The Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded tens of millions of dollars in defense contracts, including to a supplier of American military aircraft parts with “extensive” ties to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence and agencies.
A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found millions of dollars has gone to S&L Aerospace Metals LLC, a New York-based company that sells fighter jet, attack helicopter and guided missile launcher parts, and serves on a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) council on critical manufacturing.
S&L’s CEO Jerry Wang — whose Chinese name is Wang Jue — has been identified as an official for multiple CCP influence and intelligence organizations in Chinese government and state media reports, raising concerns about the defense contractor’s connections to Communist Party elites — including Chinese dictator, Xi Jinping, the DCNF has found.
Wang has denied ties to any “foreign-political entities” through an attorney; however, he has been photographed attending numerous Chinese government and CCP intel agency functions with high-ranking officials.
“Mr. Wang does not have any ties to any foreign political entities,” a spokesperson for S&L wrote. Wang’s attorney, Christopher E. Chang, insisted that his client had no ties to foreign political entities after the DCNF inquired about some 13 photos picturing Wang at Chinese government functions alongside high-ranking Party officials. However, when pressed about whether Wang denied being in those photographs, Chang replied: “no.”
The DCNF also reports that a CCP intelligence and Chinese influence arm called the United Front Work Department (UFWD) has identified Wang as a member. The UFWD’s operations are a “unique blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations that the [CCP] uses to shape its political environment, including to influence other countries’ policy toward the [People’s Republic of China] and to gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.
L.J. Eads, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence analyst, told the DCNF of its findings: “Allowing someone with Wang’s background access to the inner workings of U.S. supply chains and critical manufacturing vulnerabilities is a glaring national security failure…It’s incredibly naive to think that the CCP is going to play by the rules when we hand them a front-row seat to our most sensitive industries.”
Among instances unearthed by DCNF include May 2019 footage from a COFA conference in Beijing that shows Wang applauding Xi Jinping. Chinese government and UFWD social media posts that include footage of a June 2019 COFA assembly in Hangzhou, Zhejiang also identify Wang as a “deputy chairman” of COFA’s Zhejiang branch. Wang is pictured alongside other COFA officials on a dais with a name card identifying him at the June 2019 event.
The September 2019 picture is particularly notable, as it shows Wang in a group photo with Linda Sun, “a former aide to New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was indicted in August for acting as a Chinese agent.”
Additionally, photos show Wang at several New York welcome events for Xi as far back as May 2006, when Wang organized a party for China’s future leader, according to Chinese state media. One photo from the 2006 gathering pictures Wang presenting a statue of a bald eagle to Xi, who then served as the Zhejiang provincial Party secretary and another state media image shows them together holding a piece of calligraphy.
A March 2011 Chinese government announcement shows Wang in Beijing with the deputy director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other overseas delegates attending the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
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