Sec. 2. Findings

422 words·~2 min read·/bill/116/hr/8286/ih/section-2

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Congress makes the following findings: The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has noted that China uses what it calls United Front [Work Department] of the Chinese Communist Party to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party

(CCP). In 1939, Chinese leader Mao Zedong hailed the United Front Work Department as a magic weapon in the victory of the communist revolution along with armed struggle . Chinese President Xi Jinping has also referred to the United Front Work Department with those words and given it a key role in what he calls achieving China’s national rejuvenation. According to a report by Alex Joske of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the United Front Work Department has doubled in size since 2015. The United Front Work Department is involved in espionage campaigns, political warfare efforts, malign disinformation, utilizing the Chinese diaspora abroad, and infiltration of educational institutions all with the goal of softening opposition to the Chinese Communist Party and its policies throughout the world. The United Front Work Department played a seminal role in coordinating multifaceted disinformation campaigns to blame the United States for the spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 ( COVID–19 ) pandemic and coverup China’s negligent response to the pandemic. An investigation by ProPublica released on March 26, 2020, found that the United Front Work Department was connected to a network of fake and hijacked Twitter accounts that were covertly spreading Chinese government propaganda about COVID–19 to global audiences. The United Front Work Department utilized Chinese diaspora community associations under its control to purchase personal protective equipment as the COVID–19 outbreak troubled China from mid-January 2020 on. In February 2020, The Global Times, a site run by the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper, alleged that COVID–19 was brought to China from a United States military base during the World Games. As Sheridan Prasso of Bloomberg has reported, the United Front Work Department has actively worked to undermine democracy in Hong Kong under the umbrella of China’s State Council’s Liaison Office by spreading disinformation and activating a network of media outlets, and diaspora organizations and pressuring businesses in the city to support China’s national security laws. The United Front Work Department has played an integral role in China’s war on religion by leading efforts to publish a new edition of the Bible with Chinese Communist characteristics, actively running internment camps and carrying out anti-religion campaigns against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang and severe religious repression of Buddhists in Tibet.