NEWS//China's eyes and ears
The name of China's United Front Work Department seems to indicate that this department exists to promote Chinese labor issues. That assumption is wrong.
UFWD extends China’s control
The United Front Work Department is the Chinese bureau in charge of extending the country's influence and control to all corners of society. The United Front is responsible for surveilling the nation's 1.4 billion citizens. In addition, it keeps tabs on the whereabouts of foreign visitors to China.
Last month, the Chinese government announced that is it forging closer ties between private Chinese businesses and the United Front Work Department. The aim is to "create a backbone team of private businesspeople who are reliable and useful at critical moments."
Axios maintains “the party is seeking to establish control over the private sector in a way that maintains robust economic growth while allowing the government to implement long-term strategy and commandeer private sector resources when needed.”
UFWD surveils beyond China
The United Front is also responsible for extending China's influence over its 50 million citizens who live outside the country, as well as ethnic Chinese who are citizens of other nations.
Canada's National Post reports, "[China's president] Xi Jinping has overseen what one leading academic expert calls a ‘massive expansion’ in China’s use of soft power overseas, much of it under the auspices of the United Front Work Department, a shadowy offshoot of the Chinese communist party…. It has been increasingly deployed to win over ethnic Chinese in other countries — and the broader societies around them…. Anne-Marie Brady, a political scientist at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury, told a U.S. conference last year. 'China) is increasingly able to use its soft-power ‘magic weapons’ to help influence the decision-making of foreign governments and societies.'”
The Diplomat warns that the United Front endangers ethnic Chinese abroad. "Efforts from China’s United Front Work Department in Canada have been frequent and visible in recent years, ranging from attempting to stop the Toronto District School Board from cutting ties with the Chinese government-backed Confucius Institute in 2014 to organizing group ad-buys against demonstrators seeking democratic reforms in Hong Kong last year."
UFWD is a concern in the U.S.
According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, "China uses what it calls 'United Front' work to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD)— the agency responsible for coordinating these kinds of influence operations—mostly focuses on the management of potential opposition groups inside China, but it also has an important foreign influence mission. To carry out its influence activities abroad, the UFWD directs 'overseas Chinese work,' which seeks to co-opt ethnic Chinese individuals and communities living outside China, while a number of other key affiliated organizations guided by China’s broader United Front strategy conduct influence operations targeting foreign actors and states."
Sources: The Diplomat , U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, National Post, Axios, the Lowy Institute, The Republican Study Committee