New York City’s fashion conscious mayor has a new accessory — a red scarf that is a potent symbol of the Chinese Communist Party.
Eric Adams has been repeatedly seen wearing the scarf, which represents the blood of the Chinese Red Guards who gave their lives for Communism, in the last few weeks.
On Saturday, Adams was seen wearing two red scarves around his neck at the first annual Brooklyn Lantern Parade Saturday, and he wore another red scarf in Manhattan’s Chinatown on Sunday.
Adams was gifted a similar red scarf at the Prelude to the Lunar New Year at Cipriani Downtown, an event featuring a fashion show which was hosted by China Media Group, China’s state media company, on Jan. 26. State-controlled CCTV proudly reported on his presence at the gala.
The eyebrow-raising accessory is hardly Hizzoner’s first fashion statement: the mayor, who is fond of bespoke suits, has used his clothes to comment on politics in the past.
He wore a custom handpainted tuxedo emblazoned with “End Gun Violence” by Nigerian artist Laolu to the Met Gala in 2022.
But this might be the most politically intriguing of his clothing choices: China’s leader Xi Jinping has worn a red scarf, and when a New York non-profit set up a Chinese police station in Lower Manhattan — first revealed by The Post — the members of the Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station posed with red scarves draped around their necks at their Chinatown office.
At least one of the mayor’s scarves, which he modeled in Manhattan’s Chinatown Sunday, was emblazoned with the white logo of Asian Community Empowerment Inc., a Brooklyn non-profit known by the acronym BRACE.
Adams was photographed at the event with Winnie Greco, a controversial special advisor to the mayor who has worked as a “consultant” to CCP groups.
A spokesperson for the mayor said he was unaware of the meaning of the scarf, which he was handed when he marched in Brooklyn’s lantern parade in Sunset Park, having been invited by local Councilmember Susan Zhuang.
“Mayor Adams was proud to march in two Lunar New Year parades this weekend to honor the tens of thousands of New Yorkers who celebrate the holiday,” a spokesperson told The Post.
“During the festivities someone handed Mayor Adams a red scarf and he put it on without looking at any logo on it. He wore that same scarf at the second event as well. That is the beginning and end of this story.”
BRACE is headed by John Chan, who is also known as Chen Shanzhuang, a Chinese-born businessman who also runs the American Chinese Commerce Association.
BRACE also has ties to the United Front, a group of CCP-affiliated organizations whose mandate is to spread communism outside China.
Chan recently demonstrated in favor of President Xi and once organized a protest against Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline banned by China as an “evil cult,” according to China.org.
The mayor’s spokesperson said Adams “is not friends with John Chan, and in no way endorses BRACE or any other organization he’s associated with. The mayor joined these events to support New York City’s local Chinese community and Councilmember Zhuang.”
BRACE was originally set up in 2014 as Brooklyn Asian Community Empowerment but changed its name five years later, according to public records.
That group was incorporated by Chan in 2000, and then changed its name to the American Chinese Commerce Association (HK) in 2013, according to public filings.
In November last year, Chan and his American Chinese Chamber of Commerce welcomed China’s President Xi to San Francisco, where he was attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
But he was not part of the official delegation: rather he used a bullhorn and was involved in protests which turned into scuffles between pro- and anti-Xi groups.
An Oakland-based photographer who covered the APEC protest said that Chan and others, who wore American Chinese Commerce Association pins featuring a Chinese and US flag, approached a group of anti-CCP demonstrators at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which is across the street from where Xi was staying.
“He was extremely annoyed with the anti-CCP contingent,” photographer Jungho Kim told The Post Tuesday.
In December, Chan’s American Chinese Commerce Association sponsored a small group of New York Republicans, including Assembly minority leader Will Barclay, to visit China, where they met with officials and business leaders, the Times Union revealed.
Chan has a long history of activism, including marking 50 years of Chinese Communism in 1999 by flying the party’s banner in Trenton, New Jersey then doing the same a year later in Flushing, Queens.
“He was a Chinese citizen,” said a man who identified himself as a translator when The Post called Chan Tuesday. “That’s the only reason he has these organizations. He denies that they are United Front.”
