In a Capitol Hill hearing room, American lawmakers gathered to examine whether a network of activist organizations — funded in part by a U.S. technology entrepreneur living in Shanghai — has been quietly channeling foreign influence into domestic political life. The inquiry centered on Neville Roy Singham and $278 million allegedly distributed to groups advancing narratives aligned with China, Cuba, Iran, and Russia. What unfolded was not merely a policy debate but a collision between competing definitions of dissent: one side seeing protest theater as free expression, the other seeing it as a