The New Federal State of China (NFSC) is a

political movement A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some t ...

lobby group In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

created by

Guo Wengui Guo Wengui (; born May 10, 1970—self claim or October 5, 1968), also known under the names Guo Haoyun (), Miles Guo, and Miles Kwok, is an exiled Chinese billionaire businessman who became a political activism, political activist and controls ...

and

Steve Bannon Stephen Kevin Bannon (born November 27, 1953) is an American media executive, political strategist, and former investment banker. He served as the White House's chief strategist in the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump during t ...

, with the stated aim of overthrowing the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

(CCP) as the

Chinese government The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an authoritarian political system in the People's Republic of China under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It consists of legislative, executive, mili ...

. Launched on June 4, 2020, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the body has been referred to by its founders as a "

government in exile A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile us ...

" of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. An

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

, the

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

Supervisory Organization, is dedicated to spreading the word and acting as the means of communications with "international communities". The group operates in Australia under the name Himalaya Australia, in New Zealand under Himalaya New Zealand and in the UK as Himalaya UK. It has been involved in protests against the

, has opposed the arrest of Bannon in the US, and has spread controversial claims about the origins and treatment of the

COVID-19 virus Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a p ...

in Australia.

Establishment and organization

The group evolved from a group of self-proclaimed

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

s known as ''Bàoliào Gémìng'' (''Whistleblower Movement'', ),

rebranded Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

by Bannon and Guo as the New Federal State of China. The group's presence has been boosted by a US-based Chinese

influencer An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

named Lude, who is, according to an ex-insider, "the number one propagandist for Guo Wengui". The announcement of the establishment of the group was heralded by aircraft flying banners over US cities, including New York, and celebrated a ceremony attended by Guo and Bannon on board Guo's yacht in

New York Harbor New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...

. At that gathering, Bannon restated his intention to help to overthrow the CCP. Former Chinese football star

Hao Haidong Hao Haidong (; born 9 May 1970) is a Chinese former international footballer. He currently holds the record for being China's top goalscorer. As a player he represented Bayi Football Team, Dalian Shide and Sheffield United in a career that saw ...

was involved in reading the “Declaration of New Federal State of China", as was his wife, the retired badminton star

Ye Zhaoying Ye Zhaoying (; born 7 May 1974) is a retired badminton player from Hangzhou, China. Officially ranked as the number one women's singles player in the world for the first time in December 1995, she lost and regained that ranking several times dur ...

. Another sponsor was American

hedge fund A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as sho ...

manager

Kyle Bass J. Kyle Bass is an American investor and founder of Conservation Equity Management, a Texas-based private equity firm focused on environmental sustainability. He is also the founder and principal of Hayman Capital Management, L.P., a Dallas-ba ...

. Announcement of the state was designed to coincide with the 31st anniversary of the

Tiananmen Square massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

on 4 June 1989, with the purpose of the state described as being to "overthrow the Chinese government". It has been described as a political group. The "Declaration of The New Federal State of China", posted on Guo's G News website on June 3: Guo claims to have invested $100 million in the movement. Funding for the movement, as well as its sources, are under investigation by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

. Bannon has described his role as an "adviser" to the group. On July 15, 2021, The Daily Beast reported that Bannon and Guo were operating a fake embassy on East 64th Street, in New York City, known as the consulate for the "New Federal State of China," or "The Himalaya Embassy," that is an operating center for various right-wing media and nonprofits manufacturing bogus conspiracy theories. The fortified building was built in 2015 for Argentine billionaire

Eduardo Eurnekian Eduardo Eurnekian (born 4 December 1932) is an Argentine billionaire businessman of Armenian descent. , he is the fifth richest person in Argentina, with an estimated net worth of US$1.4 billion. Early life Eduardo Eurnekian was born to Armenian ...

Responses and analysis

PRC foreign ministry spokesman

Geng Shuang Geng Shuang (; born April 1973) is a Chinese politician serving as China's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He formerly served as the deputy director of the Foreign Ministry Information Department of the People's Republic o ...

stated in response to questions for comment on the declaration "To these absurd statements, to this farce, I don’t have any interest in commenting". The director of the Asia Pacific section at the fact check organisation

First Draft News First Draft News is a project "to fight mis- and disinformation online" founded in 2015 by nine organizations brought together by the Google News Lab. It includes Facebook, Twitter, the Open Society Foundations and several philanthropic organizati ...

, Anne Kruger, said that the group's followers post "questionable material" prolifically on the internet, and that "Their main tactic is really to try to appeal to people that might have a gripe against the Chinese Communist Party and to push conspiracy theories". The

East Turkistan Government in Exile The East Turkistan Government-in-Exile ( also known as the Government in Exile of the Republic of East Turkistan; abbreviated ETGE) is a parliamentary-based exile government established and headquartered in Washington, D.C. by Uyghurs, Kazakhs ...

led East Turkestan/Uyghur, Tibetan, and Manchurian organizations in condemning the 'New Federal State of China', criticizing the founders for

unilaterally __NOTOC__ Unilateralism is any doctrine or agenda that supports one-sided action. Such action may be in disregard for other parties, or as an expression of a commitment toward a direction which other parties may find disagreeable. As a word, ''un ...

including

East Turkestan East Turkestan ( ug, شەرقىي تۈركىستان, Sherqiy Türkistan, bold=no; zh, s=东突厥斯坦; also spelled East Turkistan), is a loosely-defined geographical and historical region in the western provinces of the People's Republic of ...

(

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

, and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

in their proposed new Chinese state and accused them of promoting Chinese imperialism. The ETGE stated that the people of East Turkistan "do not wish to be a part of China nor a “federation” that keeps East Turkistan, Manchuria, South Mongolia, and Tibet under China's rule and influence." The

Tibetan Government-in-Exile The Central Tibetan Administration (, , ), often referred to as the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, is a non-profit political organization based in Dharamshala, India. Its organization is modeled after an Parliamentary system, elective parliament ...

expressed disapproval of the group, criticizing the founders for

including

in their proposed new Chinese state without consultation with

Tibetan exile The Tibetan diaspora are the diaspora of Tibetan people living outside Tibet. Tibetan emigration has three separate stages. The first stage was in 1959 following the 14th Dalai Lama's defection to Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, India. The se ...

s, and for using disrespectful terms when referring to the

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...

and other Tibetans in exile.

Presence in other countries and online

The Himalaya Supervisory Organization was created to “serve as a bridge of communications between the New Federal State of China and international communities in areas of cooperation, defending people’s freedom, and protecting the security of assets on the basis of common development and mutual respect among the people of the whole world”. The group has established branches in several countries apart from the US, including Canada,

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. In Australia, a

Facebook page Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of ...

post dated June 10, 2020 says "It is important for us to know and spread truth of global news to free the Chinese people and free the people around the globe. It is crucial to know the reason that we all stay at home, no schooling at schools and no jobs at our offices or places due to the Chinese Communist Party’s virus. The CCP is a gangster organization that need to be removed from this planet". Himalaya New Zealand's website states its objectives as "to raise awareness of truth disclosed by the Whistle-blower movement initiated by Mr Miles Guo and the former White House strategist Mr. Steve K. Bannon" and "to counter false narratives forced through left-leaning mainstream media and compromised key

s within New Zealand". A YouTube channel, Himalaya UK, is part of the "Guo Library". The first video published under their name appears to be on August 7, 2020. it has 1,200 subscribers, but views per video rarely hit 100. It is said that 26 "farms" have been established by New Federal State of China across 12 different countries in the world. They claim these organizations provide "consultation, mutual aid, financial, and investment service", and to provide shelter and support when the CCP is toppled. They are organized through internet messaging apps including

Discord Discord is a VoIP and instant messaging social platform. Users have the ability to communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers".The developer documenta ...

and

WhatsApp WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). It allows us ...

. The collection of all the "farms" is called the "Himalaya Alliance". Critics claim these farms have dedicated social media channels that require donations to access and gather people to join both online promotion as well as physical activities and protests.

Activities

In late July 2020, during the forced closing of the Chinese Consulate in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

by the

United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

, protesters critical of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

gathered outside the

consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth coun ...

with flags of the New Federal State of China. In August 2020, supporters of the organisation protested the arrest of Bannon. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the group has been promoting

hydroxychloroquine Hydroxychloroquine, sold under the brand name Plaquenil among others, is a medication used to prevent and treat malaria in areas where malaria remains sensitive to chloroquine. Other uses include treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, an ...

as an effective treatment for the disease. It has spread the leaflets across Australia by letter-box drop. The group has also been accused of spreading disinformation in Canada about COVID-19, and holding protests accusing people associated with Chinese dissident groups of being “spies”. The group has also participated in anti-vaccine conspiracy campaigns and promotion of more recent unproven therapies such as

ivermectin Ivermectin (, '' EYE-vər-MEK-tin'') is an antiparasitic drug. After its discovery in 1975, its first uses were in veterinary medicine to prevent and treat heartworm and acariasis. Approved for human use in 1987, today it is used to treat inf ...

. The group has been heavily involved in the spread of disputed information about deals US president-elect Joe Biden's son,

Hunter Biden Robert Hunter Biden (born February 4, 1970) is an American attorney who is the second son of President of the United States, U.S. President Joe Biden and his first wife Neilia Hunter Biden. He is also a hedge fund, venture capital, and privat ...

, had been involved in, in both China and Ukraine. They have also claimed to have video evidence of

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...

in which he was involved, and posted videos online which have been viewed tens of millions of times, but neither the source nor the representations in the videos could be verified as genuine. YouTube influencer Lude was the first to mention the videos in late September 2020, posted to his channel with 200,000 subscribers, and the stories have subsequently been reported extensively on Guo's media outlets,

GTV Media Group GTV Media Group, Inc. is a media company formed in April 2020 by Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui. The company operates GTV, a Chinese media platform. Background Prior to forming GTV, Steve Bannon served as an executive of Breitbart News and an ad ...

and G News.

Internal conflict

John Pan, a Chinese migrant to Australia active in human rights advocacy, was drawn into the inner circle of 18 members, which included Chinese dissidents and social media influencers, and worked with Guo for a few months in 2019. After becoming disillusioned and leaving the group in late 2019, Guo branded him a "CCP spy", and in October 2020 a group of people carrying banners bearing NFSC and Himalaya Australia logos and the words "Kick the CCP's agent out of Australia!" stood outside his house chanting those words. Pan and Texan pastor

Bob Fu Bob Fu () is a Chinese American pastor. In 2002, he founded China Aid, which provides legal aid to Christians in China, and has been its president since then. Bob Fu was born in Shandong in 1968 and studied English literature at Liaocheng Unive ...

are suing Guo for

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

Establishment and organization

Responses and analysis

Presence in other countries and online

Activities

Internal conflict

See also

References

Further reading