The House Committee on Ways and Means is investigating three tax-exempt organizations for their alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party and has called on the entities to comply with the committee’s requests for documentation and information on their funding sources and fiscal sponsorships.

The organizations being investigated are BreakThrough News, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, and The People’s Forum.

“The organizations are part of a network of nonprofits operating in the United States with links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and are funded by Neville Roy Singham, a former U.S. technology mogul living in Shanghai with close ties to the CCP,” the committee said in a May 5 statement.

“All three entities and Singham have become a major focus of the Committee’s ongoing oversight efforts to expose and determine the extent of foreign influence in America’s tax-exempt sector.”

The People’s Forum, based in New York City, describes itself as a “movement incubator for working class and marginalized communities,” according to its website.

Massachusetts-based Tricontinental is a Marxist-influenced think tank “guided by popular movements and organisations,” it stated on its website. The institute covers topics from Asia, Africa, and South America.

Breakthrough News, headquartered in New York City, stated that it tells “untold stories of resistance from poor and working-class communities,” according to its website.

Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) had previously sent letters to The People’s Forum in September 2025 and to Tricontinental and BreakThrough News in February. However, in these instances, these entities refused to provide the requested documentation, according to the statement.

On May 4, Smith sent letters again.

First Amendment Rights

In the letter to Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), which responded to the September 2025 letter to The People’s Forum, Smith countered PCJF’s claims that the committee’s investigation into The People’s Forum was an attack on its First Amendment rights.

Such a characterization is “unfounded,” Smith wrote. While the First Amendment recognizes the right of Americans to express their views peacefully, it does not “categorically shield organizations from congressional inquiry.”

The Supreme Court has affirmed that the First Amendment does not shield a witness from congressional inquiry when such a probe serves a valid legislative purpose.

“The Committee’s legislative purpose is well-established,” Smith wrote.

Any incidental First Amendment concerns are outweighed by Congress’s interest in ensuring that the tax-exempt status is not linked to any foreign influence or control, such as in the committee’s inquiry, the letter states.

“The People’s Forum has publicly acknowledged receiving funding from Mr. Singham, and public reporting indicates that over $20 million flowed to the organization from Mr. Singham and his wife between 2017 and 2022—channeled through shell companies and donor-advised funds that, by design, obscure the true source of contributions,” Smith wrote.

“The Committee is examining whether the current legal standards governing tax-exempt status adequately account for this type of foreign-aligned funding arrangement and whether such funding arrangements align with Congress’ intent when tax-exempt status was created originally.”

In another letter to PCJF and the Law Office of Andrew D. Herman, which responded to the committee’s February letter to BreakThrough News, Smith similarly dismissed claims that investigating BreakThrough News was in violation of the entity’s First Amendment rights.

The investigation is directed not at BreakThrough News’ content but at its financing arrangements and links to a foreign-aligned influence network, none of which are immune from congressional oversight, Smith clarified.

“Since 2020, BreakThrough News has received over $1,000,000 from the Justice and Education Fund, $60,600 from the Progress Unity Fund, and $540,000 anonymized through the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund, all channels linked to Mr. Singham,” the letter reads.

In the third letter, addressed to the Law Office of Herman, which responded to the February letter to Tricontinental, Smith rejected similar First Amendment arguments.

“In 2019 alone, Tricontinental received $700,000 from the United Community Fund, a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt foundation connected to Mr. Singham,“ Smith wrote. ”Tricontinental has also been partially funded by CODEPINK, an organization cofounded by Mr. Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans. Tricontinental has received over $12.5 million from a Donor-Advised Fund, funded in part by Mr. Singham.”

In all three letters, Smith asked the recipients to submit relevant documents and other materials related to any coordination between the entities under investigation and Singham, as well as with foreign entities or governments. This request must be fulfilled by May 18.

The Epoch Times reached out to The People’s Forum, Breakthrough News, and Tricontinental for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Chinese Influence Networks

A House committee hearing on Feb. 10 examined a network aligned with Marxist ideology and tied to Singham, and its influence in the United States.

Many groups in the network have played a key role in organizing various protests supporting pro-Palestine causes and against immigration enforcement in the United States. During one protest in Washington in July 2024, the U.S. flag was burned, and Columbus Circle was defaced outside Union Station.

This protest and similar incidents are “expressions of the same structural failure,” Adam Sohn, CEO of social media threat intelligence analytic organization Narravance, said at the hearing.

“This is not protected speech,” Sohn said, calling it an “engineered subversion.”

Sohn characterized the coalition as a coordinated system, with some members handling messaging and amplification through media, others mobilizing protesters, and others training activists.

“It is a repeatable system for paralyzing American infrastructure on demand, financed through U.S. tax law and aligned with a hostile foreign power,” Sohn said.

The Epoch Times could not reach Singham for comment.

In February, the think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies published a policy brief uncovering a network of more than 330 social media accounts tied to China that targeted President Donald Trump, human rights organizations, and other nations to promote a pro-CCP agenda.

The largest cluster included 151 accounts that targeted U.S. audiences, including accounts that posed as U.S. citizens and criticized Trump’s policies, blaming the president for the fentanyl crisis, the foundation stated.

Some of the accounts had few to no followers yet generated thousands of replies on their posts, suggesting the use of “inauthentic amplification network” tactics.

“This tactic is used to manipulate platform algorithms into pushing content into the feeds of real users,” the brief reads.

Eva Fu and Catherine Yang contributed to this report.