The 'H6' Chinese spy row in the United Kingdom has brought back the focus to Chinese overseas espionage missions. Many British MPs believe that the 50-year-old Chinse businessman, whose identity remains protected, is said to be associated with the communist regime in Beijing's "United Front Work Department", a wing reportedly tasked with establishing ties with influential people across the globe to safeguard and promote Chinese interests.
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It is said that Beijing's United Front Work Department (UFWD) is at least 40,000 strong, and H6 was asked to establish relationships with important people in the UK so that his contacts can be used as leverage "for political interference purposes".
But how did China's United Front Work Department grow so big? To whom do the agents of the UFWD report to? Here is what you need to know about the organisation that operates in broad daylight, yet remains in the shadows.
What is United Front Work Department?
The UFWD, according to reports, is a high-level Party body that reports directly to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee. Originally Soviet, the United Front work is inspired by the Leninist theory of uniting with lesser enemies to defeat greater ones. The first incarnation of United Front work was an attempt to join and subvert the then-ruling Nationalist government, the Kuomintang, in the early 1920s. Through co-opting or subverting potential opponents, the CCP has proven highly successful in neutralizing large-scale or open political opposition.
According to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), UFWD is asked to carry out influence activities locally and abroad. While UFWD domestically looks to eliminate sources of potential opposition to the policies and interests of the ruling CCP, its overseas operations look to clear the path for the successful push of the Chinese agenda and interests in the global arena.
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The UFWD comprises four subordinate offices and nine specialized bureaus, each dealing with a particular targeted group such as China’s eight officially-approved non-communist political parties, ethnic minorities, and Chinese communities overseas. However, Xi has also tasked them with cultivating the loyalty of the Uyghur Muslims and keeping a check on the Chinese middle class -- reportedly a new challenge for the communists.
"Today, United Front-related organizations are playing an increasingly important role in China’s broader foreign policy under Chinese President and General Secretary of the CCP Xi Jinping," the USCC report said.
How UFWD operates?
Ethnic Chinese individuals and communities living outside China are roped in for doing its dirty jobs across countries along with the support of "key affiliated organizations guided by China’s broader United Front strategy," the report said about UWFD's foreign missions.
The UFWD teaching manual directs operatives to win overseas Chinese over to the CCP’s side by convincing them that “the unity of Chinese at home requires the unity of the sons and daughters of Chinese abroad.”
The common method adopted by UFWD officials to achieve this is meeting with local chapters of “Hometown Associations” (groups that connect Chinese emigrants from the same locale), in the company of senior staff from Chinese consulates. The targets often receive financial assistance from China, further strengthening their faith in Beijing.
The modus operandi of the UFWD is to establish connections that are difficult to publically by the targeted nation's security agencies, media or judiciary. The cunning agents make their moves in the shade of sensitive issues so that pursuers and whistleblowers back off in the fear of backlash. It is not easy being accused of racism or xenophobia in modern societies and UFWD use these ethnic and political factors to their advantage, USCC points out.
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UFWD allies and support groups
The China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification (CPPRC), a prominent organization promoting China’s unification with Taiwan, is directly subordinate to the UFWD and has at least 200 chapters in 90 countries, the United States have found out. The Liaison Department of the former People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General
Political Department (GPD), the e China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC), a front organization for the former General Political Department are some other groups identified to have been tasked with assisting the UFWD in foreign countries.
How the United Front Work Department recruits resources?
Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSAAs) are used by the CCP to identify people who can contribute to the UFWD. These groups get in touch with students of Chinese origin by helping them to find part-time jobs, residence, roommates and the like. In the pretext of helping Chinese youngsters adjust to life in a foreign country, they recruit agents for UFWD activities from across Western universities. Once found, CCP and Chinese consulates in the respective country start using them for espionage or intelligence gathering.
In a known case of high-level espionage using students, CSAA was found to be directly involved in a case of economic espionage in Belgium's Leuven, where a network of "hundreds of Chinese spies" was busted. The FBI believes that Chinese intelligence officers posted in diplomatic facilities keep in touch with the CSSA members, leaking information and taking new orders, the US has alleged.
Countries like Australia and New Zealand have received donations and media investment from United Front affiliates since the mid-2000s. In these countries, some newspapers receive funds from Beijing so that no negative news about the CCP gets ever published. Meanwhile, Canadian intelligence agencies have claimed that they have reasons to believe that the UFWD is tasked with creating general unrest, confusions and riots in Taiwan so that the PLA gets an excuse to invade the country and complete "unification."
