The following is excerpted from Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China’s Drive for Global Supremacy (Encounter, September 2019) the latest book by Free Beacon Senior Editor Bill Gertz.

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Chinese influence operations in the United States are pervasive and include the use of covert operations to support the objectives of the Communist Party of China in silencing critics of the regime in Beijing.

China’s targeting of billionaire Chinese dissident Guo Wengui is a case study in the use of these covert methods.

A conspiracy was launched by the People’s Republic of China that involved a $3 billion scheme to lobby the Trump administration to force Guo’s return to China. The operation involved Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, known as Jho Low, and rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, who also is a record producer, songwriter, and actor and one of the founding members of the hip-hop group, the Fugees.