in our politics or our press,” Chu said in a statement.

    Chu said she first met Su when he began organizing his annual Asian American Film Festival in 2009 and later attended Lunar New Year and Moon Festival celebrations and other events he sponsored in the San Gabriel Valley. She said she was awaiting further information about the investigations, “which must be taken with the utmost seriousness.”

    Ngo said people should wait for more evidence rather than speculate about the investigations. But he said the current scrutiny should not discourage Asian Americans from remaining engaged in public life.

    He pointed to a long history of Asian Americans serving in the U.S. military and contributing to civic life while still being viewed at times as outsiders.

    “We defend the country, we fight for the country,” Ngo said. “What more is it that we need to do to show you that we’re American?”

    His answer, he said, was to remain visible and engaged.

    “We serve because we’re Americans,” Ngo said. “We serve our community because we want our country, we want our people, to be better tomorrow.”

    Staff writer Jeff Horseman contributed to this story.

     Orange County Register 

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