On this episode of China Uncensored,
a new report says...
everything in China is great!
Hi, welcome back to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
The Chinese Communist Party is waging
an all out war!
To make you love them!
And you’d better start loving the CCP,
or else.
This war of love is not fought by soldiers
giving out free hugs.
It’s waged with money and influence,
forming a complex web involving policy makers,
think tanks,
and media companies around the world—
including right here in the United States.
The CCP’s aim is to make influential people
and organizations love them.
And then all the love will sort of trickle down to you,
the average American.
The spider at the center of this web of communist love
is the United Front Work Department.
What is the United Front Work Department you ask?
Well, according to its executive deputy head,
“the United Front is the political coalition
of all parties,
all walks of life,
all ethnic groups,
and all associations.”
Or to put it another way,
the United Front is the CCP’s political coalition
of everything that’s not the CCP,
which exists in order to support the CCP.
It’s a little hard to describe,
because there’s simply nothing like it in the West.
It’s not a government organ or an NGO.
It’s a top-level branch
of the Chinese Communist Party itself.
The goal of the United Front is
to “win hearts and minds”
both in China and overseas.
Getting everyone to see things
with the CCP’s perspective.
And when I say everyone,
I mean everyone.
The Financial Times managed to get
a training manual that’s issued
to United Front cadres.
It talks about the need to battle
“enemy forces abroad”
that are against China’s rise.
But don’t worry!
The United Front is a big magic weapon
that can get rid of all of these problems.
And when I say all the problems,
I mean that the United Front
is involved in everything
from making sure that all religions in China
love the CCP,
to making sure that 60 million overseas Chinese
love the CCP,
to making sure that foreigners
who learn about China love...
well, you get the point.
Imagine it like this.
Say you wanted to get Connie to go with you to prom.
But if you had a United Front Work Department,
you wouldn’t just ask Connie!
Because she’s waiting for Chad to ask her out.
But don’t worry,
your United Front workers
would be making friends with all her friends,
paying a reporter at the school paper
to write a glowing feature on you,
even getting the cheerleaders to chant your name
at the next football game—
all with the goal of convincing Connie
that you’re the greatest guy
at Palm Desert High.
And if all that’s not enough to convince Connie
to go out with you,
you’ll just hire some thugs to beat up those
“enemy forces abroad,”
aka, Chad.
The United Front Work Department
is a fascinating shadowy organization
that we can’t cover in just one episode.
So let’s look at one small example
of the work they do,
via a recent investigation
by Foreign Policy magazine.
This is Johns Hopkins University’s School
of Advanced International Studies.
It’s one of the top
international relations schools in the US.
Its graduates fill the ranks
of the next generation of American leaders—
from the State Department,
to the CIA,
to the military.
And the white papers they put out
serve as the basis
for a lot of the mainstream media reports
you see about China.
In 2016, they announced the Pacific Community Initiative.
According to the school’s announcement,
it will examine “what China’s broader role in Asia
and the world means for its neighbors.”
And you know what?
I’m guessing the white paper it puts out
will be all about how great China would be
as a prom date.
Because, where is the School of Advanced International Studies
getting the money for its new initiative?
Why, from the China-United States Exchange Foundation.
That group is registered as a foreign agent
with the US Department of Justice
under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Partially because it was founded
and funded by Tung Chee-hwa,
who currently serves as the vice chairman
of one of the United Front’s most important entities:
the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
That’s a political advisory body
made up of people the CCP
wants to keep in close orbit.
Members range from the CCP’s fake Panchen Lama,
to action star who thinks Chinese people
need to be controlled,
Jackie Chan.
In addition to being the vice chairman
of the CPPCC, Tung Chee-hwa
was also the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong
after the end of British rule.
He got that position because of his close relationship
with former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin.
And because he said things like,
“Freedom is not unimportant.
But the West just doesn't
understand Chinese culture.
It is time to reaffirm who we are.
Individual rights are not as important
as order in our society.”
So really,
what do you think research
paid for by this guy and the United Front
will say about “what China’s broader role
in Asia and the world means for its neighbors”?
Maybe China’s got the right idea,
taking away individual freedom
for the sake of social harmony.
The Pacific Community Initiative, by the way,
comes with a professorship
that’s also paid for by,
and in fact, named after
Tung Chee-hwa.
This isn’t the first time Tung Chee-hwa’s
China-United States Exchange Foundation
has worked to influence American organizations.
In fact, it has ”cooperated on projects
with numerous U.S. institutions,
including the Brookings Institution,
the Center for Strategic and International Studies,
the Atlantic Council,
the Center for American Progress,
the East-West Institute,
the Carter Center,
and the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.”
Those are influential organizations
that have a real impact on US policy making.
Maybe they shouldn’t be working with
an organization designated a foreign agent
whose sole purpose is to influence
a “positive” relationship
between the US and China.
Don’t worry though,
the China-United States Exchange Foundation
denies that it has any ties to the United Front.
That makes me feel a lot better.
As does the fact that the
China-United States Exchange Foundation
also worked with the Communist Party’s
People’s Liberation Army.
In particular,
the Sanya Initiative.
They had this great idea
to get retired US and Chinese
high ranking military leaders together,
to just kind of hang out,
pose for awkward photos,
and give each other dishware
from Williams-Sonoma.
And also, back in 2008,
they wanted to encourage the US veterans
to convince the Pentagon to delay
publishing a report about China’s
aggressive military build up.
And get this—
the US veterans actually tried.
The Pentagon rejected their request.
The China-United States Exchange Foundation
is also actively involved
in influencing US politics.
In 2016, they hired the Podesta Group—
whose co-founder was Hillary Clinton’s
former campaign manager—
and spent almost 700,000 dollars
lobbying Congress about China-US relations.
And this year they’ve spent about 500,000 on lobbying.
At the recent Chinese Communist Party Congress
held in October,
Chinese leader Xi Jinping called the United Front
the Communist Party’s “magic weapon.”
Sounds familiar.
Why, Xi Jinping himself is the head
of the United Front Small Leading Group.
He was appointed by...himself.
And as much as Xi Jinping
would like to use the United Front to build
a better image for himself internationally,
this is part of a much larger political battle
happening inside of China.
During the Party Congress this year,
Xi appointed his guy, You Quan
as the new head United Front Work Department.
One of the former heads, Ling Jihua,
was a part of Jiang Zemin’s political faction.
Ling Jihua is currently serving
a life sentence for corruption,
and was accused of plotting a coup
against Xi Jinping.
So putting his own guy in charge
and getting more closely involved
with the United Front means that Xi Jinping
sees the United Front as a key part
of changing China’s role in the world,
and it’s another sign
that he’s continuing to lock down
his power struggle against Jiang.
Now remember Tung Chee-hwa—
who founded the China-United States Exchange Foundation?
Like I said before,
he’s closely tied to Jiang Zemin, too.
So now that Xi
is taking charge of the United Front,
how will Tung fit into the picture?
We’ll have to wait and see.
Well, one thing is certain,
the groups his foundation is funding
probably aren’t going to come out
with any research critical
of the Chinese Communist regime,
regardless of who’s in charge.
What do you think?
Leave your comments below.
Thanks for watching this episode of China Uncensored.
Once again I’m your host, Chris Chappell.
See you next time.
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