By Thomas Catenacci
Published September 26, 2022
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a major U.S. green group that has influenced Biden administration policymaking, has deep ties to the Chinese government.
The NRDC, a non-profit organization based in New York City with total assets exceeding $450 million, has worked on climate issues extensively in China since the mid-1990s and several of its top officials have worked for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or government-sponsored institutions.
The NRDC maintains a close working relationship with President Biden's administration. The NRDC's former president, Gina McCarthy, served as Biden's climate czar up from January 2021 until earlier this month. Current president, Manish Bapna, has attended at least two White House meetings, visitor logs reviewed by Fox News Digital show.
The NRDC regularly communicates with Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry's office on policy issues, according to internal State Department emails obtained by the watchdog group Protect the Public's Trust and shared with Fox News Digital.
On its website, the NRDC highlights its collaboration with a "wide range of Chinese and international partners" to boost green policies and "fortify" environmental regulations in the country.
The NRDC, though, rarely condemns the communist government in China despite the nation's massive world-leading carbon footprint and its commitment to fossil fuel energy. China accounts for about 27% of total global emissions — nearly tripling the total in the U.S., the world's second-largest emitter, according to Rhodium Group — and continues to approve and construct a large amount of coal power plants.
"China has made a serious commitment to turning its cities into healthier places to live and currently leads the world in renewable energy installation and electric vehicle penetration," the NRDC website states.
While the group has a sizable international program that extends into Canada, India and Latin America, its sole office outside the U.S. is located in Beijing, China's capital city. The NRDC's Chinese language website states the office is registered under the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau and supervised by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration of China.
The NRDC's most recent tax filings showed that the Chinese office is staffed with 35 employees and has a $4.2 million annual budget. By comparison, the group's international work in North America, South America, South Asia and the Middle East has 11 staffers and a $1.1 million annual budget.
"The NRDC is an independent public-interest group working to protect the environment and public health," Amanda Maxwell, the managing director of NRDC’s international program, told Fox News Digital in a statement. "The central environmental challenges of our time - threats to our oceans and wildlife, toxic chemicals in our food and air, climate change and more - are global problems that demand a global fix."
"As the world's most populous country, China plays an important role in the search for sustainable solutions," she continued. "That’s what our work is all about. In China, and elsewhere, we’re working to create a cleaner, more sustainable world - for everyone."
Maxwell said the NRDC has never received any funding directly or indirectly from organizations affiliated with the CCP. The Internal Revenue Service generally does not require nonprofit organizations to publicly disclose donor information.
She added that non-profit organizations like the NRDC are required in China to register with a government sponsor to coordinate in-country activities, explaining why the group's activities are supervised by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, China's equivalent of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
"We advise our sponsor, the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration, of our work plan for in-country activities involving any Chinese entity, government or private," Maxwell told Fox News Digital. "And we provide the agency with an annual report assessing the outcome of our work, which centers on providing independent analysis and policy recommendations to the government of China."
"In China, as elsewhere, the NRDC operates in accordance with the law."
Still, numerous key members of NRDC's Beijing office have previously worked for China's communist government or left the group for a government position.
For example, Jieqing Zhang, the director of NRDC's China program, was the former deputy director-general of China's International Cooperation Department under the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. Kai Duan, an NRDC senior project manager, also worked for a subagency within the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
Read more: FoxNews.com
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