China Expanding ‘Increasingly Brazen’ Influence Operations In The US And Beyond, Gov’t Report Warns

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) efforts to accrue and exercise influence in foreign countries including the U.S. are becoming more advanced and frequent, according to a new U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) report.

The report finds that under the watch of Chinese President Xi Jinping, CCP apparatuses — such as the United Front Work Department (UFWD) — have grown more advanced and ambitious in their influence operations, which include targeting foreign countries’ media environments, business elites, academic institutions and political figures to co-opt and advance China’s interests. The key idea behind the CCP’s so-called “united front” work is to co-opt or coerce individuals outside of the CCP into facilitating the party’s interests, even if those individuals are “lesser enemies” who can be manipulated for a period of time to the disadvantage of the party’s “greater enemies,” the USCC report states.

USCC Report by Nick Pope on Scribd

The USCC published the report on July 17.

“For CCP leaders, influencing how the outside world views and engages with China is a matter of regime survival and a means of advancing national interests. The Party-state recognizes that the success of certain objectives—such as the CCP’s unquestioned rule over China, the absence of criticism regarding CCP policies, the Party’s unequivocal claim to speak for the Chinese diaspora in a way the outside world acknowledges, and the unification of Taiwan with the Mainland—depends partly on the behavior of foreign leaders and publics,” the USCC report states. “Under Xi’s rule, China’s overseas influence activities are now more prevalent, institutionalized, technologically sophisticated, and aggressive than under his predecessors.”

“The Chinese Party-state exhibits a growing and increasingly brazen tendency to employ coercion in tandem with persuasion to conduct overseas influence activities, often in ways that challenge other countries’ sovereignty or threaten the rights of persons living within their borders,” the report continues.

Specifically, the report highlights that the Chinese state looks to harvest positive media coverage in foreign countries, harass critics abroad, influence electoral processes, gain the favor of elected officials, use business relationships to push for policies that are favorable to China and influence academic discourse to distort public understanding about the CCP.

The Daily Caller News Foundation has reported on UFWD-tied operations and entities operating inside the U.S.

The Missouri-based nonprofit United States Heartland China Association, which focuses on “building bridges” between China and Midwestern officials and businesspeople, has extensive ties to groups and individuals affiliated with the UFWD, the DCNF reported in February. The organization’s board of directors and advisory team include several individuals who work for UFWD-tied entities, and other board members and senior personnel include former American governors and mayors.

The UFWD operates so-called “overseas Chinese service centers” in at least seven cities across the U.S., with some of the centers pushing Chinese propaganda and hosting performances by artists connected to China’s military and propaganda entities, according to DCNF investigations published in June and July of 2023. The Justice Department arrested two individuals for allegedly running a de facto secret police station linked with China’s Ministry of Public Security out of a Manhattan building in April 2023.

In April, Democratic San Francisco Mayor London Breed met in China with the head of a United Front-tied organization called the Chinese People’s Association For Friendship With Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), which the DCNF reported at the time. Additionally, the DCNF also reported in October 2023 that CPAFFC took credit for bringing Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on a visit to China that month.

The USCC’s report also recommends numerous courses of action that U.S. policymakers and officials can take now to respond to the growing problem of Chinese influence plays. Some of these suggestions include amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965 to increase scrutiny of funding flowing to American universities from China or Chinese influence entities or operatives, giving the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States expanded review authority under the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act and adjusting the Lobbying Disclosure Act to require trade groups employing lobbyists to disclose donations or member payments from Chinese members or their U.S.-based affiliates.