By Gao Yun, Vision Times
A recent Senate investigation has sent shockwaves through Washington, revealing that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has systematically infiltrated the Federal Reserve over the past decade by engaging in large-scale economic espionage against America’s central bank. The scope of this infiltration goes far beyond what the public previously understood, amounting to a form of economic warfare.
On Aug. 4, conservative political journalist Natalie Winters published an investigative report highlighting that while the public is generally aware of CCP cyberattacks on the military and private corporations, a 2022 Senate probe revealed that the Federal Reserve was a far more deeply — and covertly — targeted institution. This was not a case of isolated incidents or naive cooperation but part of a coordinated, long-term campaign of economic espionage.
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According to the Senate report, the CCP utilized coercion, recruitment, illegal data extraction, and collaboration with its state-controlled propaganda organs to manipulate Federal Reserve insiders. Many of these operations were carried out under the guise of academic exchange programs and think tank partnerships tied to China.
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The investigation further uncovered that the Federal Reserve’s own counterintelligence team had identified at least 13 employees across eight regional Federal Reserve banks who formed what investigators dubbed a “P-Network.” These individuals displayed consistent “red flags” and maintained close ties to the CCP.
Federal Reserve employees tied to the CCP
The report documented multiple cases that received little to no attention in the mainstream media:
1. Federal Reserve employee coerced in China
In 2019, a Federal Reserve employee traveling in Shanghai was detained four times by Chinese authorities. Threatened with harm to their family, the employee was forced to hand over sensitive U.S. economic data. Chinese agents accessed their Federal Reserve laptop, phone, and internal contact list, and demanded the individual “speak positively about the CCP” upon returning to the United States. Despite this, the employee retained access to sensitive data upon their return.
2. Secret transfers to CCP-linked institutions
Another employee shared restricted Federal Reserve model codes and economic data with a university connected to the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). This individual also promoted expanded cooperation between the Federal Reserve and Chinese state institutions. Notably, they retained access to Category II Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) data, which includes internal economic forecasts and monetary policy details.
3. Liaison for CCP’s Xinhua News Agency
One employee, who had served as a visiting professor in China with funding from the CCP, acted as a liaison for Xinhua, the regime’s state-run media. They helped Chinese officials and journalists circumvent official procedures to obtain internal contact information from the Federal Reserve.
4. Concealing links to the ‘Thousand Talents Plan‘
Several employees attempted to transfer large datasets to Chinese institutions while concealing their involvement in the CCP’s “Thousand Talents Plan” — a widely recognized vehicle for foreign tech and economic intelligence theft. These individuals remained employed at the Federal Reserve with ongoing access to sensitive materials.
Senior Fed official John Harold Rogers indicted
The Department of Justice indicted John Harold Rogers, a former senior advisor in the Federal Reserve’s Division of International Finance, for allegedly providing sensitive data to CCP intelligence operatives over several years.
According to the DOJ, between 2010 and 2021, Rogers used personal email accounts and physical documents to share confidential Federal Reserve data with CCP agents posing as university students. In 2023, he met with them in a Chinese hotel to hand over additional information and received up to $450,000 in payments from Chinese universities.
Rogers also had extensive public collaborations with CCP-affiliated institutions. In June 2024, he delivered a keynote speech at China International Capital Corporation (CICC), partially owned by the CCP. He was frequently invited to speak at institutions including Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, where his talks focused on U.S.-China relations, RMB policy, and Chinese capital markets strategy.
Academic exchange used as a ‘Trojan horse‘
The investigation found that numerous Federal Reserve economists had entered into extensive research collaborations with Chinese universities directly controlled by the CCP. While presented as academic partnerships, many of these relationships served as strategic intelligence channels aimed at penetrating the Fed’s internal operations and forecasting models.
For example, Rogers co-authored academic papers with Fudan University researchers. Senior Fed officials like Justin R. Pierce collaborated with scholars at Shanghai Jiao Tong University on U.S. election-related research and trade liberalization. These collaborations reportedly helped the CCP gain a deeper understanding of U.S. economic policy.
The report noted that Shanghai Jiao Tong University was repeatedly caught attempting to recruit Federal Reserve employees for espionage purposes. Several Fed staff members listed connections to the university on public résumés.
Failures under Powell’s tenure
Although some of the CCP’s infiltration efforts predate Jerome Powell’s tenure, the Senate report asserts that such activities escalated under his leadership.
Despite reports of attempted recruitment, coercion, and data theft, Powell’s leadership team failed to implement meaningful countermeasures. Suspect employees remained in their roles with full access to sensitive material.
During Powell’s tenure, the Federal Reserve dramatically expanded international collaborations without strengthening vetting procedures or requiring employees to disclose payments or affiliations with foreign institutions. Only after the Senate probe began did the Fed ban employees from receiving funds from “countries of concern.” However, unpaid partnerships with CCP-controlled institutions were still allowed.
An economic war
The Senate report emphasized that these revelations amount to far more than internal misconduct or policy oversight—they represent an ongoing economic war. The CCP’s goal, the report warns, is to dethrone the U.S. dollar, elevate the Chinese yuan (RMB) as the dominant global currency, and dismantle American economic leadership.
If the Federal Reserve is fully compromised, the CCP could gain advance knowledge of interest rate shifts, stress test outcomes, inflation expectations, and market interventions — information that could be used to manipulate global financial markets or influence U.S. policymaking.
The report concludes that this is no longer merely a scandal — it is a direct threat to national security. As it states, the CCP has already “entered the room,” and without decisive action, the United States risks handing over control of the global financial system to a hostile foreign power.
Harvard’s ties to CCP institutions
Adding to concerns about institutional infiltration, Congress last month revealed a decade-long collaboration between Harvard University and the CCP’s powerful Central Organization Department. The partnership supported the training of CCP government and party elites.
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House Select Committee on the CCP Chairman John Moolenaar, Education and Labor Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, and Republican Leader Elise Stefanik sent a letter to Harvard President Alan Garber demanding the release of all documentation and financial records related to CCP collaborations dating back to 2015. The deadline for disclosure is August 7, 2025.
Lawmakers highlighted that Harvard’s Kennedy School has a formal partnership with the China Executive Leadership Academy Pudong (CELAP), which operates under the Central Organization Department. CELAP trains rising CCP leaders in “Xi Jinping Thought” and plays a major role in political appointments. Some training courses have reportedly been held on Harvard’s own campus.
In an interview with “The Washington Free Beacon,” Moolenaar voiced strong concerns about Harvard’s continued collaboration with CCP entities. “We’re deeply troubled that Harvard has formal partnerships with CCP-controlled institutions to train future Communist Party officials,” he said.
Lawmakers stated that, despite Harvard’s previous settlement with the Trump administration over campus-related policy issues, Congress will continue investigating the university’s links to CCP institutions.
