‘The United Front Work Department has targeted our universities, state and local lawmakers, business associations and even Congress.’
Two Republicans have introduced bicameral legislation aimed at countering threats posed by the “United Front” system of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), a member of the House Select Committee on the CCP, and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence,
introduced the “Countering China’s Political Warfare Act” on March 13.
If enacted, the
legislation would empower the U.S. president to impose sanctions on individuals and entities “knowingly engage in political warfare on behalf of a foreign government or political party” against the United States. Sanctions would include visa bans and property transaction freezes.
According to the language of the bill, political warfare includes spreading propaganda, disrupting activities in the United States, and preventing individuals from engaging in actions through intimidation, coercion, or threats.
The legislation is
intended to target the CCP’s “United Front” organizations and CCP groups that engage in political warfare.
“The United Front Work Department has targeted our universities, state and local lawmakers, business associations and even Congress. This bill gives America the necessary tools to strike back against malign Communist Party influence on US soil,” said Mr. Banks in a statement.
In China, the CCP’s
United Front Work Department (UFWD) answers directly to the Central Committee, which is headed by CCP leader Xi Jinping. The UFWD coordinates thousands of groups to carry out foreign political influence operations, suppress dissident voices and activities, gather intelligence, and facilitate the transfer of technology to China. Ultimately, the CCP uses the UFWD to advance its economic, political, and security interests worldwide.
Xi has described the United Front as the CCP’s “
magic weapon.” In December last year, Xi met with Chinese diplomatic envoys in Beijing and told them that they must “make good use of the effective instrument of united front work,” according to Chinese state-run media.
In November last year, the House committee
released a memo saying that the U.S. government “has struggled to counter united front work with traditional counterintelligence, law enforcement, and diplomatic tools.”
According to Mr. Bank’s office, over 100 United Front organizations “openly operate” in the United States. The CCP’s UFWD also manages China’s sister agreements with U.S. cities, including some in Indiana, his office added.
United Front
The legislation would also require the secretary of state to examine whether UWFD “meets the criteria for the application of sanctions” under the bill’s new authority.
“The Chinese Communist Party has proven that it will spread disinformation and lie any way it can—from the oppression of Uyghurs to the origins of COVID-19, to it accessing the data of Americans who use TikTok,” Mr. Cotton said in a statement.
“Any person or group who spread the Chinese Communists’ propaganda, like UFWD, should face sanctions.”
In December 2020, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
imposed visa restrictions on Chinese citizens and CCP officials active in the UFWD.
“The United Front frequently intimidates members of academia, businesses, civil society groups, and Chinese diaspora communities, including members of ethnic and religious minority communities who speak out against horrific human rights abuses taking place in Xinjiang, Tibet, and elsewhere in China,” Mr. Pompeo said in a statement announcing the visa bans.
The U.S. government
sanctioned six Chinese and Hong Kong officials over mass arrests of pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong in January 2021. Among those sanctioned was
You Quan, who was then the head of the UFWD.
The CCP’s United Front organizations have also
co-opted civic groups in the United States, such as the America ChangLe Association. The association, which claims to serve people from southeastern China’s Fujian Province,
housed a secret Chinese police station in New York City before the FBI
arrested two of its
members in April 2023.
“The United Front has also funded a number of think tanks in Washington D.C., and co-opted business leaders to squash criticism of China,” according to Mr. Bank’s office.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, released a
video in December last year explaining the broad spectrum of the CCP’s operations under the United Front network. One example he gave is China’s
Thousand Talents recruitment program.
Beijing offers hefty financial incentives—including research funding and salaries—via different
talent recruitment programs to entice overseas Chinese and foreign experts into working in China’s science and tech sectors. However,
according to the FBI, these programs often encourage trade secret theft and economic espionage.
“Americans need to understand that the CCP’s United Front work is not just a distant-over-there threat. It’s a right-here-at-home threat,” Mr. Gallagher says in his video.
“If we do not curtail malign CCP influence on American soil, future generations will look back and ask why we allowed—and even invited—a ‘magic weapon’ to be used against us.”
