What does China's “magical weapon of influence” do?

The People's Republic of China has a “magic weapon,” according to its founding leader Mao Zedong and its current president, Xi Jinping.

It's called the United Front Action Administration – and it is as worrying in the West as Beijing's growing military arsenal.

yang Tingbo, A prominent businessman linked to Prince Andrewis the latest overseas Chinese national to be scrutinized — and punished — over his links to the UFWD.

The existence of the department is not a secret. It is a decades-old, well-documented arm of the Chinese Communist Party, and has been mired in controversy before. Investigators from the United States to Australia have cited the UFWD in multiple espionage cases, and have often accused Beijing of using it for foreign interference.

Beijing has denied all spying allegations, calling them ridiculous.

So what is UFWD and what does it do?

Mao once hailed the united front — which originally referred to a broad communist alliance — as the 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 back seat to other priorities. But in the past decade under Xi, the united front has undergone a renaissance of sorts.

Xi's version of a united front is largely consistent with previous incarnations: “building the broadest possible coalition with all relevant social forces,” according to Mareike Uhlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund.

On the face of it, the UFWD is not obscure – it even has a website and reports on many of its activities on it. But the extent to which it works – and how widespread it is – is less clear.

While much of this work is local, “the main target identified for the United Front work is overseas Chinese,” Dr. Olberg said.

Today, Women United for Development seeks to influence public debates on sensitive issues ranging from Taiwan – which China claims as its territory – to the repression of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang.

It also attempts to shape narratives about China in foreign media, target critics of the Chinese government abroad, and co-opt influential Chinese figures abroad.

“United front work can include espionage, but it is broader than espionage,” Audrey Wong, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Southern California, told the BBC.

“Beside obtaining classified information from a foreign government, United Front activities focus on the broader mobilization of overseas Chinese,” she said, adding that China is “unique in the scale and scope” of such influence activities.

China has long had an ambition for such influence, but its rise in recent decades has given Beijing the ability to exercise it.

Since Xi became president in 2012, he has been particularly proactive in drafting China's message to the worldEncouraging confrontation “Wolf Warrior” His approach to diplomacy urged his country's diaspora to “tell the China story well.”

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

But much of UAW's work overlaps with other party agencies, operating under what observers have described as “plausible deniability.”

It is this ambiguity that causes so much doubt and apprehension about UFWD.

When Yang appealed a decision to ban him from entering the UK amid spying allegations, an immigration court ruled that he had downplayed his ties to the United Women's Union. British officials claim that he exploited his relationships with influential British figures to interfere with the Chinese state.

However, Yang maintains that he did not do anything illegal and that the spying allegations are “completely untrue.”

Cases like Yang's are becoming increasingly common. In 2022, MI5 accused Chinese-British lawyer Christine Li of working through the UFWD to cultivate relationships with powerful people in the UK. The following year, Liang Litang, an American citizen who ran a Chinese restaurant in Boston, was accused of providing information about Chinese dissidents in the area to his UFWD contacts.

In September, Linda Sun, a former aide in the New York governor's office, was accused of using her position to advance the interests of the Chinese government – ​​and in return receive benefits, including travel. According to Chinese state media reports, she met a senior UFWD official in 2017, who asked her to be an “ambassador for China-US friendship.”

It is not uncommon for prominent and successful Chinese figures to be associated with the party, whose approval they often need, especially in the business world.

But where is the line between influence peddling and espionage?

“The lines between influence and espionage are blurred” when it comes to Beijing's operations, said Ho-Fung Hong, a professor of politics at Johns Hopkins University.

This uncertainty intensified 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. Hong said “effectively turns everyone into potential spies.”

The Ministry of State Security released sensational propaganda videos warning the public that there are foreign spies everywhere and that “they are cunning and deceitful.”

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

However, Xi is keen to promote China to the world. So he assigned a trusted arm of the party to project strength abroad.

This has become a challenge for Western powers – how can they balance trade with the world's second-largest economy with serious security concerns?

Genuine concerns about Chinese influence abroad play a role in reinforcing more hawkish sentiment in the West, which often leaves governments in a lurch.

Some countries, such as Australia, have tried to protect themselves with new foreign interference laws Which criminalizes individuals who are considered interfering in internal affairs. In 2020, the United States imposed visa restrictions on people perceived to be active in UFWD activities.

An angry Beijing has warned that such laws – and the prosecutions they have sparked – are hampering bilateral relations.

“The so-called Chinese espionage allegations are completely ridiculous,” a State Department spokesman told reporters on Tuesday in response to a question about Yang. “Developing China-UK relations serves the common interests of both countries.”

Some experts say the long arm of China's united front is already worrying.

“Western governments must now be less naive about China's united front work and view it as a serious threat not only to national security, but also to the safety and freedom of many ethnic Chinese citizens,” says Dr Hong.

But he adds: “Governments also need to be vigilant against anti-China racism And work hard to build trust and cooperation with ethnic Chinese communities in confronting the threat together.

Last December, Di Sanh Dung, a Vietnamese-born ethnic Chinese community leader residing in Australia, was found guilty of plotting foreign interference for trying to get close to an Australian minister. Prosecutors said he was an “ideal target” for UFWD because he ran for office in the 1990s and boasted of his ties to Chinese officials.

Dong's trial revolved around what he meant when he said the minister's inclusion in a charity event would be beneficial to “us Chinese” – did he mean the Chinese community in Australia, or mainland China?

Ultimately, Dong's conviction—and prison sentence—raised serious concerns that such broad counterintelligence laws and prosecutions could easily turn into broad counterintelligence laws and prosecutions. Weapons to target ethnic Chinese.

“It's important to remember that not everyone who is of Chinese descent is a supporter of the Chinese Communist Party. Not everyone who participates in these diaspora organizations is driven by extreme loyalty to China,” says Dr. Wong.

“Overly aggressive policies based on racial profiling will only legitimize the Chinese government’s propaganda that ethnic Chinese are not welcome, and end up pushing diaspora communities into Beijing’s arms.”