How the Same Chinese Province Running Activist Front Groups in Ohio Is Bankrolling Florida Elections Through iGas
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On March 17, 2026, dozens of activists wearing matching purple “Stop H.B. 1” t-shirts packed an Ohio House hearing room to oppose a bill that would prohibit citizens of foreign adversary nations from acquiring property near military installations. They testified with strikingly similar language. They followed proponents into the hallway to interrogate them. They framed their opposition as a defense of civil liberties and the American Dream.
They were organized by groups with documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, Beijing’s primary apparatus for foreign influence operations.
Six hundred miles south, in Tampa, Florida, a refrigerant company called iGas USA, de facto controlled by a Chinese state-controlled enterprise from the same province that runs many of these front organizations, has millions purchasing access to Republican politicians who publicly campaign against CCP influence while privately cashing checks funded by it.
These are not two separate stories. They are two fronts of the same war.
The Ohio Operation: United Front Playbook in Real Time
The investigation documented that multiple UCA board members have held Chinese government positions, that the organization has promoted UFWD youth programs, and that its community partner in Ohio, the Ohio Chinese American Association (OCCA), has ties to the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), a UFWD arm.
The pattern is textbook United Front. As the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission documented in its 2018 report, UFWD front groups organize “protests against topics deemed threats to the stability of CCP rule” and encourage “overseas Chinese to get involved in politics to advocate for Beijing’s interests” in order to “turn Americans against their own government’s interests.”
Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor, who testified in favor of H.B. 1 and engaged directly with the CCP-linked activists, described the method with precision: these actors “obscure their party-state affiliations and hide their true intentions by laundering their propaganda into American terminology.”
Property rights. The American Dream. Education, not discrimination.
The language changes. The objective does not.
The Zhejiang Thread
Here is where the two fronts converge.
OCCA’s chairman, Vincent Wang, also serves as UCA’s “community partnership representative.” Wang is the registered agent for Global Media Collaborations LLC, which he has used to develop close ties with Chinese state media outlets including CCTV. OCCA’s website promotes a UFWD-run summer camp in China and has participated in UCA’s “Food of Love” program, an initiative launched by ACFROC during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ACFROC is headquartered in Beijing, but its provincial branches are the operational workhorses. The Zhejiang Province branch of ACFROC and the Zhejiang Provincial UFWD have been documented by Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology as conducting extensive overseas influence operations, including coordination with “national security and intelligence departments.”
Now consider iGas USA. The company was created in 2018 as a joint venture between Xianbin (Ben) Meng and Zhejiang Juhua Co., Ltd. Zhejiang Juhua is a fluorochemical manufacturer listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (600160), controlled by the state-owned Zhejiang Materials Industry Group. The U.S. Commerce Department has determined that Zhejiang Juhua is controlled by the Chinese government. Under the joint venture agreement disclosed in a 2022 federal lawsuit, Zhejiang Juhua invested $10 million in iGas and holds a formal 34% ownership stake. But formal equity percentages do not tell the full story. Zhejiang Juhua was a founding partner of iGas, provided the startup capital, supplies the Chinese-manufactured refrigerants that constitute the company’s core product line, and maintains board representation. When a state-controlled enterprise funds the creation of a company, supplies its inventory, and sits on its board, the 34% figure on paper understates the actual control relationship.
Zhejiang Province. The same province whose UFWD apparatus runs the overseas influence networks that are packing statehouses in Ohio and Iowa is the home base of the state-owned enterprise that de facto controls the company funneling political money to Florida politicians.
This is part of their 100 year strategy of “Unrestricted Warfare” against the United States of America.
Following the Money Into Florida Elections
The iGas contribution network has pumped millions into federal and state political committees since 2019, with 98% going to Republican candidates and committees. The Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald documented that Governor Ron DeSantis received over $340,000 through committees affiliated with him. DeSantis even held a campaign rally at iGas’s Tampa complex.
As iGas’s fight with the EPA over Chinese refrigerant imports intensified, its political giving accelerated from just over $10,000 in 2019 to more than $800,000 in 2022. Politicians who received iGas money often went on to advocate directly on the company’s behalf, with at least one Republican congressman writing a letter to the EPA that mirrored iGas’s own language.
The corruption runs deeper than DeSantis.
The Washington Examiner reported in January 2026 that Byron Donalds, currently running for Governor, accepted $450,000 from iGas and its Chinese-born CEO in June 2025 alone, despite publicly describing China as America’s “top hegemonic adversary.”
And then there is Ashley Moody.
On March 10, 2026, the Federal Election Commission assigned Matter Under Review numbers to two complaints I filed on March 1.
MUR 8437 covers Ashley Moody’s campaign finance violations.
MUR 8439 covers the iGas/Zhejiang Juhua CCP contribution network.
iGas and its affiliated entity Cool Master Pro contributed $65,000 to Friends of Ashley Moody, her Florida state PAC. Those funds did not remain isolated. They became part of the $3.85 million transferred to Protect Florida PAC on February 18, 2025. Capital originating from a CCP de facto controlled enterprise is now commingled with funds being deployed in connection with a United States Senate election.
The FEC is now investigating the mechanism by which Zhejiang Juhua, through its ownership interest, board representation, supply chain dominance, and joint venture governance structure, directed or influenced the decision to make these political contributions. Given the Commerce Department’s own determination that Zhejiang Juhua is controlled by the Chinese government, the question is not whether CCP-linked authority reached into iGas’s political spending, but how. That is a violation of 52 U.S.C. Section 30121, the federal prohibition on foreign national contributions.
Two Fronts, One Objective
The CCP’s strategy for undermining American sovereignty operates on parallel tracks that are designed to appear unrelated.
Front One: Activist Infrastructure. The United Front Work Department deploys networks of nonprofits, cultural associations, and community organizations to oppose any legislation that would restrict CCP access to American territory, institutions, and infrastructure. These groups frame national security legislation as discrimination. They pack hearing rooms. They flood comment periods. They deploy the language of civil rights to defend the interests of a foreign authoritarian state.
Front Two: Campaign Finance Capture. CCP-controlled enterprises establish nominally American companies through joint venture structures that obscure the true locus of control. The Chinese state entity provides the startup capital, the product supply chain, and the board seats, then uses the American-facing shell to make massive political contributions to the very politicians responsible for regulating foreign influence. The politicians take the money, talk tough on China in public, and quietly advance the interests of their de facto foreign sponsors.
The two fronts reinforce each other. When politicians are financially captured, they have less incentive to support the national security legislation that the activist front is simultaneously fighting to kill. When the activist front succeeds in blocking or weakening legislation, the environment becomes more permissive for the kind of CCP-controlled commercial operations that generate the campaign contributions.
Ohio’s H.B. 1 would restrict foreign adversary citizens from owning property near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, home of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center. The UFWD-linked network is fighting to keep that door open. Meanwhile, in Florida, money flowing from a Zhejiang state enterprise through a Tampa refrigerant company has already purchased access to a sitting governor, a gubernatorial candidate, U.S. senators, and a candidate for the United States Senate.
The Zhejiang Juhua Enforcement Posture
The enforcement architecture I have constructed around the iGas/Zhejiang Juhua network extends beyond the FEC.
An OFAC designation petition has been filed targeting Zhejiang Juhua and 11 affiliated U.S. entities. The petition documents how Zhejiang Juhua’s governance structure, founding investment, supply chain control, and board representation established de facto authority over iGas USA’s operations, including its political contribution decisions. That constitutes a sanctions compliance violation in addition to the FECA violation.
The iGas matter has particular relevance to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Armed Service Committee given the FARA implications and the active Commerce Department determination that Zhejiang Juhua is de facto controlled by the CCP and Ashley Moody was just named to the Senate Armed Service Committee last week.
The DeSantis FEC complaint (separate from the Moody and iGas matters) names 52 respondents across 8 violation tracks covering $218 million and 394,154 smurf-flagged donors. The legal architecture uses the 18 U.S.C. Section 1956(c)(7)(D) money laundering bridge to convert FECA felonies into RICO predicates.
The Question Every Florida Voter Should Ask
If the CCP is willing to mobilize dozens of activists in matching t-shirts to pack an Ohio committee hearing over a property restriction bill near an Air Force base, what is it willing to do with millions in campaign contributions to politicians who control the regulatory environment for Chinese imports into the American market?
If the same Zhejiang Province apparatus is running both the activist front groups and the state-owned enterprise that bankrolls American campaigns, should we continue to treat these as unrelated phenomena?
And if the politicians who cash these checks continue to campaign as anti-CCP hawks while their campaign accounts are funded by CCP-directed capital, who exactly are they representing?
The FEC has opened its cases. The OFAC petition is filed. Sworn criminal complaints are filed.
The question now is whether anyone in a position of authority will act before the next election cycle gives Beijing another opportunity to purchase the result.
