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Proud Boys got over US$80,000 in donations from Chinese-Americans a month before Capitol attack
- The amount was sent as part of a crowdfunding effort to help the far-right group pay for medical expenses after a clash with BLM protesters
- Donors said they contributed because they felt that the US was under attack from communism
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The far-right group Proud Boys allegedly received more than US$80,000 in donations from Chinese-Americans and the broader Chinese diaspora a month before the Capitol attack, according to a report by USA Today.
The money was sent as part of a crowdfunding effort to help the Proud Boys pay for medical expenses after four people were stabbed in Washington, DC in December 2020 during a confrontation with Black Lives Matter protesters (officials did not comment on which group the injured individuals belonged to at the time).
The fundraiser was set up on the Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo on December 17, five days after the incident.
The crowdfunding effort raised a total of US$106,107 – 80 per cent of which came from Asian-Americans and the broader Chinese diaspora, according to USA Today, which obtained data from the whistle-blower site Distributed Denial of Secrets.
The investigation tracked some donations to addresses in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Several donors who spoke to USA Today said they had sent money to the Proud Boys because they supported former president Donald Trump, and felt that America was under attack from communism, a claim often touted by right-wing commentators, including conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
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