China has a bunch of non-governmental organizations
that promote things like “human rights” and “Tibetan culture”
Except they’re not NGOs They were set up by the Chinese Communist Party.
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
For the Chinese Communist Party, there’s always a simple solution to a complex problem.
Want more greenery in the mountains? Just paint them green!
The trees don’t have leaves? Just put some fake ones on
Because who needs oxygen when you can just breathe in plastic and paint fumes. Mmmmm …
carcinogenic! And if grassroots
organizations aren’t toeing the Party line… Create some fake grassroots organizations!
Take the “China Association for Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture” for example.
Technically it’s a non-governmental organization or NGO.
But something about its mission statement seems a little sus.
It says the purpose is to “abide by the constitution and laws” of China,
as well as the policies of the state.
So it’s a non-governmental organization… whose purpose is to abide by the government?
That’s like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting whose purpose is to sell whiskey .
It’s especially weird since they’re supposedly trying to preserve and develop Tibetan culture.
I’m sure the first thing every Tibetan thinks about when they wake up in the morning is,
“You know, the problem around here is that people just aren’t obeying the law.”
Many of the Association's top executives also happen to be
government or Communist Party officials. And I’m sure it’s a total coincidence
that it shares an address with the government’s United Front Work Department.
You won’t find that building on Google Maps though. It’s just “an empty quarter, an urban
block next to the Communist party’s leadership compound in which few of the buildings are named”
Which could only mean one thing—there’s
nothing to look at here. It’s just a government building that doesn’t exist.
Hey, why does this thing in sheep’s clothing look, sound, smell, and act just like a wolf? Ah, it’s
probably just a sheep. Quit being so paranoid. Then there’s the “China Society for Human Rights
Studies”, which also claims to be an NGO. It claims to be “promoting healthy development
of human rights causes in China and the world” Which is a big task. Trying to improve human
rights in China is like trying to improve the nutritional value of cotton candy ... if the
cotton candy was committing genocide. Everyone thinks you’re so sweet. But I’m onto you.
But you only have to scroll through the China Society for Human Rights Studies’
Twitter account to see that it’s mostly concerned with human rights in foreign
countries. And when I say foreign countries, I mean mostly just the US.
“China's society of human rights studies has condemned the United States for initiating wars
abroad and causing humanitarian calamities. In an article released on Friday it says over
80 percent of the armed conflicts between 1945 and 2001 were initiated by America.”
Gee, with all those human rights violations, I wonder why the US is the most popular destination
for Chinese asylum seekers. Must be all that disinformation the US government puts out.
Either that or they have brain damage from breathing in so much plastic and paint fumes.
Like the Tibetan association, the China Society for Human Rights Studies is also
chaired by a government official. Padma Choling is the former vice
chair of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
He’s also a member of the CCP… …which means he’s about as
qualified to advocate for human rights in China as a butcher is advocating for animal rights.
The irony doesn’t end there though.
He once claimed that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation is “not
up to the Dalai Lama,” it’s up to the Chinese state...
and that to suggest anything else is “blasphemy against Tibetan Buddhism.”
So... how do you even get approval to reincarnate in China?
“Could I come back as a corgi? Pleeeeeease?”
And after the break, a church for communists who don’t believe in churches.
Welcome back. The Chinese Communist Party is
obsessed with control. Because of that, the only truly accepted religion is Xi Jinping Thought.
Or as I call it, That’s What Xi Said.
The Chinese Communist Party is officially atheist, which is kind of like Islam
being the official religion of Iran, except China’s official religion is anti-religion.
Which isn’t hard to enforce, because nothing will make you not believe in
a loving God more than living under the CCP.
That being said, on paper, the CCP allows 5 religions in China.
However, if they get too far away from communism, they’re quickly pulled back into line.
That’s where organizations like the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association
and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement come in. They’re both organizations founded in the ‘50s by
the CCP that are meant to look like religious organizations, but are anything but that.
Hey, why does this thing in a priest’s clothing look, sound, smell, and act just like a wolf?
Ah, it’s probably just a priest. Quit being so paranoid.
Like the other NGOs I talked about earlier, these religious organizations are part of China's United
Front apparatus, which is coordinated by the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department.
The United Front is “a network of party and state agencies responsible for influencing
groups outside the party, particularly those claiming to represent civil society.”
Its goals are the same as those of the CCP:
Make the CCP more powerful and spread communism internationally.
You can think of the United Front as a big, dysfunctional mafia family trying to
protect its image by making sure everyone’s telling the same story about the family.
If anyone says anything different, they’re removed from their positions. If an outsider
says otherwise, they’re sleeping with the fishes. But the United Front is even worse than the
Italian-American mafia, since they don’t even have any good movies about them.
You’re not gonna find any United Front posters for sale at a Spencers Gifts.
The United Front works both inside and outside of China. It uses a whole of society approach
to advance the Party’s interests, meaning it incorporates different sectors like business,
religion, science, technology and diplomacy. I wonder if they also have an afterlife branch.
“Once groups or individuals have been integrated into the united front system, they can be used to
co-opt and influence others. They’re also used to support the party’s claim that it represents
and consults various constituencies not just in China but increasingly beyond China’s borders.”
Yes, nothing says diversity like having tons of state-controlled
groups created by a single-party regime.
That’d be like if all 31 flavors of Baskin Robbins ice cream were CCPeanut brittle.
Many Chinese Students and Scholars Associations, cultural organizations,
and diaspora community organizations have been co-opted to carry out United Front work.
Now I’m not saying every Chinese group or association out there does United Front work.
But the CCP would like that to be the case, and it’s working hard to make it so.
This creates a big problem for governments and organizations that think they’re dealing with just
a cultural or religious organization from China. A lot of their operations fall into legal gray
zones, which makes United Front Work hard to detect and even harder to shut down.
“Governments are still struggling to manage it effectively and there is little publicly available
analysis of the united front system.” Take the United Nations, for example. It
lists both the China Society for Human Rights Studies and China Association for Preservation
and Development of Tibetan Culture as advisory bodies to the UN Economic and Social Council.
Meaning inside of the UN, there are two wolves. At least.
Now anyone who watched the UN’s handling of the pandemic….
…or saw China get on the UN Human Rights Council,
knows just how well China has co-opted the UN. But this is a problem for all governments,
whether they’re friendly with China or not. One thing that’s been consistent about the
Chinese Communist Party is that it doesn’t hold any alliance sacred.
Wow. Who would have thought an officially atheist regime doesn’t hold things sacred.
What next? You’re gonna tell me that Garfield isn’t a big fan of Mondays?
So Russia and China could be best friends today, and tomorrow they could be working
against each other. Understanding how the CCP
co-opts NGOs is important, because unlike China’s military or spy agencies, it can take some digging
to see the NGOs’ government connections. They’ve been involved in things like stealing
trade secrets, espionage, influence operations, and propaganda campaigns.
So when dealing with any group from China, it’s probably safe to assume they’re about as real
as the leaves on this tree.
If you want to learn more about the United Front—and I hope you do—we have a United
Front playlist on China Uncensored. Check it out, I’ll put a link to it in the description below.
So what do you think about China co-opting NGOs for political purposes?
Let us know in the comments below. And remember, China Uncensored is able
to keep making episodes like this because of viewers like you who support China Uncensored
through the crowdfunding website Patreon or the exclusive social media platform Locals.
So today as a thank you, I’ll answer one of your questions. Today’s question comes from...
Veronica Smith on Patreon:
“Do you believe the ETIM is real and other terrorist groups in Xinjiang are real?”
Good question. Yes. ETIM—The East Turkestan Islamic Movement—is real. Or at least it
was in 2002, when the US officially labeled it a terrorist organization.
Back then, the George W. Bush White House thought it would be a good idea to work
with the CCP to stop Islamic terrorists. But the CCP ended up mainly using that as
an excuse to persecute tons of ethnic minorities who happened to be Muslim.
As to how big ETIM is today, or how big a threat it is to the CCP, it’s impossible to know.
Given the CCP’s mass surveillance in Xinjiang,
with police on nearly every street corner,
I’d be surprised if it’s any significant problem, if it still exists at all.
And one thing’s for sure: It’s not a big enough threat to the CCP to justify putting more than a
million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps. Even if the CCP tries to use it as an excuse.
Thanks for your question and your support, Veronica.
Be like Veronica, and support China Uncensored on the crowdfunding site Patreon.
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Once again I’m Chris Chappell, thanks for watching China Uncensored.