Thomas Zimmerman, President-elect Joe Biden’s special assistant for presidential personnel, was a visiting scholar at what the FBI has identified as “a leading organization in Chinese (Communist) intelligence gathering and overseas spy recruitment.
The National Pulse revealed on Jan. 12 that while working at New York University’s Center for International Cooperation, Zimmerman also worked for the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS), which was labeled as such by the FBI because of its close ties to the Communist Party’s top spy agency, the Ministry of State Security.
SASS was involved in a criminal case in 2019 involving Kevin Mallory, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official who sold classified U.S. Department of Defense documents to the Chinese Communist Party.
Mallory was contacted by officials at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences through the social networking service LinkedIn and subsequently began selling classified information to the Chinese Communist Party’s intelligence services before being caught and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The FBI said that the CCP used employees of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences to “observe and assess” potential Western spies, and described officials of the Ministry of State Security as keen to “influence the foreign policy of other countries” and also to “use their connections to the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences as a means to influence the foreign policy of other countries. using their connections to the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences as a cover.
An article in Homeland Security Today said that Zimmerman was a “visiting scholar” at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, focusing on “Afghanistan, Somalia and Chinese regional policy.
Together with Li Lifan, a Communist Party adviser and foreign affairs assistant to the director of the Institute of International Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Zimmerman hosted an academic salon at the Shanghai Institute of American Studies (SIAS) “on topics related to counter-terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, security issues in Central Asia, and the role of China’s regional policy. Pakistan, security issues in Central Asia, U.S. views on the Belt and Road, and security issues in South Asia.”
According to a June 15, 2015, “Academic Newsletter” prepared by the SIAS Research Office, the salon was held on June 4 of that year.
Contents of the June 15, 2015, “Academic Newsletter” from the Shanghai Institute for American Studies. (Screenshot)
In addition, the “Academic Newsletter” prepared by the SIAS Research Office on March 15, 2015 also records that Zimmerman visited SIAS on February 10 of the same year and spoke on the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. The speech covered how domestic political changes in the U.S. (especially the election) will affect U.S. policy in Afghanistan and the positions of the leading candidates of both parties on Afghanistan.
Shanghai Institute for American Studies (SIAS) “Academic Newsletter” dated March 15, 2015. (Screenshot)
According to SIAS’s official website, the institute “is a fully financially funded institution of the Shanghai Municipal Government” and “provides advisory services to the central and local governments of China (Communist Party of China) for decision-making.”
Information on the website of Biden-He Jinli’s transition team indicates that Zimmerman was appointed Special Assistant to the President for National Security Agency personnel. However, his bio posted on the website does not mention his ties to the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
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