Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.

The highlights this week: A bribery scandal in New York prompts scrutiny of Chinese influence operations, Beijing prepares for a military parade, and Nvidia pauses production of the H20 chip.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.

The highlights this week: A bribery scandal in New York prompts scrutiny of Chinese influence operations, Beijing prepares for a military parade, and Nvidia pauses production of the H20 chip.

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Last week, Winnie Greco—then a Chinese American advisor to New York Mayor Eric Adams and the city’s former director of Asian affairs—made headlines for handing a reporter an envelope of cash in a bag of potato chips in a seeming bribery attempt.

There has since been intense scrutiny on Chinese influence efforts in New York, home to the highest number of ethnic Chinese outside of Asia. On Monday, the New York Times published an extensive investigation into how Beijing seeks to shape politics in the city, ranging from control of decades-old “hometown associations” to sabotaging the careers of pro-Taiwanese politicians.

The recent incidents recounted in that investigation are hardly the first time that Chinese influence has shown up in New York local politics. But why does Beijing put so much effort into winning municipal elections with ultimately little role in setting foreign or trade policy?

Some of it is habit. Chinese official life involves interference, monitoring, and control of civil society—including live theater, house churches, village elections (now abandoned), and everything in between.

China sees its diaspora, especially those born in the mainland, as falling under its authority, which stems in part from ethnonationalism, but also a long-standing fear that dissidents........

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