After four years of hearing “Russian collusion” because the former Soviet Union bought a bunch of ads on Facebook, it seems Democrats have some explaining of their own to do.

Axios, which is anything but a right-leaning publication, released a story on Monday finding ties between an alleged Chinese spy and a significant number of Democratic lawmakers.

A suspected Chinese intelligence operative developed extensive ties with local and national politicians, including a U.S. congressman, in what U.S. officials believe was a political intelligence operation run by China’s main civilian spy agency between 2011 and 2015, Axios found in a yearlonginvestigation.

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Among the most significant targets of Fang’s efforts was Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).

• Fang took part in fundraising activity for Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign, according to a Bay Area political operative and a current U.S. intelligence official. Swalwell’s office was directly aware of these activities on its behalf, the political operative said. That same political operative, who witnessed Fang fundraising on Swalwell’s behalf, found no evidence of illegal contributions.
• Federal Election Commission records don’t indicate Fang herself made donations, which are prohibited from foreign nationals.
• Fang helped place at least one intern in Swalwell’s office, according to those same two people, and interacted with Swalwell at multiple events over the course of several years.

A statement from Swalwell’s office provided to Axios said: “Rep. Swalwell, long ago, provided information about this person — whom he met more than eight years ago, and whom he hasn’t seen in nearly six years — to the FBI. To protect information that might be classified, he will not participate in your story.”

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• Fang helped with a fundraiser for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) in 2013, according to a flyer from the event Fang shared on Facebook. She appeared in photos over multiple years with a host of California politicians, including Khanna, Swalwell, Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and then-Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.).
• Gabbard “has no recollection of ever meeting or talking with her, nor any recollection of her playing a major role at the fundraiser,” a spokesperson said in an email to Axios.
• Fremont City Councilmember Raj Salwan, whose name appears on the flyer, told Axios he was unaware of Fang’s role in the event and her name was added to the flyer by other Asian American leaders.
• Chu’s office said they have no records of Christine Fang. Honda said he had no memory of meeting Fang.

Now, understand, none of these lawmakers appear to be implicated in any wrongdoing. The exceptions seem to be a couple of mayors from the Midwest who also engaged in sexual relations with the alleged spy, named Fang Fang or Christine Fang. No, most were merely candidates that Fang apparently sought to help rise up the ranks. This doesn’t look like an espionage operation, after all.

However, the unifying theme appears to be that they’re all Democrats. Wonder why that is?

Fang’s reported mission was to help politicians who would be most favorable to the communist country. There aren’t many situations where you’re likely to find a Republican take a more favorable stance toward communism or communist countries than Democrats will.

Further, I can’t help but feel that the Second Amendment likely plays a factor as well.

China has shown some expansionistic tendencies in the very recent past, after all. Those tendencies could put it on a collision course with the United States. Hence the push to help fuel the rise of politicians most likely to be sympathetic with China.

Is it possible that they also like the idea of disarming the American populace to make any attack on American soil more difficult to thwart? After all, while the quote from Japanse Admiral Yamamoto about there being a rifle behind every blade of grass may be apocryphal, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Could that be playing as part of the strategy here as well?

Or, and this may be more likely, that it’s simply a convergent event? After all, Democrats tend to be anti-gun. They don’t need a lot of Chinese help with that, after all.

Still, it’s funny that Fang apparently targeted Democrats almost exclusively. She doesn’t seem to be involved with Representative-Elect Daryl Issa, for example, nor any other Republicans from the California delegation.

It looks like Democrats have their own collusion questions to answer.