Is Jon Ossoff Compromised By China?

If you live in Georgia or care about the integrity of the Senate, you need to thoughtfully consider this report from Axios on China’s intelligence operations. One of the interesting things is this bit about the Chinese spy and her efforts:

The woman at the center of the operation, a Chinese national named Fang Fang or Christine Fang, targeted up-and-coming local politicians in the Bay Area and across the country who had the potential to make it big on the national stage.

Let’s put this in the proper context.

Jon Ossoff rose to fame as an “up-and-coming local politician” who ran in a special election in Georgia. He claimed he had an intelligence clearance and was in the know, having worked for members of Congress. Hollywood money flowed in and he became a media darling. Though Ossoff lost, he had so much money still in his coffers, the media constantly talked about his future.

Then a curious thing happened.

Ossoff started receiving money from an anti-democracy media company in China. The money flowed through Ossoff’s “documentary film” company that supposedly made documentaries about government corruption.

The Chinese media company, based in Hong Kong, had become stridently opposed to the Hong Kong freedom protest movement and, it turns out, was backed by the Chinese Communist Party.

In fact, earlier this year, Ossoff refused to even disclose his financial ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and only after Republican Senator David Perdue kept raising the issue did Ossoff amend his financial filings.

This all fits China’s pattern.

They found an up-and-coming political figure “who had the potential to make it big on the national stage” and they started funding his career and rise through third-party companies indisputably tied to the Chinese Communist Party.

Now, as Ossoff tries to get into the United States Senate, Georgia voters may want to consider this pattern. Eric Swalwell was compromised by a Chinese spy. Swalwell sat on the Intelligence Committee. Ossoff claims he had an intelligence clearance while working for members of Congress. Swalwell was very clearly charting a bigger path and Ossoff indisputably was. Keep in mind the Chinese are not out to get classified information. From Axios:

Private but unclassified information about government officials — such as their habits, preferences, schedules, social networks, and even rumors about them — is a form of political intelligence. Collecting such information is a key part of what foreign intelligence agencies do.

There’s no spy that we know of associated with Ossoff. But there are payments from Chinese Communists to his company. Ossoff may not have been compromised per se, but China certainly seems to think it should have relations of some kind with him.