United Front Work: What does China’s ‘magic weapon’ of influence do?

According to Mao Zedong, the People’s Republic of China’s foundation head, and Xi Jinping, its current leader, the country has a “magic weapon.”

It is known as the United Front Work Department, and it is causing just as much concern in the West as Beijing’s growing defense army.

Yang Tengbo, a prominent businessman who has been linked to Prince Andrew, is the latest overseas Chinese citizen to be scrutinised – and sanctioned – for his links to the UFWD.

The department’s life is not at all a secret. A decades-old and well-documented finger of the Chinese Communist Party, it has been mired in controversy before. Researchers from the US to Australia have cited the UFWD in numerous spy situations, frequently accusing Beijing of using it for foreign meddling.

Beijing has denied all spy complaints, calling them absurd.

What does the UFWD do, and what does it do?

The United Front, which was actually referred to as a large communist empire, was once hailed by Mao as the code to the Communist Party’s victory in the decades-long Chinese Civil War.

United Front hobbies took a seat to other priorities after the party’s rule over China came to an end in 1949. However, the United Front under Xi has experienced a sort of reformation in the last ten years.

According to Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, Xi’s variation of the United Front is generally consistent with earlier versions: to “build the broadest possible alliance with all cultural forces that are relevant.

On the surface, the UFWD appears to be unassuming; it also has a business and reports a lot of its activities there. However, it is unclear how far it has worked and how far it has gotten.

Although a significant portion of that labor is home, according to Dr. Ohlberg,” a crucial goal that has been defined for United Front work is abroad Chinese.”

The UFWD now seeks to control public discourse on topics as diverse as Taiwan, which China claims as its territory, and Tibet and Xinjiang’s destruction of ethnic minorities.

Additionally, it attempts to influence foreign media coverage of China, engages with Taiwanese authorities reviewers abroad, and co-opts powerful foreign Chinese numbers.

” United Front job may involve spy but]it ] is broader than espionage”, Audrye Wong, associate professor of politics at the University of Southern California, tells the BBC.

United Front actions focus on the wider mobilisation of international Chinese, she said, noting that China is “unique in the opportunity” of for influence activities.

China has always had this kind of influence, but its rise in recent years has given it the ability to practice it.

Since Xi became president in 2012, he has been especially proactive in crafting China’s message to the world, enouraging a confrontational “wolf warrior” approach to diplomacy and urging his country’s diaspora to “tell China’s story well”.

The UFWD operates through a number of Taiwanese society organizations that have vigorously defended the Communist Party from its borders abroad. They have censored anti-CCP drawings and expressed out against Tibetan spiritual chief The Dalai Lama’s actions. Challenges against members of persecuted minority worldwide, such as Tibetans and Uyghurs, have also been linked to the UFWD.

But much of the UFWD’s job overlaps with another party firms, operating under what spectators have described as “plausible deniability”.

This gloominess is what is causing but many fear and anxiety about the UFWD.

An immigration judge found that Yang had downplayed his ties to the UFWD when he filed an appeal against his spy claims. According to UK authorities, he is accused of using his connections with powerful American people to stifle Chinese state control.

Yang, but, maintains that he has never done anything unconstitutional and that the hacker allegations are “entirely untrue”.

Situations like Yang’s are becoming extremely popular. English Chinese attorney Christine Lee was charged by the MI5 with using the UFWD to build relationships with powerful individuals in the UK in 2022. Liang Litang, a US resident who owned a Chinese restaurant in Boston, was charged with providing information to his associates in the UFWD the next year.

And in September, Linda Sun, a previous secretary in the New York mayor’s office, was charged with using her position to serve Taiwanese authorities interests- receiving benefits, including journey, in profit. According to Chinese state media accounts, she had met a leading UFWD established in 2017, who told her to “be an ambassador of Sino-American friendship”.

Celebrities and powerful Chinese people frequently associate with the party, which gives them the approval they need, especially in the business world.

But where is the distinction between spy and peddling impact?

” The barrier between control and espionage is hazy” when it comes to Beijing’s activities, said Ho-fung Hung, a elections doctor at Johns Hopkins University.

This confusion has grown since China passed a law in 2017 demanding Chinese citizens and businesses to cooperate with intelligence investigations, including sharing knowledge with the Chinese authorities. Dr. Hung said this action “effectively turns everyone into possible spies.”

The Ministry of State Security has released shocking propaganda videos that exhort the public to be wary of foreign spies and to “keep your eyes peeled and sneaky.”

Some students who were on special trips abroad were instructed by their universities to only communicate with foreigners and asked to provide a report on their travels when they returned.

Despite this, Xi wants to introduce China to the rest of the world. Therefore, he has assigned a party’s trusted arm to project force abroad.

And that’s getting harder on the Western powers: how do they balance doing business with serious security concerns and the second-largest economy in the world?

Genuine fears about China’s influence abroad are feeding more hawkish beliefs in the West, frequently leaving governments in a predicament.

Some, like Australia, have tried to protect themselves with fresh foreign interference laws that criminalise individuals deemed to be meddling in domestic affairs. In 2020, the US imposed visa restrictions on people seen as active in UFWD activities.

Beijing has been urged by a frustrated Beijing to warn that bilateral relations are hampered by these laws and the prosecutions they have brought about.

In response to a question about Yang, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry said to reporters on Tuesday that the” so-called allegations of Chinese espionage are utterly absurd. ” The development of China-UK relations serves the common interests of both countries”.

Some experts say that the long arm of China’s United Front is indeed concerning.

According to Dr. Hung,” Western governments now need to be less naive about China’s United Front work and view it as a serious threat to national security as well as the safety and freedom of many ethnic Chinese citizens.”

But, he adds, “governments also need to be vigilant against anti-Chinese racism and work hard to build trust and co-operation with ethnic Chinese communities in countering the threat together.”

Last December, Di Sanh Duong, a Vietnam-born ethnic Chinese community leader in Australia, was convicted of planning foreign interference for trying to cosy up to an Australian minister. Due to his campaign contributions to China in the 1990s and his alleged connections to Chinese officials, the UFWD claimed he was an “ideal target” for the organization.

Duong’s trial had focused on what he meant when he claimed that “us Chinese” would benefit from having the minister attend a charity event: did he mean the Chinese community in Australia or mainland China?

In the end, Duong’s conviction – and a prison sentence – raised serious concerns that such broad anti-espionage laws and prosecutions can easily become weapons for targeting ethnic Chinese people.

Not everyone who is ethnically Chinese supports the Chinese Communist Party is important to keep in mind. And not everyone who participates in these diaspora organizations is motivated by a burning love affair with China, says Dr. Wong.

” Overly aggressive policies based on racial profiling will only legitimize the Chinese government’s claims that ethnic Chinese are unwelcome, and will ultimately lead to the displacement of diaspora communities into Beijing’s arms.”