By Some of America’s most powerful retired military officers spent more than a decade participating in private meetings organized with a Chinese organization linked by U.S. investigators to Beijing’s military intelligence and influence apparatus, according to a new investigative report.
Journalist Natalie Winters reported that former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, combatant commanders, service chiefs and other retired four-star officers took part in the Sanya Initiative, a series of closed-door discussions between senior American and Chinese military figures beginning in 2008.
REVEALED: Top American generals formed a secret backchannel with a CCP military intelligence front that instructed them:
“We wish you would advocate positions” favorable to China.
Some ended up on China’s payroll.
— Natalie Winters (@nataliegwinters) August 4, 2026
The American participants reportedly included former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, former Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Adm. William “Bill” Owens, former Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid, former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno and former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert.
Other participants included former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman, former Pacific Command chief Adm. Timothy Keating, former Ambassador to China Adm. Joseph Prueher and retired Gen. John Keane.
The program was funded by the China-United States Exchange Foundation and organized in cooperation with the China Association for International Friendly Contact, according to Winters.
CUSEF publicly describes the Sanya Initiative as an unofficial channel created to strengthen personal relationships and reduce the danger of military miscalculation. Its own historical materials say the foundation launched the initiative in 2008 as a dialogue between retired senior generals from China and the United States.
The China Association for International Friendly Contact, however, has received considerably more scrutiny.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has described the organization as connected to the People’s Liberation Army’s former General Political Department. A commission report said the group performs intelligence-collection functions and conducts “propaganda and perception management campaigns.”
The organization has also arranged visits to China for former politicians, business executives, military officers and veterans, often placing them in contact with carefully selected Chinese military personnel.
That makes the Sanya Initiative more concerning than a routine foreign-policy conference, according to critics. The meetings gave Chinese political-warfare officials repeated access to Americans who retained extensive relationships throughout the Pentagon, defense industry and federal government.
Meetings Reached Senior U.S. Officials
The initiative quickly expanded beyond conversations among retired officers.
During a 2009 visit to the United States, delegates met with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, State Department official Kurt Campbell and members of Congress, according to CUSEF materials reviewed by Winters.
Later meetings were held at locations including the U.S. Naval Academy and involved sitting lawmakers and active-duty military observers.
By 2013, CUSEF was describing the program as an “established military-to-military exchange.”
The closed-door discussions addressed some of the most sensitive issues separating Washington and Beijing, including Taiwan, American arms sales, the South China Sea, cybersecurity, missile defense, North Korea and China’s military modernization.
The initiative continued through at least 2019. During that year’s meeting, the retired American delegation met Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission and one of the most powerful officers in the People’s Liberation Army.
The program later continued under the name U.S.-China Military-to-Military Dialogue. The Stimson Center says it now brings retired military leaders together to improve understanding and reduce the chances of conflict.
Chinese Participants Wanted Americans To ‘Advocate These Positions’
Congressional testimony raised questions about what China hoped to gain from the exchanges.
During a 2011 hearing before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, witnesses discussed Chinese participants’ desire that influential Americans return to the United States and “advocate these positions” favored by Beijing.
A commissioner reviewing the program suggested that some of the narratives advanced during the meetings later appeared in American public discussions.
The testimony did not establish that every American participant knowingly promoted Chinese propaganda. It did, however, illustrate how Beijing sought to use personal relationships with respected retired officials to influence policy debates inside Washington.
China has long relied on such relationships as part of its united-front strategy. Rather than limiting its efforts to traditional espionage, Beijing cultivates politicians, academics, nonprofit leaders, military veterans, journalists and business executives who can introduce Chinese arguments into American institutions.
New Conservative Post previously reported that congressional investigators have warned that China attempts to “flood the zone” with united-front organizations that entangle American political figures through meetings, donations and seemingly legitimate cultural outreach.
The State Department has similarly warned that Beijing uses nonprofit groups, advocacy organizations, sponsored travel and educational programs to advance narratives favorable to the Chinese Communist Party.
Huawei Connection Raises Questions
Owens emerged as one of the initiative’s most important American organizers.
At approximately the same time he participated in the Sanya dialogue, Owens worked as a consultant for Huawei Technologies and helped create Amerilink Telecom Corp., which sought to market Huawei telecommunications equipment in the United States.
Huawei was already facing national-security concerns over its potential connections to the Chinese government and the possibility that its equipment could be used for surveillance or espionage.
Owens publicly defended the company and argued that American opposition to Huawei was driven more by politics than evidence. He also wrote that the United States should treat China more as a friend and reconsider policies Beijing considered hostile, including American arms sales to Taiwan.
Owens said his participation in the military dialogue was philanthropic and separate from his business interests.
Nevertheless, the overlapping relationships have drawn scrutiny because they demonstrate how elite diplomacy, private business interests and Chinese influence operations can converge around the same individuals.
The case also comes amid broader concern about Beijing’s attempts to acquire American military expertise.
New Conservative Post reported earlier this year that federal authorities charged a retired Air Force major and former F-35 instructor with illegally training Chinese military pilots. Prosecutors alleged that the former officer provided specialized combat instruction without the export licenses required under federal law.
The Sanya participants have not been accused of providing illegal military training. Their meetings instead demonstrate a subtler strategy: gaining sustained access to respected American officials who understand U.S. military planning and continue to influence national-security debates after leaving government.
China’s Influence Strategy
American intelligence officials have repeatedly identified the Chinese Communist Party as the country’s most significant long-term strategic and intelligence threat.
New Conservative Post previously reported that U.S. officials consider China the “leading and most consequential threat to U.S. national security and leadership globally.”
That challenge is not limited to warships, spy balloons, computer hacking or military exercises around Taiwan.
China also works through universities, think tanks, consulting firms, nonprofit organizations and personal diplomatic networks to shape how influential Americans understand the relationship between the two countries.
The Sanya Initiative was publicly presented as Track II diplomacy intended to prevent conflict. Such discussions can provide legitimate channels for communication between hostile powers, particularly when official military contacts break down.
But Winters’ reporting raises a more difficult question: whether retired American officers recognized that their Chinese partners were not simply fellow veterans interested in reducing tensions, but representatives of a political-warfare system designed to shape foreign perceptions and advance Beijing’s strategic objectives.
Public records confirm that the meetings occurred, that CUSEF financed them and that the PLA-linked China Association for International Friendly Contact helped organize them.
The unresolved issue is what China gained from more than a decade of access to some of America’s most experienced and well-connected military leaders.
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