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Tian Ji Li, a businessman and entrepreneur in Flushing, was seated next to Eric Adams at a table in a banquet hall on July 2, 2021, just days after Adams won the Democratic primary for mayor.

It was a victory celebration thrown by a coalition of business and cultural groups known as the Alliance of Asian American Friends, a group so new it didn’t publicly announce its formation until the following month.

Next to Li sat Adams’ longtime aide,

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