Report: Radical anti-Trump Boston Mayor Wu received large campaign donation from man tied to Chinese intelligence agency

BOSTON, MA- Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, known for her vocal opposition to President Trump’s policies, is now facing serious allegations that could overshadow her previous controversies. 

The Daily Caller News Foundation dropped a bombshell story this week. It was revealed that Wu’s 2021 mayoral campaign received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fundraiser tied to a Chinese intelligence agency, identified as an official with United Front Work Development (UFWD). That agency works as a Chinese Communist Party influence and intelligence service. 

The report reveals that Gary Yu, also known as Yu Guoliang, played a significant role in Wu's campaign, helping her raise over $300,000. He is listed as an official by UFWD and is reportedly involved in recruiting for the Chinese government. 

“The Communist Party’s UWFD never rests,” said Gordon Chang, author and China expert, to the Daily Caller. “There is no ethnic Chinese official in America who is not targeted. It’s time for law enforcement to investigate the CCP’s ties to Gary Yu and Yu’s ties to Mayor Michelle Wu.” 

Wu has become one of the faces of the “resistance,” Democrat mayors and other officials who have openly defied President Trump’s border and deportation policies. Wu slammed the administration during her March 19, 2025, “State of the City” address, criticizing “presidents who think they are kings.” That prompted the White House to slam Wu the next day, issuing a press release calling Wu a “radical mayor” who “puts violent criminal illegal aliens first.” 

“Wu’s ultra-leftism makes her the perfect candidate for CCP recruitment and capture,” Chang continued. “Or do we have it backward? Is her ultra-leftism the result of CCP recruitment and capture? More than just the people of Boston would like to know.” 

The Daily Caller reached out to Wu’s office, Yu, and Boston International Media Consulting for comment, however, none responded to multiple requests for comment. 

According to the House Select Committee on the CCP, UFWD’s operations are “a unique blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations that the [CCP] uses to shape its political environment, including to influence other countries’ policy toward the [People’s Republic of China] and to gain access to advanced foreign technology. 

China famously got a spy, known as “Fang Fang,” to engage in an affair with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who is somehow still on the House Intelligence Committee. 

The Daily Caller writes that Yu is identified as an “overseas committee member” by the Hangzhou municipal All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC) branch in Zhejiang province, meeting with their officials in China multiple times, according to the North American Hangzhou Association’s (NAHAUS) website. Yu serves as chairman of this organization.

ACFROC is a UFWD agency that specializes in overseas influence operations, including directing Chinese community leaders to illegally establish a secret Chinese police station in New York City, which Law Enforcement Today has reported on several times. We recently called on President Trump to issue an executive order banning cities from allowing such stations in their jurisdiction. 

“China’s strategy to influence state and local policymakers is executed, in part, through hundreds of ostensibly 'civil society’ organizations that are actually affiliated with the CCP’s UFWD,” Michael Lucci, CEO of State Armor, a nonprofit focused on countering the CCP, told the Daily Caller. “Xi Jinping considers United Front work a critical tool to undermine democracies. It involves influence peddling, intelligence collection, and intellectual property theft, all for the end goal of aligning U.S. subnational governments with China’s foreign policy and exploiting weaknesses they find.” 

That could explain Wu’s “in your face” defiance of Trump administration policies. 

The Daily Caller said Yu agreed to look for U.S. talent for at least half a dozen Chinese regional governments, including the cities of Hangzhou and Guangzhou, according to the Chinese government and ACFROC announcements. 

In November 2019, the CCP announced that Yu agreed to establish an “Overseas Talent Recruitment Work Station in North America for the party’s Organization Department in Nanning, a city in the Guangxi Autonomous Region. 

That department oversees China’s “malign talent recruitment programs,” including the Thousand Talents Plan, which encourages participants to “return to China to augment its scientific and military capabilities,’ according to the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission. 

Yu has also been involved in Chinese efforts to support that country’s high-tech development, including artificial intelligence (AI). 

AI is likely to be the next battlefield between China and the West. Guangxi’s ACFROC branch recently announced that Yu had met with its officials in March. During that meeting, he promised to continue introducing “top-quality resources to Guangxi” after the ACFROC chairwoman told him the region’s artificial intelligence industry urgently required “overseas high-level talents.” 

Most disturbing, Yu has organized the Chinese-American community in Massachusetts to fundraise hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect committed leftists like Wu. 

According to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF), Yu has personally donated $45,515 to various Democrats in the Bay State since 2018, including $3200 to Wu and $2175 to Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. 

Yu also serves as co-chair of the New England Chinese American Alliance (NECAA), which has “actively engaged the Chinese community in political campaigns,” according to the nonprofit’s website. NECAA has also hosted “fundraising events” for at least nine Massachusetts Democrats, including Wu and Healey. 

According to the organization’s website, it “raised over $300,000 from the Chinese American community for Michelle Wu,” while Yu’s Twitter feed advertised fundraising events for Wu in November 2020 and June 2021. 

“We organized so many fundraisers and translated campaign materials into Chinese for more Chinese residents to read,” Yu said about working for Wu, according to a 2021 Boston University News Service (BUNS) report. “We did street canvassing every week. We had unlimited power to support her in the past year.” 

BUNS reported that NECAA has expanded its reach beyond Massachusetts, moving from the greater Boston area to over “30 states across the country. " 

“Public officials need to thoroughly vet any organization that has ties to China’s government and interface with state and federal law enforcement when there is any uncertainty,” Lucci told the Daily Caller. “It is well-known that China’s government seeks to influence U.S. politics and place agents within our governance systems to further the CCP’s agenda. We need to stop letting them get away with it.” 

Quid pro quo is also alive and well in Massachusetts. Yu donated $3,000 to the campaign of Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, according to OCPF records. 

DiZoglio then added Yu to her “policies and priorities” transition team after she won her race, and later appointed him to serve as a commissioner on the state’s Asian American and Pacific Islanders Commission in January 2024. 

Yu now serves as the vice chair of that commission, which describes itself as “the Commonwealth’s only permanent, statewide body dedicated to addressing the needs and challenges of the AAPI community.” 

The committee’s chairman, Saatvik Ahluwalia, emailed the Daily Caller to say that the organization was allegedly “unaware” of any activity between Yu and ACFROC. 

“This is the first time we have heard of ACFROC, and we’ve had no contact, affiliation, or engagement with either the organization or the Chinese Government,” Ahluwalia said. “We absolutely intend to investigate what you outlined in your questions, including talking directly to Mr. Yu.” 

The Daily Caller contacted NECAA, Healey, and DiZoglio, none of whom returned multiple requests for comment.