Commentary
Communist groups with potential ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) may have helped organize the Los Angeles immigration riots.
The recent riots in Los Angeles in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations may reveal a complex web of organizational involvement that extends beyond spontaneous response to a policy unpopular with those on the left. There appears to be a connection to communist organizations, including those with links to CCP influence networks.
If so, this is not the first time communist organizations have exploited LA’s civil unrest for revolutionary purposes. During the 1992 Rodney King riots, the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), a group inspired by Chinese and Cuban communism, reportedly utilized the unrest as a recruitment opportunity, publishing headlines declaring “Wanted! Frontline Revolutionary Fighters to Go to L.A. This Summer” in its newspaper, Revolutionary Worker.
RCP’s national spokesman, Carl Dix, stated that the Party’s goal was “leading millions of people to rise up in mass armed revolution when the time is right” and described their riot participation as preparation for replacing capitalism with “a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist society,“ the Los Angeles Times reported in September 1992. The organization has maintained active opposition to Donald Trump across both his presidencies, according to Influence Watch.
Following Trump’s 2016 election victory, RCP members helped establish Refuse Fascism, a coalition organization dedicated to preventing Trump’s inauguration and removing his administration through continuous street protests. The RCP’s hostility toward Trump continued into 2025, with the party’s Instagram account promoting Inauguration Day protests in Washington to oppose the start of Trump’s second term.
It appears the anti-ICE protests serve as proxies for anti-Trump demonstrations, directly aligning with the ideological framework of these Marxist organizations.
These ideological connections appear to extend to several communist groups aligned with or having direct links to the CCP that are supporting the current riots in LA. The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is reported to have actively promoted the anti-ICE protests through social media posts calling for “mass mobilization“ and provided signs that protesters carried during the riots.
Beyond the group’s direct involvement, PSL praises CCP founder Mao Zedong and his communist revolution, defending the regime’s human rights record and denying that its military massacred peaceful pro-democracy student demonstrators in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
The financial networks behind PSL appear to reveal deeper CCP connections through personnel overlap with groups funded by Neville Singham, a pro-CCP millionaire who has donated tens of millions of dollars to The People’s Forum, a PSL-linked organization, according to the New York Post.
After selling his software company for $785 million in 2017, the American tech mogul now operates from Shanghai as the center of “a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda,“ according to a 2023 investigative report by The New York Times. Through this network, it is alleged that Singham has funneled at least $275 million through American nonprofits to groups worldwide that ”mix progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points,” the report said.
The People’s Forum, founded by PSL’s 2024 presidential candidate, Claudia De La Cruz, serves as a key conduit for Singham’s funding. Additionally, PSL founding member Ben Becker and former PSL candidates Karla Reyes and Yari Osorio hold leading roles at Breakthrough BT Media Inc., another Singham-funded media organization that promotes pro-CCP geopolitical interests, according to a report by the Network Contagion Research Institute. This personnel overlap appears to create a direct financial pipeline from a pro-CCP businessman to the organization that provided material support for the LA riots.
Another possible link between the CCP and the broader anti-ICE movement emerges through university campuses, where students have participated in numerous anti-ICE protests across the country, including at Cal State Northridge, UC Berkeley, and Sacramento State. This campus involvement is particularly significant given the well-documented history of CCP influence operations at American universities, especially those related to the pro-Palestinian protests. The CCP has established extensive campus networks through Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSAs), which are overseen by the CCP’s United Front Work Department and receive funding directly from Chinese embassies and consulates.
Historical precedents include the Chinese Embassy paying students $20 each to attend Xi Jinping’s 2015 Washington visit; coordinated ideological promotion during the 2017 Party Plenum across CSSAs at UC Berkeley, Harvard, and Georgetown; and the establishment of temporary CCP party cells at universities, including UC San Diego and the University of Illinois.
These operations demonstrate the CCP’s proven capability to mobilize student participation in protests that serve Beijing’s interests, create organizational infrastructure on campuses, and coordinate activities through embassy channels—methodologies that could potentially influence or amplify domestic anti-ICE protests involving university students, particularly given that an estimated 100,000 college students in California live without permanent legal status and would be directly affected by immigration enforcement.
These ties between the LA riots and the CCP, along with documented CCP links to student-organized protests, reflect broader concerns about foreign influence operations. As Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) warned in October 2024, “The CCP’s campaign of malign influence poses a direct threat to American industry, jobs, and national security.“ The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has documented how ”through its united front work strategy, which Xi Jinping has called a ’magic weapon‘, the Chinese Communist Party uses every tool at its disposal, whether legal or illicit, to influence the American people and interfere in democratic societies.”
The LA riots represent a concerning example of how CCP influence operations can exploit domestic grievances, amplify civil unrest, and potentially undermine American law enforcement and the president through a combination of ideologically aligned organizations, substantial funding networks, and coordinated protest activities.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
