渗透美国——从唐人街到黑豹党
作者：陀先润
1970年，黑豹党领袖休·牛顿从监狱里出来，买了一张去中国的机票。
他在中国待了十天，见了周恩来，参观了工厂、学校和公社，看到了一个欣欣向荣的社会主义国家。他回到美国之后，做了一件让所有人都看不懂的事：宣布黑豹党放弃武装革命，不再谋求推翻美国政府。
就在一年前，他还是一个狂热的毛泽东崇拜者，把毛主席语录当作圣经，把中国革命当作自己的榜样。他入狱的时候，黑豹党的其他成员去中国朝圣，见毛泽东，见中共领导人，把中国视为全世界被压迫人民的精神故乡。
为什么回来之后就变了？
很多人说是他性情大变，说是监狱改变了他，说是他开始吸毒。这些解释听起来都说得通，但都没有触及真正的原因。真正的原因是，在北京，周恩来告诉了他一件事：中国即将和美国改善关系，中国不再支持黑豹党的武装革命，经济援助也会随之停止。
牛顿从中国回来，不是一个被改变的人，而是一个被通知的人。他知道靠山撤了，只能自己找出路。
这件事要从头说起。
中共在美国的布局，比大多数人想象的要早得多，也深得多。1927年，国共分裂之后，一批在美国的中共党员申请加入了美国共产党，美国共产党专门为此成立了一个机构，叫中国局，设在旧金山，名义上归旧金山美共第十三区领导，实际上做的是在美华人华侨的地下工作。
中国局的第一任书记叫施晃。施晃不是普通的党务工作者，他后来被派去古巴建立古巴共产党，回来之后又去莫斯科受训，然后进入香港海员工会系统。香港海员工会在那个年代是中共在海外最重要的情报和组织网络之一，是中共把手伸进海外华人社区的一个关键渠道。
中国局的第二个重要人物叫徐永英。1928年他在旧金山成立了华工俱乐部，这被认为是中共在美国群众运动的正式开端。他后来进入太平洋国际学会，担任研究员，利用这个学术机构的掩护，影响美国知识界和政治界对中国的看法。他回国之后进入外交部，担任美洲澳洲司司长。
第三个人更有意思，叫纪朝鼎。他是清华大学毕业的，留美之后加入美共中国局，同时通过美共的关系网络，打入了国民政府的财政系统。他成了孔祥熙的秘书，跟宋子文也搞得火热，每周和宋爱龄一起打桥牌。他在国民政府财政系统里做了一件影响深远的事：主导了抗战胜利后沦陷区的货币兑换比率。
当时沦陷区的伪币和法币在黑市上的兑换比率大约是八十比一，但纪朝鼎说服宋子文定了一个官方强制兑换比率：两百比一。这意味着沦陷区的老百姓手里的积蓄，一夜之间缩水了将近七成。国民党的接收官员发现，拿着法币去沦陷区按两百比一换伪币，再去买便宜的黄金、房产、货物，运回大后方转手就是几倍的利润。腐败就这样被制度化了，国统区的经济在这个比率的冲击下迅速崩溃，民心彻底离散。
后来有历史学家评价，纪朝鼎用一个汇率，帮中共打赢了国共内战。他是有功于中共的，但正如有人说过的：纪朝鼎有功于中共，但有罪于中华民族。他死得很早，1963年就去世了，没有等到足够多的人明白他到底做了什么。
从施晃到徐永英到纪朝鼎，这三个人勾勒出了中共在美国布局的基本逻辑：以美共为掩护建立组织网络，以学术机构和新闻媒体为渠道影响舆论，以打入国民政府内部的方式直接破坏对手的根基。这三条线同时运作，互相配合，而真正的操盘者是周恩来和董必武，中共情报系统里最顶端的两个人。
1933年之后，中国局已经不再做表面的党务工作，专门转型为情报组织和秘密基地建设机构。他们在纽约建立了根基，因为纽约有大量的华人移民，有香港海员工会的网络，有美共的保护，是一个可以深耕的土壤。法拉盛就是在这个基础上，经过几十年的经营，变成了今天这个样子。
麦卡锡主义兴起之后，美共在美国受到了严厉打压，公开的党务活动几乎全部停止。中共在美国的力量转入更深的地下，以帮会、同乡会、劳工组织、文化团体的形式继续存在，一层套一层，从外面看是普通的华人社区组织，里面的核心人员才知道真正的归属。
1960年代，毛泽东认为自己已经可以取代斯大林，成为世界革命的领袖，中共开始全球范围内的输出革命。在美国，这种冲动找到了一个意想不到的出口：黑人民权运动。
中共打黑人牌不是从黑豹党开始的。早在1959年，黑人作家杜波依斯就访问了中国，和毛泽东、周恩来、陈毅全都见了面。1961年，全国有色人种协进会的领导人威廉姆斯，因为鼓吹黑人武装自卫被起诉，逃到古巴，1965年又在毛泽东和周恩来的邀请下来到中国，在北京得到庇护，住了好几年。这批人和中共之间的联系，是后来黑豹党和中国关系的前奏。
黑豹党成立于1966年，创始人是休·牛顿和鲍比·希尔。牛顿是毛泽东的狂热崇拜者，他不是读毛选，是从语录开始读的，然后越读越痴迷，把毛泽东思想变成了黑豹党的意识形态基础。黑豹党的钱从哪里来，一直是个谜。官方说法是他们到旧金山的亲中书店，以两毛钱一本的价格买进毛主席语录，然后在伯克利大学校园里以一美元一本卖出去，一本赚八毛钱，用这个钱买枪。
这个说法可笑得令人叹服。卖一本语录赚八毛钱，买一支散弹枪要七八十美元，需要卖将近一百本才能买一支枪。黑豹党鼎盛时期有统一服装、统一武器，在全美十九个城市每天向两万名儿童提供免费早餐，还有免费诊所、法律援助、社区巡逻队。这些钱，不是卖语录卖出来的。
1963年，毛泽东发表了一篇公开声明，支持美国黑人的民权运动，把它定性为全球反帝国主义斗争的一部分。1966年文化大革命爆发，中共开始全球范围内推动武装革命，黑豹党就在这个时机点成立了，获得了来自中国的实质性支持。具体金额没有任何公开记录，但从黑豹党的活动规模来看，支持是真实存在的。
黑豹党在FBI局长胡佛眼里是美国国内安全的最大威胁。胡佛的判断不是没有道理，因为黑豹党真的在做一件危险的事：争夺民心。免费早餐、免费诊所、法律援助，这些项目让黑豹党在贫困黑人社区里建立了真实的群众基础，这才是让政府真正感到恐慌的东西，不是他们手里的枪。
然后，1971年，牛顿去了中国，回来之后宣布放弃武装革命。
黑豹党内部的分裂随之爆发。一批人认为牛顿背叛了革命，拒绝接受这个转变。逃亡阿尔及利亚的克里弗在电话里和牛顿公开决裂，被开除出党。另一批人跟着牛顿转型，开始走社区服务和选举政治的路线，希尔后来竞选市长，竞选州长，成了一个正常的民主党政客。
这个分裂的过程，正好和中美关系改善的时间线完全吻合。1971年基辛格秘密访华，1972年尼克松访问北京，中美开始走向正常化。中国不再需要在美国国内维持一支武装的颠覆力量，黑豹党完成了它的使命，被安静地放弃了。
但中共在美国的布局并没有因此消失，只是换了形式。
1978年，一个叫义和权的组织宣告解散，同年成立了一个叫革命斗争联盟的新组织，说是纯粹的美国本土组织，和中共没有关系。1985年，这个组织又和其他几个亲中团体合并，成立了自由道路社会主义组织。这个组织至今存在，成员以保密身份参与，不公开党籍，是标准的地下党模式。
更直接的是加州华人进步会。这个组织由义和权在旧金山建立，义和权是从纽约派来的，纽约的根子在中国局。加州华人进步会存活至今，是美国西海岸最重要的亲中华人组织之一。黑命贵运动的创始人之一加尔萨，成立了一个叫黑人未来实验室的组织，这个实验室的唯一金主，就是加州华人进步会。
从1920年代的中国局，到1960年代的黑豹党，到2010年代的黑命贵，这条线是连续的，不是偶然的巧合，而是同一张网在不同时代的不同表现形式。
习近平后来把这张网提前引爆了。黑命贵运动在2020年爆发，时机和中美关系的急剧恶化高度重合，美国情报界很快意识到背后有外部力量在推动。中共本来打算在台海问题最关键的时刻把这张牌打出来，在美国国内制造混乱，消耗政府精力，压制干涉台海的政治意愿。结果被提前用在了一场总统选举里，把几十年的布局暴露在了美国情报机构的视野之下。
这个操作让中共的长期谋划损失惨重，相当于把一枚准备在最关键时刻引爆的炸弹，拿来吓唬邻居的狗。
编辑：黄吉洲 校对：孔祥庆 翻译：戈冰
Party Pawn—The Secret History of the CCP’s Export of Revolution (Part VI)
Infiltrating the United States: From Chinatown to the Black Panther Party
Author: Tuo Xianrun
In 1970, Huey Newton, leader of the Black Panther Party, was released from prison and bought a plane ticket to China.
He stayed in China for ten days, met Zhou Enlai, visited factories, schools, and communes, and witnessed a thriving, prosperous socialist country. After returning to the United States, he did something that confounded everyone: he announced that the Black Panther Party was renouncing armed revolution and would no longer seek to overthrow the U.S. government.
Just a year prior, he had been a fanatical admirer of Mao Zedong, treating the Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung as a Bible and viewing the Chinese Revolution as his model. While he was in prison, other members of the Black Panther Party went on pilgrimages to China, meeting Mao Zedong and top CCP leaders, regarding China as the spiritual homeland for all oppressed people across the globe.
Why did he change so drastically upon his return?
Many claimed his temperament had undergone a shift, that prison had altered him, or that he had begun abusing drugs. These explanations all sound plausible, yet none hit upon the true reason. The true reason was that in Beijing, Zhou Enlai delivered a piece of news to him: China was about to improve its relations with the United States, China would no longer support the Black Panther Party’s armed revolution, and economic aid would be cut off accordingly.
Newton returned from China not as a man who had undergone a personal transformation, but as a man who had received an eviction notice. Knowing that his backer had pulled out, he had no choice but to forge a new path on his own.
This story must be told from the very beginning.
The CCP’s strategic footprint in the United States began much earlier and ran far deeper than most people realize. In 1927, following the split between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, a group of CCP members in the U.S. applied to join the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). The CPUSA established a dedicated organ for this purpose called the Chinese Bureau. Headquartered in San Francisco, it was nominally placed under the direction of District 13 of the CPUSA in San Francisco, but in reality, it operated as an underground network targeting Chinese immigrants and overseas Chinese in the United States.
The first secretary of the Chinese Bureau was Shi Huang. Shi Huang was no ordinary party worker; he was later dispatched to Cuba to assist in establishing the Communist Party of Cuba, and upon his return, he was sent to Moscow for training before entering the system of the Hong Kong Seamen’s Union. In that era, the Hong Kong Seamen’s Union was one of the CCP’s most crucial intelligence and organizational networks overseas, serving as a key channel through which the CCP extended its reach into overseas Chinese communities.
The second key figure of the Chinese Bureau was Xu Yongying. In 1928, he founded the Chinese Workers’ Club in San Francisco, an event considered the formal beginning of the CCP’s mass movements in the United States. He later joined the Institute of Pacific Relations as a research fellow, utilizing the cover of this academic institution to influence the perceptions of the American intelligentsia and political circles regarding China. After returning to China, he entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served as the Director-General of the Department of American and Australian Affairs.
The third individual was even more interesting: Ji Chaoding. A graduate of Tsinghua University, he joined the CPUSA Chinese Bureau after studying in the United States, while simultaneously infiltrating the financial system of the Nationalist Government through the network of the CPUSA. He became a secretary to H. H. Kung, got along famously with T. V. Soong, and played bridge with Soong Ai-ling every week. Within the Nationalist Government’s financial system, he accomplished something with far-reaching consequences: he spearheaded the determination of the currency exchange rate in former occupied areas following the victory in the War of Resistance.
At the time, the black-market exchange rate between the puppet currency in the occupied territories and the Fabi (legal tender) stood at roughly eighty to one, but Ji Chaoding persuaded T. V. Soong to establish an official, mandatory exchange rate of two hundred to one. This meant that the savings of ordinary people in the occupied zones shrank by nearly seventy percent overnight. Takeover officials from the Nationalist Government discovered that by bringing Fabi to the occupied territories, exchanging it at the two-hundred-to-one rate for puppet currency, and then buying cheap gold, real estate, and commodities to transport back to the Nationalist rear areas, they could reap multi-fold profits. Corruption was thus institutionalized; under the impact of this exchange rate, the economy in Nationalist-controlled areas rapidly collapsed, and the hearts of the public were completely alienated.
Later, historians commented that Ji Chaoding helped the CCP win the Chinese Civil War with a single exchange rate. He was a man of great merit to the CCP, but as some have said: Ji Chaoding was a benefactor to the CCP, yet a perpetrator of crime against the Chinese nation. He passed away very early, in 1963, without living to see enough people understand what he had actually done.
From Shi Huang to Xu Yongying to Ji Chaoding, these three individuals outlined the foundational logic of the CCP’s strategic layout in the United States: using the CPUSA as cover to build organizational networks, employing academic institutions and news media as channels to shape public opinion, and infiltrating the interior of the Nationalist Government to directly undermine the rival’s foundation. These three lines operated simultaneously and in tandem with one another, while the actual masterminds behind the scenes were Zhou Enlai and Dong Biwu—the two men at the very apex of the CCP’s intelligence apparatus.
After 1933, the Chinese Bureau ceased engaging in superficial party affairs and explicitly transformed into an intelligence organization and an agency for building clandestine bases. They established their roots in New York because New York possessed a vast population of Chinese immigrants, the network of the Hong Kong Seamen’s Union, and the protection of the CPUSA—a fertile soil in which to cultivate deep operations. Flushing, built upon this foundation and nurtured over decades of operation, became what it is today.
Following the rise of McCarthyism, the Communist Party USA suffered severe suppression within the United States, and open party activities virtually ground to a complete halt. The CCP’s forces in the United States transitioned into an even deeper underground, continuing their existence under the guise of secret societies, native place associations, labor organizations, and cultural groups. Layer was nested within layer; viewed from the outside, they appeared to be ordinary Chinese community organizations, and only the core personnel on the inside knew their true affiliation.
In the 1960s, Mao Zedong came to believe that he was already positioned to replace Stalin as the leader of the world revolution, and the CCP initiated the export of revolution on a global scale. Within the United States, this impulse found an unexpected outlet: the Black Civil Rights Movement.
The CCP’s strategy of playing the “Black card” did not begin with the Black Panther Party. As early as 1959, the Black writer W. E. B. Du Bois visited China, meeting with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Chen Yi. In 1961, Robert F. Williams, a leader of the NAACP, was indicted for advocating Black armed self-defense and fled to Cuba. In 1965, upon the invitation of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he traveled to China, took refuge in Beijing, and lived there for several years. The connections between these individuals and the CCP served as a prelude to the relationship that later developed between the Black Panther Party and China.
The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. Newton was a fanatical admirer of Mao Zedong; he did not begin by reading the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, but rather started with the Quotations, becoming increasingly obsessed as he read until he turned Mao Zedong Thought into the ideological foundation of the Black Panther Party. Where the Black Panther Party’s funding originated has always remained a mystery. The official narrative claims they went to pro-China bookstores in San Francisco, purchased copies of Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung at twenty cents each, and resold them on the UC Berkeley campus for one dollar each, making an eighty-cent profit per copy to purchase firearms.
This explanation is laughable to an astonishing degree. Making an eighty-cent profit per copy meant that buying a single shotgun, which cost seventy to eighty dollars, would require selling nearly a hundred copies. At its peak, the Black Panther Party maintained uniform attire and standardized weaponry, provided free breakfast to twenty thousand children daily across nineteen cities in the United States, and operated free clinics, legal aid, and community patrols. This money was not made by selling copies of the Quotations.
In 1963, Mao Zedong issued a public statement supporting the African American civil rights movement, framing it as an integral part of the global anti-imperialist struggle. When the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966, the CCP began promoting armed revolution worldwide; it was precisely at this historical juncture that the Black Panther Party was established, receiving substantive support from China. While no public record exists detailing specific financial figures, judging by the operational scale of the Black Panther Party, this support was undoubtedly real.
In the eyes of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, the Black Panther Party posed the greatest threat to internal security in the United States. Hoover’s judgment was not without foundation, as the Black Panther Party was engaged in something truly dangerous: the battle for hearts and minds. Through programs providing free breakfasts, free medical clinics, and legal aid, the Black Panther Party established a genuine mass base within impoverished Black communities. This—far more than the firearms in their hands—was what struck genuine terror into the government.
Then, in 1971, Newton traveled to China, and upon his return, he announced the renunciation of armed revolution.
An internal split immediately erupted within the Black Panther Party. One faction viewed Newton as a traitor to the revolution and refused to accept this transition. Eldridge Cleaver, then exiled in Algeria, publicly broke with Newton over the phone and was subsequently expelled from the party. The other faction followed Newton’s path of transformation, embarking on a course of community service and electoral politics; Bobby Seale later ran for mayor and state governor, ultimately transitioning into a conventional Democratic politician.
This process of fragmentation coincided precisely with the timeline of improving Sino-American relations. In 1971, Henry Kissinger made his secret visit to China, and in 1972, Richard Nixon visited Beijing, signaling the start of normalization between China and the United States. China no longer needed to maintain an armed subversion force inside the United States; having fulfilled its mission, the Black Panther Party was quietly abandoned.
Yet, the CCP’s strategic footprint in the United States did not vanish as a result; it merely adopted a different form.
In 1978, an organization named I Wor Kuen announced its dissolution, and that same year, a new organization called the League of Revolutionary Struggle was established, presenting itself as a purely domestic American organization with no ties to the CCP. In 1985, this organization merged with several other pro-China groups to form the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. This organization continues to exist to this day, with its members participating under covert identities and keeping their party affiliations unpublicized—a textbook operational model of an underground party.
Even more direct is the Chinese Progressive Association in California. This organization was established in San Francisco by I Wor Kuen, who were sent from New York, with their roots in New York tracing back to the Chinese Bureau. Having survived to this day, the Chinese Progressive Association in California remains one of the most important pro-China Chinese organizations on the West Coast of the United States. Alicia Garza, one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, founded an organization called the Black Futures Lab; the sole fiscal sponsor of this lab was none other than the Chinese Progressive Association in California.
From the Chinese Bureau in the 1920s, to the Black Panther Party in the 1960s, to Black Lives Matter in the 2010s, this line is continuous—it is no accidental coincidence, but rather the varying manifestations of the very same network across different eras.
Xi Jinping later detonated this network prematurely. The Black Lives Matter movement erupted in 2020, its timing heavily coinciding with the sharp deterioration of Sino-American relations, and the U.S. intelligence community quickly realized that external forces were pushing behind the scenes. The CCP had originally intended to play this card at the most critical juncture over the Taiwan Strait issue to create domestic chaos within the United States, drain the energy of its government, and suppress its political will to intervene in the Taiwan Strait. Instead, it was deployed prematurely in a presidential election, exposing decades of strategic layout to the view of U.S. intelligence agencies.
This operation caused catastrophic losses to the CCP’s long-term calculations—equivalent to taking a bomb meant to be detonated at the most critical moment, and using it merely to intimidate a neighbor’s dog.
Editor: Huang Jizhou Proofreader: Kong Xiangqing Translator: Ge Bing
