National Review: Inside British Billionaire Christopher Hohn’s Efforts to Bankroll Social Justice, Climate Radicalism on U.S. Soil
At first blush, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation looks like an uncontroversial philanthropic organization whose mission is to promote children’s health, prevent HIV, and fight climate change.
But a review of tax records, nonprofit reports, and the group’s geopolitical ties suggests that the foundation is not what it seems. Over the past decade, the organization — founded by reclusive British billionaire and activist hedge fund manager Christopher Hohn — has funneled more than half a billion dollars into U.S. activist organizations as part of a broader effort to push radical climate and DEI policy on U.S. soil. CIFF also has ties to the Chinese Communist Party, raising questions about the motive behind Hohn’s decade-long philanthropic influence campaign in the American nonprofit and policy world.
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Between 2014 and 2023, CIFF funneled more than $553 million into nearly 40 U.S.-based groups as part of a broader scheme to push DEI and radical environmentalist policies in America, according to a new report compiled by Americans for Public Trust (APT), a nonpartisan watchdog group that investigates nonprofit malfeasance.
U.S. laws prohibit foreign nationals from contributing to American political candidates and influencing U.S. elections. And yet Hohn’s multimillion-dollar effort to bankroll CIFF’s contributions to a web of left-wing groups demonstrates how foreign nationals use financial loopholes to push their own ideological agendas on U.S. soil to get around the Foreign Agents Registration Act’s financial disclosure requirements for foreign entities and individuals.
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The Hohn-founded philanthropic organization is tied to a web of CCP-aligned organizations that are nominally aimed at promoting Beijing’s transition to green energy. “The British nonprofit has given millions to various organizations directly under the auspices of the Chinese government, including the National Renewable Energy Center, the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Centre (FECO), and Tsinghua University, which conduct energy and military research,” APT’s report reads. “CIFF is also a member of the donor steering committee for the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT), which works in China to promote climate action. ICAT’s final report on a workshop in China was supported by CIFF, with numerous CCP officials contributing to its creation.”
CIFF has also contributed to the Beijing-based group Energy Foundation China, a CCP-aligned left-wing organization that promotes anti-fossil-fuel advocacy in the U.S. In recent years, GOP lawmakers on the U.S. House Committees on Energy and Commerce, Science, and Natural Resource announced an investigation into the group over concerns that its advocacy is aimed at promoting Chinese energy dominance. CIFF has also funneled money into the Rocky Mountain Institute, a CCP-connected climate group that promotes policies aimed at phasing out gas stoves in the U.S.
