A Chinese auto executive and an active member of the Chinese Communist Party donated over $65,000 to New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s campaign, according to state campaign finance disclosures. Those donations may very well be illegal: The law bans foreign nationals from donating to U.S. political campaigns.
The executive, Pin Ni, leads the U.S. subsidiary of the Hangzhou, China-based automotive and industrial powerhouse Wanxiang Group. He wrote two checks in the amount of $30,000 in February and July, respectively, to the super PAC supporting Sherrill’s campaign. In June, Ni made a maximum contribution of $5,800 directly to Sherrill’s campaign.
The Federal Election Campaign Act prohibits foreign nationals from donating to state and federal political campaigns, and Chinese law prohibits CCP members from holding foreign citizenship.
Ni’s donations, which were reported in filings with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission this week, make him one of the top contributors to Sherrill’s election effort and represent the only donations he has made in New Jersey.
Ni has been very active in federal elections in recent years. Since 2020, he has made 152 contributions worth more than $1 million, the majority of which have benefited Democrats, according to Federal Election Commission data. The two largest recipients of his political contributions are the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Biden Victory Fund.
He has also given tens of thousands of dollars to members of the House Select Committee on the CCP, including Sherrill. For example, Ni has donated $92,500 to Rep. Darin LaHood (R., Ill.); $14,500 to Sherrill’s federal campaign; $13,400 to Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D., Ill.), the ranking member of the select committee; and $3,000 to Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.).
A spokeswoman for Sherrill’s campaign declined to comment.
But the donations are a cause for concern regardless of whether they comply with the law, according to experts interviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. The CCP, they said, has long sought to increase Chinese influence in the United States through economic and political means.
“It is astounding that as a former Naval officer, U.S. Attorney, civilian lawyer, and now federal lawmaker with national security clearances, and one who knows the China threat, Sherrill would turn a blind eye to this violation of federal law and likely CCP influence operation,” said Joseph Cella, a cofounder of the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group.
Cella, whose group works to minimize Chinese influence in American supply chains, added that Sherrill’s decision to accept the donations “exemplifies a gross lack of judgment.”
“There must be an investigation to determine whether or not Mikie Sherrill violated election laws by accepting campaign contributions from not only a foreign national, but worse, a member of the Chinese Communist Party,” Paul Kamenar, counsel for the right-leaning National Legal and Policy Center, said in an interview. “That, in our view, is totally outrageous.”
“If this is a legally permitted contribution, the fact that Mikie Sherrill is willing to take campaign cash from a Communist Chinese Party member raises very serious concerns of what her values are,” he continued.
Ni founded Wanxiang America Corporation in 1994 as the American subsidiary of Wanxiang Group. The billion-dollar company specializes in automotive parts, green energy development, and real estate. Wanxiang Group also owns Karma, a California-based luxury electric vehicle brand.
The company’s involvement in the EV industry may explain Ni’s support for Sherrill. As a congresswoman, Sherrill has repeatedly voted against bills to block EV mandates and restrictions on gas-powered cars.
In May, Sherrill voted against a House resolution that prevents California, New Jersey, and other Democratic states from implementing EV mandates. Thirty-five Democrats voted for the bill, which President Donald Trump has since signed into law.
The Free Beacon reported in August, meanwhile, that Wanxiang Group has named Ni an “Outstanding Communist Party Member of the Group” 15 times. Wanxiang Group’s 2025 annual report bluntly states that he is a member of the CCP. During a 2018 speech, Wanxiang Group CEO Lu Weiding introduced Ni as one of the “seven Party Committee members” of its corporate CCP committee.
Wanxiang itself has been commended by Chinese president Xi Jinping, who has commented that the company “always walks on a correct path” and “is always in a position to lead the trend.” The CCP’s Central Committee posthumously awarded Wanxiang founder Lu Guanqiu, Ni’s father-in-law, the title of “National Outstanding Communist Party Member” in 2021.
Ni’s involvement in the New Jersey election represents the latest example of Ni donating in a 2025 gubernatorial election. The Free Beacon reported Ni had donated a total of $50,000 to Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger.
In addition to being a member of the CCP, Ni is also active in a number of efforts to promote Chinese involvement in American business. He lamented in an interview with Bloomberg News last year that such efforts are becoming more challenging: “For politicians, there’s no cost in using the China topic to achieve their own goals.”
Ni is a trustee at the China Institute, a group that once honored him for being a “bridge builder” between China and America. The China Institute is an original partner of the Chinese government-backed Confucius Institute, which the State Department has designated a “foreign mission.”
He is also the vice chairman of the China General Chamber of Commerce and chairman of its Chicago chapter. Other leaders of the prominent organization include senior executives at Chinese state-run corporations like the Bank of China, Sinopec, and China Construction Bank.
The China General Chamber of Commerce works to expand Chinese businesses in America and asserts itself as the “most important platform representing Chinese investment in the U.S.” The group operates as a public-facing arm of the CCP’s united front strategy to spread influence in the United States, according to a 2019 book authored by Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Orville Schell, the director of the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations.
“The CCP is on the hunt across the United States through subnational incursions and influence operations—currying favor and binding ties with leaders in government, business, academia, military, and political candidates, like Sherrill, seeking to exploit these relationships to influence U.S. policies and advance PRC geopolitical interests,” the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group’s Cella said.
New Jersey’s gubernatorial election is slated for Nov. 4, 2025. The race is locked in a dead heat, according to the latest polls.
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