In the United States, freedom of speech and association are cornerstones of democratic society. However, these freedoms are increasingly under threat for those who dare to challenge the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from within U.S. borders. The CCP will go to extreme lengths to monitor, intimidate, and suppress pro-democracy dissidents abroad, sometimes even leveraging our own laws to undermine activists’ ability to speak freely and safely. Among the tools at their disposal are laws requiring nonprofit organizations to disclose their donor list.

One example of a U.S.-based nonprofit that would be threatened by disclosure is Citizen Power Initiatives for China (CPIC), a pro-democracy human rights organization founded by Chinese scholar and dissident Dr. Yang Jianli. Dr. Yang is a survivor of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre who was later imprisoned in China from 2002 to 2007 for his activism. Today, he continues to advocate for democratic reforms in China from the United States through CPIC. 

Dr. Yang’s activism has made his organization and its supporters targets of the CCP’s far-reaching surveillance and intimidation tactics. One Chinese businessman who donated to CPIC was sentenced to 11 years in a Chinese prison for his “crime” and forced to confess on television. Many Chinese Americans who support CPIC may have family members in China who would be at risk if their donations to the group were uncovered.

Recently, the Washington Post published an expose detailing the global reach of the CCP’s campaign to stifle dissent. During President Xi Jinping’s visit to San Francisco last year, agents of the CCP instigated fights with pro-Hong Kong and pro-Taiwan independence activists to intimidate those activists from protesting at President Xi’s public events. The goal was to shut down any protest that would undermine the CCP’s preferred depiction of the Chinese diaspora in America as overwhelmingly favorable to the Communist Party’s governance of China. 

The article details the extraordinary efforts of Chinese government agencies and their affiliates to monitor, intimidate, and silence Chinese dissidents living overseas. In many cases, these actions extend to their families back in China, with the threat of retaliation hanging over their heads if they do not cease their advocacy work.

When nonprofit donor disclosure laws require organizations to reveal the identities of their financial backers, this information can easily become a target for foreign governments like China, which are interested in identifying and suppressing dissenting voices. By exposing the names of donors, these laws inadvertently provide the CCP with a ready-made list of individuals to intimidate, harass, or otherwise coerce into silence. For activists like Dr. Jianli Yang, the risk is not just theoretical, but a daily reality that threatens the very fabric of democratic activism across the world.

Historically, donor privacy has been a key protection for individuals who support controversial causes or movements. The right to anonymous association was enshrined in the landmark Supreme Court case NAACP v. Alabama in 1958 which held that the disclosure of NAACP membership lists would expose members to harassment and violence. Today, this same principle applies to those supporting pro-democracy organizations that oppose the CCP. As Dr. Yang, a member of PUFP’s National Privacy Advisory Council, readily points out, anonymity is critical to protecting not only the donors but also the broader movement for freedom and human rights in China.

“It is no exaggeration to say that privacy is a matter of life and death for our members and donors as well as for our organization itself. Our work would be unsustainable without the ability to shield our supporters. The same is true for many other important causes supported by nonprofits throughout the United States,” Dr. Yang wrote in 2022. 

However, recent congressional legislation highlighted in advance of the House of Representatives’ ongoing “China Week” threatens to unravel these protections. While the goal of preventing Chinese interference in American politics is both important and laudable, bills that give agencies like the IRS more power to police nonprofit donations could backfire by making it more likely that nonprofit donor information is leaked or exposed where it can be exploited by the Chinese government. Donor disclosure would enable Chinese meddling in U.S. politics, not prevent it. 

For Chinese dissidents in the U.S., this is not a hypothetical concern. The Washington Post article underscores how the CCP’s reach has extended into American communities, using tactics that range from digital surveillance to in-person intimidation, exploiting American laws and norms to suppress free speech. The enforcement of donor disclosure laws plays into their hands, effectively giving them a map of resistance networks they aim to dismantle.

To protect freedom of expression and association in the United States, lawmakers must recognize the unique threats posed by foreign authoritarian regimes to U.S.-based advocacy groups. Donor privacy is not just a matter of personal preference; it is a vital shield against coercion and repression. Protecting donor privacy rights to safeguard against foreign exploitation will ensure that individuals can support causes without fear of reprisal.

The case of Dr. Jianli Yang and other Chinese dissidents living in the United States should serve as a stark warning: donor lists in the wrong hands can be a tool for tyranny. It is incumbent upon policymakers to ensure that nonprofit donor disclosure laws do not become an inadvertent weapon for authoritarian regimes seeking to silence voices of dissent abroad.