They Are Who We Thought They Were

By Noah Rothman

Tuesday, February 17, 2026

 

In what may be the least shocking news of the year so far, the State Department has accused some of the most reliably anti-American activist groups in the United States of also serving as instruments of Chinese statecraft.

 

In a report provided to Congress, Foggy Bottom accused the self-described anti-war outfit Code Pink of actively, perhaps willingly, advancing Beijing’s preferred narratives and impugning the United States in the process.

 

The Chinese Communist Party “spreads propaganda through influence campaigns run by nonprofit organizations like Code Pink,” the report alleges.

 

The New York Post provided some evidence of how Code Pink contributes to China’s geopolitical project:

 

The nonprofit peddles its pro-China talking points through its “China Is Not Our Enemy” working group, according to the State Department.

 

Code Pink encourages Americans to travel to China and solicits contact information of individuals interested in visiting the US adversary.

 

The group touts one such trip where participants “studied revolutionary history in Ruijin” and explored “villages transformed by poverty alleviation programs” on its website.

 

One participant reflected that the trip made him think people must “defend [China] from our government’s aggression.”

 

Code Pink has also hosted pro-China webinars, including one where an activist applauded the Chinese communist revolution, which resulted in tens of millions of deaths, arguing that it provides a “path forward to liberation,” according to the State Department.

 

“I had already been out of love with our country for a long time but this really … put the nail in the coffin,” another American activist complained on a webinar following her China trip.

 

In addition, the State Department singled out the “Singham network,” a group of non-profits backed by the financier Neville Roy Singham, who is married to Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans. In 2023, the New York Times described Singham as “a socialist benefactor of far-left causes,” and observed that the American expatriate who lives in China is long known to have worked closely with Chinese authorities to disseminate Beijing’s preferred messages.

 

The State Department accuses one of Singham’s groups, the People’s Forum, of promoting the Chinese communist revolution as a model for aspiring leftist guerrillas seeking to overthrow the United States government. “The department noted that the group once hosted a three-part lesson on the revolution intended for those “who aim to study revolutionary processes in order to make one!,” the Post added.

 

In addition to the State Department’s revelations, the House Ways and Means Committee is investigating a report from the non-profit Network Contagion Research Institute, which alleges that the far-left political organization Democratic Socialists of America may also be laundering hostile foreign propaganda into the American discourse.

 

“The same rhetoric used to attack America abroad gets recycled at home to attack American law enforcement. Different stage, same script,” the organization’s founder, Adam Sohn, told Fox News.

 

Fox’s report expanded on the allegations against the DSA:

 

For example, this network coordinated last month to demand a “National Shutdown,” with a “General Strike,” a typical communist tactic to force a state into economic failure. DSA is also actively engaged in the network that is training “rapid responders” and “observers” to trail, monitor and document law enforcement movements in at least 13 databases that military and intelligence experts call a serious national security threat.

 

In the report, the institute concludes that DSA “exhibits multiple indicators” that warrant registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. It currently receives benefits registered as a nonprofit under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code.

 

The report cites “repeated foreign-facilitated engagements, receipt of apparent in-kind benefits, and subsequent U.S. political advocacy aligned with the interests of the Venezuelan, Cuban and Chinese governments.”

 

The DSA’s recent successes in electing far-left progressive activists to high office notwithstanding, the organization has long adopted the tactics and embraced the rhetoric that progressives would typically associate with a hate group. They would likely recognize it as one if it were not aligned with what the Times euphemistically calls “far-left causes.”

 

The investigations continue, but the conclusions are hardly in doubt. They are who we thought they were.