In the coming months, Hark Herald Press will release its research reports on the Psychological Warfare conducted by the Chinese Communist Party against western countries, especially those targeting the right wing.
To bring our readers up to speed, we hereby start with a primer on how Chinese Psychological Warfare is organized.
Communist China carries out its psychological warfare aka political influence campaign through many institutions. The most prominent among them is the United Front Work Department or United Front. Mao Tsetung called the United Front a magic weapon for the Chinese Communist Party.
(1) United Front is China’s biggest intelligence operation, more powerful than the Ministry of State Security
- United Front – a deadly foe missed by most western political analysts.
In the May 16, 2019, House Intelligence hearing “China’s Digital Authoritarianism: Surveillance, Influence, and Political Control“， Peter Mattis stated:
“The central element to understanding what the Chinese Communist Party is doing and why to shape the world outside the party is united front work.”
“The Chinese Communist Party’s management of political influence operations … Put simply, united front work is conducted wherever the party is present.”
“…The US analysts …dismissed united front work as a largely tangential issue…the arrogance and ignorance…leads to…the United States [to not have strong campaign finance laws required for] immunity from the problem of the Chinese Communist party trying to directly influence U.S. politics…even well-informed people are mostly unaware of the scale of the Chinese Communist Party’s operations inside the United States”
Source: “China’s Digital Authoritarianism: Surveillance, Influence, and Political Control”
The following video was Mr. Mattis in the May 16 2019 congressional hearing: “China’s Digital Authoritarianism: Surveillance, Influence, and Political Control“
Later, in the Aug 4 2021 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on threats to U.S. national security from China: Beijing’s Long Arm, former United States Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew F. Pottinger stated:
The following video is from Aug 4, 2021, Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on threats to U.S. national security from China: Beijing’s Long Arm.
- 85% vs 15% – if Vladimir Putin were a Chinese agent, he would be in United Front, not MSS
In 1983, a Soviet KGB defector held a presentation, namely Psychological Warfare Subversion & Control of Western Society to a large Los Angeles audience. The presentation became the classic Western researchers kept citing in their future work.
The presenter was Yuri Bezmenov, a KGB agent who defected to Canada in 1970.
Yuri Bezmenov explained how the resource is divided among different functions of KGB operations:
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- 85% of the KGB budget is allocated to Political Warfare, which is to subvert western democracies through psychological operations such as disseminating disinformation to manipulate voters.
- Only 15% is allocated to western style intelligence gathering.
- United Front – History
- Chinese Communist Party started as an offshoot of the Soviet Communist Party to spread the global communist revolution. Its intelligence operation was established as a branch of Soviet intelligence. In the 1920s, CCP Intelligence gained its agency albeit still under heavy Russian influence. (Below are pictures of Chou Enlai, CCP Intelligence’s godfather)
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- Between 1924 -1927, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) set up United Front operations as it was fighting with the Chinese Nationalists (KMT) to defeat warlords in China. Both CCP and KMT received Soviet support. In 1927, KMT turned against CCP and crushed it with overwhelming military might. CCP resorted to guerilla warfare to fight against KMT.
- In 1936, as Japan was gravitating toward Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union needed someone to deflect the pressure of Japan in the Far East. It demanded CCP to re-establish alliance with KMT to fight Japan. Accordingly, CCP set up United Front operations as a vehicle to carry out its partnership with KMT.
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Starting in 1936, the Chinese Communist Party was legalized by the Republic of China government controlled by KMT. In the picture are 3 senior CCP elites who will form the delegate to the Republic of China wartime capital in WWII Chongqing, Ye Jianying (left), Zhang Chong (middle), and Chou Enlai
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- In 1938, CCP passed a resolution that every grassroots party committee at the sub-county level should establish an office to take United Front assignments;
- In July 1944, CCP established Urban Affair Work Department which was the official party apparatus to oversee United Front operations which were political warfare to undermine the Chinese Communist Party’s political enemies. The department was dismantled in Aug 1945 but reconstituted on Dec 16, 1946.
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The old site of the Urban Affair Department’s clandestine operation office in Northern China - Sep 26, 1948, CCP renamed the Urban Affair Work Department into the United Front Work Department.
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Li Weihan, Chou Enlai’s right-hand man was the first director of the United Front Work Department - In 1957, to further concentrate power into his own hands, Mao dismantled the United Front Work Department. After Mao died, Deng Xiaoping reconstituted the United Front Work Department in 1979.
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Mao Tsetung
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- On July 1, 1983, certain offices were spun off from both the United Front Work Department and the Ministry of Public Security (CCP’s very powerful national police operation) to merge into Central Social Affairs Department. The expanded Central Social Affairs Department was renamed as Ministry of State Security (MSS).
- United Front – CCP’s Political Warfare Apparatus, aka “magic weapon”
Like the Soviet Union, CCP also dedicates the majority of its intelligence resources to political warfare, mostly carried out by United Front.
Unlike the Soviet system which places both political warfare and CIA-like intelligence in KGB, China keeps them separate.
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- The Ministry of State Security (MSS) handles intelligence work similar to the CIA.
- Political warfare or influence campaign is handled by the United Front.
Partly because China was a quasi-ally fighting the Soviet Union, the United Front has not been treated as an intelligence operation in the West since the 1970s. Putin used to work for the political warfare arm of the KGB. His Chinese counterpart would be someone working for United Front, not MSS.
Granting United Front such impunity allows it to build a global network of thousands of legally registered entities worldwide. These entities operate within local laws and quietly undermine western democracy from within:
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- Turning western politicians into symbols for communist rule;
- Creating a fake civil society;
- Distorting the marketplace for ideas;
- Undermining policymaking;
- Suppressing discussion of China-related issues;
- Facilitating intelligence operations and technology transfer.
Source: “China’s Digital Authoritarianism: Surveillance, Influence, and Political Control”
- United Front Organizations In the West
Majority of United Front organizations in the West fall under 4 categories:
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- The China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification (CPPRC) These organizations focus on influencing Taiwan to accept CCP’s framework for “peaceful reunification with China”. A significant portion of United Front agents Hark Herald will expose fall under this category.
- The China Association for International Friendly Contact.（CAIFC) (An organization of the Chinese military and MSS)
- Chinese Student and Scholar Association, which has at least 142 chapters around the US and the world. (CSSA) Organizations led by its Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Bureau, such as Hong Kong Youth Association and China Youth Association.
- Confucius Institutes (link)
(2) United Front is shifting its focus to infiltrating anti-communist Right in the West
A common misunderstanding is that communists are radical leftists who are fond of leftist ideology.
Communists are only into power. To obtain power, they could befriend anyone who is rhetorically against them, be it Nazis before WWII or right-wingers in the west.
The following is a short video on how Soviet communists collaborated closely with Nazis at the beginning of WWII. Remember few people were more vocal against communism than Hitler.
- Bao Shouhua （保守化）- CCP pivoting to focus on the Right
Chinese communists are no different.
Many in the West are under the impression that United Front carries out its political influence campaigns by spreading only falsely positive pro-CCP messages.
This is no longer 100% true even though United Front did start by attempting to infiltrate the left. Even today, they spread a massive amount of misinformation to promote CCP.
However, since 2016 United Front has shifted its focus to infiltrate the right wing of Western politics. To do so, CCP conducts its spread of right-wing disinformation through agents disguised as “anti-CCP” activists.
The shift coincided with the CCP’s quiet promotion of fascism and nazism in the name of Bao Shouhua which means in “promoting conservatism”.
As Chinese society demands an alternative to the outdated Marxist indoctrination, fascism appears ideal.
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- It opposes democracy and it is in line with the ultra-nationalism CCP promotes.
- Bao ShouHua (保守化）is a movement to promote fascism disguised as conservatism by CCP-endorsed “scholars.”
- United Front agents were actively participating in the J6
Hark Herald Press will publish hard evidence gathered from publicly available information, United Front agents were actively participating in the planning and organization of Jan 6 insurrection.
We will also show that the scope of United Front infiltration into the right-wing space goes far beyond its involvement in January 6 insurrection. It includes:
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- Inciting civil war in the US;
- Directly meddling with US politics with Chinese money;
- Antivaccination disinformation;
- QANon messaging.
(3) Communist China is a Strategic Partner with Russia in global disinformation. United Front plays a crucial role
- Strategic Partnership with Russia
Because of the internal rivalry to dominate the global communist movement, CCP once viewed the Soviet Union as its arch-enemy. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, China has been elevating its relationship with Russia:
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- In 1996, China and Russia established a strategic partnership, and
- In 2001, they signed the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation (hereinafter referred to as the “Treaty”).
- In 2011, they established a comprehensive strategic partnership of equality, mutual trust, mutual support, common prosperity, and lasting friendship, and
- In 2019, they upgraded it to a new era of comprehensive strategic partnership.
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- In 2021, on the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty, the heads of the two countries issued a joint statement officially announcing the elevation of the partnership.
In 2008, Russia completed the FSB restructuring. FSB has since become the engine powering disinformation to radicalize western voters. On top of financial support for MAGA, FSB has developed a meta-narrative to divide western voters, by amplifying white grievances, xenophobia, and racism.
The FSB-developed rhetoric gained enormous popularity on Chinese social media.
Russia and China are joining forces in spreading disinformation.
Meanwhile, Carl Schmitt, a prominent Nazi scholar, and jurist became the darling of Chinese academia. Schmitt was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Nazi newspaper for lawyers, and did not repent after WWII.
(4) United Front is an under-studied and under-appreciated threat to American democracy
United Front which has pivoted to focus on infiltration the right-wing politics of the right has been largely under the radar screen of the American public.
A distinct feature of Chinese intelligence operations is that it distributes a task to a large number of agents and useful idiots to carry out to create plausible deniability. United Front recruits useful idiots and assembles their separate tasks into a complete mission. Because of this unique approach, United Front is involved in every aspect of China’s clandestine operation including but not limited to the following:
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- Police stations in the US, Canada, the UK, and other western countries,
- The proliferation of the Confucius institute,
- Theft of Western technology,
- COVID disinformation,
- Coopting Taiwanese political parties;
- Pressuring Taiwan to surrender
As the country’s leading China expert Josh Rogin put it: It’s time to end China’s ‘United Front’ operations inside the United States.
The indictment of Guo Wengui offers a unique window for the American public to look into the United Front operation, especially new trends emerging after 2016:
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- More United Front agents are deployed as anti-CCP activists.
- United Front has constructed a global network, including Russian-style content farms to infiltrate right-wing politics in the West.
- United Front is a learning organization that is becoming increasingly well-versed in western political culture. It is ramping up quickly in mastering the conservative vocabulary and FSB meta-narratives. It stays laser-focused on identifying loopholes to exploit in western democracies to advance Communist China’s geopolitical ambition.
Hark Herald Press is committed to helping our readers get a handle on this crucial national security threat by looking at the big picture and connecting the dots.
Let our journey begin!