A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found that a taxpayer-supported Barstow industrial property led by a former Chinese military member with extensive Chinese Communist Party affiliations was raided in 2022 after authorities discovered more than 15,000 marijuana plants.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
A California industrial facility that received millions of dollars in state support and sits near several major U.S. military installations became the site of a large illegal marijuana operation while under the leadership of a businessman with extensive ties to Chinese Communist Party organizations, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.
Authorities seized more than 15,000 marijuana plants and arrested 14 people during a July 2022 raid at the 75-acre American Quartz Inc. property in Barstow, California. Eight of those arrested were Chinese nationals.
American Quartz, also known as AQ, is a quartz-slab manufacturer connected to a China-based business. The company had received approval for a multimillion-dollar California grant earlier that year and remained operational after the raid, according to the criminal complaint and state contract records.
The company’s chief executive, Hu Qiaomin, who also goes by “Tommy” Hu, was not charged in connection with the alleged marijuana operation. The Daily Caller News Foundation reported, however, that translated Chinese government records show Hu has extensive political affiliations and state-security connections involving organizations that American officials have identified as components of Beijing’s overseas influence system.
AQ, Hu, California Treasurer Fiona Ma and former Barstow Mayor Paul Anthony Courtney did not respond to repeated requests for comment, according to the investigation.
Courtney and 12 other defendants were charged in July 2025 with felony counts involving illegal marijuana cultivation and tax evasion. The complaint alleged the operation may also have involved “violence,” “cruelty” and efforts to intimidate witnesses.
Courtney, who served as Barstow’s mayor through 2024, had the felony charges against him dismissed in March 2026. He agreed to plead no contest to a newly added infraction titled “Fighting, Noise, Offensive Words,” according to court documentation.
The eight Chinese defendants have not appeared in court, and judges have issued bench warrants for their arrests. The remaining defendants pleaded not guilty, and their cases remain pending.
It has not been established that any of the defendants worked directly for American Quartz.
The property’s location has added a national security dimension to the investigation. The facility lies near Edwards Air Force Base to the west, Fort Irwin to the north and Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow approximately 6 miles to the east.
The company reportedly continued to operate as a landlord for marijuana cultivators after the raid and had participated in efforts to influence American officials, according to the investigation.
Ammon Blair, a Texas Public Policy Foundation senior fellow, former Border Patrol agent and Army veteran, said the facility’s geography and leadership raise concerns beyond the marijuana allegations.
“AQ operated as more than a commercial landlord; it gave a CCP-linked actor facility control inside a sensitive logistics corridor,” Blair told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The facility matters as much, if not more, than the marijuana.”
“AQ sits near the Barstow International Gateway (BIG), which links the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the Alameda Corridor, BNSF Railway, warehousing, transloading, and national freight movement,” Blair said. “It also sits near Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, which supports military logistics and operational readiness. That geography gives a hostile or criminal network practical value through staging, warehousing, workforce placement, cash movement, surveillance, local influence and commercial cover.”
A map of the Barstow property and surrounding installations created from Google Earth imagery, law enforcement photographs and regional reporting illustrates the facility’s proximity to transportation and military infrastructure.
Hu’s reported history extends from service in the Chinese military to participation in political consultative bodies, United Front organizations, overseas Chinese associations and groups interacting with China’s Ministry of Public Security.
Born in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, in 1955, Hu served in the People’s Liberation Army until 1980. He then began working for the state-operated Wenzhou Foreign Trade Company, according to Chinese government and state media records translated by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
After establishing a shoe-manufacturing company in Africa during the 1990s, Hu expanded his business activities into the United States in 2003.
Although residing in the United States, he continued participating in organizations connected to the Chinese government. Chinese records identify him as a member of official bodies and a representative to the Wenzhou Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference on at least four occasions between 2012 and 2019.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has said members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference “serve as proxies for CCP interests,” according to its assessment of China’s United Front and propaganda system.
During the 2019 Wenzhou conference, Hu distributed customized vests bearing Chinese flags to fellow delegates.
“I frequently see overseas Chinese leaders wearing these patriotic vests at events and activities. It shows everyone’s sense of responsibility and pride for the motherland,” Hu said, according to a Chinese government account of the event translated by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Investigators identified at least five positions Hu has held within organizations associated with China’s United Front Work Department, an influence network examined by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in reports on overseas United Front operations and Chinese intelligence activity.
The United Front Work Department works to shape foreign political activity, build relationships abroad and obtain access to advanced technology, according to a congressional memorandum on its operations.
Hu previously served as a Wenzhou representative in the China Overseas Friendship Association, an organization linked to the United Front system.
Since 2019, he has also served as executive vice president of the Wenzhou Overseas Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, according to translated United Front announcements.
In California, Hu led multiple associations described in the investigation as United Front affiliates. One was the U.S. Wenzhou Association, a registered nonprofit organization identified in Chinese records as an overseas branch of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese.
A Justice Department indictment involving a separate case identified that federation as part of Beijing’s overseas influence apparatus.
The U.S. Wenzhou Association operates “under the leadership” of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles, according to a translated speech delivered by Hu during a February 2013 association conference.
The gathering included Chinese consular officials and members of an organization opposing Taiwanese independence. That group, the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification, has been identified as a United Front organization.
During his time as the association’s chairman, Hu said the organization received numerous visiting Chinese delegations, including officials from the Ministry of Public Security, which he reportedly called “China’s FBI”.
“Over the past two years, our association has handled the highest volume of reception duties. We have hosted delegations from MPS, the State Tax Administration, the Communist Youth League Central Committee, the inaugural Central Art Leadership training program to the U.S., deputy provincial-level leadership training programs, the Zhejiang Song and Dance Troupe, provincial-level leading cadres training programs as well as municipal party committee, government, People’s Congress, and CPPCC committee delegations,” Hu said in the translated 2013 remarks.
The association’s website continued to identify Hu as a member, and he appeared with its officials during a March 2026 Chinese New Year celebration, according to photographs from the event and video footage.
Chinese records also show Hu met Ministry of Public Security representatives in China at least five times beginning in 2017.
Those discussions included Wenzhou’s “overseas Chinese police” program, which established an unidentified Los Angeles police liaison station in 2018, according to translated government material.
Hu also met with officials connected to an MPS online platform that supports overseas legal institutions associated with the Chinese Communist Party’s reported network of foreign-based courts.
He has additionally served as chairman of the Wenzhou Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, described in Chinese records as a United Front affiliate.
The chamber is a California nonprofit organization that hosts an overseas Chinese court, according to January 2025 reporting by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The U.S. Wenzhou Association and Wenzhou Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce could not be reached for comment. The Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
“Hu’s Chinese government ties change the meaning of the case,” Blair said. “A former PLA soldier with CPPCC, UFWD, COFA, MPS, consular and overseas-policing ties brings the CCP party-state influence system into the ownership of a U.S. industrial site.”
A visual summary of Hu’s reported affiliations compiled from public records, social media and Chinese and California government material maps many of those relationships.
Hu’s relationship with California officials, particularly Treasurer Fiona Ma and members of her political network, played an important role in American Quartz’s development, according to the investigation.
Ma, her representative Daniel Sieu and Sieu’s wife, who has also worked as Ma’s outreach specialist, attended American Quartz’s November 2019 groundbreaking ceremony.
Their presence was documented on the company’s website and in photographs accompanying Chinese government reports.
During the ceremony, Barstow officials reportedly presented the company with a key to the city, while Ma issued a formal commendation.
The Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported that Ma had issued similar honors to individuals with CCP affiliations on at least 10 occasions, according to a May 2026 investigation.
Ma and the Sieus continued supporting American Quartz after the ceremony. Their efforts included meetings with Barstow officials and assistance for at least seven engineers from China’s Veegoo Technology seeking U.S. visas, according to a Victorville Daily Press report.
The engineers were reportedly needed to help American Quartz assemble its production lines.
Veegoo was designated by Chinese authorities as a “Little Giant” enterprise, a classification used by Beijing for strategically important technology companies.
The U.S. Department of War has used that affiliation as one factor in identifying certain companies as Chinese military companies operating in the United States, according to the investigation.
Daniel Sieu was described as the “central driver” behind the effort to obtain introductory letters supporting the engineers’ visa applications. The California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development also assisted.
Ma serves as a voting member of that agency, known as GO-Biz.
Political contributions followed the 2019 groundbreaking. Campaign filings show that American Quartz, another company owned by Hu and Hu’s Enterprises LLC collectively gave $11,000 to Ma’s political accounts by June 2024.
Hu also made an unspecified “generous donation” during an October 2021 event organized by the William & Stephanie Foundation.
Corporate filings show the foundation was established by Daniel and Stephanie Sieu and lists Ma as its sole board adviser.
The donation was described in a Chinese state media account translated by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“The arduous struggle of Chinese people in America has been filled with blood and tears,” Hu said while thanking Ma and Daniel Sieu for supporting the company. “Establishing a factory here is more difficult than in China, but if you have help from friends one can achieve twice as much with half the effort.”
GO-Biz awarded American Quartz a $5 million California Competes grant in April 2022. The grant agreement required the company to satisfy several conditions, including renovating the Barstow facility and creating 500 full-time California jobs.
The contract was signed one month after American Quartz began leasing warehouse space to marijuana cultivators, according to previous reporting on the property.
Steve Robinson, editor-in-chief of The Maine Wire and filmmaker behind the documentary High Crimes: The Chinese Mafia’s Takeover of Rural America, said states should reconsider policies allowing Chinese entities to purchase property or partner with marijuana businesses.
“Why is the CCP sponsoring black market cannabis cultivation and trafficking? The best answer I’ve seen is that cannabis trafficking provides a low-risk mechanism for stockpiling cash,” Robinson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“So, the more important question from a national security perspective is what is the CCP doing with the billions of dollars in drug money these networks produce?” he said.
No evidence cited in the investigation established that Hu personally participated in the marijuana operation or that the Chinese government directed the alleged cultivation activity.
The findings instead document a combination of unresolved criminal cases, taxpayer support, foreign political affiliations, campaign contributions and an industrial property positioned near military and commercial transportation infrastructure.
Those overlapping circumstances have prompted calls for greater scrutiny of foreign-linked land ownership, government development grants and marijuana operations near sensitive U.S. facilities.
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