China’s ‘magic weapon’ helps Beijing exert influence in the UK

Tengbo Yang, a Chinese man who became a confidant of Britain’s Prince Andrew, allegedly worked in much of the Chinese hierarchy that Beijing calls its “magic weapon.” But this week in London, that weapon backfired spectacularly.

While the United Front Work Department, where MI5 claims Yang worked, is considered officially distinct by Beijing from its own spy agencies, its overseas operations are aimed at gaining influence on its behalf. China Analysts say the organization uses various methods – some open and some mysterious – to befriend senior figures and seduce them to serve its cause.

Yang, a 50-year-old Chinese national, has been banned from entering the UK on security grounds. He was publicly named on Tuesday After a British judge lifted the anonymity order.

Separately on Tuesday, Christine Lee, the lawyer accused by MI5 Because of “political interference” In 2022, he lost a legal appeal against the security services. Lee had made a large donation to Labor MP Barry Gardiner.

Charles Barton, a fellow on the council, said: “Prince Andrew, Kristen Lee and Barry Gardiner have done more in five days to push the issue of Chinese influence to the top of the political agenda than MPs, the media and others have done in five years.” Geostrategic think tank and former British diplomat in China.

“Useful idiots? You bet,” Barton added.

Issues of alleged Chinese political influence affecting the upper echelon of life in the UK have raised a range of uncomfortable questions for Sir Keir Starmer’s government, which… He expressed his hope to strengthen relations with China To promote economic growth and address common issues such as climate change.

The Chinese Embassy in London warned the United Kingdom on Tuesday of “Stop creating problemsThey criticized MPs’ “twisted mentality” over Yang’s case, which alleges he developed business ties with Prince Andrew and had access to a network of British dignitaries and other businessmen.

An embassy spokesman described the united front as “beyond suspicion” and a means to “strengthen… friendship with other countries,” and accused British lawmakers of “arrogance and impudence.”

The United Front has long been known to operate abroad in the United Kingdom, the United States and other Western countries, but the organization has a diverse agenda and thousands of people on its payroll, according to analysts. In addition to influencing foreign dignitaries and Chinese diaspora, it was also Conducts a wide range of local operationsIncluding the “Sinicization” of persecuted ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang.

The organization’s eventual head is Wang Huning, Xi Jinping’s chief ideologue and propagandist and a member of the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, the highest leadership body of the Chinese Communist Party.

Wang also chairs the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Beijing’s advisory body, which meets annually alongside China’s parliament. Analysts view the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference as a major united front organization, bringing together important representatives of organizations and companies from inside and outside the party.

“It is crucial to ensure that the overall leadership of the Communist Party of China… is strengthened in all aspects and at every stage of the united front work,” Wang Huning said at the South China United Front Work Conference in January.

Yang was an external delegate of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and has appeared in government media interviews, highlighting the importance of his work in the UK in Chinese propaganda.

While the central mission of the United Front is to “unite all forces that can be united” under the will of the Communist Party and neutralize or weaken those that cannot be won, Beijing views the organization as distinct from Chinese spy agencies, such as the Ministry of State Security. , whose operations In China and abroad it is largely secret.

In addition to the MSS, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and Army also conduct covert intelligence operations.

One sensitive area of ​​United Front operations abroad is students. according to research Last year, according to the Henry Jackson Society, a think-tank, there were more than 90 associations of Chinese students and scholars in the UK, drawing membership from among the nearly 150,000 mainland Chinese students at British universities.

But the report argued that CSSA was out of touch with ordinary student societies. “The reality is that the CSSAUKs are branches of a central CSSAUK, which is supervised by Chinese diplomats in the UK, and part of China’s united front work system,” she said.

In fact, the report argued that the real role played by CSSAs in the UK and in other countries is Chinese students challenge Those who hold views opposing traditional beliefs in Beijing, especially regarding tensions in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

“In the UK, individuals and organizations with clear and tangible links to the UFWD have been involved in technology transfer, community surveillance, political influence and propaganda efforts,” said Sam Dunning, director of the British China Transparency Campaign Group.

But the amorphous nature of the United Front creates space for denial while casting doubt on those with connections to the organization, no matter how tenuous those connections.

Several current and former Chinese students in the UK told the Financial Times that by no means all members of the CSSAs were actively involved in the United Front. “Only a small minority of students seem to be interested,” said one former student at a prestigious UK university, adding that “it is very easy to avoid the interest of CSSAs.”

This ambiguity surrounding United Front operations was also evident in some of the statements of the British committee that ruled on Yang’s case.

It found that Yang “was in a position to cultivate relationships with prominent British figures and senior Chinese officials that could be leveraged for the purposes of political interference by the Chinese Communist Party… or the Chinese state.”

The judges also found that “there is not an abundance of evidence of UFWD links,” but noted a discrepancy between some of the evidence and Yang’s “claims that he has no ties to anyone in politics in China.”

In a statement this week, Yang did not directly refer to the United Front, but insisted he had done “nothing wrong or illegal” and that the concerns raised by the Home Ministry were “unfounded.”

He said: “The common description of me as a spy is absolutely not true.”