One of the top leaders of Neville Roy Singham’s far-left activist network also holds a position inside a Chinese Communist Party-led think tank whose leader is a member of the CCP’s leading foreign influence arm known as the United Front.

Wang Wen, the dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, is a member of the CCP, and a leader within multiple United Front organizations. The Chongyang Institute itself is influenced by the CCP and is immersed within the United Front ecosystem.

The Singham Network-linked People’s Dispatch said that Vijay Prashad — the director of Tricontinential: Institute for Social Research, whose advisory board is chaired by Singham — is a “senior non-resident fellow” at the very same Chongyang Institute at Renmin University in China. The Chinese university’s “experts” page also lists Prashad in that position.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has said that “the united front is an important magic weapon for the party to defeat the enemy” — and Prashad holds a position in an institute closely tied to this United Front work.

Prashad referred to Shanghai-resident Singham as “one of my oldest & dearest friends” in 2021. Prashad also called him “a Marxist with a massive software company” and said that “he sold that company a few years ago and decided to give away all the money toward political education for a new generation of radicals.” Prashad noted that funds from the sale of Thoughtworks “were the original source for [Tricontinental’s] endowment, & other projects, which we hope will last for at least a generation.”

Prashad wrote a 2021 article for New Frame praising Singham’s far-left activist father — Archie Singham — with the piece titled and subtitled, “Archie and I: A Third World Story. Vijay Prashad recalls his early encounters with the struggle for national liberation, and the work of Archie Singham, an important intellectual in the latter part of that sequence of struggle.”

“Editor’s note: Roy Singham, the son of Archie Singham, has donated to non-profit organizations from which New Frame has received funding,” a disclaimer on the piece said.

Prashad even gave a lecture on “The Future of the Left” during the wedding weekend festivities for Singham and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans.

Vijay Prashad’s position with Chongyang Institute draws scrutiny

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., sent a letter directly to Prashad in February, where he noted Prashad’s role at the Chongyang Institute.

“Since its founding in 2017, Tricontinental has been responsible for spreading Marxist and anti-American rhetoric across both the United States and the globe. Reports indicate that Tricontinental, and individuals connected to it, have been responsible for sowing chaos and spreading Chinese propaganda, possibly in coordination with a foreign government,” Smith wrote. 

Prashad had told the New York Times in 2023 that “we do not and have never received funds or instructions from any government or political party."

“Writing is my joy, revolution is my passion,” Prashad’s Substack profile says. “Here you will read about red books, elegant cricket, and class struggle.”

Prashad is mentioned in hundreds of posts by the Chongyang Institute, including promoting his articles, speeches and appearances.

The Chinese website China Diplomacy also said last year the Chongyang Institute “hosted a high-level dialogue between Chinese and Indian scholars” on "The New Global South in the Trump 2.0 Era” — with Prashad and Wang Wen as the main speakers.

The Chongyang Institute in August 2020 touted the role played by Prashad in promoting the “No Cold War” effort pushed by the Singham Network and other far-left and pro-China activists.

The pro-China “No Cold War” movement released a July 2020 statement arguing that “a New Cold War against China is against the interests of humanity.” Signatories for the statement included Prashad and Wang Wen, as well as fellow Chongyang Institute senior fellow John Ross. Other signers included more Singham Network-linked activists, including Brian Becker, the leader of the ANSWER Coalition and a founder of the Party for Socialism and Liberation; Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of Code Pink; and Zhang Weiwei, a leader at the China Academy.

The Global Times — published under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper, the People's Daily — put out an article that month touting the statement.

“As China-U.S. tensions escalate with the U.S. hawkish politicians intending to start a new cold war against China, diplomats and scholars from 48 countries gathered Saturday for an online event themed ‘a new cold war against China is against the interests of humanity.’ What does a new cold war mean to the world and entire humanity? We selected speech abstracts from seven participants who voice ‘No’ to a new cold war,” the outlet wrote.

The Chongyang Institute’s official website promotes a book by Prashad, saying that “Washington Bullets is written in the best traditions of Marxist journalism and history-writing.”

The Chongyang Institute has even republished an article co-written by Singham. The October 2024 piece is titled “Big data from 210 economies reveals the secrets to global and Chinese economic growth” and it was reprinted from Guancha, a pro-CCP Chinese outlet which is closely tied to the Singham Network’s work inside China. This article was also co-authored by Ross.

Just the News previously showed that inside China, Singham and his network collaborate with an array of Chinese propaganda sites, Chinese universities, and other Chinese groups committed to advancing the CCP. Prashad’s leadership role in the Singham Network and his formal role at a CCP-led and United Front-linked Chinese institute provide further evidence of the closeness between Singham and the Chinese government.

“These activities and associations are hallmarks of united front entities, and increase the already significant concerns about the Singham Network,” Michael Sobolik, a China expert and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told Just the News of the Chongyang Institute and Prashad’s position at it.

Singham and Evans did not respond to requests for comment sent to them through the Code Pink leader. Prashad, Ross, and Wang Wen also did not respond to requests for comment.

Wang Wen and Chongyang Institute are linked to CCP’s United Front

The Renmin University of China School of Global Leadership — which often partners with the Chongyang Institute — details the personal resume of Wang Wen, which states that he is “a council member of the Western Returned Scholars Association.” China’s Baike Baidu website also describes Wang Wen as “a director of the Research Institute of the Western Returned Scholars Association.”

The chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP describes this association as “an organization subordinate to the United Front Work Department.”

The Chongyang Institute’s leadership is dominated by CCP members, and the “Executive Board” for the Chongyang Institute includes a number of CCP members and leaders.

The Chongyang Institute in 2023 noted that Wang Wen was added as an association council member. Wang Wen is listed on the official website for the Western Returned Scholars Association as of 2019 as “Wang Wen, Executive Dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.”

"Being added to the board of directors makes me feel an even greater responsibility. As a scholar from a Chinese think tank, one of my important tasks over the past few years has been telling China's story to the world. Today, China is increasingly moving to the center of the world stage. The world needs to understand China, and China needs the world's understanding. We need to work together to tell China's story well, which is also an effective way of international communication,” Wang Wen said after his election to the United Front group’s leadership team.

The Chongyang Institute, where Wang Wen is a dean and Prashad is a fellow, notes that “the Western Returned Scholars Association, also known as the China Overseas-Educated Scholars Association, is a nationwide organization for returned overseas students, led by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and managed by the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee.”

The International Department of the Central Committee of the CCP also says that the association “is a united front-oriented mass organization led by the Communist Party of China” and that it exists “to thoroughly implement the spirit of the Central United Front Work Conference and the Central Party's Conference on Mass Organizations, and to thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech at the 100th anniversary celebration of the WRSA.”

Jamestown Foundation president Peter Mattis testified to Congress last year that the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs is “affiliated with multiple united front officials.” A report by the conservative Hoover Institution found that “CPIFA is a so-called united front organization, similar to those found in the former Soviet Union and other Leninist states that seek to opportunistically build alliances wherever they can.”

Links to United Front abound

Chongyang Institute board member Zhuang Yumin is also listed as an executive director and a dean of the institute as well as a dean of the school of finance at Renmin University, and she is also listed as a prior “deputy” to the National People’s Congress of the CCP and a Beijing-based “member” of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference — a key part of the CCP’s United Front.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has assessed that the United Front Work Department “follows the direction of China’s broader United Front strategy set forth by the CPPCC, a coordinating body led by a member of the Party’s Politburo Standing Committee that brings together representatives of China’s other interest groups under the CCP’s overall leadership.”

The Congressional Research Service said in 2021 that the Chinese state constitution defines the CPPCC as “a broadly based representative organization of the united front.” The CRS added that the CPPCC has as its explicit mission “upholding and strengthening the Party’s leadership over all areas.”

Renmin University’s School of Global Leadership touted that Wang Weng was invited to an Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference policy briefing in 2021 where he gave a “keynote speech.”

“He also reviewed past achievements of the BRI and its exceptional growth. Wang examined the trend of decline of American hegemony and the future of Sino-U.S. relations,” the school wrote of Wang Wen’s talk at the United Front-linked briefing. “He also shared some interesting changes found in the global research over the past eight years, such as the shift from pride to anxiety expressed by Americans towards their country and the change in the attitude of Westerners towards the so-called ‘democratic’ system from self-confidence to skepticism.”

China’s Northeast Petroleum University said in 2024 that “the United Front Work Department of the Party Committee organized representatives of non-Party intellectuals to watch the ‘Unity and Progress’ lecture series” and said it featured a lecture by Wang Wen.

The Mercator Institute for China Studies has labeled the Chongyang Institute as among the CCP’s “domestic preachers” and as a “semi-official” think tank of the Chinese government, while also pointing to its United Front links. “Its strategy and influence were on show at its symposium on the 10th Anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, jointly hosted with Renmin University, the Chinese Foreign Language Press (part of the CCP’s propaganda arm), the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs (a vice-ministerial organ for foreign relations),” the Mercator Institute assessed.

Renmin University — which hosts the Chongyang Institute — has a dedicated webpage on the “United Front Window of Renmin University of China (Sponsored by the United Front Work Department of the CPC Committee of Renmin University of China).”

Wang Wen has reportedly written articles pushing United Front goals, including one on "Building a Global United Front of Values—My Perspective on the Successful Organization of the G20 Summit.” Wang Wen is also a contributor to the Journal of the Central Institute of Socialism — which exists to promote the United Front.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies describes the central institute as “a political institute of the United Front” and says the journal “publishes materials on United Front theory.” Wang Wen penned an August 2022 piece for the United Front journal “On the Strategic Opportunity Period in the New Era: Origin, Status Quo, and Future.”

The Baike Baidu website states that Wang Wen has written multiple other articles for the Journal of the Central Institute of Socialism as well, including praising Chinese “soft power,” touting the Belt and Road Initiative, promoting cooperation between Russia and China, and criticizing “American expansionism.”

The Baike Baidu website also says that Wang Wen was a “recipient of the ‘Four Batches’ talent program, leading talents in philosophy and social sciences under the National Ten Thousand Talents Program.” The Chinese government’s since-deleted website for its Thousand Talents program said its leadership working group was “composed of” the Central Committee of the CCP, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, among other Chinese entities, all showing the CCP’s sway over the program.

The Thousand Talents Program was also explicitly named as being part of the United Front Work Department by the program’s since-defunct website.

Wang Wen also works directly with Chinese government

Wang Wen’s biography makes clear his key leadership role within the Chongyang Institute as well as his close ties to — and work with— the Chinese government.

“Wang Wen is the Dean & Professor of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China. He is also the Dean of School of Global Leadership, Deputy Dean of Silk Road School, Distinguished Professor, Executive Director of China-U.S. People-to-People Exchange Research Center at Renmin University of China,” his institute bio says. “He works as the Secretary-General of the Green Finance Committee of China, a Research Fellow of the Counselor Office of the China’s State Council, and also serves as a visiting professor at more than 10 universities around the world.”

His bio also brags that “in 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over a symposium on philosophy and social science, and Prof. Wang Wen was one of the ten scholars who spoke.”

The Chinese language version of Wang Wen’s “Executive Team” page at the Chongyang Institute also states that he is a “member of the Public Diplomacy Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

Chongyang Institute closely tied to the CCP

The Chongyang Institute’s “Executive Board” includes a number of CCP members and leaders.

Board member Zhang Donggang is listed as the chairman of the university council of the Chongyang Institute and secretary of the CCP Committee of Renmin University, is described as a “member of the Communist Party of China” and a prior director within the Chinese government’s Ministry of Education, and in 2021 was granted the title of “Outstanding Communist Party Member of the Central and National Government Departments.”

Board member Zheng Xinye is described as an executive director of the Chongyang Institute and the vice president of Renmin University of China, and his biography also notes that he is “a member of the Communist Party of China” and “a member of the standing committee of the university’s” Communist Party, also calling him the “chief expert of major projects of the Marxist Theory Research” and touting that “his notable achievements enabled him to be one of the experts who enjoy special allowance from the State Council” — the ruling body which implements CCP orders.

The “About Us” page on the Chinese language version of the Chongyang Institute’s website brags that “its research findings have received commendation and approval from General Secretary Xi Jinping and other Party and state leaders on numerous occasions” and that “on May 17, 2016, at a symposium on philosophy and social sciences chaired by General Secretary Xi Jinping, Wang Wen, Executive Dean of CQF, was invited to speak and received immediate affirmation from General Secretary Xi.”

The Chinese language version of the Chongyang Institute website also features a “Party Building Work” page, where there are well over one hundred “news updates” touting the institute’s work in promotion of or on behalf of the CCP.

The institute said that in May 2017 “the inaugural meeting of the Party Branch and the election of committee members of the RUC Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies were successfully held” and “about 40 people, including all Party members and activists of the School, witnessed the formal establishment of the RUC Chongyang Party Branch.”

“Since its establishment, the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China has consistently and actively carried out Party building work under the leadership of the university and the college's Party committees,” the institute wrote, bragging about how it had  “established an internal database of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speeches and important documents of the Party Central Committee” and had “organized collective visits to Mao Zedong's former residence in Xiangshan (2014), Xibaipo (2015), Yan'an (2016), and the National Security and Confidentiality Education Base (2017) to understand Party history and current affairs, strengthen the national loyalty education of new-type think tank personnel, and provide more objective, rational, and comprehensive policy consultation services to the national decision-making level.”

“Party members Wang Wen” and others “delivered speeches, expressing their congratulations as ordinary Party members on the establishment of the Party branch and their determination to play a leading and exemplary role as Party members and better promote the construction of new-type think tanks.”

“Wang Wen, Executive Dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, stated that as a member of the Communist Party of China with nearly 20 years of Party membership, he firmly supports the Party's leadership over new-type think tanks and sincerely congratulates the establishment of the RDFZ Party Branch,” the institute wrote. “He noted that the formal establishment of the RDFZ Party Branch is a significant event in RDFZ's gradual improvement of its internal governance structure and a crucial step in the Party building work of new-type think tanks. He believes that RDFZ will undoubtedly play a greater role in providing consultation and enlightenment to the public under the leadership of the Party.”

The Chongyang Institute posted in December 2025 about its efforts to “better strengthen the construction of the think tank's Party branch and attract new talent.”

The institute posted that month about a CCP meeting chaired by Wang Wen, where “the participating party members exchanged their learning experiences in light of the actual work of the research institute and the college, further building consensus, strengthening their sense of responsibility, and promoting the improvement of the quality and efficiency of high-end think tank and talent cultivation work by leading with high-quality party building.”

The institute also posted in January of this year about the CCP meeting, saying the institute held a “thematic study session” which focused on "In-depth Study and Implementation of the Spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee."

The “Branch Style” webpage for the Chongyang Institute also includes more than four dozen posts promoting the CCP and its activities inside the school.

One post by the institute dated May 2023 touts that the Chongyang Institute and the Party Branch of the Institute of Monetary Policy “jointly conducted a study and development activity, reviewing the full text of General Secretary Xi Jinping's speech at the symposium on philosophy and social sciences on May 17, 2016, and deeply studying and implementing the spirit of the important speech under the new circumstances.” The institute described Xi’s “important” speech as “far-sighted and rich in content, pointing the way and providing fundamental guidance for the innovative development of philosophy and social sciences in my country in the new era.”

The institute said Wang Wen was invited to a symposium in May 2016 where he “recalled the scene of attending the meeting and expressed his privilege in hearing General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech at the symposium.”

“Over the years, the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China has earnestly implemented the spirit of the speech, continuously speaking out and publishing on the international stage, with its reports attracting global attention and seizing international discourse power. In the future, it will make even greater contributions to external communication,” the institute wrote.

The online “Party Building Library” at the Chongyang Institute also includes over a dozen posts promoting Xi Jinping and the constitution of the CCP.

One tome within the library — from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China — says that “historical experience shows that our Party, as a Marxist party, must take a clear-cut political stance and conduct intra-party political life in a serious and earnest manner.”

The library also quotes multiple Xi Jinping speeches, including where he spoke about the importance of building up the CCP, reveled in “the glorious history of the Communist Party of China in uniting and leading the Chinese people in unremitting struggle,” and discussed the “Red Boat Spirit” and “the Long March Spirit” as he pointed to “the glorious course of the Chinese revolution.”

The Chongyang Institute says that it is “a key policy advisory body for more than 10 ministries and commissions, including the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, the General Office of the State Council, the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Bank of China, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the Ministry of Education” and that “in 2021 alone, it participated in 100 policy advisory meetings of central ministries and commissions.”

The institute “was also selected for the national lecture tour on the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee.”

The Chinese website Baidu Baike describes the Chongyang Institute as “a new type of think tank with Chinese characteristics and a leading university think tank.” The website says that the institute has received “dozens of instructions from Party and state leaders” and that “it has participated multiple times in the drafting of central documents and attended hundreds of central internal symposiums and advisory activities for decision-making departments at the ministerial level and above.”

The Chongyang Institute helps manage the Center for China-U.S. People-to-People Exchange Studies at Renmin University of China, which the institute says was established by the Ministry of Education in China.

“Since its establishment, the Chongyang Institute has conducted more than 20 research trips to the United States and has hosted numerous high-level bilateral think tank dialogues between China and the U.S. on topics such as the Belt and Road Initiative, the South China Sea issue, and China-U.S. relations, attracting widespread attention from the international community,” the institute wrote.

The Jamestown Foundation think tank noted that the Chinese government “frames people-to-people exchange programs as benign cultural and educational efforts, but in reality, they serve to advance the Chinese Communist Party’s agendas … and bolster the PRC’s geopolitical aims.”

Chongyang Institute lauds CCP’s Belt and Road Initiative

The Chongyang Institute has also published numerous reports touting the alleged greatness of the CCP’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The State Department has criticized “the PRC’s attempts to create economic dependencies and to coerce others through its ‘Belt and Road’ and similar initiatives.”

The right-leaning Capital Research Center’s Influence Watch project states that the “Chongyang Institute was named the executive director of the Belt and Road Think Tank Cooperation Alliance, a coalition and conference created in 2015 by the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Development Research Center of the State Council, the Chinese Academy of Social Science, the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, and Fudan University” and that “the Alliance has officials from Greece, Slovenia, Tanzania, and other countries serving on its International Advisory Committee and counts more than 120 think tanks from countries participating in China’s Belt and Road Initiative international infrastructure project as members of its coalition.”

The Chinese government’s National Development and Reform Commission said in 2021 that the goal of this alliance was to “contribute to the co-construction of the Belt and Road Initiative” and argued that through the alliance’s various events it has “promoted the BRI widely, clarified China’s position, and won extensive support from the international community.”

The Chongyang Institute said in 2016 that it had hosted the Silk Road Economic Belt Cities International Forum, and noted that “we appreciate positive efforts by the organizers of this successful forum — Belt and Road Think Tank Cooperation Alliance, the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, and City of Yiwu.”

Yet another Chongyang Institute senior fellow has close ties to Singham Network

Socialist activist and openly pro-CCP fan John Ross is also a senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute — and also has ties to the broader Singham Network.

Ross’s LinkedIn says he has been a senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute since 2013, stating that he “was the first non-Chinese citizen to be appointed to a full-time post at a leading Think Tank in China.” His page also brags that he “has over one million followers on Weibo - China's equivalent of Twitter/Facebook.” His X profile touts that he is the “winner of China's highest awards for foreign writers on China & for foreign experts in China” and his Substack profile says he is “winner of both China’s highest national prizes for foreign experts working in China & foreign writers on China.”

Ross chaired a 2020 conference in China which was co-hosted by the Chongyang Institute, by Tricontinental, and by the pro-China “No Cold War” movement. The effort was organized by the Chongyang Institute-led China-U.S. People-to-People Exchange Research Center.

The “discussion” at the conference included “Analysis of the Implications of the Outcome of the U.S. Presidential Election for the Threat of a New Cold War” and featured presentations by Prashad and by Claudia De La Cruz, then the executive director of the Singham-linked People’s Forum.

The Singham-linked People’s Forum also held a “China’s Great Road Book Launch” for Ross in 2021.

“Please join us in conversation to celebrate the launch of China’s Great Road: Lessons for Marxist Theory and Socialist Practices by author and economist John Ross. China’s Great Road features ten articles by Ross published between the years 2010 and 2021, all of which provide a clear analysis of China’s economic and foreign relations policies over the past decades,” the forum event said. The speakers at the People’s Forum event included Ross, Prashad, Wang Wen, and Brian Becker, the director of the Singham-linked ANSWER Coalition and a founder of the Singham-linked Party for Socialism and Liberation.

The Chongyang Institute’s official website also promotes Ross' book, saying that “Ross has cut through the anti-Communist and Sinophobic narrative of China perpetuated by Western media to give readers a clear view of what is possible for socialist countries around the world.” Ross wrote a 2023 article for Guancha which was republished at Socialist Action where he bragged that “I was one of the recipients of the Special Book Award of China” given by the Chinese government and the CCP.

“Legally only a Chinese citizen can be a member of the CPC. That means not only in substance but formally, the views I express are certainly only mine, not those of the CPC,” Ross wrote. “But I make no secret of the fact that if I fulfilled the legal criteria, I would immediately apply to become a CPC member. However, I certainly agree with the rule that only a Chinese citizen should be able to be a CPC member. So? I will have to be content with the prize as a second best!”

The version written by Ross at Guancha — translated from Chinese by Google Translate — lamented that he couldn’t join the CCP. “I deeply regret that I cannot join the Communist Party of China. Even winning an award cannot make up for my regret,” he wrote. Ross also won the “Chinese Government Friendship Award” in 2024.

Prashad and Ross also appeared together in a 2025 video for the pro-China “No Cold War” movement.

Republicans in Congress have spent years pushing the Justice Department and IRS to scrutinize and investigate the CCP-linked Singham Network in the U.S., but so far these groups organizing far-left protests nationwide appear to retain their tax-exempt status and have avoided any foreign agent prosecutions.