Communist China keeps getting caught acquiring American soil near the places that matter most.
Investigators just pulled back the curtain on a purchase that national security experts say should have never been allowed to happen.
And the man at the center of it has ties to Chinese intelligence so deep that one former CIA officer says this kind of property is where the next catastrophic attack on American soil will originate.
A CCP Intelligence Figure Now Owns a Building 650 Feet From the White House
The 100-year-old Securities Building at 729 15th Street NW in Washington, DC was purchased in July 2026 for $8.4 million by the Philip Qiu and Family Foundation, according to DC Recorder of Deeds filings reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The building sits approximately 650 feet northeast of the White House grounds.
The foundation’s namesake, Philip Qiu — also identified in Chinese records as Qiu Feili — has held numerous positions within Chinese intelligence and state security arms, according to university records and DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements.
Qiu did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
His background reads like a field manual for how Communist China embeds operatives in foreign countries. He began his career as a detective in the Criminal Investigation Team of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, a local arm of China’s Ministry of Public Security — the national security apparatus responsible for domestic intelligence and political control.
By 2011, while enrolled in a master’s program at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Qiu had already completed special forces training. A university account from that year describes how he served as a commander in a military-style exercise and recorded the best individual marksmanship result among participants.
“Classmate Qiu Feili, who has undergone special forces training, served as a commander in the Red-Blue Battle, and not only directed his troops to successfully capture enemy positions, but also killed one-third of the opposing forces with 42 shots, achieving the best individual sniper record,” according to a DCNF translation of the university’s announcement concerning the training exercise.
And that was just the beginning of what the DCNF investigation turned up.
The United Front, the Museum, and the Web of CCP-Linked Entities
Qiu has held at least three positions within arms of the United Front Work Department, or UFWD — the CCP’s primary influence and intelligence agency for operations outside China’s borders. The House Select Committee on the CCP has described the UFWD’s work as a “blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations” that Beijing uses to steer foreign policy and “gain access to advanced foreign technology.”
Among his roles, Qiu served on the executive committee of the Shanghai branch of the UFWD’s All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese. Since May 2021, he has served as chairman of the Shanghai Overseas Chinese Foundation — the sole charity operating within the Shanghai United Front Work Department structure, according to DCNF translations.
He also served as honorary chairman of the Hong Kong Immigration Department Staff Association, through which he organized events introducing Hong Kong students to Shanghai’s SWAT team in 2023 and 2024, according to DCNF translations and accompanying photos.
In 2021, Qiu offered a glimpse of his loyalties. “The CCP is like a kind, but firm parent,” he said, according to a DCNF translation of an announcement from a Chinese intelligence arm. “It has guided our people out of hardship, led China’s sons and daughters to build a new country and is steering us toward great national rejuvenation.”
The Philip Qiu and Family Foundation is headquartered in a separate historic property roughly half a mile north of the White House — a building shared with six other entities Qiu controls, including the Chinese American Museum in Washington, DC, known as CAMDC, according to business filings and DCNF translations.
CAMDC describes itself as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit aiming to “advance the understanding, knowledge, and appreciation of the Chinese American experience,” according to a statement on CAMDC’s website. The museum states it is not funded, controlled, or influenced by a foreign government.
But the DCNF found that CCP-linked organizations have co-sponsored at least eight programs associated with the museum, including cultural events tied to Shanghai’s Longhua Temple, an institution operating under Chinese government religious affairs authorities.
Qiu co-founded CAMDC in 2017 with Chen Xiaoping — whose English name is Neil Chen — who previously chaired the Shanghai Overseas Chinese Foundation. Chen has also held multiple Chinese government positions, including roles in Shanghai branches of ACFROC and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission has described CPPCC delegates as individuals who “serve as proxies for CCP interests.”
CAMDC and Chen did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Intelligence Experts Say This Is Not a Theoretical Risk
Former CIA operations officer Bryan Dean Wright did not mince words about what a building that close to the White House complex means in the hands of a CCP-connected figure.
“This property allows access for big splashy intel ops as well as for more classic ops — like a listening post or Stingray-like systems to collect phone calls, text messages, and digital exhaust,” Wright told the DCNF. “That’s all great for collecting targeting information to later ‘bump’ or recruit targets out in the world, who otherwise work inside a key U.S. government building.”
Wright, who hosts The Wright Report podcast, went further. “But what’s especially alarming are emerging ops that properties like this allow — like hidden drone swarms or shipping container missiles,” he said. “This kind of property is where the next 9/11 will come from. It’s coming.”
Gordon Chang, author and China expert, put the legal question bluntly. “No Chinese citizen should be permitted to own, lease, or occupy any real estate that gives him or her the ability to surveil any sensitive federal installation,” Chang told the DCNF. “No ifs, ands, or buts.”
Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor — a national security-focused policy and advocacy nonprofit — called the risks “screamingly obvious.”
“CCP intelligence agents have been caught buying property around military installations and critical infrastructure where they commit espionage in preparation of sabotage,” Lucci warned. “Now, even more of our most important national assets are being put at risk by the proximity of a man who has multiple CCP intelligence and security affiliations just 200 meters from executive facilities that should be completely off limits from adversary actors. We need government action to force the sale of the commercial property controlled by the CCP associate and a ban on this happening in the future.”
Worth asking: how does a man with this resume get to quietly close an $8.4 million real estate deal in the shadow of the American presidency without a single federal agency apparently raising a flag?
Communist China has spent years systematically acquiring land near US military bases, ports, research universities, and critical infrastructure. Congress has passed laws. Agencies have issued warnings. And yet a man with documented ties to the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, at least three UFWD-linked positions, and a sniper record from special forces training just bought a century-old building with a direct line of sight to the White House — and apparently nobody stopped him.
The same regime that covered up the origins of a virus that killed millions of Americans, that steals American military technology through front companies and academic espionage, and that openly states its goal of displacing the United States as the world’s dominant power, now has a CCP-connected operative sitting 650 feet from the President of the United States.
Gordon Chang’s question deserves a straight answer from every federal agency involved in protecting the executive complex: no American can buy property near China’s leadership compound in Beijing. Why does the reverse not apply here?
The answer, if Washington is being honest with itself, is that the political will to treat Communist China’s property acquisitions as the national security threat they plainly are has been missing for decades. Decades of one-sided trade arrangements, technology transfers, and diplomatic deference left the country with a regime that now operates with impunity inside American borders.
President Trump has pushed harder than any of his predecessors to close these gaps — through tariffs, investment restrictions, and scrutiny of CCP-linked entities. But the Qiu purchase is a reminder that the loopholes are still wide open, and Communist China knows exactly where to find them.
Federal authorities need to act. The building should not remain in Qiu’s hands, and Congress should pass legislation that makes this kind of acquisition categorically illegal going forward — not just near military bases, but near any facility that houses American executive or intelligence functions.
Because if the experts are right, the question is not whether a building like this gets used against the United States. The question is when.
Sources: Daily Caller News Foundation investigative report by Philip Lenczycki, August 13, 2026; DC Recorder of Deeds filings; DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements and Shanghai Jiao Tong University records; House Select Committee on the CCP; US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
