Anti-ICE Protests Facilitate the CCP’s Objectives in America

Commentary

For better or worse, observers around the world have been transfixed by the events unfolding in Minneapolis and a handful of other American cities over the past several weeks. Eerily, the apparent objectives of the protesters appear to overlap with some of the long-stated objectives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in its continuing political and hybrid warfare against the United States.

Let us examine those overlaps.

Street Protests in the US (2026)

The anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and a handful of other American cities that began last month were part of a well-organized nationwide wave of demonstrations against aggressive ICE tactics, including raids and arrests of illegal alien criminals in public and community spaces.

Protesters include a mix of grassroots activists, immigrant rights groups, labor unions, and coalitions such as the 50501 movement, Indivisible, Black Lives Matter, Democratic Socialists of America, and other “progressive” entities.

The goals include stopping the enforcement of existing U.S. immigration laws—such as the deportation of illegal aliens under the law—and an immediate end to large-scale interior immigration operations and workplace and community raids.

Furthermore, protesters advocate defunding or abolishing ICE and dismantling the Department of Homeland Security, which could essentially end all U.S. border enforcement operations—and U.S. sovereignty!

The ratcheting up of ICE operations that are of particular concern to the protesters include sudden, large-scale arrests in homes, workplaces, schools, courts, parking lots, and residential neighborhoods. Protesters have claimed that these are disruptive to communities and that they often target long-term residents regardless of their immigration status.

Protesters have increasingly focused on federal buildings while obstructing ICE and other federal officers from performing their duties, leading to violent confrontations in the streets and two fatal shootings in Minneapolis. As the protests have increased in fervor and emotion, so have the tragic results.

In addition to the two protesters who have been killed, ICE agents have been targeted, doxxed, and injured. Protests have targeted hotels believed to house ICE or Border Patrol agents, with several incidents of escalation and property and personnel damage having been reported.

Several hundred arrests have been made nationwide since the protests intensified last month—including Los Angeles’s 50-plus arrests, Minneapolis’s dozens, and New York City’s 66, as well as smaller clusters in a handful of other cities.

Protest Goals Coincide With CCP Objectives

It appears that the anti-ICE protests aim to undermine federal law enforcement, the rule of law, and trust in U.S. institutions—long-standing objectives of the CCP in its ongoing hybrid war against the United States.

A core CCP goal is to erode confidence in U.S. democratic institutions and law enforcement, portraying America as a declining, chaotic power incapable of maintaining internal order. The protest goals align with the CCP’s “political warfare” against the United States, as detailed in U.S. congressional reports that describe CCP tactics to infiltrate and destabilize American society from within.

Other protest objectives that appear to dovetail with the CCP’s include exacerbating societal dysfunction, creating chaos in the streets, and radicalizing America’s youth, with the desired end state being the loss of U.S. sovereignty through open borders and immigration.

Most of the anti-ICE violence in the United States has been concentrated in these five cities: Minneapolis; Los Angeles; New York City; Portland, Oregon; and Chicago. The protesters’ information warfare objective seems to align with the CCP’s: to convince Americans that the protests are far more widespread and chaotic through legacy media coverage.

Anti-ICE protests often frame ICE as an oppressive, illegitimate agency, organizing disruptions such as blockades, occupations, and confrontations that challenge federal authority. This mirrors the CCP’s aims by turning protests into vectors for anti-U.S. propaganda, denigrating America while “[running] cover for China,” as noted in a 2026 State Department report.

Groups such as Code Pink, BreakThrough News, ANSWER Coalition, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation organize street actions, training sessions, and social media campaigns that escalate into confrontations, as seen in Minneapolis and Los Angeles. These operate within overlapping networks of far-left activism, including the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, in which connections among groups exist through shared ideology, coordinated protests, mutual endorsements, and participation in the same protest coalitions or events. The Freedom Road Socialist Organization is a self-described Marxist-Leninist revolutionary organization advocating for socialism in the United States, often praising models from communist states such as China.

These various efforts aim to radicalize American youth through revolutionary rhetoric, such as praising CCP models via webinars, aligning with CCP interests by turning domestic activism into tools for societal dysfunction, and amplifying narratives of U.S. instability in Chinese state media.

Notably, various media outlets reported that the 2026 State Department report, titled “Countering Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference,” explicitly names Code Pink, The People’s Forum, and other groups funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American businessman and former tech entrepreneur, as “vectors of Chinese influence operations.” “[They] denigrate the United States, whitewash … Marxist regimes, and run cover for China” while receiving cash from the Singham network, according to the report.

Other groups in Singham’s network that support CCP objectives in America include the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, a think tank that produces research and content aligned with pro-China views; the ANSWER Coalition and International Peoples’ Assembly, both of which are involved in anti-war and pro-communist agitation; Peoples Dispatch, an international media organization that reports from a perspective aligned with progressive, anti-imperialist, and working-class struggles; and intermediary nonprofits such as United Community Fund, Justice and Education Fund, and People’s Support Foundation.

Concluding Thoughts

In pursuit of its world hegemony goal, the CCP continually foments the destabilization of the United States in all ways, and the anti-ICE protests are simply the latest front in its ongoing hybrid warfare campaign.

American commentator Natalie Winters wrote, “The Chinese-American Planning Council and the Chinese Progressive Association—both of which have ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s overseas influence network—are among the signatories [of a letter coordinated by Amnesty International USA] urging Congress to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol.”

This provides political aid and comfort to anti-ICE protesters and their supporters in the United States. The apparent desired result of the protesters would be loss of control of the U.S. border and ultimately U.S. sovereignty—a dagger in the heart of America and an outcome that would warm the cockles of the hearts of Zhongnanhai denizens.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.