UFW originated with Lenin as a political strategy that combines intelligence, propaganda, and subversion. It has long been part of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) work worldwide, and is one of the most important and successful tools the CCP uses to gain power and grow stronger.
Xi has said, “We must unite all forces that can be united and mobilize all positive factors that can be mobilized to work together towards achieving national prosperity and rejuvenation.”
Win people’s hearts, gather strength, turn enemies into friends, and internally divide and weaken the enemy. The U.S. is the CCP’s biggest adversary. This is why, after failing to shake the bipartisan consensus in DC, Xi has intensified efforts on UFW at the local level in the U.S.
CCP UFWD Tactics
Friendly Contact
- Proactive resource support
- Develop deep interactions to form “genuine friendships”
Cultural Charms
- Showcase trips to China
- Fall in love with the CCP’s China
Business Opportunities
- Lucrative money-making opportunities
- Say nothing about CCP ideology, which is alien to universal values.
Winning over people hearts
The CCP works hard to ensure their citizens believe that the government serves and protects them, and that no other government could keep them as safe. To do this, they call on nationalist narratives, and say their citizens are free from violence. However, they leave out that their citizens are free to do very little–they cannot easily find well -paying jobs, cannot publicly deny a party position, and cannot live peacefully if they speak truthfully about their government; their citizens cannot even mention Tiananmen Square or the nation of Tibet without facing serious consequences, including imprisonment or being “disappeared”. To win over hearts, the CCP emphasizes there is no other way that their citizens can live in safety and prosperity, even as violent crime and un/underemployment are on the rise.
“Fall in love with China” strategy
The United Front refers to organizations that carry water for the CCP, promoting its views at home and abroad. The fall in love with China strategy is a key part of United Front work. This is the process of making Americans and other non-Chinese citizens see the country in a blindly positive way. One example of this is the educational exchange program heavily funded by China, bringing American students into a highly controlled setting inside China. They CCP makes sure the students, often recruited via United Front groups have fun, are safe, and are impressed by Chinese cultural traditions (many of which the CCP itself tried to destroy previously), while hiding the censorship, control, and violence within the country. We also see this in programs solely inside the US, such as a “tech center” built to partner US companies and CCP -owned ones. By purposefully allowing businesses an overly easy access point into the country, they create more positive attention, which reduces international scrutiny. Over time, brainwashing young people to agree with CCP China, combined with more American businesses being dependent on China, results in far weaker responses to internal censorship, breaking of international treaties, or oppression of domestic minority groups.
A-Z Examples
Academia | Agriculture | Higher Education |
Extremist Movement |
Hackers |
Intelligence |
K-12 |
NGOs |
Military |
Panda | Survelliance |
Tech / Pharm |