An umbrella organization of Chinese intelligence of The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), collectively known as the United Front system, administered by the United Front Work Department (UFWD) of the Chinese government is involved to carry out subversive operations across the world, according to a report prepared by The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) titled ‘The Party Speaks for You’, authored by its Analyst Alex Joske.
The report, funded by ‘The Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, highlights the activities carried out by the United Front of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the nexus of organisations created by it across the world.
The UFWD is primarily a coordinating agency to coordinate the work of PRC state agencies and CCP units to carry out the pro-China Communist propaganda and achieve CCP goals. Work of all these agencies converge at the united front. Put simply, it is a super agency that operates and supervises the intelligence and external affairs of PRC.
The deployment of more than 600 senior bureaucrats and half a dozen ministers reflects that it is an agency that is equivalent to the strength of many ministries put together. It is hard to demarcate and separate domestic and overseas work of the UFWD, as all areas of the united front’s work involve overseas activities. It gives an idea that the front was created primarily to achieve overseas objectives of the PRC.
Targets of the United Front Work Department (UFWD):
The efforts of the UFWD are centered around either integrating the targeted groups to the united front system and use them or to neutralize their opposition in failing to integrate. Documents of CCP revealed that united front work is designated to target 12 broad categories of stakeholders: members of eight minor parties; individuals not affiliated to the CCP; non-CCP intellectuals; ethnic minorities; religious people; private businesses; new social strata (professional class) individuals; overseas students and those returned from foreign; people in Hong Kong and Macau; Taiwanese and their relatives in China; overseas ethnic Chinese and their relatives staying in China; and any individual who needs networking
Though state institutions of China have powerful and mature united front work units, the united front system has also penetrated the corporate world and many corporate giants have established mature united front work units in their organization — similar to any other unit of the production or supply chain. One of the largest steel producers of the world Baowu Steel has an extensive united front unit for Taiwanese and ethnic Chinese. It is also interesting to note that the person who served as the CEO of the company between 2007 to 2016 was elevated as UFWD vice minister in 2017.
With the arrival of Xi Jinping, the UFWD has become a highly adaptive and flexible organization in terms of organizational structure. The organization introduced a separate bureau to tap the new working class or the ‘new social strata’ of IT professionals that was emerging with the ICT revolution. One of the top e-commerce companies JD.com established two united front groups in 2018 within its organizational setup.
It is concerning to note that the ‘Big Four’ companies have also been infiltrated by the united front system. In 2016, Deloitte China established a united front unit for its employees. It also hosted an official ceremony to launch the unit. Deputy Director of Deloitte China, Jiang Ying is a delegate to the CPPCC.
UFWD as a tool for policymaking on occupied regions:
It is also interesting to note that the UFWD is an important stakeholder in defining China’s policy on occupied territories. Out of the 12 bureaus of the UFWD, three are dedicated to occupied regions including Tibet Work Bureau; Xinjiang Work Bureau; and Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan United Front Work Bureau. It is important to note that Xinjiang Bureau is much larger and powerful than the Central Coordination Group on Xinjiang Work — a group constituted by the Chinese government by bringing together Ministers and members of Commissions to deal with affairs of Xinjiang, especially to curb the dissent. The creation of the Xinjiang Bureau in 2016 coincided with the era of intensification of human rights violations in Xinjiang. With the creation of this bureau by Xi Jinping, more and more number of ‘re-education camps’ are being erected in the region. Several non-profits floated or controlled by the UFWD are also dedicated to work on curbing dissent in the occupied regions and covering the human rights abuses by the CCP government at the global stage. An office bearer from one of such NGOs, China Association for Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture, which also held special consultative status at the UN Economic and Social Council was restricted to join a human rights hearing in the UN after he threatened a woman testifying about detention of his father in China — a political prisoner held for expressing dissent.
The Case of Huang Xiangmo
The case of UFWD operative Huang Xiangmo in Australia highlights the extent of political influence exerted by the united front system in foreign countries. The exposure of Huang is considered to be one of the major reasons behind enactment of counter foreign interference legislation in Australia.
Huang was a prominent Chinese businessman, ranked as the 420″ most wealthy individual of China in 2012. He was also appointed to the Jieyang (city Huang hailed from) People’s Political Consultative Conference. In July 2012, Huang and his mates collided with the CCP government’s anti-corruption drive. Suspected of getting arrested, Huang flew to Australia along with his six associates. Before leaving the country, he had started relocating his businesses to Australia.
Soon after landing in Australia, Huang became the Honorary President of the Australian Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China — a UFWD organization. He also became the Senior Director of the China Council —another UFWD unit. He also hired a number of lobbyists in Australia as staff in his company and paid handsome donations to both the major parties of the Australian political spectrum. He also met then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in December 2012 along with Labour parliamentarian Sam Dastyari. Australian leaders conceived Huang as an influential leader of the Chinese community in Australia. His ‘influential’ image was created by the united front system prevalent in Australia. He also took over the reunification council in 2015. Later, a dozen of the council members contested elections and got placed as political staffers. He also got involved in philanthropic activities and established chairs in two Australian Universities. . However, he eventually caught the eyes of Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in 2015. The intelligence chief of Australia briefed the Australian leadership regarding Huang’s connection with the united front and the CCP. As a consequence of subsequent investigations, Huang was deported to China and Sam Dastyari had to resign from his post as a legislator over allegations of tipping off Huang about investigations on him.
Case Study-II: The British Chinese Project
The British Chinese Project is a UFWD initiative that claims to be working for political participation of ethnic Chinese and is the secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Chinese in Britain Group, which currently has six members. The group is headed by Christine Lee, who is a member of two UFWD units — the CPPCC and China Overseas Friendship Association. Lee donated several thousand pounds to the Labour Party shadow secretary of state for international trade Barry Gardiner — a leader who advocated for Chinese government’s involvement in the Hinkley Point nuclear reactor project. The Chinese partner for this nuclear project is China General Nuclear Power Company (CGNPC) – a company owned by the CCP government and is accused of espionage activities and illegal nuclear technology transfers. It has also been banned by the US government. The US government has warned that CGNPC uses nuclear technology to aid the Chinese military.
The UFWD has floated a massive number of associations, groups, and platforms that have extensively spread across the world, aiding the united front in its covert operations. A couple of these organizations are: China Overseas Friendship Association: An organization with a huge network of Chinese diaspora staying abroad. It has also taken over the China Overseas Exchange Association.
China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification: A prominent wing of the UFWD which has numerous: branches abroad. It is another front for carrying out subversions through the Chinese diaspora.
All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese: A front to use the foreign returned Chinese scholars and students to assist the UFWD operations.
Western Returned Scholars Association: Another organization of Chinese citizens returned from Western countries. A couple of members of the organization have been accused of involvement in espionage activities.
The Forum on the Global Chinese Language Media: An umbrella body of Chinese language media spread all-over the world. It organizes a biennial meeting of overseas Chinese language media platforms.
Chinese Students and Scholars Associations: An outfit supported by the Ministry of Education, engages Chinese students and scholars studying abroad to contribute to covert operations.
The report suggests a set of important recommendations to check the operations of the front in host countries. These can be clubbed under five major sets. The first is to make intervention at policy level. The idea is to make regulations and dedicated legislation to prevent the influence of united front and similar entities. The second is to ensure serious prosecution of united front agents operating in the country and checking their operations by putting limitations on foreign funding and political donations. The individuals involved in foreign interference should be deported in real-time and banned from applying for visas.
The third major recommendation is ensuring protection of the exposed interfaces by the law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Training law enforcement personnel and establishing a robust mechanism to report foreign interference could be of much help. Fourth, the countries should increase their engagement with universities to develop responses related to issues like influence of Chinese government, tech transfer, economic coercion, ideological subversion besides others. Fifth and most important, countries should work towards building expertise on China, its culture, CCP and foreign interference.
Besides entitling more power to the FWD, the Xi Jinping regime has also institutionalized and legalized the front, which was earlier claimed to be non-existent, by introducing the first set of regulations for the agency.The fact that united front operates at the levels of the government as well as those of the CCP, civil society and the corporate entities shows that the UFWD has an adaptive and flexible nature that readily adapts itself to the government as well as social and corporate entities.
The analysis of political engagements of the united front in PRC suggests that it has also been tasked with building a global consensus on the ‘democratic nature’ of China. Xi Jinping has also been promoting United Front’s multiparty cooperation and the consultative system as a ‘new type of part system’. It implies that the front has also been tasked with introducing reforms to the Chinese political and government structure. Hence, it would be critical to see the kind of reforms that the front would be able to introduce to the one-party authoritarian regime of China.
The addition of six new bureaus by Xi Jinping indicates the new focus areas of China – the ones over which China wants to exercise a greater control. These six new areas are: Xinjiang affairs; new social strata individuals/urban professionals and elites; overseas Chinese affairs; building up and strengthening intelligence and propaganda networks in foreign countries; monitoring and managing religious schools; and monitoring specific religions within China.
Case studies and exposes suggest that the major focus of the UFWD outside China has been on ‘Five Eyes’ countries.The UFWD also acts as a policymaking tool when it comes to dealing with occupied regions. It is believed to be the major force behind intensification of human rights abuses by China in Xinjiang and rising number of ‘re-education camps’ for Uighurs.
A number of initiatives or units that are believed to be part of the CCP are actually units of the UFWD. The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is a prominent example. Though the world sees the CPPCC to be a platform of the CCP, it is the peak United Front forum which brings together CCP officials and top UFWD officials on a common platform.
Besides working on subversive and intelligence operations by itself, the ecosystem created by the united front system provides base for other intelligence and propaganda units of the CCP to operate on foreign soils including the MSS, Propaganda Division, the PLA, etc.
