[But “Dr. Charles” appears to be neither a doctor nor a Charles. And his organization, with a self-styled imprimatur of the United Nations, similarly appears to be a commercial influence-peddling operation looking for a veneer of respectability.]
By
Anna Fifield
 |
|
President Trump's
Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach, Fla. The arrest of a
Chinese woman at the club
last weekend has been linked to a Chinese
influence peddler who
calls himself “Dr. Charles.”
(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
|
BEIJING
— “Dr. Charles” pitches
himself as a conduit to American power. His social media pages and the website
of his organization — audaciously called the United Nations Chinese Friendship
Association — are a who’s who of Florida Republicans and glitzy Mar-a-Lago
dinners.
He boasts about meeting Florida’s Republican
governor, Ron DeSantis, and President Trump’s elder sister Elizabeth in the
banquet hall of Mar-a-Lago, “at the invitation” of the Republican National
Committee. He’s taken photos at Mar-a-Lago with women in glittery evening gowns
or selfies with Trump in the background, giving a speech at his Florida club.
In other brag-book-style photos, he’s posing,
in a red silk Chinese-style jacket, in front of “Trump Pence victory” signs at
Republican events.
But “Dr. Charles” appears to be neither a
doctor nor a Charles. And his organization, with a self-styled imprimatur of
the United Nations, similarly appears to be a commercial influence-peddling
operation looking for a veneer of respectability.
“Dr. Charles,” whose real name is Li Weitian,
according to bank records, has become a central figure in the Chinese effort to
get close to Trump and influential Republicans.
He goes to the president’s Florida country
club so regularly that Yujing Zhang — the Chinese woman arrested at Mar-a-Lago
on Saturday — told Secret Service agents that she was there to meet “her
Chinese friend Charles.”
In an encounter with a receptionist, Zhang
also mentioned a group with a similar name to the United Nations Chinese
Friendship Association.
“Charles” proclaims himself to be the
secretary general of the group, which was legally registered in Delaware on
June 15, 2011, according to a statement posted on Business Wire in 2012.
The same statement said that at the end of
November that year, “Charles” met with You Lantian, who was deputy director of
the United Front Work Department. This department is an influential unit of the
Communist Party of China’s Central Committee, responsible for coordinating
these kinds of influence operations.
A photo of “Charles” and You appeared on the
front page of the association’s website, which the Miami Herald reported was
taken down after the paper ran a story about “Charles,” whom the paper
identified as going by Charles Lee.
Since establishing the association, he
appears to have devoted himself to collecting photos with influential people in
the United States, often opportunistic selfies when the “celebrity” isn’t even
aware of being photographed.
On QQ, a Chinese social media app, he posted
photos of himself with U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, and his predecessor,
Ban Ki-moon.
There’s also a photo that appears to be of
“Dr. Charles” posing with Trump against a blue background. Trump is giving his
trademark thumbs up and Charles is decked out in a gray Mao jacket, but it’s
not clear if the photo is genuine.
His QQ profile page shows “Charles,” arms
crossed, on the cover of a magazine called “People of the Century.”
“Charles, who began the UNCFA,” says the
magazine cover, which he posted on QQ on March 6. It is not clear if the
magazine cover is genuine.
Just last month, he posted an ad for a tour
of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he claimed former president
Barack Obama would be speaking. “You can participate in a meeting with Obama
and other celebrities, take photos with them,” he said, listing the tour dates
as June 18 to 25.
Obama’s office said he had no plans to speak
at West Point in June.
Earlier, “Charles” had offered a trip to
Omaha in May to “shake hands and take photos” with billionaire investor Warren
Buffett.
In August, he paid to have his face beamed
onto the Nasdaq billboard in Times Square — and then submitted an article about
it to a Chinese publication called “People of China Weekly,” part of the
People’s Daily, the main newspaper of the Communist Party of China.
“At a place known as the crossroad of the
world, he [Charles] joined Fortune 500 entrepreneurs at the same global stage
in showing the world that how the Chinese people are dedicated to world peace,”
the article said. “We will be U.N. peacekeepers and fight for a bigger say in
terms of global publicity, on behalf of all Chinese people around the world.”
“Charles” has built a business in which
potential Chinese clients are encouraged to think he can get them through the
same doors.
“We are a part of the United Nations. If you
pay money, you can be a member” of his group, he told the Southern Weekend
newspaper in January.
The United Nations Chinese Friendship
Association, however, is not on any list of nongovernmental organizations with
U.N. affiliation.
He said membership would bring opportunities
to attend events like those he had posted on his WeChat social media account of
himself attending events with George W. Bush and Warren Buffett. “There are
loads of opportunities like this,” he bragged.
Basic membership, which costs about $450 a
year, comes with a certificate and a bronze medal from his United Nations
Chinese Friendship Association. There are tiers of membership, with the vice
chairman level — a cool $30,000 — bringing opportunities to attend high-level
state visits.
“The upgraded services means that we arrange
schedules more flexibly and assist you in inviting government officials,
experts and scholars to be your consultants,” he told the newspaper. “Higher
price comes with higher privilege.”
His association literature said the dues were
to be paid into a bank account listed as belonging to Beijing Peace and
Friendship Business Management Company Ltd., registered under the name of Li
Weitian.
In one document still available online,
outlining a trip he was offering to the United States in December 2012,
“Charles” said he would take members to U.N. headquarters in New York, where he
said former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and former president Bill Clinton
would be making speeches. The U.N. news site lists Bloomberg and Clinton at a
U.N. event in October, but there was no mention of December appearances.
He also offered a trip to the White House and
“visiting politicians and Asian leaders” in Washington, and to attend a
conference at Harvard where there would be “multiple professors.”
Documents from 2012 list a range of
“honorary” associates of the group, including top political and business
figures from the United States, Europe and Asia. And documents from last year
list several U.S. political players as holding honorary roles with the
association.
Despite all the braggadocio, little is known
about the man behind this association.
His LinkedIn page, where his profile photo
shows him with Ban Ki-moon in a black bow tie, a sign they met at a function,
lists him simply as “Charles” in English and Chinese. It says he is based in
the central Beijing district of Chaoyang.
It lists his work history as secretary
general of the United Nations Chinese Friendship Association — but provides no
dates — and as the CEO of “US Wall Street Capital United Investment Group.”
The Beijing branch of the Wall Street Capital
investment company, registered under the name “Heigan McBob,” had its business
license revoked in 2012, according to Alibaba company credit records.
For his education, “Charles” has written “PhD
in management from Golden State university” and given the dates as 2008 to
2020, suggesting that he’s still studying. The website for Golden State
University shows it is based in southern Los Angeles and offers a master’s
degree in Asian medicine. It does not show a doctorate program or any classes
in management.
There was no immediate response from the
university on the claims.
His only other qualification is from the
“United Nations Certification Association.” This association has a website that
is only in Chinese and, again, does not appear to be linked to the United
Nations.
Washington Post reporters on Wednesday
visited the Beijing address listed for the United Nations Chinese Friendship
Association but found no such organization. The real estate management company
said there was no record of such a tenant.
The Post also sent messages through WeChat to
the number listed for Li on multiple pages, including on ads showing a Trump
family photo and the caption “invitation to meet Trump at a banquet at
Mar-a-Lago.” The account was listed as “Peace Dove,” and when asked if it
belonged to Charles, the user sent back a photo of Trump doing a thumbs-up.
The person did not respond to questions about
whether they knew Zhang or what she had been trying to do at Mar-a-Lago.
Instead, they blocked the reporter from being able to contact him.
Wang Yuan, Lyric Li and Liu Yang in Beijing
and Carol Morello, Brian Murphy and Juliet Eilperin in Washington contributed
to this report.
Read more
