Chinese and Iranian political influence networks are joining forces inside the U.S. to challenge American power and policies, including by appealing to supporters to donate money via sanctioned Iranian banks, Newsweek can reveal. A Chicago-based member of an organization headquartered in Tehran that was founded two decades ago to deepen ties between Iran and Latin America confirmed to Newsweek that his organization is collaborating with a leading U.S.-based tax-exempt group that has extensive organizational and financial ties to China. The Tehran organization, the House of Latin America (HOLA), is a regional partner of the U.S.-registered nonprofit, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, whose advisory board chairman and funder is the U.S. millionaire Neville Roy Singham who lives in Shanghai.
In 2025, Tricontinental’s Persian-language Telegram channel posted appeals for donations and the proceeds of book sales to go to two accounts in the name of Ali Abutalebi, HOLA’s Chicago-based director of publications, at the Bank Melli Iran. The bank is widely sanctioned, including by the U.S. Treasury’s OFAC, for services to Iran’s Ministry of Defense and for moving money into and out of Iran including for the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, according to the Open Sanctions database.
In February 2026, HOLA issued an appeal for donations for Cuba, also on a Tricontinental Telegram channel, to be sent to another Iranian bank, the Refah Kargaran Bank. This bank is also sanctioned for ties to Iran’s defense establishment and for weapons procurement, according to Open Sanctions. The collaboration between HOLA and Tricontinental effectively marries Iran and China’s most influential nonprofit "anti-imperialist" organizations within the Americas.
It also raises questions about potential foreign state backing, since HOLA's founding document says that it works with the Iranian government. A congressional committee has subpoenaed Tricontinental and is investigating its China ties, alleging that as a nonprofit it was using America's tax code to undermine the U.S. "[T]ax-exempt organizations are being used to funnel money and advance the interests of foreign powers.
No matter where the money comes from or which foreign agenda it serves, abusing America’s tax-exempt sector to advance the interests of foreign adversaries is unacceptable." The Missouri congressman added: "We will follow the money wherever it leads, expose these networks, and hold those who abuse our tax laws accountable." This specific China-Iran tie-up, reported here for the first time, adds a new and potentially significant piece to a mosaic of groups in the U.S. and internationally that align with the interests of China and other U.S. adversaries as they engage in increasingly sharp geopolitical competition. It was uncovered by the Network Contagion Research Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. Newsweek confirmed the details, and contacted the organizations involved for comment.
Newsweek has previously reported on similar, overlapping networks, and also on close ties between the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and China. The collaboration is an example of a growing phenomenon: the “Red-Green Alliance” or tactical groupings of radical leftists (red, for communism or socialism) and Islamists (green, for Islam) that often cohere around the issues of Cuba, Venezuela, Palestine and opposition to Israel and to U.S. policies in the Middle East. The DSA is connected to key players in this specific “red-green” alliance—Abutalebi and Tricontinental’s Executive Director Vijay Prashad—through a prominent member of its International Committee, Anlin Wang, who organizes the DSA’s China Working Group.
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