A top aide to embattled New York Police Department Commissioner Edward Caban is associated with shadowy groups that do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party, The Post has learned.
Lin Gui’an was also “handpicked” by Mayor Eric Adams for his high-ranking job as assistant director of the Police Commissioner Liaison Unit, despite having limited police experience, sources said.
Lin, 49, was vice chairman of one nonprofit linked to a web of CCP-controlled community groups and school associations, known as United Front, for 12 years, according to records viewed by The Post.
He has also been pictured attended events alongside prominent members of United Front groups or sponsored by them.
The role of United Front is to spread Chinese propaganda in the US, overseen by the United Front Work Department, funded and controlled by the central government in China.
Lin’s ties come under scrutiny at a time of heightened awareness of Chinese influence in New York, after the arrest of Linda Sun, a former aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul, last week.
Sun is charged with 10 criminal counts, including money laundering, visa fraud, conspiring to act as a foreign agent for China and other crimes. She has pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn federal court.
Lin has been described by sources as Caban’s “right hand.” The commissioner is himself under pressure after he and others saw their homes raided by federal agents last week.
Although the reason for the raids has not been made public, sources said the investigation prompting the raids centers around “undue” influence on the NYPD from China and Turkey.
Lin also has close ties to Winnie Greco, a controversial Adams aide who is a special adviser and director of Asian affairs.
Greco is also under probe by federal authorities looking for private emails and records of trips she organized to China for Adams when he was Brooklyn borough president, The Post revealed in June.
Greco’s Bronx home was also raided by the FBI in February. She has denied any misconduct and has not been charged with anything at this time. Her office did not return a request for comment from The Post.
Lin has also attended events with Greco sponsored by United Front groups working with the Chinese Consulate in New York, according to Chinese-language media.
Lin also received an award from the Dong Guan Association, which is the same China-funded group which listed Greco as a “consultant” from 2011 until 2023, as The Post previously reported. Greco has denied her association with the group and said she asked it to remove her name from its website.
Shortly after Lin joined the NYPD in a non-uniform, office-based role in 2022, Greco suddenly became a frequent visitor to the police commissioner’s office, according to a well-placed source.
Lin’s first role was deputy director of the Community Ambassador Program, but he rapidly rose through the ranks.
In early 2023, he joined the Office of the Chief of Patrol and was again promoted in “a triple jump” promotion to his current position, becoming the first Chinese American assistant chief in the history of the NYPD, according to reports.
In a post announcing his new position last year, NYPD News described Lin as “one of the highest ranking Asian-American civilian members of the NYPD” serving as a “messenger” between community groups and the top cop.
Despite achieving such a high-level position, Lin spent most of his previous career working in the hospitality industry.
Between 2004 and 2016, he worked as the assistant manager of a Scarsdale golf club, and he owns a Chinese restaurant, China Star, in the Bronx. He registered that business in 1997, four years after arriving in the US from China, according to public records and Chinese-language media reports.
Lin’s policing experience is limited to auxiliary or voluntary service and a three-year stint as an adviser to the White Plains public safety commissioner, beginning in 2018, sources said.
A call seeking comment from White Plains Public Safety Commissioner David Chong was not returned Tuesday.
Lin’s ties to Chinese American groups began shortly after he arrived in the US in 1993 as a student. He served as vice chairman of the Fujian Changle Nanxiang Benevolent Association of Eastern America, a nonprofit incorporated in New York in 1993.
He occupied the position for 12 years, from 1994 until 2006, a source told The Post.
It is unclear what the group’s function is, but it is linked to a web of CCP-controlled groups that are part of United Front. Lin is also still close to the group, having been pictured at one of its meetings in January 2023 wearing a jacket bearing a police badge.
The chairman of the group at the time was Liu Aihua, who also served as chairman of the Fujian Association of the US, which is a United Front group, according to ChinaScope, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that analyzes Chinese-language media.
Shortly after his NYPD promotion, on September 18, 2023, Lin gave a speech at a Manhattan Chinese restaurant during a Chinese National Day gala. That event was sponsored by the Lienchiang No. 2 High School Alumni Association, located in China’s Fujian province.
Such “alumni associations” of Chinese schools have been identified as United Front organizations working on behalf of the CCP, according to the CIA.
Numerous Chinese government representatives were at the event, including Chinese Consul Xing Yulin.
Less than a year later, at a gala sponsored by the Fujian Tangtou Association in Flushing, Lin was honored along with two other members of the NYPD for “their services to the community” and presented with plaques.
“Lin Gui’an, assistant director of the Community Affairs Outreach Office, said that during his one-year tenure in the position, many Chinese police officers were added to various departments of the city police, including the Crime Prevention Division, which went from having no Chinese police officers to now having 10 Chinese police offers who speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Fujian and other dialects,” according to a Sinovision video of the event.
“They also welcome more Chinese to join the police force.”
In November 2023, members of the Fujian Tangtou group as well as the Lienchiang school group and Dong Guan Association traveled to San Francisco to welcome China President Xi Jinping for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.
Those groups clashed with pro-democracy activists who protested against Xi outside the St. Regis Hotel, where the Chinese leader was staying, according to reports.
Lin’s ties are sure to put further pressure on Caban — following the raids by federal agents last week, which also targeted other key City Hall officials. Caban is facing ever-mounting calls to resign.
The NYPD’s Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information, did not return a request for comment on Lin’s ties Monday.
A spokesperson for Adams did not return a request for comment Tuesday.
