The Cash Envelope Incident and the Misuse of Chinese Culture
How Eric Adams' campaign games American racial politics
Hongbao. Angpao. Lucky Money. The object goes by many names, but it's synonymous with money in the various cultures that use the thin, fancy envelopes. Occasions we like to use them include but are not limited to:
- Weddings
- Career Bonuses
- Lunar New Year
- Virtual red packets sent through social media as gifts
Hongbao is shorthand for cash in Mandarin Chinese, and people fluent in the language can generally pick that connotation up. If I had to bet, Winnie Greco, an embattled aide for also embattled NYC Mayor Eric Adams, also knows good and well what a red envelope means. So when she took out the flustered explanation of "well, it's just Chinese culture to give money to friends" when stuffing cash in a red envelope into some potato chips for a reporter, I rolled my eyes.
Oh, brother.
The understanding of what those envelopes do is not always the case in the United States, where reporters can just go "well, we don't really know what goes in those envelopes."
To me, this is about as logical as saying "well, we don't really know what the intent of this box with Christmas tree wrapping paper does." The signifier is obvious, but not to mainstream WASP-led American culture. So it's just given the benefit of the doubt that you can use these for any purpose like business cards or receipts. Not so.
I do want to try to focus on Winnie Greco as a political operative and dive into some of her motivations, cultural characteristics as a Chinese American New York politics slimeball, and other details. The reason for this is relatively simple: because American political circles cannot adequately cover Asian politicians without going into full Fu Manchu stereotypes. What few Asian political reporters are covering this stuff full time are now likely juggling too many assignments, microaggressions and overt racism from politicians.
Greco is not a political novice. She is not a volunteer, rank and file staff member or any sort of incidental member of City Hall Politics. She's a close-knit leader of his political ambitions and governance team that started back in 2014 and has consistently held high-level jobs. You can read as much in the article detailing the potato chip incident
Her first appointment to a paid government job came when Adams became mayor in January 2022. Within days of attending his New Year’s Eve inauguration on a stage in Times Square with a small circle of close associates, Greco was named his Asian affairs director at a salary of $100,000, while her niece also landed a role at City Hall, eventually becoming one of the mayor’s schedulers.
What should we take away from this context? That Greco is a seasoned New York City political operative. She is bilingual and has navigated the diaspora on Adams' behalf, both officially and in cases of the rampant corruption that has plagued his administration (Adams, if you recall, is also linked to Turkiyë corruption and bribery charges)
Greco's Chinese national interests definitely plays into her career in Adams' political ecosystem. She's told him to pipe down on Taiwan:
But Greco advised turning down the invite from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, writing to Adams’ scheduler that, “This counts as the Independence Day for Taiwanese. It’s best for him to not go due to the conflict between China and Taiwan.”
Greco added: “He must be very careful with Taiwanese events.”
I am well aware of America's problem of Sinophobia, making connections of people to Chinese influence that are tenuous at best and getting academics perp walked for financial disclosures. That's not what's happening here. For one, Greco's salary probably dwarfs all of these academics put together. She throws money around like the world is a horserace track. Greco, unlike a lot of these professors and scientists, has this paper trail of repeated engagement with the Chinese state for its interests. She's continuously used money and set up meetings with Adams while he was in office to further Chinese ideological interests, fund people and initiatives that are aligned to those interests, and also one "friendship archway" that did not get built. During Greco's nine-plus years in New York's elite political circles, her interests within the Chinese American community seemed pretty exclusively:
- Wielding financial influence and networking
- Weird ass campaign activities that probably led to the FBI raiding her house
- Getting comped trips and probably visas for trips to China for Adams, officials and other political elites
Just as trying to pass a reporter money in a potato chip bag is not a regular thing Chinese people do within friendships, these activities do not under any definition fall under normal conduct for a City Hall employee. Greco's indifference to neglect for New York's Taiwanese community and embrace of Chinese consulate links are notable for the same reasons Adams' connections to Turkiyë are: money and networks that are unchecked have had influence over information, policy and decisions of the city.
For all the connections that Greco cultivated for Adams, have they amounted to anything positive for Chinese Americans? Let's see.
A mayoral seat that has increased surveillance, policing and 24 hour medical shifts. Letting ICE set up shop at Rikers. Unabashed appeals to Trump to drop indictment charges. Most die-hard tankies on the internet will wonder why someone closer to China would like conservatism and the strongman politics of Adams and Trump. But I've seen a lot of operatives like Greco, and the answers are usually simple. They like pushing people around or co-opting them through bribes and manipulation. They like power. And they intend to get the ideological and political outcomes they want, by hook or crook. Translation not needed.
