The searches come months after former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang was charged in a separate federal case<\/a> 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\u2019s FBI probe, together, the cases have fueled discussion about alleged Chinese government influence.<\/a> And they\u2019ve sparked concerns among some Chinese-American leaders about how the broader community could be perceived.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThe public microscope is higher, brighter, stronger,\u201d said Monterey Park Councilmember Vinh T. Ngo, who said the atmosphere could make some Chinese Americans more reluctant to seek office.\u201cThere\u2019s that assumption that everyone\u2019s kind of watching you, looking at you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ngo said he has encountered James Su, founder and president of EDI Media<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n But he said the broader concern is \u201cguilt through association.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is always a concern,\u201d said Ngo, who is a leader in a city where people of Asian descent make up nearly 66% of the population<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s the typical saying: one step forward, two steps back, because the moment there is someone who does something wrong, everybody is allocated together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When someone of Chinese or Asian descent is accused of wrongdoing, he said, others may assume: \u201cThat was a Chinese person. Oh, that was an Asian American. You must be part of that too.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThey just think you\u2019re Asian, so you must all be the same,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n He said that dynamic could discourage some Chinese Americans from seeking public office.<\/p>\n \u201cNot everyone wants their life, their family, to kind of have to go through that,\u201d Ngo said. \u201cWhy 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 \u2014 just examining every step you make.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet Diamond Bar City Council candidate Lee Mao said the current atmosphere has not changed his decision to seek office.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cMy focus is very plain and simple. I\u2019m serving for the community that I really want to engage in, and it\u2019s a community that I want to give back to,\u201d he said. \u201cMy mission has not changed.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope the candidates that are really qualified to serve the community continue to step up and move forward,\u201d he said. \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Ngo, Mao said he hopes people judge the investigation based on individual conduct rather than ethnicity.<\/p>\n He said the public should view the investigation as involving specific individuals rather than an entire community.<\/p>\n \u201cI would hope that the public can see this as an individual case\u2026not as a Chinese-American case.\u201d<\/p>\n Between \u2018a rock and a hard place\u2019<\/p>\n Audrye Wong, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who researches China\u2019s foreign influence operations and diaspora statecraft, said the challenge is distinguishing legitimate security concerns from assumptions about Chinese Americans as a group.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of them are also victims,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n That can leave community members caught between \u201ca rock and a hard place,\u201d Wong said \u2014 facing potential intimidation or surveillance from Beijing while also worrying about scrutiny in the United States.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThe public microscope is higher, brighter, stronger. There\u2019s that assumption that everyone\u2019s kind of watching you, looking at you.\u201d \u2014 Monterey Park Councilmember Vinh T. Ngo<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n 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.<\/p>\n Wong also cautioned against treating Chinese American organizations as a monolith.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> as a network of official, quasi-official and grassroots groups \u201ctasked with mobilizing friends and silencing enemies in support of the CCP\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p>\n Wong said assessing an organization\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s views or policies.<\/p>\n Greater transparency and awareness of foreign-influence tactics could help officials navigate those relationships, she said.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Scrutiny not new<\/p>\n Clayton Dube, a longtime scholar of US-China relations, and director emeritus of the University of Southern California\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Dube said \u201cclumsy and overzealous\u201d investigations were too common under the Justice Department\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Dube also emphasized the importance of Chinese Americans\u2019 participation in civic and political life.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is vital for Chinese Americans to be able to participate fully in American life, including in political affairs,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir rights as Americans need to be protected and their participation encouraged.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201cnurture suspicions hoping for political advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Very rattled\u2019 community<\/p>\n 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 \u201ccollective suspicion.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Regardless of how the investigation ultimately unfolds, he said, it is already having a chilling effect.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t want to talk about it\u2026It\u2019s really bad, actually,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Liu said community leaders and business people are \u201cvery rattled.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cBy trying to avoid being a target, you have become a target,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n He also emphasized that cultural exchanges, community events and favorable views of China are not inherently illegal.<\/p>\n \u201cLike any community, ours benefits from the rule of law,\u201d Liu said. \u201cThat means supporting legitimate government investigations into potential foreign influence or corruption when grounded in specific conduct\u2014not ethnicity, language, cultural ties, or stereotypes.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n His practical advice was to be cautious if a foreign government asks someone to act on its behalf, particularly if money is involved.<\/p>\n \u201cIf someone asks you to do something about it, then they offer you money to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cDo not do it.\u201d<\/p>\n He also noted that the execution of a search warrant does not establish guilt.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Stepping up in a crisis<\/p>\n West Covina Councilmember Tony Wu said the current debate risks obscuring the contributions Chinese Americans have made to their communities.<\/p>\n![\"Monterey](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IDB-L-CHINESE-COMMUNITY-0806-NGO.jpeg\")
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)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IDB-L-CHINESE-COMMUNITY-0806.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
![\"Long](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/LDN-L-AD-49-LIU-XXXX.jpg\")
Long David Liu, Assembly District 49 candidate. (Photo courtesy Liu campaign)<\/p>\n
![\"Henry](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/miao-and-wu.jpg\")
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)<\/p>\n![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IDB-L-CHINESE-COMMUNITY-0806-CHONG.jpeg\")
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)<\/p>\n![\"Rep.](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/LDN-L-LUNAR-0129-KB28.jpg\")
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)<\/p>\n