US Secretary of State warns of risks of infiltration by the CCP’s ‘United Front’
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned governors across the country of the dangerous “intentions” of a China ruled by a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that is going in the “opposite direction” from democracy.
During his speech to the governors of the 50 states on February 8, 2020 at the National Governors’ Winter Meeting in Washington, Pompeo devoted his speech to alerting senior officials to the surreptitious tactics being used by the communist regime in Beijing to gain influence and power among the country’s elites.
Pompeo recounted how last year he was invited to an event, “co-hosted by the National Governors Association and something called the Chinese People’s Association For Friendship and Foreign Countries. Sounds pretty harmless,” he said and continued:
“What the invitation did not say is that the group – the group I just mentioned – is the public face of the Chinese Communist Party’s official foreign influence agency, the United Front Work Department..”
“How many of you made the link between that group and Chinese Communist Party officials? What if you made a new friend while you were at that event? What if your new friend asked you for introductions to other politically connected and powerful people?
What if your new friend offered to invest big money in your state, perhaps in your pension, in industries sensitive to our national security?”
“These aren’t hypotheticals. These scenarios are all too true, and they impact American foreign policy significantly,” Pompeo added.
US Secretary of State warns of risks of infiltration by the CCP’s ‘United Front’
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned governors across the country of the dangerous “intentions” of a China ruled by a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that is going in the “opposite direction” from democracy.
During his speech to the governors of the 50 states on February 8, 2020 at the National Governors’ Winter Meeting in Washington, Pompeo devoted his speech to alerting senior officials to the surreptitious tactics being used by the communist regime in Beijing to gain influence and power among the country’s elites.
Pompeo recounted how last year he was invited to an event, “co-hosted by the National Governors Association and something called the Chinese People’s Association For Friendship and Foreign Countries. Sounds pretty harmless,” he said and continued:
“What the invitation did not say is that the group – the group I just mentioned – is the public face of the Chinese Communist Party’s official foreign influence agency, the United Front Work Department..”
“How many of you made the link between that group and Chinese Communist Party officials? What if you made a new friend while you were at that event? What if your new friend asked you for introductions to other politically connected and powerful people?
What if your new friend offered to invest big money in your state, perhaps in your pension, in industries sensitive to our national security?”
“These aren’t hypotheticals. These scenarios are all too true, and they impact American foreign policy significantly,” Pompeo added.
These scenarios are too true and significantly impact American foreign policy,” Pompeo added.
The secretary of state also explained how his administration had had access to a report prepared by a Chinese think-tank that cites all the governors’ attitudes toward the Chinese regime as “friendly,” “hard-line” or “ambiguous”.
“And, in fact, whether you are viewed by the CCP as friendly or hardline, know that it’s working you, know that it’s working the team around you,” Pompeo added.
He explained how since the end of the Cold War the United States thought that engaging with China would help the country progressively become a democracy, yet that is far from happening.
“Indeed, under Xi Jinping, the country is moving exactly in the opposite direction – more repression, more unfair competition, more predatory economic practices; indeed, a more aggressive military posture as well,” said Pompeo who stressed that the CCP’s “actions and strategic intentions” against Western democracies cannot be ignored.
“The Chinese Government has been methodical in the way it’s analyzed our system, our very open system, one that we’re deeply proud of. It’s assessed our vulnerabilities, and it’s decided to exploit our freedoms to gain advantage over us at the federal level, the state level, and the local level,” Pompeo added, noting that these ‘friendship’ organizations under the United Front have representation in almost every major city in the country.
Pompeo described several examples of these groups’ attempts to influence and even censor at different levels, from trying to get a state congressman to disregard and ignore Taiwanese representatives to censoring the presence of a Taiwanese expert to participating in a climate panel at a high school in Chicago.
“It’s one thing to pressure the Secretary of State of the United States of America. It seems quite something else to go after a high school principal. It shows depth. It shows systemization. It’s another thing to go after a high school principal. It shows depth. It shows systematization. It shows intent,” the official said.
There are many levels at which the tentacles of the United Front Work to gain influence in foreign societies: Confucius Institutes, town-twinning programmes, Chinese student associations in universities outside of China are just a few examples.
The ‘Thousand Talents of China Programme
The official focused part of his speech on the grave danger to national security posed by China’s Thousand Talents Program, under which the Chinese communist regime has been recruiting American academics for years in exchange for large sums of money.
The ‘Thousand Talents of China Program
The official focused part of his speech on the grave danger to national security posed by China’s Thousand Talents Program, under which the Chinese communist regime has been recruiting American academics for years in exchange for large sums of money.
“A Texas A&M investigation reportedly discovered more than 100 academics participating in Chinese talent recruitment plans. Only five of them had declared that they were participating in this program,” Pompeo said, citing several recent cases of professors accused of transferring sensitive knowledge through this program to the Beijing regime from Harvard, Kansas and Virginia universities.
Only five of them had stated that they were participating in this program,” Pompeo said, citing several recent cases of professors accused of transferring sensitive knowledge through this program to the Beijing regime from Harvard, Kansas and Virginia universities.
The China 1,000 Talents program is a CCP initiative designed to recruit academics with expertise in strategic sectors with the aim of appropriating research or technologies developed in their home universities.
In late January, Charles Lieber, chairman of Harvard University’s chemistry and chemical biology department, was arrested on charges of lying about his links to the program and concealing the payments he received from the Chinese government for research.
Massachusetts attorney Andrew Lelling called the case “a small sample of China’s ongoing campaign to siphon off American technology and knowledge for the benefit of its country,” according to The Guardian.
“No country poses a greater, more severe or long-term threat to our national security and economic prosperity than China,” said Boston FBI agent Joseph Bonavolonta.
“China’s communist government’s goal, simply put, is to replace the US as the world superpower, and they are breaking the law to get there,” he added.
Beijing’s tight control over Chinese students at foreign universities is a matter of great concern, according to Pompeo, who noted that it has reached such a point that the FBI has even had to intervene:
“One very prominent pro-democracy Chinese student on a college campus in the Northeast last year received death threats – death threats for exercising his right to free speech. The FBI became involved,” the official said.
“Sadly, China’s propaganda campaign starts even earlier than college. China has targeted K through 12 schools through its “Confucius Classrooms,” the CCP’s program to influence kids at elementary, middle, and high schools around the world.”
“Do you know that we have no ability to establish similar programs in China? I’m sure that doesn’t surprise you. President Trump has talked about reciprocity in trade. We should have reciprocity in all things. Today they have free rein in our system, and we’re completely shut out from theirs,” Pompeo added.
“The China competition is happening. It’s happening in your states,”Pompeo told the Governors and he added that “it’s a competition that goes to the very basic freedoms that every one of us values,” he concluded.
