Holding Sway

China’s United Front Work Department, Known for Its Influence Operations Abroad, Is Even Busier at Home

By Jessica Batke on September 28, 2023

In most parts of the world, the United Front Work Department is known—if at all—as a secretive Chinese Communist Party organ conducting influence operations abroad. But in Gonghe Village, the local UFWD ponied up nearly one million renminbi in 2022 to purchase “snow sports equipment” for the recreation area, including not just sleds but also items such as safety nets and anti-slip mats. “We are strengthening the lifeblood of the rural collective economy in the new era, and taking a solid step towards strengthening the village, enriching the people, and revitalizing the countryside,” said the village head in a video posted to Douyin, China’s version of Tiktok.

Li Yuan

on September 27, 2023

Li Yuan writes The New New World column for The New York Times, which focuses on the intersection of technology, business, and politics in China and across Asia. She is a co-founder and host of the Chinese-language Bu Mingbai Podcast.

Wang Huning Tibet Visit

on September 27, 2023

Wang Huning, a Politburo Standing Committee member and Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, visits local residents during an inspection tour of Tibet in Nyingchi, southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, July 25, 2023.

UFWD Projects

on September 27, 2023

The winter amusement park funded by a local United Front Work Department in Heilongjiang province (left) and a mosque in Jilin province that the UFWD sought to “rectify” (right).

City University of Hong Kong

on September 21, 2023

Following the student protests, many Hong Kong universities banned student unions, and student leaders were arrested. At the City University of Hong Kong, floors where student unions once organized sat empty while the buildings underwent reconstruction, July 2022.

Real Estate Flyers

on September 21, 2023

Following the implementation of the National Security Law, real estate advertisements stating that homeowners were selling their apartments due to emigration were widespread across Hong Kong, January 2022.

Lai Wai-ling

on September 21, 2023

Left: Lai Wai-ling, mother of Yu Man-hon, pictured in August 2022. Her autistic son, then 15, disappeared at the border between Hong Kong and Guangdong in 2000. The overlayed text is of a letter she wrote to her son in October 2022, at Kwok’s invitation.

Right: In the process of searching for her son for more than 20 years, Lai Wai-ling has received thousands of letters from people across China claiming to be her son or to have her son, and asking for money and Hong Kong residency status.

Billy H.C. Kwok

on September 19, 2023

Billy H.C. Kwok lives and works in Hong Kong, where he has moved back and forth to Taiwan from since 2015. He tells stories through photography, and the images he makes reveal rapid shifts in the geopolitical relationships and various forms of power structures present in China and its neighboring regions. He has been selected for Foam Talent 2021, and was a W. Eugene Smith Grant Finalist in 2020, a Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellow in 2018, and a Magnum Foundation grantee in 2019 for his long-term project investigating political taboos and hidden histories and memories in Taiwan. Apart from generating still images, Kwok works both individually and collaboratively on multimedia storytelling.

Jack Allen

on September 18, 2023

Jack Allen is an Events and Communications Executive for the British Chamber of Commerce in China. Before joining the Chamber in March 2023 as a Policy Analyst Intern, Allen studied at the Yenching Academy of Peking University, where he got his M.A. in China Studies (Literature and Culture), and at Princeton University, where he graduated summa cum laude in Slavic Languages and Literatures.

Patrick Beyrer

on September 18, 2023

Patrick Beyrer is an Associate at the China Practice of McLarty Associates, a Washington-based global strategy firm. He is also an Honorary Junior Fellow for Public Health and Technology at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. Prior to McLarty Associates, Beyrer was a Yenching Scholar at Peking University, earning his M.A. in China Studies (Law and Society) and studied at National Taiwan University. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in East Asian Languages & Civilizations with Phi Beta Kappa honors.