Old North News

North Carolina Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd recently joined forces with eight other senators to obtain information about service centers in the United States that are allegedly linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In a July 10 letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the senators requested information that shows what the Department of Justice knew about these operations. The senators also ask a series of national security questions and requested information that would explain what measures the DOJ implemented to protect national security.

"We write to express our grave concerns regarding reports of “Overseas Chinese Service Centers” (OCSCs) operated by an intelligence service of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in conjunction with the PRC’s national police force," the letter stated. "One such OCSC is reportedly housed at the Carolinas Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the other centers are collocated with nonprofits in San Francisco, California; Houston, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; St. Paul, Minnesota; Salt Lake City, Utah; and St. Louis, Missouri."

Tillis shared some of his concerns about the issue in a tweet on July 12.

“It was recently discovered that the Chinese Communist Party is operating intelligence service centers in cities across the U.S., including Charlotte,” Tillis wrote. “I’ve joined @SenTedBuddNC in demanding answers on behalf of North Carolinians.”

Some of the questions the senators ask in the letter include, “What action, investigative or otherwise, is DOJ taking in relation to the seven aforementioned OCSCs and what actions will DOJ undertake to ensure that it has identified every OCSC or similar PRC facility in the U.S.?”

The DOJ has until July 31 to respond to the letter, which was signed by 10 senators from North Carolina, Utah, Texas, Nebraska and Missouri. Among the signatories are Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Deb Fischer of Nebraska, according to the Carolina Journal.

This is not the first time OCSCs have made headlines. In April, two men were arrested for running an unreported police station in New York City, linked to the CCP, that was allegedly used to conduct surveillance on Chinese people living in America, according to the Associated Press. The men allegedly harassed people through social media.

"The ongoing discovery of additional OCSCs raises the question of whether DOJ’s response sufficiently addresses the threat, particularly because OCSCs have openly operated for several years and their activities have been reportedly documented in Chinese state media and social media posts," the letter stated.