China’s espionage, tech-theft ‘has global reach’

Beijing’s influence across the globe stretches deeper than imagined, warns the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Huang Xiangmo. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

The Chinese Communist Party is influencing foreign governments, stealing technology and co-­opting business interests through a vast “united front system” that stretches across the world, a new report reveals.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute report lays bare the operations of the CCP’s global influence network, saying intelligence agencies need to better track and understand the system to counter political interference and economic espionage.

It reveals how the global influence system goes well beyond the CCP’s United Front Work Department, drawing upon “hundreds of thousands of united front figures and thousands of groups”.

Promoted by Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “magic weapon” for strengthening the CCP’s position, the United Front reaches “into foreign political parties, diaspora communities and multinational corporations”.

“Xi Jinping has emphasised that ‘the United Front is about working on people’.

“Co-opting and manipulating elites, influential individuals and organisations is a way to shape discourse and decision-making,” the report says.

The landmark study comes amid growing concerns over CCP influence in Australia, including in Victoria where Premier Daniel Andrews, who joined Mr Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative, has advisers with United Front links.

It warns that the status and ­relationships built through the united front system are used to “facilitate intelligence activity” and “political warfare”.

China’s civilian intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Sec­urity, is involved in united front work, while the People’s Liberation Army’s political work department is “closely aligned” to the system.

The united front system is central to China’s illicit technology transfer efforts, enabling the co-opting of professional associ­ations and the infiltration of universities, governments and private companies, the report says. In Australia alone, more than a dozen groups controlled by the CCP’s United Front Work Department are involved in technology transfer and talent recruitment on behalf of the Chinese government.

 

The study, by ASPI analyst Alex Joske, will be read in government and university circles, and is set to grab global attention.

His previous paper highlighting the risks of scientific collaborations with Chinese military researchers was cited in a US policy to deny visas to People’s Liberation Army scientists.

Its release follows recent ASIO warnings that espionage and foreign interference in Australia are at a scale not previously seen, with “more foreign intelligence officers and their proxies operating in Australia now than at the height of the Cold War”. Multinational companies such as the “big four” accounting firms are also targets, the report says, citing Deloitte China’s establishment of a united front association in 2016.

 

The co-opting of Chinese student and diaspora groups is a key focus of united front work, allowing the CCP to “control and install community leaders” in key positions of influence.

The report warns the CCP’s political interference and theft of sensitive technologies will inevitably grow amid rising tensions between China and other nations.

One problem governments face in tackling the influence system is the denial by key figures of united front links. The report cites the example of Australian-­Chinese businessman and political donor Chau Chak Wing, who claimed he had never heard of the UFWD, despite mentioning it in a speech and being pictured meeting its officials.

Property developer Huang Xiangmo was Australia’s most spectacular case of united front influence, becoming the catalyst for the Turnbull government’s foreign interference laws.