Lobbyists are working for the CCP-linked platform used to implement the vaccine passports.
QUICK FACTS:
- American lobbying firms have been contracted by Ant Group, which is a platform used for “vaccine passports” and China’s “social credit” system.
- The lobbying firms are connected to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as well as former President Barack Obama and failed presidential candidate and Senator Mitt Romney.
- Ant Group functions as a major part of China’s broader “social credit” system which shares the data it collects on users’ spending habits and online activity with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
- The group is an affiliate of the Chinese company Alibaba, which was previously flagged by the U.S. State Department as a “tool” of the CCP.
- Throughout 2021 and 2022, the Ant Group has hired four American lobbying and public affairs firms to assist with “outreach regarding corporate profile and operations of Ant Group and its subsidiary Alipay US.”
SOME OF THE LOBBYISTS WORKING FOR THE GROUP:
- The Ant Group has retained the services of Larry O’Brien, who was described by The Washington Post as a “major Democratic operative,” and is now lending his services to the CCP-linked group.
- “Mr. O’Brien has been a long-standing participant in the House Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) maximum level individual donor program, the Speaker’s Cabinet, and in the ‘Pelosi Team 100’ program. Over a period of two decades, Mr. O’Brien has had an extensive degree of involvement and interaction with the House Democratic leadership, with myriad Democratic members across a wide array of House committees and with the leadership of the DCCC,” explains his professional bio.
- The Ant Group has also obtained the services of Thomas J. Keating, who previously worked in the House of Representatives Office of Sergeant at Arms for 13 years as their Director of Police Services.
- Lobbying firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld is also currently representing Ant Group, as well as Rich Feuer Anderson, who began working for the company in January of this year conducting “outreach regarding corporate profile and operations of Ant Group and its subsidiary Alipay US.”
BACKGROUND:
- Westerners are concerned about social credit systems because they worry that they would weaponize business and government surveillance to limit people’s access to the economy and services based on particular habits or even ideology.
- The same technology was responsible for China’s vaccine passports which were used to restrict travel within the nation due to vaccine status.
