EXCLUSIVE: CCP Intelligence Official Buys Building Steps From White House

A senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence official is the new owner of a historic building overlooking the White House Complex, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.

Located approximately 650 feet northeast of the White House grounds, the 100-year-old Securities Building on 15th Street was purchased on July 21, 2026 for $8.4 million by the Philip Qiu and Family Foundation, filings show. The building’s new owner, Philip Qiu, has held numerous positions within Chinese intelligence and state security arms, according to university records and DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements.

Qiu did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“The CCP is like a kind, but firm parent,” Qiu said in 2021, according to a DCNF translation of an announcement from a Chinese intel arm. “It has guided our people out of hardship, led China’s sons and daughters to build a new country and is steering us toward great national rejuvenation.” 

Qiu’s ownership of The Securities Building poses an urgent national security threat and must be investigated by federal authorities, multiple intelligence experts told the DCNF.

“This property allows access for big splashy intel ops as well as for more classic ops — like a listening post or Stingray-like systems to collect phone calls, text messages, and digital exhaust,” Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA operations officer, told the DCNF. “That’s all great for collecting targeting information to later ‘bump’ or recruit targets out in the world, who otherwise work inside a key U.S. government building.”

“But what’s especially alarming are emerging ops that properties like this allow — like hidden drone swarms or shipping container missiles,” said Wright, who hosts The Wright Report podcast. “This kind of property is where the next 9/11 will come from. It’s coming.”

‘Special Forces Training’

Qiu, whose Chinese name is Qiu Feili, has held at least four Chinese government positions, beginning with a “career as a detective in the Criminal Investigation Team in Shanghai,” a 2024 University of New Haven (UNH) Instagram post states.

Shanghai’s criminal investigation team is a unit within Shanghai’s Public Security Bureau (PSB), which functions as a local subordinate of “China’s FBI,” the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), according to DCNF translations of Chinese government reports.

While it is unclear how long Qiu worked in the Shanghai PSB, he had already received combat training by October 2011, when he enrolled in a Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) master’s program, according to DCNF translations of SJTU announcements.

SJTU photos show students carrying rifles and wearing camouflage fatigues during a team-building wargame at the program’s outset.

“Classmate Qiu Feili, who has undergone special forces training, served as a commander in the Red-Blue Battle, and not only directed his troops to successfully capture enemy positions, but also killed one-third of the opposing forces with 42 shots, achieving the best individual sniper record,” according to a DCNF translation of SJTU’s announcement concerning the training exercise.

Qiu has continued to support and cooperate with China’s security apparatus in recent years including through his role as honorary chairman of the Hong Kong Immigration Department Staff Association, with which he organized events introducing Hong Kong students to the Shanghai SWAT team in 2023 and 2024, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements and accompanying photos.

The Shanghai native has also held at least three positions in arms of a CCP influence and intelligence agency called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), according to DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements. The UFWD’s operations are a “blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations” that Beijing uses to steer foreign policy and “gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

Among other roles, Qiu has served on the executive committee of the Shanghai branch of the UFWD’s All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), according to a DCNF translation of a Chinese government announcement.

Qiu’s highest-ranking united front position is as chairman of ACFROC’s Shanghai Overseas Chinese Foundation (SOCF), which promotes overseas “cultural exchanges” and operates as the “only charity in the Shanghai UFWD system,” according to DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements. The former Shanghai detective joined SOCF as a director in May 2017 and has served as the foundation’s chairman since May 2021, according to DCNF translations of SOCF’s announcements.

“[SOCF] will continue to execute General Secretary Xi Jinping’s directive to ‘comprehensively implement the party’s overseas Chinese affairs policy, unite the hearts of overseas Chinese and serve overall interests,’” Qiu said during a 2021 foundation meeting, according to a DCNF translation of a SOCF announcement.

“With overseas Chinese hearts turned toward the party and pursuing a common dream, [SOCF] will actively embody responsibility and commitment to the overseas Chinese community in public welfare, charity and people-to-people exchanges,” Qiu continued. “[We] will strive to build SOCF into a charity with social influence to contribute the strength of the overseas Chinese community toward realizing the shared Chinese Dream.”

As chairman, Qiu has referred to the CCP as “our party” during SOCF party-building events he organized and has also represented the foundation’s party branch during Shanghai ACFROC party meetings, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements and accompanying photos. A “party branch” is the smallest “grass-roots” CCP organization and is required of Chinese institutions containing three or more party members, according to a DCNF translation of an announcement from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, which is China’s agency for legal supervision.

SOCF has also employed several other individuals belonging to Chinese intelligence arms including its secretary general, who has served as a director of the Shanghai International Culture Association (SICA), which, according to Alex Joske, former analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, is a front for China’s premier civilian intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS).

“The MSS is roughly the CIA, with a dash of the FBI,” Wright told the DCNF. “The MPS, however, is a mash-up of DHS and FBI. The key difference is the MPS is generally the overt, visible, heavy hand of the state and party.”

As for the UFWD, it “provides cover” for MSS operations “sort of like what the State Department allegedly does for the CIA abroad when a spy pretends to be a diplomat,” Wright continued. “Bottom line: there is no real line between intel and non-intel agencies or officers in China. Anybody can be compelled for any role at any time — you don’t say no to President Xi.”

Qiu’s connections to MPS, UFWD and MSS arms should set off alarm bells in our nation’s capital, Gordon Chang, author and China expert, told the DCNF.

“No Chinese citizen should be permitted to own, lease, or occupy any real estate that gives him or her the ability to surveil any sensitive federal installation,” Chang said. “No ifs, ands, or buts.”

‘Screamingly Obvious’

The Philip Qiu and Family Foundation is headquartered within another historic property half a mile north of the White House that is shared with six other entities controlled by Qiu — including the CCP-tied Chinese American Museum in Washington, D.C. (CAMDC), according to business filings and DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements.

CAMDC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit aiming to “advance the understanding, knowledge, and appreciation of the Chinese American experience,” according to a statement on CAMDC’s website.

Qiu co-founded CAMDC in 2017 with SOCF’s former chairman, Chen Xiaoping, whose English name is Neil Chen.

As with Qiu, Chen has also held multiple Chinese government positions, including with Shanghai branches of ACFROC and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports. CPPCC delegates “serve as proxies for CCP interests,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

CAMDC and Chen did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Although CAMDC claims that the “museum and its programs are not funded, controlled, or influenced by any foreign government,” the Chinese government has co-sponsored at least eight of the museum’s programs, according to CAMDC’s website and DCNF translations of Chinese government reports.

Four of those programs received support from UFWD-controlled religious entities.

Since 2023, CAMDC has co-sponsored three Buddhist events in Washington, D.C. — including one held at the Library of Congress — with Shanghai’s Longhua Temple, which is overseen by the UFWD’s Bureau Of Ethnic And Religious Affairs Committee, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements.

All three events were headlined by Longhua’s abbot, Zhao Cheng, who is both a Shanghai CPPCC standing committee member and the deputy director of the UFWD’s municipal Ethnic And Religious Affairs Committee, according to a DCNF translation of a Chinese government announcement.

The security risks posed by Qiu’s ownership of properties near the White House are “screamingly obvious,” Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor, told the DCNF. State Armor is a national security-focused policy and advocacy organization operating as a nonprofit entity, with an affiliated 501(c)(4) social welfare organization known as State Armor Action.

“CCP intelligence agents have been caught buying property around military installations and critical infrastructure where they commit espionage in preparation of sabotage,” Lucci warned. “Now, even more of our most important national assets are being put at risk by the proximity of a man who has multiple CCP intelligence and security affiliations just 200 meters from executive facilities that should be completely off limits from adversary actors. We need government action to force the sale of the commercial property controlled by the CCP associate and a ban on this happening in the future.”