A Breitbart News Foundation (BNF) review of corporate records has uncovered closer ties than previously reported between Star Stream, the Shanghai-based consulting firm founded by tech billionaire turned left-wing activist Neville Roy Singham, and Maku, a Chinese media firm identified by The New York Times as specializing in propaganda for the Chinese Communist regime.
For U.S. lawmakers — including then-Senator Marco Rubio and Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), who have called for Singham to be investigated as a possible Chinese foreign agent — establishing any financial relationship between Star Stream and Maku could provide key evidence for further investigative action.
As noted in prior BNF reporting, Singham made his fortune through Thoughtworks, the software consulting company he founded in 1993 and sold in 2017, the same year he married Code Pink co-founder and radical activist Jodie Evans. The couple share a commitment to radical political activism, which Singham’s wealth has helped finance. In a recent interview with the Daily Mail, Joel Finkelstein, co-founder of the Network Contagion Research Institute, estimated that Singham has donated more than $100 million to far-left organizations, including groups linked to current anti-ICE protests.
In 2019, Singham relocated to Shanghai and founded a consulting firm officially registered in Mandarin as 上海洛维星商务咨询有限公司. The company’s name has multiple English translations, complicating efforts to trace its digital footprint. It most commonly appears as “Star Stream Consulting,” but translation software sometimes renders it as “Shanghai Luoweixing” or “Shanghai Lovistar.”
Official Chinese corporate records confirm that Singham launched Star Stream in 2019.
BNF’s research now sheds light on how closely intertwined Star Stream is with Maku Cultural Communications (also known as Maku Group), another Shanghai-based firm specializing in Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda for foreign audiences.
Maku was founded in September 2020, one year after Star Stream. Its stated mission is to “tell China’s story well” — a phrase commonly used by the CCP to describe foreign propaganda initiatives, according to The New York Times. The company claims to produce “text, audio, and video content” for “global mass media networks and think tanks,” aiming to present China’s social life, cultural values, and development model in a favorable light through digital media.
Star Stream mirrors this messaging. Its website states that Singham “actively and enthusiastically shares China’s story with international friends, helping them better understand China and engage in various forms of cooperation with China.” Recruiting materials describe its policy research and journalism as “socially beneficial.” The company openly associates itself with the CCP. In 2021, its employees attended an event celebrating the CCP’s 100th anniversary and performed an instrumental version of the anthem “Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China.”
Personnel overlap between Star Stream and Maku further illustrates their connection. Chinese corporate filings show that Singham’s firm shares key executives with Maku.
One such executive is Jie Xiong, formerly of Thoughtworks. His name sometimes appears as “Bear Festival” in English translation software. Corporate records list him as Star Stream’s “Supervisor,” while press releases identify him as Maku’s co-founder and CEO. Additionally, both Jie Xiong and Zhou Yihua — identified as Star Stream’s internal Communist Party chair — appear as Maku shareholders. Zhou Yihua is also listed as Maku’s executive director.
In 2020, Singham began promoting Dongsheng News, a multilingual media outlet he described as offering “unique progressive coverage of China that has been sadly missing.” According to The New York Times, Dongsheng shares an address with the People’s Forum, a Singham-funded organization heavily involved in radical political activism in the United States. BNF previously reported that the People’s Forum played a leading role in anti-Israel protests following the October 7 Hamas terror attack.
Another Singham-funded nonprofit, the TriContinental Institute — which employs the People’s Forum’s executive director as a researcher — paid Maku $165,592 for “research, analysis, and translation services.” TriContinental has collaborated with Dongsheng on multiple projects, including an online newsletter and an English-language version of a Chinese political journal.
Taken together, the web of shared personnel, shared office locations, and nonprofit funding points to two consistent themes: Singham’s involvement and the promotion of CCP narratives.
