The United Front Work Department is an official agency set up by Beijing for suppressing dissidents, recruiting, and infiltrating groups in Western countries.
At least 103 organizations in Sweden are linked to the Chinese communist regime’s “United Front Work Department,” a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) department engaging in overseas infiltration and espionage, according to an Oct. 4 report by a Washington-based defense policy think tank.
The CCP leverages a network of groups, some directly under the control of the United Front Work Department within its Central Committee, to carry out its “united front” strategy to advance the regime’s interests overseas. A big part of the strategy involves exerting influence and control over Chinese diaspora communities and promoting favorable narratives about China under the CCP’s rule.
The Jamestown Foundation’s report said the United Front-linked groups have allegedly infiltrated Sweden’s culture, business, politics, and education sectors.
In the cultural sphere, United Front organizations in Sweden “promote the CCP-approved version of Chinese culture through events in and exchanges with Sweden” to “deepen cultural ties while subtly aligning Swedish perceptions with the Party’s views,” according to the report.
The researchers named a few prominent cultural events as examples of the CCP’s infiltration. They include the 2023 Chinese Cultural Night as part of the annual Stockholm Culture Night, which the China–Europe Cultural Association and the Chinese Artists Association in Sweden co-hosted in collaboration with more than 100 museums, theaters, galleries, libraries, and cultural institutions.
In terms of the economy, the CCP’s United Front organizations in Sweden help local companies build connections with CCP institutions to “serve the CCP’s long-term goal of integrating foreign economies with that of [China], increasing its leverage over and influence in Sweden’s political economy,” the report states.
The organizations have also helped the Chinese regime with technology transfer, according to the report. Researchers named the head of the Sweden–China Entrepreneur Association and the North Europe Innovation Center and the vice chair of the China–Sweden International Technology Transfer Center, who worked together to bring Swedish companies to Shenzhen and other cities in China. These efforts serve the CCP’s “broader strategy of making full use of overseas Chinese to attract funds, technology, and equipment” for its goal of “modernization,” the report states.
The report said United Front groups also promote CCP narratives in Sweden by acting as representatives of the Chinese diaspora community.
These groups are “presenting a united voice and acting as representatives of the broader Chinese community” to “align public opinion in Sweden” with the CCP’s propaganda, “shaping perceptions on issues of critical importance to the Party,” according to the report.
The report states, for example, that in August 2022, after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, 20 Chinese Swedish organizations issued a joint statement “expressing strong indignation and severe condemnation” of Pelosi’s visit. These groups also hosted events to promote the CCP’s “peaceful unification” of Taiwan.
The report also cites a Swedish media report identifying 233 CCP agents “across Europe connected to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) united front system, shedding light on the extent of the Party’s influence abroad.”
Sweden was the first Western country to establish diplomatic relations with Beijing after the CCP took over mainland China, and the first country to sign a bilateral investment protection agreement with Beijing after the CCP’s “reform and opening up” economic policies.
In April, the head of the China–Europe Cultural Association, Chen Xuefei, was deported by the Swedish government for allegedly posing a serious threat to Sweden’s national security. Chen was also the head of “Green Post,” a Chinese-language media outlet in Sweden. Most of the content of Green Post’s reports directly reflected that of Chinese state media, according to Swedish broadcaster SVT.
The Swedish security services found that Chen had allegedly cooperated with a Chinese intelligence officer and had contacts with the Chinese Embassy and with people in Sweden who are connected to the Chinese communist regime, according to the outlet.
Targets of CCP’s United Front
As to the extent of the CCP’s infiltration through the activities of its United Front Work Department in the West, Chen Shih-min, associate professor of political science at National Taiwan University, told The Epoch Times on Oct. 5 that the CCP “is taking advantage of the West’s democratic, liberal, and pluralistic society” to infiltrate and influence public opinion with its narratives.
Tzeng Yisuo, associate research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told The Epoch Times on Oct. 5 that anyone who is not on the CCP’s side is a target for the United Front.
“Private enterprises in mainland China are all the targets of its United Front. Of course, democratic countries are also the targets of its United Front,” he said. “There are many Chinese in these democratic countries. These Chinese immigrants and expatriates, in the CCP’s minds, belong to it and are subject to Beijing’s control.
“Then, the CCP can win over some and recruit some overseas Chinese people to help with the United Front’s work. So, the infiltration part of the United Front efforts also complements its intelligence gathering, which is the Western governments’ focus now.”
Tzeng said the CCP uses some Chinese cultural exchanges, academic exchanges, and business partnerships for its United Front and intelligence work.
“For example, Sweden, as [with] many European countries, has mainland China as their largest trade market in Asia. So, the CCP can use business opportunities to carry out United Front activities, along with gathering intelligence and infiltration,” he said.
Countermeasures
Chen Shih-min said that Confucius Institutes are engaged in a very deliberate cultural infiltration under the United Front and that “there are some economic groups and chambers of commerce that are engaged in very obvious economic activities for the United Front.”
“If Western governments can find connections between them and the CCP, then of course these become legal matters, as they are interfering in the internal affairs of Western countries and destroying the democratic values and freedom of Western countries,” he said. “But the problem is that it may not be easy to find this evidence.”
Tzeng said that the most important countermeasure to the CCP’s infiltration through United Front work is cultivating awareness and alertness.
“If everyone has this awareness, they will be able to reduce and weaken the CCP’s infiltration effects, rendering it futile,” he said, noting that “the CCP’s economy cannot recover in a short time” as China is currently facing significant economic strain.
He suggested that if all countries “systematically investigate and block it, and warn their people about it, letting the whole world know about it, it will make sure the CCP’s infiltration efforts are in vain, wasting its own resources.”
“I think this is an effective countermeasure,” Tzeng said.
Chen Shih-min agreed, saying that “the most important thing now is that Western countries have begun to be vigilant in the past 10 years.”
He cited the United States as an example.
“They prefer to hire more Chinese language teachers from Taiwan to teach Chinese in the United States because they know that many of those who come from mainland China to teach Chinese in the United States carry out the CCP’s political purpose, the purpose of the United Front,” he said. “The United States does not want to have that.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the China–Europe Cultural Association, the Chinese Artists Association, and the Sweden–China Entrepreneur Association for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
Frank Fang, Luo Ya, and Li Haoyue contributed to this report.