Eric Swalwell’s relationship with Fang Fang, a suspected Chinese spy, should have seen him stripped of his security clearance and kicked off the House Intel Committee, according to military and intelligence experts.
“These are types of relationships that if I, a military member, had would be fired or possibly prosecuted. Reporting it to authorities would just mean the end of my career,” retired Navy Brig. Gen. Rob Spalding, who previously served as a defense attache to China and member of President Trump’s National Security Council, told the Washington Examiner. “If you’re gonna sit on the intel committee and you have these kinds of relationships, you should be off these committees. This is just common practice. You know what the Chinese do? You won’t even be part of the government if you have these relationships.”
Scrutiny over Swalwell’s position on the House Intel Committee and as lead Democrat on the Subcommittee on the Central Intelligence Agency has thus far come only from congressional Republicans demanding his removal. Last month, 17 GOP lawmakers sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanding Swalwell be stripped of his committee assignment. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has repeatedly called Swalwell’s continued presence on the committee a national security risk.
GOP senators like Rand Paul of Kentucky have called for his resignation from Congress altogether.
“He was the most over-the-top critic of President Trump on Russia collusion, and it turns out, he’s sleeping with a Chinese spy,” Paul said in December. “I mean, my goodness. The hypocrisy. It’s appalling, and he really should be red-faced and ashamed of himself and really, probably ought to just resign from Congress.”
The extent of Swalwell’s relationship with Fang remains unclear. Axios indicated their relationship went back to at least 2012, when Swalwell was a Dublin City, California, councilman. From then to 2015, the two grew closer, with Fang holding fundraisers for Swalwell’s congressional bid and even facilitating the placement of an intern in his office.
Swalwell, one of the most vocal House critics of the president and proponent of the theory that he is compromised by the Russian government, was informed of Fang’s potential connections to Chinese intelligence in 2015 and immediately ended all contact, according to statements from his office. He has since called the leaking of his yearslong relationship with Fang a retribution campaign from the Trump administration.
Nonpartisan China analysts have called the relationship a wake-up call and an opportunity to review the security clearance process. Unlike civilian government employees or members of the military, there is virtually no independent approval process for lawmakers to gain access to the nation’s most closely kept secrets and no remedies aside from congressional intervention to discipline those who abuse the privilege.
“The threat of Chinese espionage is real. It’s hard to assess how much it is increasing, but we have anecdotal evidence in the form of media reports that suggest that it’s been increasing. They’ve been using these honey-pot tactics to flip vulnerable people,” said Timothy Heath, an expert on U.S.-China relations and former analyst for the United States Indo-Pacific Command China Strategic Focus Group. “[Swalwell’s] case is yet another example of the Chinese exploiting some of the features of a liberal democracy to insinuate themselves and gain access. Going after campaigns of lower-level politicians like Swalwell makes sense, but the fact that he had PRC nationals around him, if I was with people like that, I wouldn’t get a security clearance. The standards for our officials to get a clearance is a lot lower than the average Joe, and that is a huge vulnerability. It’s an issue. It’s just shocking how little it’s taken seriously.”
Democratic leadership remains loyal toward Swalwell. In December, Pelosi called Republican criticisms of Swalwell’s relationship with Fang a distraction “to deflect attention from the fact that [McCarthy] has QAnon in his delegation,” referring to GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has professed a belief in the right-wing conspiracy theory that a global cabal of pedophiles secretly controls the U.S. government.
“It has to do with personal discretion. To the extent that China would have targeted him, it would have been for reasons of personal discretion,” Spalding said. “They would go after anybody in this way, but they’re more likely to go after those who are, quite frankly, susceptible to these kinds of approaches. I think there is a double standard if you’re in politics.”
