What effect does China’s ‘magic weapon’ of influence have?

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

It’s called the United Front Work Department – and it’s causing as much alarm in the West as it does in Beijing’s growing military arsenal.

Duong Dang Ba, a famous businessman with ties to Prince Andrewis the latest overseas Chinese national to be scrutinized – and sanctioned – for his association with UFWD.

The existence of this department is not a secret. As a well-documented and decades-old branch of the Chinese Communist Party, it has been embroiled in controversy before. Investigators from the US to Australia have cited UFWD in numerous espionage cases, often accusing Beijing of using it for foreign interference.

Beijing denies all espionage accusations and calls them ridiculous.

So what is UFWD and what does it do?

The United Front – which originally referred to a broad communist alliance – was once hailed by Mao as key to the Communist Party’s victory in the decades-long Chinese Civil War.

After the war ended in 1949 and the party began to rule China, United Front activities took a backseat to other priorities. But over the past decade under Xi Jinping, the United Front has seen a renaissance of many kinds.

According to Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, Xi Jinping’s version of the United Front is generally consistent with previous versions: “building the broadest possible coalition with all forces relevant society”.

On the surface, UFWD is not at all shady – it even has a website and reports many of its activities on it. But the extent of its work – and the scope of its reach – is unclear.

While much of that work was domestic, “the main target that was identified for the United Front’s work was the overseas Chinese,” Dr. Ohlberg said.

Today, UFWD seeks to influence public discussions on sensitive issues, from Taiwan – which China claims as its own territory – to the repression of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang.

It also tries to shape narratives about China in foreign media, targeting critics of the Chinese government abroad and courting influential Chinese figures abroad.

“United Front work may include espionage but [it] broader than espionage,” Audrye Wong, assistant professor of politics at the University of Southern California, told the BBC.

“In addition to gathering secret information from foreign governments, United Front activities focus on mobilizing more broadly overseas Chinese,” she said, adding that China China is “unique in the scale and scope” of such influence operations.

China has always had ambitions to achieve such influence, but its rise in recent decades has given Beijing the ability to do so.

Since Xi Jinping became president in 2012, he has been especially proactive in building China’s message to the worldEncourage confrontation “wolf warrior” diplomatic approach and calls on the diaspora to “tell China’s story well”.

UFWD operates through many overseas Chinese community organizations, which have vigorously defended the Communist Party outside its borders. They have censored anti-CCP artwork and protested the activities of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. The UFWD has also been linked to threats against members of persecuted minorities abroad, such as Tibetans and Uighurs.

But much of the UFWD’s work overlaps with other party organs, operating under what observers describe as “plausible deniability”.

It is this gloom that has caused so much doubt and fear about UFWD.

When Yang appealed his ban from entering the UK amid allegations of espionage, an immigration court ruled that he downplayed his ties to UFWD. British officials accused him of taking advantage of his relationships with influential figures in Britain to interfere in the Chinese state.

However, Yang insisted that he did not do anything illegal and that the spying allegations were “completely false”.

Cases like Yang’s are becoming increasingly common. In 2022, British-Chinese lawyer Christine Lee was accused by MI5 of cultivating relationships with influential people in the UK through UFWD. The following year, Liang Litang, a US citizen who ran a Chinese restaurant in Boston, was indicted for providing information about Chinese dissidents in the area to contacts. his at UFWD.

And in September, Linda Sun, a former assistant in the New York governor’s office, was charged with using her position to serve the interests of the Chinese government – ​​in return for benefits, including travel. According to Chinese state media, she met a top UFWD official in 2017, who asked her to “be an ambassador for Sino-US friendship”.

It is not uncommon for famous and successful Chinese people to align themselves with the party whose approval they often need, especially in the business world.

But where is the line between influence peddling and espionage?

“The line between influence and espionage is very blurred” when it comes to Beijing’s activities, said Ho-fung Hung, a politics professor at Johns Hopkins University.

This ambiguity increased after China passed a law in 2017 requiring Chinese citizens and companies to cooperate with intelligence investigations, including sharing information with the Chinese government. – a move that Dr Hung said “effectively turned everyone into potential spies”.

The Ministry of State Security has released dramatic propaganda videos warning the public that foreign spies are everywhere and “they are very cunning and sneaky”.

Some students sent on business trips abroad have been asked by universities to limit contact with foreigners and asked to report on their activities upon return.

However, Mr. Xi really wants to promote China to the world. So he tasked a trusted arm of the party with projecting its strength abroad.

And that is becoming a challenge for Western powers – how do they balance doing business with the world’s second-largest economy alongside serious security concerns?

Genuine concerns about China’s influence abroad are creating more hawkish views in the West, often leaving governments in a dilemma.

Some countries, like Australia, have tried to protect themselves with new laws on foreign interference. criminalize individuals considered to be interfering in internal affairs. In 2020, the United States imposed visa restrictions on those deemed to be actively participating in UFWD activities.

An upset Beijing has warned that such laws – and the prosecutions they spur – hinder bilateral relations.

“The so-called Chinese espionage accusation is completely absurd,” a State Department spokesman told reporters Tuesday in response to a question about Yang. “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 truly worrying.

“Western governments now need to be less naive about the activities of the Chinese United Front and view it as a serious threat not only to national security but also to the safety and freedom of many citizens of Chinese origin.”

However, he added, “governments also need to be vigilant against anti-Chinese racism.” and work hard to build trust and cooperation with Chinese communities in fighting the threat together.”

Last December, Di Sanh Duong, a leader of the Chinese-Vietnamese community in Australia, was convicted of planning foreign interference for trying to curry favor with an Australian minister. Prosecutors argued that he was an “ideal target” for UFWD because he ran for office in the 1990s and boasted of ties to Chinese officials.

Duong’s trial focused on what he meant when he said that including the minister in a charity event would benefit “we Chinese people” – did he mean the Chinese community in Australia or mainland China? green?

Ultimately, Duong’s conviction – and a prison sentence – raised deep concerns that such broad laws and prosecutions could easily become a serious problem. weapons aimed at ethnic Chinese.

“It is important to remember that not all people of Chinese descent are supporters of the Chinese Communist Party,” Dr. Wong said. And not everyone who participates in these overseas organizations has fervent loyalty to China.”

“Overly aggressive policies based on racial profiling will only legitimize the Chinese government’s propaganda that ethnic Chinese are not welcome and will ultimately push the diaspora into the arms of Beijing. ”