Pro-Beijing overseas Chinese associations frequently serve as instruments to aid China’s communist regime in targeting dissidents residing abroad. Nevertheless, a leader of one such association recently publicly criticized the Chinese consul general in New York during a speech.
During the reelection and installation ceremony of Liu Aihua, chairman of the Fujian Compatriot Association of America (FCAA), held at a Flushing restaurant on March 18, Chen Xueduan, the association’s honorary chairman, took to the stage, demanding the media to broadcast his condemnation of Huang Ping, the consul general of the Chinese Consulate in New York.
Fujian is a coastal province in eastern China. Many from Fujian came to the United States as illegal immigrants and have formed a large community concentrated in the Eight Avenue neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
Organizations like the FCAA forge strong connections with the Chinese Consulate due to language barriers and their reliance on consulate support. In exchange, they are expected to align with Beijing’s directives and play political roles in local communities. Nevertheless, Mr. Chen’s remarks indicate a shift, suggesting that the consulate’s influence on these overseas Chinese organizations is waning—a phenomenon rarely observed despite decades of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) overseas “United Front” efforts.
The CCP describes the United Front work as its “magic weapon.” The United Front Work Department, a unit directly under the Central Committee, coordinates thousands of overseas groups to present a better image of the CCP, influence foreign political circles, and suppress dissident voices and activities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other countries.
“Chairman Liu Aihua is now being suppressed by whom? By the Chinese Consulate!” Mr. Chen said. He also claimed that he was “very displeased” by Mr. Huang’s suppression of himself and the Fujian expatriate community.
Complicated Relationship
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Chinese population in the United States has exceeded 5.08 million, with the largest group being Fujianese people, at over 1.1 million.Most Fujianese immigrants have minimal education, limited English skills, and often carry debt. They typically work low-paying jobs in the United States, relying on support and resources from the Chinese community and local leaders.
This dependence has allowed Beijing to exert influence remotely on the Chinese diaspora.
Some in the Brooklyn Chinese community say that after the internal election process, the newly-elected chairman of these Chinese associations must be ratified by the Chinese Consulate to be valid—this could explain why Mr. Chen accused the consul general of suppressing the current chairman of his organization.
These organizations are required to support the CCP’s agenda in the United States.
For example, when Taiwan’s leadership visited New York in recent years—such as President Tsai Ing-wen’s stopover on March 29, 2023, and Vice President Lai-Ching-te’s visit on Aug. 12 in the same year—the Chinese American Federation’s eastern U.S. branch, along with its 221 affiliated overseas Chinese organizations, led a protest with loudspeakers and placed a full-page advertisement in the China Press, the CCP’s overseas mouthpiece.
The Chinese-American Federation and its 221 subordinate associations have close ties with the Chinese Consulate. They usually invite consulate officials to their important events, such as the founding of an organization or the inauguration of their leaders.
CCP’s Overseas Infiltration Strategy
Wang Zhiyuan, president of the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times that in recent years, the CCP has attempted to exert global influence and control through overseas infiltration and a systematic foreign propaganda strategy.According to Mr. Wang, this strategy includes the acquisition and control of overseas Chinese media over the years, as well as utilizing the China Press as its propaganda tool. It also involves the infiltration and buyout of the U.S. government elite.
“The CCP has created a ‘country-within-a-country’ phenomenon within other countries through its control of overseas Chinese associations and United Front activities,” Mr. Wang said.
“In developed democracies such as the United States, the CCP has been able to quickly organize people to advance its agendas, as in the case of the 2008 Olympic Torch Rally in San Francisco and the attack on Falun Gong in Flushing.”
Falun Gong adherents in China have endured systematic persecution by the CCP for over 24 years. Overseas advocates aiming to raise awareness about this issue have faced continuous efforts by the CCP and its proxies to obstruct their activities.
‘Same Situation as Hong Kong’
Lin Shengliang, a resident of the New York metropolitan area, told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times that the Chinese Consulate has been fostering pro-CCP overseas Chinese organizations among the Fujian population.
Once these groups were established, the Chinese consulate would indirectly provide “start-up funds” and send an official to hold a “flag ceremony,” giving these groups a red five-star flag to display on their premises to declare their political stance, Mr. Liu said.
From the 1990s to the 2020s, the number and scale of these organizations in New York saw significant growth. While the increasing participation of Chinese individuals in politics and advocacy for their rights may seem promising, it has also raised concern among some older expatriates who escaped communist China and settled in the United States.
Kenneth, a Hong Kong expatriate who did not want to disclose his surname due to fear of potential reprisals from authorities, said that the CCP is repeating its playbook of undermining Hong Kong in New York.
“Westerners today have very little awareness of how the CCP can destroy a country and a city. It will become clear when you look at what had happened to Hong Kong,” he said.
He went on to say that before the political environment changed in Hong Kong, the CCP covertly supported numerous associations, including the triads or criminal groups, and controlled the speech of influential individuals. Beijing consistently funneled money into these entities and subsequently influenced lawmakers through financial incentives and voting power.
“After the infiltration has progressed to a certain extent, politics could be skewed in their favor. If the same situation occurs in another country, at that point, the CCP will be able to nullify that country’s defenses against the CCP,” Kenneth said.
“Now that Hong Kong’s economy is dead, and a third of the original population is gone, the city has lost its original character. Will New York be next?” he continued.
‘A Way Out’
Wang Juntao, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese Democratic Party, told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times that some overseas Chinese have to follow the CCP’s directives because the Chinese Consulate has the authority to stamp their passports when they need to return to China to visit family.He pointed out that the majority of these expatriates came from the lower echelons of society and possessed a deeper understanding of the CCP’s true nature than outsiders. However, they can’t risk offending the CCP due to financial constraints.
“Once the CCP loses its power and influence, these people will change their stance swiftly. The chairman of an overseas Fujianese organization once told me secretly: ‘If you can overthrow the CCP one day, you can see how we will deal with their cadres. Our enmity with them runs as deep as a sea of blood!’ I also know that some of these groups hold the CCP’s dark secrets in their hands,” Mr. Wang said.
Many in the overseas Chinese community have argued that the March 18 incident in which Mr. Chen rebuked the Chinese Consulate shows that the CCP and its reliance on the overseas Chinese as a coalition is not ironclad and that the CCP can no longer hold them down.
Lu Dong, a 69-year-old former pro-CCP overseas Chinese leader, told The Epoch Times that the CCP merely uses these overseas Chinese organizations as their pawns, dealing with them when they are useful and discarding them when they are not.
“Many members of the Fujian organizations don’t know much about politics and only care about their personal interests. They may cooperate with the CCP for profit. However, under the U.S. government’s crackdown, they will change their positions because the crackdown will affect their interests. If the U.S. pressure on the CCP increases, they will likely change sides. So now they are starting to find fault with the CCP, leaving themselves a way out,” Mr. Lu said.
Kenneth said this is just the beginning and that it will take a concerted effort by the Chinese and English media, the overseas Chinese community, lawmakers, and all walks of life in society to cut off the CCP’s long arm of repression.
