(Minghui.org) Totalitarian, communist regimes have long been confrontational with free countries. Since diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China grew closer in the 1970s, however, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has taken Deng Xiaoping’s approach of “hiding your strength and biding your time” – though its global ambitions remain the same.
Over the past few decades, the CCP built up its strength with support from Western countries, including massive financial investments and technology transfer. Even after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the U.S. helped China join the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. China has now become the world’s largest exporter and second largest economy.
But the CCP’s nature has not changed. From the Great Famine (1959 – 1961) that killed tens of millions and the Red Terror during the Cultural Revolution (1967 – 1977) to the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the persecution of Falun Gong (1999 – present), the CCP continues to rely on deception and violence to maintain its rule and spread its ideology.
Outside China, the CCP has also infiltrated news outlets and social media platforms to influence public opinion and collect data on a massive scale.
Since its beginning, the CCP has focused on its “united front” and propaganda operations. In addition to the United Front Work Department (UFWD), all CCP officials are required to engage in “united front work.” In recent years, the CCP’s Propaganda Department changed its English name to the Publicity Department, and the newly created National Radio and Television Administration was put under its control in 2018.
In 2013, the CCP launched a propaganda campaign focused on “telling China’s story well.” To strengthen China’s soft power and its relation to the “community of common destiny for mankind,” officials are expected to tell stories about “the struggle of the Chinese people to fulfill their dream.”
Similar initiatives were seen in the past. After American journalist Edgar Snow spent four months interviewing Mao Zedong and other CCP officials in 1936, he published Red Star over China in 1937, which praised Mao and communism and did not mention the CCP’s bloody internal purges in the 1930s, its robbery of landlords’ property, or its opium growing operations. Snow depicted the CCP as keeping pace with the times, open, transparent, and candid. Because of that, Mao said he was the first person to clear the way for the friendly relations necessary for a united front.
Snow was not alone. Both Agnes Smedley and Anna Louise Strong published books and articles praising the CCP. But few people know that Smedley had applied for membership in the CCP but was rejected for lack of discipline, while Strong became an “honorary member of the Red Guards” when the Cultural Revolution started in 1966. Not only that, Strong was buried at Baobaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, a place dedicated to senior CCP officials.
Because of their contributions to distorted reports that favored communism, the CCP published several stamps in 1985 (“3S” stamps) dedicated to these three journalists.
But ruling China is not the CCP’s goal. Back in 1955, Mao told Wu Lengxi, then president of the CCP’s Xinhua News Agency, “You need to take control of the earth so that the entire world can hear our voice.” However, in today’s world where everyone is bombarded with information, it is no longer possible to influence public opinion worldwide with just a few foreign supporters.
As a result, the CCP has had to push information continuously through the internet, independent media channels, and mainstream media outlets to “guide” social voices. It was propaganda and violence that helped the CCP to take power, and now the regime does not hesitate to spend Chinese people’s tax money to engage in united front activities, bribery, and information warfare everywhere.
In fact, the CCP is actively developing a number of overseas social media accounts with millions to tens of millions of followers. By influencing these content creators behind the scenes, the regime is able to influence the public on social media platforms such as Tiktok, YouTube, Facebook, and more. This allows the CCP to gradually undermine free societies’ values by “boiling a frog in warm water.”
The CCP has always regarded the United States as its number one enemy. According to statistics from relevant departments, about 39% of Americans aged 19-39 now use Tiktok. This means that many Americans’ personal, family, and business information could be transmitted to China every day. Traditional spying and espionage require a lot of money and professional skills, but many millions of Tiktok users are now using their smartphones to transmit large amounts of information, for free, to enemy countries.
This intelligence, when used in big data analysis and targeted algorithms, can not only be used to create a false understanding of the CCP among Americans today but also affect the future of the United States, because among Americans aged 19-39, many will soon go to work in the U.S. federal government, state governments, military, intelligence agencies, high-tech companies, universities, banks, diplomacy, and other places. When the CCP has enough personal information about these individuals, it will be easy to find their weaknesses. The CCP can then use threats, bribes, and coercion to achieve its goals in a cost-effective way.
One of the CCP’s common means of extreme warfare is disintegration and control from within. The CCP used this strategy against the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Nationalist government was forced to leave mainland China for Taiwan. The CCP has continued to use this strategy against groups it aims to crush, both inside and outside China. It is not known how many people in the U.S. government and various industries have been dragged into this trap, made to serve as CCP agents in the U.S., and betrayed the interests of the American people.
The ongoing wildfires in Southern California have caused tragic loss of life and destroyed numerous homes. The disaster has also negatively impacted a number of politicians who have been receptive to the CCP’s influence campaigns and partnered with the regime to varying extents. At the same time, the home of a well-known actor who held to traditional values and resisted “woke culture” was spared by the fire while the surrounding buildings burned down. Once the disaster passes and people look to rebuild for the future, some of these events are likely to prompt deeper reflection.
Many in the West may not realize the seriousness of the ongoing battle between the CCP and the free world, especially young Americans who have never seen the CCP’s cruelty. How effective is the CCP’s united front on social media platforms? Let's look at some examples.
YouTube
After the CCP was condemned by the international community for concealing the initial epidemic and later its “zero-Covid” policy, an American YouTube celebrity flew to Shanghai in March 2021 and published a video promoting the CCP’s pandemic response. The celebrity claimed that they felt free in China and that the CCP’s epidemic prevention efforts were the most organized in the world.
China has a specialized agency to study content on YouTube. On one occasion, an internet celebrity was taken to Lhasa in Tibet to see how happy the children there were. The foreign influencer claimed to tell the Chinese story well and present a real China that is “credible,” “lovely,” and “respectable.”
Like the Snow White story in which the evil stepmother had to disguise herself to fool the princess into taking a bite of the poisonous apple, the CCP’s purpose of producing such propaganda is to eliminate its enemies and dominate the world.
Video Competitions
The CCP also holds competitions with the theme of “telling China’s story well” and offers large prizes to attract foreign influencers to produce content that helps the CCP cover up its crimes and build up its platform. The CCP is good at targeting people through their hobbies, weaknesses, and desires.
International Students Studying in China
The CCP has also made use of international students studying in China. For example, Tsinghua University once asked international students to make a short video on “100 Reasons to Fall in Love with Beijing” and post it on American social media.
Fudan University, Nanjing University, and Sun Yat-sen University have become the first batch of “Foreign Discourse Innovation Cooperation Bases” under the guidance of the Propaganda Department, and Fujian Huaqiao University has established the “Overseas New Voice Generation” new media studio.
Buying Influence in Mainstream Media: Undermining Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech
In addition to using united front methods to recreate today’s Snow, Smedley, and Strong in large numbers, the CCP has run stories favorable to itself as paid advertisements in mainstream newspapers. A prominent example is the China Daily insert.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Foreign Agents in Charge (FARA) records, China Daily’s U.S. ad spending surged from $500,000 in 2009 to more than $5 million in 2019. With many media companies facing financial difficulties, this approach has worked well. When these “CCP stories” are inserted into normal news pages, it is impossible for ordinary readers to tell which ones are real news and which are articles placed by the CCP.
The United States is the leader of the free world and plays an indispensable role in countering the CCP, while the CCP has never deviated from its mission of bringing down the United States by dividing and disintegrating its enemies from within.
However, new hope has emerged in recent years. In 2006, Shen Yun Performing Arts was established in New York by Falun Gong practitioners, with the aim to present “China before communism” through classical Chinese dance.
Shen Yun has toured in more than 20 countries and has received a warm welcome throughout the world. Some viewers said they feel the compassion of divine culture. On January 31, 2024, Kawazoe Keiko, a well-known Japanese media personality, said after watching Shen Yun, “Communism promotes atheism. It advocates the law of the jungle, pursues money and material enjoyment, and denies divinity. However, the Chinese have revered heavenly spirits since ancient times. The Japanese also believe in the divine. I resonate with this; I believe that humans live under the protection of the divine.”
Some viewers firmly support Shen Yun despite the challenges the performing arts company faces as a result of the CCP’s efforts to disrupt its performances. On February 1, 2024, U.S. Congressman Pat Ryan said after watching Shen Yun, “This show should be able to be seen around the world [in] every country.” He added that the last piece in the program shows hows the values of Falun Dafa lead practitioners to respond to darkness in a positive way.
Today, a global effort to counter communism has become inevitable. There can be no draw in the battle between good and evil, only success or failure. The ancient Roman poet Virgil wrote in the Eclogues, “Now Justice returns, returns the Golden Age.”
The road to justice is difficult, but the future will be bright. Each of us is playing a role. Our individual thoughts and actions can determine our own future and that of our country.