Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell has warned the public that “Influence and intervention is the basic idea behind the Chinese Communist Party’s involvement in the world.
How Does the CCP Infiltrate Western Democracies? Two recently leaked documents show that CCP members work for major international corporations, universities, governments, and consulates, and that Switzerland allows CCP spies to do almost anything they want in Switzerland without control.
Chinese immigrant author, entrepreneur, and CFA Helen Raleigh, a senior contributor to The Federalist, recently wrote an article analyzing two leaked documents from elsewhere in the world that further expose the depth and breadth of Chinese Communist infiltration in the West.
The two documents analyzed in Rowley’s article are a database of Communist Party members obtained by The Australian and a secret agreement between Swiss and Communist police.
Communist Party members’ inauguration in the international community raises security and influence issues
The CCP often emphasizes that foreign governments must not interfere in China’s internal affairs, but the CCP will do little more than interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. Raleigh quoted U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell’s recent warning to the public that “exerting influence and interfering is the basic idea behind the CCP’s involvement in the world.
The Australian, one of Australia’s largest newspapers, recently reported that it had obtained a leaked database containing details of nearly 2 million Communist Party members, including their ID numbers, dates of birth and party status. In addition, the database contains information on nearly 80,000 party branches, indicating that these CCP members are currently working inside international companies, universities, and even government agencies around the world.
According to the database, these international companies include Boeing, Volkswagen, Qualcomm, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Deutsche Bank, and JP Morgan Chase, among others. Many CCP members have also infiltrated the Australian, U.S. and British consulates in Shanghai.
The Australian newspaper said it has not found any evidence that any of the members on the list are spying for the Chinese Communist Party. But Raleigh argues that just because no spying has been found yet does not mean that spying has not occurred or will not occur in the future when the CCP issues a call to action, because CCP members take an oath when they join the Party: “…… is always ready to sacrifice everything for the Party and the people and never betray the Party. So if the CCP asks its party members to share sensitive technology or take certain actions, it would be very difficult for them to refuse.
The fact that CCP members hold senior positions in Western companies and government agencies presents a problem of influence, in addition to security, in that they may use their positions to support CCP policies. For example, the Telegraph (UK) found that “…… at least 335 HSBC employees are members of the Chinese Communist Party. Party members currently listed include a senior vice president of HSBC China, the president of HSBC’s Shenzhen office, and deputy managers of Hong Kong companies and consumer products.
Rowley said it is not surprising in light of the above relationship that both HSBC and Standard Chartered have publicly supported the Communist Party’s new national security law imposed on Hong Kong to crack down on dissidents in the territory. She noted that HSBC not only supports the policy, but may also be helping the CCP implement its policies. Ted Hui, a former Hong Kong legislator who supports democracy, said HSBC had frozen his and his family’s bank accounts.
Raleigh said the behavior of these international companies is a concrete demonstration of the CCP’s influence.
The CCP’s Ministry of State Security is no ordinary agency, which controls both the CCP’s police, state security, espionage and intelligence, is known for its crackdown on domestic dissidents, and has been accused of human rights abuses. Pictured here is a diagram.
Switzerland’s Secret Dealings with CCP Police Ignore China’s Human Rights Concerns
In addition to international companies being infiltrated by CCP members and implementing CCP-preferred policies, some governments may also have secret agreements with the CCP, thus allowing the CCP to do whatever it wants in other countries. Safeguard Defenders, a human rights organization from Switzerland, revealed that Switzerland has had a secret “re-entry agreement” with the CCP police since December 8, 2015. The organization posted the details of the Swiss-CCP deal on its website.
Rowley noted that countries typically establish ‘readmission agreements’ with each other’s immigration agencies to address illegal immigration and ensure the safe return of illegal immigrants or those who have overstayed their visas to their countries of origin. What is unusual about Switzerland’s agreement with the Chinese Communist Party is that it allows agents of the CCP’s Ministry of Public Security “to move freely in and out of Switzerland and to operate unsupervised throughout Switzerland. In addition, Switzerland “agreed to keep the identities of the CCP agents secret.
But Rowley points out that the CCP’s Ministry of State Security is no ordinary agency; it controls both the CCP’s police, state security, espionage and intelligence, is known for its crackdown on domestic dissidents and has been accused of human rights abuses.
In recent years, the Ministry of State Security has expanded its operations overseas, sending agents around the world to bring back Chinese nationals it considers “criminals” as part of a “globally unified extrajudicial repatriation operation known as Operation Fox Hunt. According to official Communist Party media reports, this will result in the return of some 6,000 “criminals” to China by mid-2019, including 300 Uighur Muslims from 16 different countries.
In August, the U.S. Justice Department charged eight people, including Chinese and U.S. citizens, with conspiring to act as illegal agents of the Chinese Communist Party to harass and track U.S. immigrants over the years to force them to return to China.
But the Swiss government has imposed no restrictions on the Chinese Communist government. In 2016, 16 Chinese citizens living in Switzerland were forced to return to China because of visits by Chinese Communist Party agents, Rowley said. So far, the Swiss government has refused to reveal who these people are. To add insult to injury, the Swiss government covered a significant amount of the travel costs of these CCP agents.
When the details of the deal became public, Rowley said, it caused an uproar among the Swiss public and members of Congress. Since the deal expired on Dec. 7, the Swiss Council on Foreign Affairs has called for consultations on any renewal of a similar agreement.
Rowley concludes her article by noting that the contents of the two leaks above demonstrate the depth of the CCP’s influence and ability to infiltrate, and that these have threatened the long-term survival of free societies. She therefore calls on citizens of Western democracies to demand that their companies and governments defend the values and freedoms that the West holds dear, and to resist CCP infiltration, corruption and economic coercion.
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