Seven years ago, then-Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts helped the Nebraska Chinese Association dedicate a new Chinese cultural center in Omaha.
Performers in colorful dragon costumes danced on a stage as the governor joined dozens of Nebraskans of Chinese descent in cutting the ribbon for the new facility near 82nd and Blondo streets.
Fast forward to today, when now-U.S. Sen. Ricketts is expressing concern that the same local Omaha group might be a tool of Chinese spying on the United States.
Ricketts, Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer and eight fellow Republican senators recently asked the Justice Department to provide answers on reports that the Chinese government has established “Overseas China Service Centers†in seven U.S. cities. That includes one in Omaha said to be housed in the offices of the Nebraska Chinese Association.
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No evidence has been presented that such centers have any role in spying. But reported ties between the centers and agencies of the Chinese government suspected of espionage roles have raised such suspicions.
“Nonprofit culture groups across the country being used as a front for (Chinese) espionage would be a huge betrayal to who we are as Americans,†Ricketts said.
The Nebraska Chinese Association, in a statement to the Omaha World-Herald, dismissed suggestions of any wrongdoing.
The association “has no affiliation with any government agency, foreign or domestic,†it said. “A team of volunteers dedicate their time and their financial support to embrace its mission and its vision for the local community.â€
The association declined to answer any questions, including the purpose of the service center, or whether it even exists. The association referred questions to the organization’s board chairman, who did not return repeated calls.
The juxtaposition between the center’s 2016 opening and now speaks to how incidents like the Chinese spy balloon floating over the United States have created a political climate where institutions with possible ties to the Chinese government can draw suspicion.
The nonprofit Nebraska Chinese Association was formed here locally 15 years ago, with a stated mission of preserving and promoting Chinese culture and cultivating understanding between Chinese and Americans. Its leaders include a number of longtime Nebraskans working at places like the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Mutual of Omaha, Union Pacific and Bellevue University.
But it has been cast into the spotlight recently by reports from a Spanish civil rights organization and conservative news media outlets about the service centers, the existence of which were said to have been revealed in recent years by Chinese state media.
The state media reports seem to suggest the centers’ purpose to be benign — to assist Chinese citizens living abroad with things like securing passports. But those state media reports have also suggested the centers have ties to agencies of the Chinese government that have been suspected of espionage.
As a result of the inquiries Ricketts has made on the centers, he said he last week received a classified briefing from the Omaha FBI. He said the briefing covered all regional security threats to assets in Nebraska, such as public and private research centers and military installations.
“I am satisfied that the Omaha FBI is doing its utmost to investigate all the threats that we face in Nebraska,†Ricketts said in an interview. He declined to offer any information on what he heard, citing the briefing’s classified nature.
But his statement would suggest that the FBI has looked into the purported service center in Omaha. The briefing also did not appear to remove all of Ricketts’ doubts, as he repeated his earlier statement that it would be a betrayal if Chinese nonprofits in the United States were involved in spying.
Ricketts acknowledged that he previously met many of the Nebraskans behind the Nebraska Chinese Association. So why is he now concerned some of those same people could pose a security threat?
“It doesn’t take very many people to create a problem with regard to if they are breaking the law here in the United States,†he said. “You can have the vast majority of the people in an organization do the right thing. But if someone in the organization is breaking the law, they need to be held accountable.â€
So just how is it that an Omaha organization that offers classes in Chinese dance and language and hosts a festive annual Chinese New Year’s celebration suddenly finds itself under scrutiny?
There’s no doubt that relations between the United States and China have soured significantly since 2016, when Ricketts helped the association dedicate its new facility.
The roots of the Nebraska Chinese Association date to 2008, when a handful of Chinese people living in Omaha decided to band together to raise money for victims of both an earthquake in China and the tornado that hit a Boy Scout camp in western Iowa.
The effort led to the formation of what was then called the Omaha Chinese Cultural Association, with a mission to bring families together and keep Chinese cultural heritage alive. That then led to talk of establishing a community center as a hub for such activities.
In 2016, the group raised money and took out a mortgage on a former church near 82nd and Blondo. When it was dedicated in April 2016, Ricketts and two officials from the Chinese Embassy in Washington attended.
“There’s tremendous opportunities for us to create mutual prosperity as we strengthen these relationships, and it will be facilities like this that are able to do it,†the governor told those gathered for the community center dedication.
Ricketts as governor also twice traveled to China on trade missions, in 2015 and 2016.
But 2016 was also the year Donald Trump was elected president. And he took a hard line toward China — a stand many on both sides of the political aisle believed was long overdue.
China is widely seen as gearing up to contest America’s global leadership economically, politically and militarily. China for decades has also stolen U.S. intellectual property and advantaged its businesses with subsidies, contributing to a big U.S. trade deficit.
Ricketts by the end of his term also took a hard line toward China. He closed the state trade office in Shanghai. He also became the first governor in the country to ban use of Chinese social media platform TikTok on state computers.
As relations between the countries became politically polarized, institutions in the United States related to China also came under scrutiny. That included the China-backed Confucius Institutes that existed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and more than 100 other universities across the country.
Many in higher education defended the Confucius centers, which offered instruction in Chinese language and an opportunity for cultural exchange on campus.
But the Trump administration, national security officials and some in Congress warned that the China-funded institutes were also tools of propaganda and gave the Chinese government U.S. outposts where they could recruit spies, steal intellectual property and keep tabs on Chinese students being educated abroad.
In the newly charged political climate, most of the Confucius centers, including the one in Lincoln, shut down — though UNL officials at the time cited budget problems for the axing of the center.
“They were shut down because the Chinese government was using them to spy on our citizens,†Ricketts said last week. “They were stealing our intellectual property out of our universities. They were using this front to do espionage.â€
Then late last year, Safeguard Defenders, a Spanish nonprofit which pores through official Chinese media reports and public documents for evidence of alleged human rights abuses, released a report saying China’s Ministry of Public Safety, the country’s national police force, had set up overseas police stations in more than 100 cities around the world.
Subsequently, the Justice Department in April charged two Chinese men with operating “an undeclared secret police station†in New York City.
Prosecutors said the station, set up by China’s national police, was part of an effort to crack down on dissidents. The United States says China has sought to stifle dissent overseas, in some cases seeking to coerce dissidents to return to China to face punishment.
In the wake of those arrests, Safeguard Defenders first revealed in published reports the existence of the “Overseas China Services Centers,†including the one in Omaha.
Safeguard Defenders said it was unclear whether those centers were being used as secret police stations like the one in New York. But the group said that Chinese security forces often use nonprofits as fronts for spying on and harassing overseas dissidents.
According to the Daily Caller, a conservative website, Chinese state media and social media reports indicate the overseas centers have been set up since 2015 in Omaha, Charlotte in North Carolina, San Francisco, Houston, Salt Lake City, St. Louis and St. Paul in Minnesota.
The center in Omaha was reported to be hosted by the Nebraska Chinese Association and launched in 2016, the same year the association opened its community center with Ricketts in attendance.
According to the state media reports, the service centers were set up to promote Chinese culture and assist Chinese citizens living abroad with such things as obtaining passports. The Nebraska Chinese Association’s website indicates one of the services it offers local Chinese residents is passport assistance.
But the Daily Caller report raised questions about whether the centers serve other purposes as well. It said Chinese state media reports have indicated the centers are funded and run by the United Front Work Department, an agency of the Chinese Communist Party.
According to a 2018 congressional report, the United Front Work Department is responsible for influence operations inside and outside China, including shaping public opinion and suppressing dissent. As part of its efforts to carry out influence activities abroad, the report said, the agency seeks to co-opt ethnic Chinese individuals and communities living outside China.
The Daily Caller report further stated that representatives of the centers — including from the center in Omaha — traveled to China in 2018.
Their activities, according to Chinese state media, included meeting with officials of China’s national police force to discuss use of technology to conduct “cross-border remote justice services†overseas.
While it’s unclear what that means, the Daily Caller story said the ties between the centers and Chinese state police and the United Front Work Department raised red flags.
The story also quoted conservative political voices, including a former aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney, flatly declaring without citing evidence that the centers were hubs for spying.
Those reports ultimately prompted a number of Republican senators from states said to house the overseas centers to write to the Justice Department expressing “grave concerns.â€
In addition to Sens. Fischer and Ricketts, the July letter was signed by Sens. Ted Budd (R-N.C.)., Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Mitt Romney (R-Utah).
They said the presence of the overseas centers “raises the question of whether DOJ’s response sufficiently addresses the threat,†particularly since they had openly operated for years and been documented in Chinese state media.
“The DOJ must ensure that our adversaries such as the (Chinese Communist Party) are not operating intelligence operations or engaging in repression on U.S. soil,†the senators wrote.
Ricketts also a week ago introduced an amendment asking the Defense Department to look into the overseas centers and issue a report. He suggested President Joe Biden has not taken the threat from China seriously.
“Regardless of what the threat is, when the Biden administration learns of these threats, they need to take harsh action against it,†Ricketts said.