In internal documents that the Epoch Times obtained, the CCP reveals that it has been using winter or summer camps or writing contests in the name of what it calls “culture exchanges” as its propaganda outlet to strengthen its united front work. United front work has, as its purpose, influencing people and organizations inside and outside of China to support the CCP. Below is a list of examples.

1. Hebei Overseas Chinese Federation used the “2020 online summer camp” as a propaganda tool. In the internal document from Hebei Overseas Chinese Federation, it stated that facing the sudden outbreak of COVID 19, some countries started to attack China. Therefore “we have integrated topics such as China’s experience, plan and role in combating COVID 19 into the activities at the summer camp.” According to the consolidated list of camper information, the Hebei Friendship Association in Australia and England and the North American Youth Federation sent 202 students to the 6th session while Madrid Overseas Chinese and Wenlin Chinese Culture School sent 194 students to the 7th session.

2. On November 3, 2020, the Zhangjiakou Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese organized the 21st World Chinese Student Composition Contest in Zhangjiakou City which attracted over 3,800 High school students to the contest. The Zhangjiakou Overseas Chinese Federation requires that the schools and teachers mobilize the children of the returned overseas Chinese and high school students to participate in the competition in order to “inspire students’ patriotic sentiments.” The theme was to “promote Chinese culture” but the contents mostly involved praising the CCP and its efforts to combat COVID 19.

3. On November 29, 2019, the Hebei Overseas Chinese Federation issued an invitation letter to the “Panama Overseas Chinese and the Chinese Association for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China” and invited 19 youths from the association to participate in the 10-day “Seeking Roots Journey” winter camp. The Hebei Overseas Chinese Federation and Handan Overseas Chinese Federation paid for the activities, training, accommodations, transportation, and visits. One of the activities in this camp was to visit several of the CCP’s former revolution bases.

4. From June to September 2019, the Hebei Overseas Chinese Federation organized three sessions of the summer camp with a total of 134 participants. The Federation of Canadian Chinese Associations, the National Chinese School Association in U.S., and the Spanish Chinese and Western Culture and Art School sent students to participate in the 10-day “Seeking Roots Journey” summer camp.

5. Documents from the Handan Overseas Chinese Federation revealed that the organization has strengthened ties with overseas Chinese organizations, businessmen and leaders. It has established contacts with more than 100 overseas organizations including the British Hebei Association, the Chilean Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Tanzania Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Australian Hebei Chamber of Commerce, the Russian Hebei Chamber of Commerce, and the South American Confucius Institute. The Handan Overseas Chinese Federation also set up an official wechat account to “allow the overseas Chinese to hear the “voice of the party” and enable them to increase their political identification with the “Party’s ideology” and spread “China’s voice.”

6. Since 2019, the CCP has conducted in-depth investigations to compile a database of overseas Chinese who were originally from Ningxia, Shandong, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Guizhou and other provinces. It is believed that CCP will use the database to recruit spies or monitor overseas Chinese activities.

Source: Epoch Times, November 27, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/11/27/n12579842.htm

On November 16, the Halifax International Security Forum (HFX), a think tank based in Halifax, Canada, published a Handbook for Democracies to support a shared understanding of the challenge that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses to freedom around the world. The title of the Handbook is China vs. Democracy: The Greatest Game.

“The year 2020 witnessed a paradigm shift in the democratic world’s understanding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” said Peter Van Praagh, HFX President. “The 2020 paradigm shift in people’s attitudes toward China was a concrete change from the old conventional wisdom that an economically vibrant China would progress toward more freedom for its people, to the new conventional wisdom that the Chinese Communist Party is, in fact, the virus that endangers the world.”

The report said, “HFX spent the past decade calling attention to the challenge China poses through panel discussions at our annual Forum in Halifax. It was not until 2020, however, with the emergence of the global coronavirus pandemic that began in Wuhan, China, and all the uncertainty that accompanied it, that people around the world began to understand the real threat—to our supply chains, to international organizations, to the open exchange of information, to the protection of confidential information, and to freedom of the seas and skies.”

To compile the report, HFX, between February and October 2020, conducted in-depth interviews with more than 250 global experts and policy-and decision-makers.

The report states, “Accordingly, the PRC is intent on undermining democracy abroad. While the CCP continues to target democracies such as the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, India, Japan, and Australia, it is Hong Kong and Taiwan that stand on the front-line of the PRC’s global assault on democracy; their very existence as democracies now hangs precariously in the balance.”

The report also states, “The PRC has committed to modernizing its military while growing bolder and more assertive geostrategically—and not just in Asia. What may sometimes look like innocent and incremental steps risk developing into a pattern that, in a decade or two, could transform the balance of military power as well as the relevance of alliances and partnerships among democracies.”

The report calls on the world’s democracies saying that they “must pursue a carefully considered yet robust push back—a push back that Xi’s China has brought upon itself. The CCP must recalibrate its global ambitions and step back from its ongoing assault on the world’s democracies.”

The handbook also features a set of principles that HFX will champion around the world to defend the values that underpin democratic societies. At the end of the handbook, it placed a list of practices that undermine its values and way of life and that the democratic world should defend itself from doing:

Ignoring China’s attempts to interfere with democratic societies;

Submitting to, collaborating with, or participating in any censorship or self-censorship of ideas, writings, artistic endeavors, or statements related to the People’s Republic of China;

Participating in any business or technology-related practices or exchanges that aid and abet Chinese Communist Party oppression of its own people;

Neglecting to oppose attempts by the People’s Republic of China to bring global governance of the internet and technological standards into alignment with its own authoritarian values and ambitions;

Supporting or engaging in any kind of punishment or sanction of anyone for engaging in criticism of china;

Failing to support democratically-minded people and governments around the world who the People’s Republic of China pressures or intimidates;

Knowingly buying or trading in Chinese products or services made with forced labor, or that are the result of criminal activities like counterfeiting or intellectual property theft.

Source: Halifax International Security Forum, November 16, 2020
https://halifaxtheforum.org/hfx-publishes-handbook-for-democracies-to-meet-china-challenge/