(Texas Scorecard) – A Texas House committee report warned that the Chinese Communist Party is out to influence local public servants. The report’s writers recommended state lawmakers ban relationships between Texas and Chinese local governments but did not include an enforcement mechanism.
Michael Lucci of State Armor, an Austin-based security firm, warned a special Texas House committee of the danger posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“The CCP has shifted from a strategy of peaceful co-existence to one of attempting to become the leading global power,” committee members wrote in their interim report. “According to Mr. Lucci, the CCP is pre-positioning assets in the US to disrupt every normal function of civilian life if a conflict arose. Mr. Lucci emphasized, … the Chinese strategy of disruption is an ‘everything everywhere all at once’ strategy.”
As part of their strategy, Lucci said the CCP is targeting state and local governments. “Mr. Lucci discussed the Chinese government’s strategy for influencing local and state governments in order to make them dependent on their companies as essentially client states,” the report read.
One of the CCP’s infiltration methods is forming agreements between Chinese and American cities through Sister City partnerships.
Texas Scorecard investigative reports in 2022 and 2023 found multiple Texas cities have such agreements with Chinese cities. These include Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Houston, Southlake, McAllen, Fort Worth, and Laredo.
What are these partnerships?
“Sister City partnerships foster international engagement and cultural exchange at the local level. While these agreements can promote mutual understanding, they also present risks,” committee members wrote. “Foreign adversaries, such as Communist China, have used Sister City agreements to disseminate propaganda, manipulate city officials, and promote policies aligned with their geopolitical goals.”
State Sen. Bob Hall (R–Edgewood) wrote to Texas Scorecard that the concern here is not the Chinese people. The problem is China’s government, controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
“Sister City arrangements can do much to foster cultural exchange and mutual understanding,” Hall stated. “And, while our national security concerns are with the Chinese government, not the Chinese people, their national policy on using their citizens for propaganda and espionage dictate[s] that we err on the side of caution.”
According to the House interim report, many American cities have these types of agreements. Committee members noted this is despite the CCP’s continuous violations of human rights and subversion of American interests.
Chuck DeVore, of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, explained that for the CCP, such agreements are part of a much longer game. “It’s all about the Chinese Communist Party building ties to politicians whom they hope will at some point, rise up the food chain and become state lawmakers or members of Congress, U.S. senators,” he said. “Unlike the old Soviet Union, China has both the people and the money to invest in this sort of thing, with the understanding that for every 1000 people that they schmooze with, maybe one of those 1000 is going to end up in Congress.”
In 2020, it was widely reported that alleged Chinese spy Fang Fang had affairs with two American mayors and got close to California Congressman Eric Swalwell (D).
DeVore explained what entices local public servants to engage in these relationships. “They’re going to host Chinese officials here … they’re going to get a trip to an exotic land, they’re going to be treated like royalty, and they’re not going to have to pay for it,” he said.
He noted these trips will usually be paid for by China or CCP-controlled entities. “What may come out of it is occasionally you may see some commercial ties develop where maybe a Chinese subsidiary comes and sets up shop in their town.”
In August 2024, the Congressional Oversight and Government Reform Committee launched an investigation into Minnesota Gov. and Democrat vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz. They were looking into his alleged ties with the CCP. “In 1993, according to the Star-Herald, as a teacher, Mr. Walz organized a trip to the PRC with Alliance High School students, where costs were paid by the Chinese government,” Committee Chair James Comer wrote. “Since his first trip to China, Governor Walz has visited the PRC an estimated 30 times.”
Members of the special Texas House committee recommended that state lawmakers ban cities from having such agreements with foreign adversaries. “Such measures enhance transparency, limit the spread of propaganda, and reinforce ethical governance at the local level,” the report read. Members pointed to Indiana and Utah as examples. Both banned such agreements in 2024.
Indiana’s law banned Sister City agreements with foreign adversaries. Utah’s law banned partnerships with municipalities involved in forced labor.
“Texas should prohibit Sister City agreements with foreign adversaries to protect against undue influence and propaganda efforts. These partnerships can serve as entry points for coercion and the spread of narratives that undermine U.S. interests,” committee members wrote. “Texas, along with other states, should reassess and sever ties with foreign adversaries that pose national security risks.”
Hall agreed with such a ban. But, he also recommended that a ban should have a consequence if any local governments defy it. “It would be prudent to end such relationships and appropriate to provide enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance with the policy of no Sister City arrangements,” he stated.
DeVore said that the easiest enforcement mechanism for such a ban would be for the state to withhold that city’s portion of sales tax revenue.
The chairman of this House Committee was State Rep. Cole Hefner (R–Mount Pleasant). Texas Scorecard asked Hefner about the enforcement of the proposed ban. He didn’t respond before publication.
Aside from the national security argument, DeVore gave a moral reason to ban these relationships. “Let’s presume for a moment that it’s 1938 and a city in Texas wants to have a sister city relationship with Frankfurt, Germany,” DeVore said. “People today would say, ‘I wouldn’t do a sister city relationship with Hitler’s Germany.’ Well, the Chinese Communist Party is, in many respects, the same. So why are you doing it with the Chinese Communist Party?”
The CCP threat to cities was covered in the interim report from the Texas House Select Committee on Securing Texas from Hostile Organizations, published in December 2024. The report covered multiple theaters in Texas under threat, and more will be explored in future articles.