SHENG THAO IS BROKE.

(continued from p. 2) After the FBI raided her home in June 2024, Thao set up a legal defense fund. Its largest reported donation was $5,000, from C.C. Yin, the McDonald’s franchise magnate.

Kamala Harris once called Yin the “godfather of Asian politics in California.” (For the record, he’s a Republican.) Yin has been charged with nothing.

FBI files describe Yin as a professional associate of Christine Fang (”Fang Fang”), the suspected Chinese intelligence operative, and allege contacts between his brother and the United Front, Beijing’s foreign influence arm.

C.C. Yin’s family has given $4.4 million to California politicians over the years, including multiple donations to attorney general Rob Bonta's political campaigns.

A $5,000 check doesn’t buy a week of Thao’s attronery, Jeffrey Tsai and his white-shoe law firm. Neither does a recalled mayor’s savings.

Someone is covering the difference — and no disclosure we can find says who. Until someone answers, Oaklanders are entitled to keep asking the question: 
Who is paying for Sheng Thao’s lawyer?

The Sheng Thao corruption trial isn't just about one mayor, one family, one scandal.

The Machine that made Sheng Thao possible is still running over Oakland. As this series will show, that is the much bigger story than this one trial.

The dysfunction we endure every day — the deficits, the broken services, the favoritism, the zero accountability — is the product of a system that has been consolidating power for decades.

Oakland has been the test track for a political Machine that is exported across California and the country.

The trial is the starting line. Here is a roadmap, and a warning.

Don’t just take our word for it. Read it, check the source notes and decide for yourself what to think.