Pin Ni, an auto executive who resides in the United States but appears to still be an active member of the Chinese Communist Party, donated $61,000 to Democratic campaigns in the second quarter of 2026, bringing the total he has given to Democrats this campaign cycle to $450,400.
According to campaign finance disclosures published last month and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, between April 1, 2026, and June 30, 2026, Ni gave $15,000 to the campaign of Illinois lieutenant governor Juliana Stratton, her state’s Democratic nominee for Senate; $10,000 to the Illinois Democratic Party’s federal account; and $5,000 to the campaign of Roy Cooper, the Democratic nominee for Senate in North Carolina. Ni also made donations to Sen. Ben Ray Luján’s (D., N.M.) campaign, Rep. Greg Landsman’s (D., Ohio) campaign, congressional nominee Janelle Stelson’s (D., Pa.) campaign, and political action committees affiliated with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D., Ill.).
Overall, during the current campaign cycle, Ni has given $52,000 to Stratton’s campaign, $19,000 to Cooper’s campaign, and another $41,250 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He has also donated a total of $100,000 to the Forward Party and $66,300 to Republicans, including $14,000 to Sen. Steve Daines’s (R., Mont.) campaign and $8,300 to the campaign of Rep. Darin LaHood (R., Ill.). Nearly 40 percent of Ni’s GOP contributions have supported candidates in Montana, which is home to the Max Baucus Institute, a China-friendly think tank Ni has directed $165,000 to since 2021.
Ni’s political activity is an alarming revelation with national security implications—he has been identified in corporate disclosures as a “comrade” of the CCP and serves as the top executive at automotive parts manufacturer Wanxiang America and luxury EV maker KARMA Automotive, both of which are subsidiaries of the Hangzhou, China-based Wanxiang Group—a billion-dollar green energy company that states it “listens to the Party, follows the Party’s lead, holds high the banner, and prioritizes Party building.”
Under Ni’s leadership, China Daily reported in 2022, Wanxiang has pursued an aggressive expansion strategy, snapping up faltering American companies like Fisker Automotive and A123 Systems, a battery company that had obtained U.S. military contracts and federal funding. During a visit to Wanxiang’s headquarters in Illinois in December 2025, senior Chinese embassy official Zhou Zheng “affirmed Wanxiang’s extensive connections with various sectors of society in the United States and its significant social influence, and thanked Wanxiang for its efforts,” according to a translation of the company’s readout of the meeting.
Ni has simultaneously taken on leadership roles with nonprofits that seek to boost Chinese business influence in the United States and represent companies affiliated with the Chinese military.
It’s also just the latest example of Ni’s political activity. The Free Beacon reported last year that Ni had donated a total of $60,000 to New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill’s (D.) campaign and $50,000 to Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger’s (D.) campaign.
“Substantial political giving by an executive whose company publicly celebrates his Communist Party membership, and who leads an organization tied to Beijing’s influence networks, warrants greater scrutiny and transparency,” said Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan think-tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
“Campaigns should apply the same due diligence regardless of whether the recipient is a Democrat or Republican,” he continued. “The risk is that political contributions can help individuals embedded in Beijing-linked business and united front networks gain access, shape policy debates, and blunt scrutiny of the Chinese Communist Party’s activities. That is a classic malign-influence concern.”
Ni serves as the chairman of the Chicago chapter of the China General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC), the public-facing arm of the CCP’s united front strategy to boost its influence abroad, 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.
Alongside Ni, CGCC-Chicago’s board boasts an executive from the state-run Bank of China and corporations the Pentagon classifies as Chinese military companies: battery maker CATL, artificial intelligence robotics firm Robosense, state-run railway firm CRRC, and international transport companies China Cargo Airlines and COSCO Shipping Lines. According to the Pentagon, COSCO, which the United States sanctioned in 2019 for transporting Iranian crude oil to China, acts on behalf of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and is classified as a military-civil fusion contributor to China’s defense industrial base.
Ni’s group also added Hefei, China-based green energy firm Gotion High-Tech to its board in June, according to archived copies of its website. Gotion’s corporate bylaws state that the company is required to “carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.” While Gotion axed its plan to construct a factory in Michigan after facing local opposition over its CCP ties, the company opened a facility in Illinois shortly thereafter with state government support.
Stratton championed the Gotion factory when it was announced in 2023. “This new facility will be a game-changer in our state’s economy, creating new jobs and showing our continued commitment to making Illinois a renewable energy manufacturing powerhouse,” she remarked.
Ni also personally hosted Stratton for a tour of Wanxiang America’s facilities in Illinois in April 2025. Two weeks later, he wrote a $30,000 check for her PAC, his initial contribution to her campaign.
That follows a pattern for Ni. In October 2021, he hosted Wisconsin governor Tony Evers (D.) for a tour and one day later wrote his campaign a $10,000 check, state filings show. In July 2024, he hosted Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) for a tour, then gave his campaign a $5,000 donation less than three months later. In October 2025, he welcomed Reps. Sean Casten (D., Ill.) and Laura Gillen (D., N.Y.), then gave each of their campaigns max contributions of $7,000 weeks later. That same month, he hosted representatives from the Democratic Governors Association and its chairman-elect, Gov. Andy Beshear (D., Ky.)—Ni donated $10,000 to the association four months prior, IRS records show.
For its part, Wanxiang Group—which Ni’s father-in-law Lu Guanqiu founded and Ni’s brother-in-law Lu Weiding leads as CEO—remains closely aligned with the CCP. The CCP’s Central Committee posthumously awarded Guanqiu with a high-level honorary title in 2021 and, last month, the company celebrated the party’s 105th anniversary, stating that it “listens to the Party, follows the Party’s lead, holds high the banner, and prioritizes Party building” and launched CCP-themed corporate activities.
“The Chinese Communist Party’s advanced and leading position in the world stems from its ‘truthfulness,'” Weiding remarked at Wanxiang’s anniversary celebration, according to a translation of his speech. Weiding serves as a deputy to the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislative body, and vice chairman of the state-run All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, which, like the CGCC, plays a central role in China’s united front strategy.
Chinese president Xi Jinping has also personally commended Wanxiang, stating that the company “always walks on a correct path” and “is always in a position to lead the trend.” Xi met with Ni and Weiding during his visit to the U.S. in 2023.
Ni, meanwhile, maintains his CCP membership despite having lived in the United States for more than three decades. The CCP bars its members from obtaining foreign citizenship. Ni founded Wanxiang’s U.S. subsidiary in Illinois in 1994 after completing a graduate program at the University of Kentucky.
Ni is also heavily involved in initiatives to spread Chinese influence in the United States. He is a trustee at the China Institute, a group that once honored him for being a “bridge builder” between China and America, and is an original partner of the Chinese government-backed Confucius Institute, which the State Department has designated a “foreign mission.” And he is the executive chairman of the Future Wanxiang Fund, a nonprofit he is leveraging to implement Xi’s call to attract more American talent to China.
Wanxiang America, CGCC-Chicago, the Stratton campaign, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Cooper campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
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