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United Front Work Department

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The United Front Work Department ( UFWD ; Chinese : 中共中央统一战线工作部 ) is a department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tasked with " united front work". It gathers intelligence on, manages relations with, and attempts to gain influence over elite individuals and organizations inside and outside mainland China , including in Hong Kong , Taiwan , and in other countries.

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116-512: The UFWD focuses its work on people or entities that are outside the CCP, especially in the overseas Chinese diaspora, who hold political, commercial, or academic influence, or who represent interest groups. Through its efforts, the UFWD seeks to ensure that these individuals and groups are supportive of or useful to CCP interests and that potential critics remain divided. The United Front Work Department

232-486: A "latent network" of civic, educational, and non-governmental groups and affiliated individuals internally and abroad for its political purposes, especially in times of crisis. For instance, the UFWD uses members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and other organizations to carry out influence-building activities, often covertly. Researchers from Stanford University 's Internet Observatory and

348-662: A better understanding of the policy choices facing American decision-makers in the Middle East". The center was launched in May 2002 "with a special address by His Majesty King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to a select audience of policymakers in Washington, D.C." The center was originally named after American- Israeli film and television producer Haim Saban . Saban, according to

464-817: A considerable role in the economy of the Philippines and descendants of Sangley compose a considerable part of the Philippine population . Ferdinand Marcos, the former president of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos was of Chinese descent, as were many others. Myanmar shares a long border with China so ethnic minorities of both countries have cross-border settlements. These include the Kachin, Shan, Wa, and Ta’ang. In Cambodia , between 1965 and 1993, people with Chinese names were prevented from finding governmental employment, leading to

580-561: A dozen Washington, D.C.-based research groups and think tanks to have received payments from foreign governments while encouraging American government officials to support policies aligned with those foreign governments' agendas. The Times published documents showing that Brookings accepted grants from Norway with specific policy requests and helped it gain access to U.S. government officials, as well as other "deliverables". In June 2014, Norway agreed to make an additional $ 4 million donation to Brookings. Several legal specialists who examined

696-761: A group of U.S. senators asked the United States Department of Justice to investigate "Overseas Chinese Service Centers" with alleged ties to the UFWD that are operating in seven U.S. cities. In December 2020, the United States Department of State imposed visa restrictions on "individuals active in United Front Work Department activities, who have engaged in the use or threat of physical violence, theft and release of private information, espionage, sabotage, or malicious interference in domestic political affairs, academic freedom, personal privacy, or business activity." In January 2021,

812-578: A historical district of Manila, has become the world's oldest Chinatown. Under Spanish colonial policy of Christianization , assimilation and intermarriage , their colonial mixed descendants would eventually form the bulk of the middle class which would later rise to the Principalía and illustrado intelligentsia , which carried over and fueled the elite ruling classes of the American period and later independent Philippines. Chinese Filipinos play

928-517: A large number of people changing their names to a local, Cambodian name. Ethnic Chinese were one of the minority groups targeted by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge during the Cambodian genocide. Indonesia forced Chinese people to adopt Indonesian names after the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 . In Vietnam, all Chinese names can be pronounced by Sino-Vietnamese readings . For example, the name of

1044-456: A low percent of population living overseas . Huáqiáo ( simplified Chinese : 华侨 ; traditional Chinese : 華僑 ) refers to people of Chinese citizenship residing outside of either the PRC or ROC (Taiwan) . The government of China realized that the overseas Chinese could be an asset, a source of foreign investment and a bridge to overseas knowledge; thus, it began to recognize the use of

1160-791: A major role in the establishment of the Malaysian Chinese Association and their meeting hall at Sun Yat Sen Villa . There was evidence that some intended to reclaim mainland China from the CCP by funding the Kuomintang . After their defeat in the Chinese Civil War, parts of the Nationalist army retreated south and crossed the border into Burma as the People's Liberation Army entered Yunnan . The United States supported these Nationalist forces because

1276-466: A plan to firebomb the headquarters and steal classified files, but it was canceled because the Nixon administration refused to pay for a fire engine as a getaway vehicle. Yet throughout the 1970s, Brookings was offered more federal research contracts than it could handle. In 1976, after Gordon died, Gilbert Y. Steiner , director of the governmental studies program, was appointed the fourth president of

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1392-719: A reference to Tang dynasty China when it was ruling. This term is commonly used by the Cantonese , Hokchew , Hakka and Hokkien as a colloquial reference to the Chinese people and has little relevance to the ancient dynasty. For example, in the early 1850s when Chinese shops opened on Sacramento St. in San Francisco , California, United States, the Chinese emigrants, mainly from the Pearl River Delta west of Canton , called it Tang People Street ( 唐人街 ) and

1508-886: A result of anti-Chinese racism on the excuse that Dipa "Amat" Aidit had brought the PKI closer to China. The anti-Chinese legislation was in the Indonesian constitution until 1998. The state of the Chinese Cambodians during the Khmer Rouge regime has been described as "the worst disaster ever to befall any ethnic Chinese community in Southeast Asia." At the beginning of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1975, there were 425,000 ethnic Chinese in Cambodia ; by

1624-533: A single decision of consequence American peace process advisers made, or one we didn’t, that was directly tied to some lobbyist’s call, letter, or pressure tactic.” In a September 17, 2014, article in Tablet , Lee Smith criticized the center for accepting substantial donations from the Qatari government, "a foreign government that, in addition to its well-documented role as a funder of Sunni terror outfits throughout

1740-560: A small dataset of 159 male labourers from Guangdong who were sent to the Dutch colony of Suriname to illustrate their point. They stated that the Chinese labourers were between 161 to 164 cm in height for males. Their study did not account for factors other than economic conditions and acknowledge the limitations of such a small sample. The Lanfang Republic in West Kalimantan was established by overseas Chinese. In 1909,

1856-663: A system of discriminatory laws known as the ' White Australia Policy ' which was enshrined in the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 . The policy was formally abolished in 1973, and in recent years Australians of Chinese background have publicly called for an apology from the Australian Federal Government similar to that given to the 'stolen generations' of indigenous people in 2007 by the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. In South Korea,

1972-644: Is 海外華人 ; Hǎiwài Huárén or simply 華人 ; Huárén . It is often used by the Government of the People's Republic of China to refer to people of Chinese ethnicities who live outside the PRC, regardless of citizenship (they can become citizens of the country outside China by naturalization). Overseas Chinese who are ethnic Han Chinese , such as Cantonese , Hokchew , Hokkien , Hakka or Teochew refer to themselves as 唐人 (Tángrén). Literally, it means Tang people ,

2088-726: Is aimed at producing research, analysis, and outreach that address three core issues: the future of war, the future of U.S. defense needs and priorities, and the future of the US defense system. The Initiative draws on the knowledge from regional centers, including the Center on the United States and Europe, the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, the Thornton China Center, and the Center for Middle East Policy , allowing

2204-589: Is composed of 53 trustees and more than three dozen honorary trustees, including Kenneth Duberstein , a former chief of staff to Ronald Reagan. Aside from political figures, the board of trustees includes leaders in business and industry, including Haim Saban , Robert Bass , Hanzade Doğan Boyner , Paul L. Cejas , W. Edmund Clark , Abby Joseph Cohen , Betsy Cohen , Susan Crown , Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. , Jason Cummins , Paul Desmarais Jr. , Kenneth M. Duberstein , Glenn Hutchins , and Philip H. Knight (chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc ). Since its incorporation as

2320-419: Is if its underlying thesis is correct: that a domestic political lobby drives U.S. policy in the Middle East. If that were true, then the ruckus raised by The Israeli Lobby would establish the book as a classic. But it isn’t true. Domestic politics and lobbying do matter when it comes to matters of tone and timing, but as Aaron David Miller , a veteran American peace-process diplomat, puts it...: “I can’t remember

2436-421: Is indeed a cabal.... And this cabal includes anyone that has anything positive to say about Israel… And what does this cabal do? It ‘distorts’ American foreign policy, it ‘bends’ it, all these words are used to suggest that this cabal is doing something anti-American.” Another fellow wrote that the authors' book "will pale in comparison [to other academic works] because the only way it can become an esteemed classic

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2552-580: The 2019 Canadian federal election . Following the 2019 Canadian Parliament infiltration plot , the Privy Council Office warned that election interference by China was "likely to be more persistent and pervasive in future elections" and that "the UFWD’s extensive network of quasi-official and local community and interest groups, allow it to obfuscate communication and the flow of funds between Canadian targets and Chinese officials." A 2018 report by

2668-560: The Bandung declaration explicitly stated that overseas Chinese owed primary loyalty to their home nation. From the mid-20th century onward, emigration has been directed primarily to Western countries such as the United States, Australia, Canada, Brazil, The United Kingdom, New Zealand, Argentina and the nations of Western Europe; as well as to Peru, Panama, and to a lesser extent to Mexico. Many of these emigrants who entered Western countries were themselves overseas Chinese, particularly from

2784-676: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation , the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation , the Hutchins Family Foundation, JPMorgan Chase , the LEGO Foundation, David Rubenstein , State of Qatar , and John L. Thornton . Funding details as of 2017: Revenue and support as of 2017: $ 117,336,000 Expenses as of 2017: $ 97,986,000 A 2014 investigation by The New York Times found Brookings to be among more than

2900-946: The COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China . UFWD-affiliated groups have also been linked to organized crime in several countries. In October 2024, Swedish reporters working as part of an international consortium of journalists identified 233 individuals across Europe connected to the united front system. According to the Jamestown Foundation , a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, its research has uncovered 103 united front-linked groups in Sweden spanning all areas of society, including culture, business, politics, and media. The UFWD sponsors paid trips and summer camps to mainland China for Taiwanese youth. The trips are reported to promote pro- Chinese unification sentiment. The UFWD has also allegedly interfered in foreign elections, including

3016-570: The Center for International Policy 's Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative of the top 50 think tanks on the University of Pennsylvania 's Global Go-To Think Tanks rating index found that between 2014 and 2018, Brookings received the third-highest amount of funding from outside the United States compared to other think tanks, with a total of more than $ 27 million. In 2022, Brookings president John R. Allen resigned amid an FBI probe into lobbying on behalf of Qatar. The main building of

3132-534: The Cultural Revolution , the UFWD was accused of being "capitulationist" and forced to shut down. In the late 1970s the policy was used for the common cause of economic reform. From there the CCP expanded the scope of its work internationally during the reform era, and again following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre . The department includes a bureau tasked with handling Hong Kong , Macau , Taiwan , and overseas affairs, and articulates

3248-610: The Hoover Institution describe the United Front as "cultivat[ing] pro-Beijing perspectives in the Chinese diaspora and the wider world by rewarding those it deems friendly with accolades and lucrative opportunities, while orchestrating social and economic pressure against critics. This pressure is often intense but indirect, and clear attribution is therefore difficult." The UFWD and its affiliated front organizations have also served as cover for intelligence agents of

3364-461: The Ministry of State Security . Multiple national intelligence agencies have expressed concern that the mandate and operations of the UFWD can constitute undue interference in other nations' internal affairs. In their book Nest of Spies , de Pierrebourg and Juneau-Katsuya allege that the United Front Work Department "manages important dossiers concerning foreign countries. These include propaganda,

3480-613: The National Ethnic Affairs Commission . With the reorganization, the UFWD effectively became China's main agency overseeing and managing ethnic, religious and overseas Chinese affairs. The State Religious Affairs Commission and the State Council Overseas Chinese Office were also merged within the United Front Work Department. The UFWD is reported to have over 40,000 personnel and does not disclose its budget. However, it

3596-668: The Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation and reorganized Brookings around the Economic Studies, Government Studies, and Foreign Policy Programs. In 1957, Brookings moved from Jackson Avenue to a new research center near Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. In 1967, Kermit Gordon assumed Brookings' presidency. He began a series of studies of program choices for the federal budget in 1969 titled "Setting National Priorities". He also expanded

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3712-634: The Sangley , from Fujian and Guangdong were already migrating to the islands as early as 9th century, where many have largely intermarried with both native Filipinos and Spanish Filipinos ( Tornatrás ). Early presence of Chinatowns in overseas communities start to appear in Spanish colonial Philippines around 16th century in the form of Parians in Manila , where Chinese merchants were allowed to reside and flourish as commercial centers, thus Binondo ,

3828-764: The South China Sea and in the Indian Ocean . In the mid-1800s, outbound migration from China increased as a result of the European colonial powers opening up treaty ports . The British colonization of Hong Kong further created the opportunity for Chinese labor to be exported to plantations and mines. During the era of European colonialism, many overseas Chinese were coolie laborers. Chinese capitalists overseas often functioned as economic and political intermediaries between colonial rulers and colonial populations. The area of Taishan, Guangdong Province

3944-695: The United Nations , the Marshall Plan , and the Congressional Budget Office , as well as to the development of influential policies for deregulation , broad-based tax reform , welfare reform , and foreign aid . The annual think tank index published by Foreign Policy ranks it the number one think tank in the U.S. and the Global Go To Think Tank Index believes it is the number one such tank in

4060-636: The United States–China Economic and Security Review Commission noted that the UFWD regularly attempts to suppress overseas protests and acts of expression critical of the CCP are a conspiracy against rights . In May 2020, the White House released a report titled "U.S. Strategic Approach to the People's Republic of China". That report stated that "CCP United Front organizations and agents target businesses, universities, think tanks, scholars, journalists, and local, state, and Federal officials in

4176-594: The bamboo network , has a prominent role in the region's private sectors. In Europe, North America and Oceania, occupations are diverse and impossible to generalize; ranging from catering to significant ranks in medicine , the arts and academia . Overseas Chinese often send remittances back home to family members to help better them financially and socioeconomically. China ranks second after India of top remittance-receiving countries in 2018 with over US$ 67 billion sent. Overseas Chinese communities vary widely as to their degree of assimilation , their interactions with

4292-552: The gold mining and railway construction. Widespread famine in Guangdong impelled many Cantonese to work in these countries to improve the living conditions of their relatives. From 1853 until the end of the 19th century, about 18,000 Chinese were brought as indentured workers to the British West Indies , mainly to British Guiana (now Guyana ), Trinidad and Jamaica . Their descendants today are found among

4408-648: The sinicization of non- Han ethnic and religious minorities, particularly in Tibet , Inner Mongolia and of the Uyghurs through the Xinjiang internment camps . In 2020, shortly after the commencement of the 2020 Inner Mongolia protests , the UFWD issued a communique that stressed the need for all ethnic minorities in China to use Standard Chinese . The UFWD has also taken a leading role in antireligious campaigns under

4524-894: The "nation's pre-eminent liberal think tank". Newsweek has called it centrist and Politico has used the term "center-left". The media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , which describes itself as 'a progressive group', has called Brookings "centrist", "conservative", and "center-right". Matthew Yglesias , a former writer and editor at The Atlantic , and Glenn Greenwald at Salon have argued that Brookings foreign policy scholars were overly supportive of Bush administration policies abroad . Brookings scholars have served in Republican and Democratic administrations, including Mark McClellan , Ron Haskins and Martin Indyk . Brookings's board of trustees

4640-531: The "new social class" to attend the "large-scale celebration to commemorate the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone ’s 40th anniversary" or inviting members of the private sector to attend a multi-week training course. Another method it uses is to providing good and services, including issuing tenders for infrastructure and development projects, from road improvements to increasing access to drinking water. The UFWD also plays an active role in

4756-474: The 1950s to the 1980s, a period during which the PRC placed severe restrictions on the movement of its citizens. Due to the political dynamics of the Cold War , there was relatively little migration from the People's Republic of China to southeast Asia from the 1950s until the mid-1970s. In 1984, Britain agreed to transfer the sovereignty of Hong Kong to the PRC; this triggered another wave of migration to

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4872-433: The 1980s and 1990s, operating under the name of the "Coordination Department." The UFWD has been critically described as serving to co-opt non-Communist community leaders outside China, and "using them to neutralize Party critics," sometimes coercively. Scholar of Chinese political history John P. Burns presents in his book The Chinese Communist Party's Nomenklatura System excerpts from internal party documents demonstrating

4988-419: The 1980s, Brookings faced an increasingly competitive and ideologically charged intellectual environment. The need to reduce the federal budget deficit became a major research theme, as did problems with national security and government inefficiency. Bruce MacLaury, Brookings's fifth president, also established the Center for Public Policy Education to develop workshop conferences and public forums to broaden

5104-527: The Brookings India Office. In October 2017, former general John R. Allen became the eighth president of Brookings. Allen resigned on June 12, 2022, amid an FBI foreign lobbying investigation. As of June 30, 2019, Brookings had an endowment of $ 377.2 million. Brookings as an institution produces an Annual Report. The Brookings Institution Press publishes books and journals from the institution's own research as well as authors outside

5220-473: The Brookings Institution by the board of trustees. As director of the governmental studies program, Steiner brought in numerous scholars whose research ranges from administrative reform to urban policy, not only enhancing the program's visibility and influence in Washington and nationally, but also producing works that have arguably survived as classics in the field of political science. By

5336-563: The Brookings Institution in 1927, it has been led by accomplished academics and public servants. Brookings has had eleven presidents, including three in acting capacity. The current president is Cecilia Rouse , who replaced acting President Amy Liu, who began serving in January, 2024. In 2002, the Brookings Institution established the Center for Middle East Policy ("CMEP", formerly the Saban Center for Middle East Policy ) "to promote

5452-561: The Brookings-Tsinghua Center (BTC) for Public Policy as a partnership between the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC and Tsinghua University 's School of Public Policy and Management in Beijing , China . The Center seeks to produce research in areas of fundamental importance for China's development and for US-China relations. The BTC was directed by Qi Ye until 2019. The 21st Century Defense Initiative (21CDI)

5568-537: The CCP "shifted its focus from the 'mass line' to 'class struggle', the real united front disappeared. While the United Front Department still existed, its duties of uniting with all forces for the 'common struggle' shifted mainly to serving the Party's leadership and 'consolidating the proletarian dictatorship'," according to Brookings Institution visiting fellow Zhang Ye. According to Roger Faligot ,

5684-545: The CCP to appear democratic and to persuade key groups that the Nationalists were "illegitimate and repressive while the CCP embodied progress, unity, and democracy." After seizing power, the CCP continued to deploy united front strategies to train intellectuals, "and, using thought reform based on criticism, began the transformation of the old society intellectuals." This involved violent elimination of what were termed "bourgeois and idealistic political beliefs," to instill faith in "class struggle and revolutionary change." During

5800-449: The CCP. In 2018, the United Front Work Department went through a reorganization in which it absorbed the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO) to become two internal bureaus. As part of the " one institution with two names " system, the UFWD retains OCAO and SARA (also called National Religious Affairs Administration) as external nameplates. The UFWD also assumed direct control of

5916-409: The Foreign Policy Studies Program to include research about national security and defense. After Richard Nixon was elected president in the 1968 United States presidential election , the relationship between Brookings and the White House deteriorated. At one point, Nixon aide Charles Colson proposed a firebombing of the institution. G. Gordon Liddy and the White House Plumbers actually made

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6032-430: The Hoa population at some 823,000 individuals and ranked 6th in terms of its population size. 70% of the Hoa live in cities and towns, mostly in Ho Chi Minh city while the rests live in the southern provinces. On the other hand, in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei , the ethnic Chinese have maintained a distinct communal identity. In East Timor , a large fraction of Chinese are of Hakka descent . In Western countries,

6148-671: The Institute for Government Research, the Institute of Economics with funds from the Carnegie Corporation , and the Robert Brookings Graduate School affiliated with Washington University in St. Louis . The three were merged into the Brookings Institution on December 8, 1927. During the Great Depression , economists at Brookings embarked on a large-scale study commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to understand its underlying causes. Brookings's first president, Harold G. Moulton , and other Brookings scholars later led an effort to oppose Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration because they thought it impeded economic recovery. With

6264-516: The Institution announced it was separating entirely from its centers in Doha and New Delhi, and transitioning its center in Beijing to an informal partnership with Tsinghua University, known as Brookings-Tsinghua China. The University of Pennsylvania 's Global Go To Think Tank Index Report has named Brookings "Think Tank of the Year" and "Top Think Tank in the World" every year since 2008. In September 2017, The Economist described Brookings as "perhaps America's most prestigious think-tank." Though

6380-832: The Korean Justice Ministry recording a lower crime rate for Chinese in the country compared to native South Koreans in 2010. Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution , often stylized as Brookings , is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences , primarily in economics (and tax policy ), metropolitan policy, governance , foreign policy , global economy , and economic development . Brookings has five research programs: Economic Studies, Foreign Policy, Governance Studies, Global Economy and Development, and Brookings Metro. It also operated three international centers: in Doha , Qatar (Brookings Doha Center); Beijing , China (Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy); and New Delhi , India (Brookings India). In 2020 and 2021,

6496-488: The Middle East" that led him to fund the center. Some critics have charged that various sources of funding for the center have influenced its outlook, but the center has dismissed such allegations, saying that in all cases the donors respected the center's independence. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt , in their 2006 article wrote: "To be sure, the Saban Centre occasionally hosts Arab scholars and exhibits some diversity of opinion. Saban Center fellows ... often endorse

6612-465: The Middle East, is the main patron of Hamas—which happens to be the mortal enemy of both the State of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party." He suggested that the donations influenced the center's research analysis and Martin Indyk's statements as a State Department official and peace mediator. Brookings responded: "A review of publications and media appearances by our scholars in Doha and in Washington—all of which are available at Brookings.edu—demonstrate

6728-400: The Nationalist Party ostensibly to defeat the Japanese. The simplest formulation of united front work in the period was to "rally as many allies as possible in order to...defeat a common enemy." In the early years, the CCP also used united front policies to cooperate with "disaffected warlords, religious believers, ethnic minorities, overseas Chinese, and minor parties and groups," in order for

6844-565: The PRC does not distinguish between Han and ethnic minority populations for official policy purposes. For example, members of the Tibetan people may travel to China on passes granted to certain people of Chinese descent. Various estimates of the Chinese emigrant minority population include 3.1 million (1993), 3.4 million (2004), 5.7 million (2001, 2010), or approximately one tenth of all Chinese emigrants (2006, 2011). Cross-border ethnic groups ( 跨境民族 ; kuàjìng mínzú ) are not considered Chinese emigrant minorities unless they left China after

6960-497: The People's Republic of China has built increasingly stronger ties with African nations. In 2014, author Howard French estimated that over one million Chinese have moved in the past 20 years to Africa. More recent Chinese presences have developed in Europe, where they number well over 1 million, and in Russia, they number over 200,000, concentrated in the Russian Far East . Russia's main Pacific port and naval base of Vladivostok , once closed to foreigners and belonged to China until

7076-402: The Philippine and Indonesian private economies. The book World on Fire , describing the Chinese as a "market- dominant minority ", notes that "Chinese market dominance and intense resentment amongst the indigenous majority is characteristic of virtually every country in Southeast Asia except Thailand and Singapore". This asymmetrical economic position has incited anti-Chinese sentiment among

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7192-496: The Qatar government in papers". Brookings officials denied any connection between the views of their funders and their scholars' work, citing reports that questioned the Qatari government's education reform efforts and criticized its support of militants in Syria. But Brookings officials reportedly acknowledged that they meet with Qatari government officials regularly. In 2018, The Washington Post reported that Brookings accepted funding from Huawei from 2012 to 2018. A report by

7308-455: The Qing dynasty established the first Nationality Law of China. It granted Chinese citizenship to anyone born to a Chinese parent. It permitted dual citizenship . In the first half of the 20th Century, war and revolution accelerated the pace of migration out of China. The Kuomintang and the Communist Party competed for political support from overseas Chinese. Under the Republicans economic growth froze and many migrated outside

7424-432: The Republic of China, mostly through the coastal regions via the ports of Fujian , Guangdong , Hainan and Shanghai . These migrations are considered to be among the largest in China's history. Many nationals of the Republic of China fled and settled down overseas mainly between the years 1911–1949 before the Nationalist government led by Kuomintang lost the mainland to Communist revolutionaries and relocated. Most of

7540-461: The U.S. entry into World War II in 1941, Brookings researchers turned their attention to aiding the administration with a series of studies on mobilization. In 1948, Brookings was asked to submit a plan for administering the European Recovery Program. The resulting organization scheme assured that the Marshall Plan was run carefully and on a businesslike basis. In 1952, Robert Calkins succeeded Moulton as Brookings' president. He secured grants from

7656-629: The UFWD and Ministry of Public Security . During two periods the United Front Work Department was without a leader, from 1966 to 1975 during the Cultural Revolution and from the end of 1989 until 22 November 1990 following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. The UFWD has had two female heads, Liu Yandong (2002–2007) and Sun Chunlan (2014–2017). Overseas Chinese Overseas Chinese people are people of Chinese origin who reside outside Greater China ( mainland China , Hong Kong , Macau , and Taiwan ). As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. Overall, China has

7772-513: The United Front Work Department. With the absorption of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, the UFWD gained full control of the country's second largest state-run media apparatus, the China News Service . In 2019, the UFWD partnered with the Cyberspace Administration of China to promote united front work with social media influencers. In January 2020, UFWD-linked organizations in Canada and other countries were activated to purchase, stockpile, and export personal protective equipment in response to

7888-449: The United Kingdom (mainly England), Australia, Canada, US, South America, Europe and other parts of the world. The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre further accelerated the migration. The wave calmed after Hong Kong's transfer of sovereignty in 1997. In addition, many citizens of Hong Kong hold citizenships or have current visas in other countries so if the need arises, they can leave Hong Kong at short notice. In recent years,

8004-409: The United States and Stalemate . In addition, books, papers, articles, reports, policy briefs and opinion pieces are produced by Brookings research programs, centers, projects and, for the most part, by experts. Brookings also cooperates with The Lawfare Institute in publishing the online multimedia publication Lawfare . Brookings traces its history to 1916 and has contributed to the creation of

8120-399: The United States and around the world, attempting to influence discourse and restrict external influence inside the PRC." In June 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute issued a report advocating a multi-dimensional response involving law enforcement as well as legislative reform for greater transparency of foreign influence operations. The same month the Republican Study Committee in

8236-411: The United States called for sanctions on the UFWD and its top leadership. In January 2022, MI5 issued an "interference alert" for a solicitor in the UK named Christine Lee suspected of political interference on behalf of the UFWD. In a February 2022 ruling, a Canadian court stated that the UFWD's Overseas Chinese Affairs Office "engages in covert and surreptitious intelligence gathering”. In July 2023,

8352-519: The United States hoped they would harass the People's Republic of China from the southwest, thereby diverting Chinese resources from the Korean War . The Burmese government protested and international pressure increased. Beginning in 1953, several rounds of withdrawals of the Nationalist forces and their families were carried out. In 1960, joint military action by China and Burma expelled

8468-770: The United States. Although discriminatory laws have been repealed or are no longer enforced today, both countries had at one time introduced statutes that barred Chinese from entering the country, for example the United States Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (repealed 1943) or the Canadian Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 (repealed 1947). In both the United States and Canada, further acts were required to fully remove immigration restrictions (namely United States' Immigration and Nationality Acts of 1952 and 1965 , in addition to Canada's) In Australia, Chinese were targeted by

8584-453: The aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre led to the "growing use of party organizations, such as the United Front Work Department and friendship associations, as fronts for intelligence operations." Based on their actions in Taiwan and elsewhere the United Front Work Department appears to be used as a cover to conduct intelligence operations against targets of interest to

8700-500: The audience for research programs. In 1995, Michael Armacost became the sixth president of the Brookings Institution and led an effort to refocus its mission heading into the 21st century. Under his direction, Brookings created several interdisciplinary research centers, such as the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, now the Metropolitan Policy Program led by Bruce J. Katz , which brought attention to

8816-640: The audience for research programs. In 2005, the center was renamed the Brookings Center for Executive Education (BCEE), which was shortened to Brookings Executive Education (BEE) with the launch of a partnership with the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis . The academic partnership is now known as " WashU at Brookings". As of 2017 the Brookings Institution had assets of $ 524.2 million. Its largest contributors include

8932-527: The center and its parent organization, "made a generous initial grant and pledged additional funds to endow the Center." According to a press release from Saban's charitable foundation, Saban "donated $ 13 million for the establishment of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution." Saban, according to the center, ascribed his involvement to his "abiding interest in promoting Arab-Israeli peace and preserving American interests in

9048-670: The control of Chinese students abroad, the recruiting of agents among the Chinese diaspora (and among sympathetic foreigners), and long-term clandestine operations." The Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries has been described as the "public face" of the UFWD. Scholar Jichang Lulu noted that the UFWD and its proxy organizations "re-purpose democratic governance structures to serve as tools of extraterritorial influence." An Atlantic writer stated China runs thousands of linked and subsidized pro-government groups across Europe, to "ensure that its overseas citizens, and others of ethnic Chinese descent, are loyal", to "shape

9164-616: The controversial argument that the 13 May Incident was a pre-meditated attempt by sections of the ruling Malay elite to incite racial hostility in preparation for a coup. In 2006, rioters damaged shops owned by Chinese- Tongans in Nukuʻalofa . Chinese migrants were evacuated from the riot-torn Solomon Islands . Ethnic politics can be found to motivate both sides of the debate. In Malaysia, many " Bumiputra " ("native sons") Malays oppose equal or meritocratic treatment towards Chinese and Indians , fearing they would dominate too many aspects of

9280-546: The conversation about China in Europe", and to "bring back technology and expertise", and that the UFWD plays a "crucial" role in this project. Scholar Jeffrey Stoff has argued that the CCP's United Front "influence apparatus intersects with or directly supports its global technology transfer apparatus." In March 2018, it was announced that the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office would be absorbed into

9396-552: The country. The question of to what extent ethnic Malays, Chinese, or others are "native" to Malaysia is a sensitive political one. It is currently a taboo for Chinese politicians to raise the issue of Bumiputra protections in parliament, as this would be deemed ethnic incitement. Many of the overseas Chinese emigrants who worked on railways in North America in the 19th century suffered from racial discrimination in Canada and

9512-647: The current populations of these countries, but also among the migrant communities with Anglo-Caribbean origins residing mainly in the United Kingdom , the United States and Canada . Some overseas Chinese were sold to South America during the Punti–Hakka Clan Wars (1855–1867) in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong. Research conducted in 2008 by German researchers who wanted to show the correlation between economic development and height, used

9628-655: The documents told the paper that the language of the transactions "appeared to necessitate Brookings filing as a foreign agent" under the Foreign Agent Registration Act . The government of Qatar was named by The New York Times as "the single biggest foreign donor to Brookings", reportedly contributing $ 14.8 million over a four-year period. A former visiting fellow at a Brookings affiliate in Qatar reportedly said that "he had been told during his job interview that he could not take positions critical of

9744-468: The end of 1979 there were just 200,000. It is commonly held that a major point of friction is the apparent tendency of overseas Chinese to segregate themselves into a subculture. For example, the anti-Chinese Kuala Lumpur racial riots of 13 May 1969 and Jakarta riots of May 1998 were believed to have been motivated by these racially biased perceptions. This analysis has been questioned by some historians, notably Dr. Kua Kia Soong , who has put forward

9860-594: The establishment of an independent state on China's border. Some ethnic groups who have historic connections with China, such as the Hmong , may not or may identify themselves as Chinese. The Chinese people have a long history of migrating overseas, as far back as the 10th century. One of the migrations dates back to the Ming dynasty when Zheng He (1371–1435) became the envoy of Ming. He sent people – many of them Cantonese and Hokkien  – to explore and trade in

9976-741: The establishment of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center in Beijing. In July 2007, Brookings announced the creation of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform to be directed by senior fellow Mark McClellan , and in October 2007 the creation of the Brookings Doha Center directed by fellow Hady Amr in Qatar . During this period the funding of Brookings by foreign governments and corporations came under public scrutiny (see Funding controversies below). In 2011, Talbott inaugurated

10092-477: The head of the UFWD, You Quan, was sanctioned pursuant to Executive Order 13936 as a Specially Designated National by United States Department of the Treasury 's Office of Foreign Assets Control . In May 2023, a U.S. man, Liang Litang, was indicted for acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government and for surveilling and harassing Chinese dissidents . Liang allegedly passed information to officials of

10208-531: The idea of a two-state settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. But Saban Center publications never question US support for Israel and rarely, if ever, offer significant criticism of key Israeli policies." Some Saban Center fellows have responded by criticizing the authors' scholarship and expansive definition of "Israel lobby." Martin Indyk stated that their "notion of a loosely aligned group of people that all happen to be working assiduously for Israel

10324-498: The ideological direction of the nation" and rather tend "to be staffed by researchers with strong academic credentials". Along with the Council on Foreign Relations and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , Brookings is generally considered one of the most influential policy institutes in the U.S. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Brookings describes itself as independent and nonpartisan. A 2005 UCLA study concluded it

10440-1049: The importance of using overseas Chinese populations to promote unification . In 1980, the CCP Central Committee approved a request by the UFWD to create a national conference for religious groups. The participating religious groups were the Catholic Patriotic Association , the Islamic Association of China , the Chinese Taoist Association , the Three-Self Patriotic Movement , and the Buddhist Association of China . It played an important role in building support for " One country, two systems " in Hong Kong during

10556-455: The integration of regional knowledge. P. W. Singer , author of Wired for War , serves as Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative, and Michael O'Hanlon serves as Director of Research. Senior Fellow Stephen P. Cohen and Vanda Felbab-Brown are also affiliated with 21CDI. Under MacLaury's leadership in the 1980s, the Center for Public Policy Education (CPPE) was formed to develop workshop conferences and public forums to broaden

10672-615: The late 19th century, as of 2010 bristles with Chinese markets, restaurants and trade houses. A growing Chinese community in Germany consists of around 76,000 people as of 2010 . An estimated 15,000 to 30,000 Chinese live in Austria. Chinese emigrants are estimated to control US$ 2 trillion in liquid assets and have considerable amounts of wealth to stimulate economic power in China . The Chinese business community of Southeast Asia, known as

10788-533: The national level." The organization was founded on 13 March 1916 and began operations on 1 October 1916. Its stated mission is to "provide innovative and practical recommendations that advance three broad goals: strengthen American democracy; foster the economic and social welfare, security, and opportunity of all Americans; and secure a more open, safe, prosperous, and cooperative international system." The Institution's founder, philanthropist Robert S. Brookings (1850–1932), originally created three organizations:

10904-585: The nationalist and neutral refugees fled mainland China to North America while others fled to Southeast Asia ( Singapore , Brunei , Thailand , Malaysia , Indonesia and Philippines ) as well as Taiwan (Republic of China). Those who fled during 1912–1949 and settled down in Singapore and Malaysia automatically gained citizenship in 1957 and 1963 as these countries gained independence. Kuomintang members who settled in Malaysia and Singapore played

11020-534: The official pretense of "sinicizing religions." Bureaus of the SARA, absorbed into the UFWD in 2018, in some areas of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan have brought PRC flags and flagpoles to install in mosques or temples. Alex Joske has noted that there is no clear distinction between domestic and overseas UFWD activity and often overlap between the two. Scholar Martin Thorley has described the UFWD as being able to call upon

11136-604: The organization. The books and journals it publishes include Brookings Papers on Economic Activity , Brookings Review (1982–2003, ISSN   0745-1253 ), America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy , Globalphobia: Confronting Fears about Open Trade , India: Emerging Power , Through Their Eyes , Taking the High Road , Masses in Flight , US Public Policy Regarding Sovereign Wealth Fund Investment in

11252-570: The overseas Chinese generally use romanised versions of their Chinese names, and the use of local first names is also common. Overseas Chinese have often experienced hostility and discrimination . In countries with small ethnic Chinese minorities, the economic disparity can be remarkable. For example, in 1998, ethnic Chinese made up just 1% of the population of the Philippines and 4% of the population in Indonesia , but have wide influence in

11368-539: The poorer majorities. Sometimes the anti-Chinese attitudes turn violent, such as the 13 May Incident in Malaysia in 1969 and the Jakarta riots of May 1998 in Indonesia, in which more than 2,000 people died, mostly rioters burned to death in a shopping mall. During the Indonesian killings of 1965–66 , in which more than 500,000 people died, ethnic Chinese Hakkas were killed and their properties looted and burned as

11484-507: The previous paramount leader Hú Jǐntāo ( 胡錦濤 ) would be spelled as "Hồ Cẩm Đào" in Vietnamese. There are also great similarities between Vietnamese and Chinese traditions such as the use Lunar New Year, philosophy such as Confucianism , Taoism and ancestor worship; leads to some Hoa people adopt easily to Vietnamese culture, however many Hoa still prefer to maintain Chinese cultural background. The official census from 2009 accounted

11600-430: The relatively low social and economic statuses of ethnic Korean-Chinese have played a role in local hostility towards them. Such hatred had been formed since their early settlement years, where many Chinese–Koreans hailing from rural areas were accused of misbehaviour such as spitting on streets and littering . More recently, they have also been targets of hate speech for their association with violent crime, despite

11716-722: The remaining Nationalist forces from Burma, although some went on to settle in the Burma–Thailand borderlands . During the 1950s and 1960s, the ROC tended to seek the support of overseas Chinese communities through branches of the Kuomintang based on Sun Yat-sen 's use of expatriate Chinese communities to raise money for his revolution. During this period, the People's Republic of China tended to view overseas Chinese with suspicion as possible capitalist infiltrators and tended to value relationships with Southeast Asian nations as more important than gaining support of overseas Chinese, and in

11832-483: The revolutionary, patriotic united front." The UFWD was used in the early years of PRC rule "to guarantee CCP oversight" over groups that were not directly associated with the Party and government. Those groups, including NGOs, were brought under the authority of the UFWD, whose job it was to “continuing to play its part in mobilizing and rallying the whole people in common struggle” after the Liberation in 1949. When

11948-520: The role of the UFWD. The UFWD is to "implement better the party's united front policy and to assess and understand patriotic personages in different fields... so that we can arrange for correct placements for them and fully mobilize and bring into play their positive role in the Four Modernizations and to accomplish the return of Taiwan to the motherland so as to fulfill the cause of uniting the whole country, and to carry forward and solidify

12064-427: The same article discussed threats to its institutional credibility via troubling donor relationships. Brookings states that its staff "represent diverse points of view" and describes itself as nonpartisan. Media outlets have variously described Brookings as centrist , conservative , liberal , center-right , and center-left . An academic analysis of congressional records from 1993 to 2002 found that Brookings

12180-401: The same independence of thinking and objective, fact-based analysis about Qatar as on every other topic of our research. Our agreements with Qatar specifically protect the independence of our scholarship in all respects." Smith thanked the think tank for its response, but said it did "not satisfactorily address the key issues [his] article raises." In 2006, the Brookings Institution established

12296-417: The settlement became known as Tang People Town ( 唐人埠 ) or Chinatown. The term shǎoshù mínzú ( 少数民族 ; 少數民族 ) is added to the various terms for the overseas Chinese to indicate those who would be considered ethnic minorities in China . The terms shǎoshù mínzú huáqiáo huárén and shǎoshù mínzú hǎiwài qiáobāo ( 少数民族海外侨胞 ; 少數民族海外僑胞 ) are all in usage. The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of

12412-454: The strengths of cities and metropolitan areas; and the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, which brings together specialists from different Asian countries to examine regional problems. In 2002, Strobe Talbott became president of Brookings. Shortly thereafter, Brookings launched the Saban Center for Middle East Policy and the John L. Thornton China Center. In 2006, Brookings announced

12528-455: The surrounding communities (see Chinatown ), and their relationship with China. Thailand has the largest overseas Chinese community and is also the most successful case of assimilation , with many claiming Thai identity . For over 400 years, descendants of Thai Chinese have largely intermarried and/or assimilated with their compatriots. The present royal house of Thailand, the Chakri dynasty ,

12644-629: The term Huaqiao. Ching-Sue Kuik renders huáqiáo in English as "the Chinese sojourner " and writes that the term is "used to disseminate, reinforce, and perpetuate a monolithic and essentialist Chinese identity" by both the PRC and the ROC. The modern informal internet term haigui ( 海归 ; 海歸 ) refers to returned overseas Chinese and guīqiáo qiáojuàn ( 归侨侨眷 ; 歸僑僑眷 ) to their returning relatives. Huáyì ( 华裔 ; 華裔 ) refers to people of Chinese descent or ancestry residing outside of China, regardless of citizenship. Another often-used term

12760-518: The world. Moreover, in spite of an overall decline in the number of times information or opinions developed by think tanks are cited by U.S. media, of the 200 most prominent think tanks in the U.S., the Brookings Institution's research remains the most frequently cited. In a 1997 survey of congressional staff and journalists, Brookings ranked as the most influential and first in credibility among 27 think tanks considered. Yet "Brookings and its researchers are not so concerned, in their work, in affecting

12876-521: Was "centrist" because it was referenced as an authority almost equally by both conservative and liberal politicians in congressional records from 1993 to 2002. The New York Times has called Brookings liberal, liberal-centrist, and centrist. The Washington Post has called Brookings centrist, liberal, and center-left. The Los Angeles Times called Brookings liberal-leaning and centrist before opining that it did not believe such labels mattered. In 1977, Time magazine called Brookings

12992-516: Was cited by conservative politicians almost as often as by liberal politicians, earning a score of 53 on a 1–100 scale, with 100 representing the most liberal score. The same study found Brookings to be the most frequently cited think tank by U.S. media and politicians. Brookings was founded in 1916 as the Institute for Government Research (IGR), with the mission of becoming "the first private organization devoted to analyzing public policy issues at

13108-555: Was created during the Chinese Civil War , and was reestablished in 1979 under paramount leader Deng Xiaoping . Since 2012, the role and scope of the UFWD has expanded and intensified under CCP general secretary Xi Jinping . United front policies were most used in two periods before the Chinese Communist Revolution , namely from 1924 to 1927, and from 1936 to 1945, when the CCP cooperated with

13224-568: Was estimated to have a budget of at least US$ 2.6 billion in 2019. It oversees and directs eight minor and subordinate political parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce . Between 2015 and 2018, the UFWD grew to 12 bureaus: The UFWD uses several methods in pursuit of its goals to appeal to its targets. Its primary method involves outreach, including holding events, trainings, media tours and other similar activities. This includes examples such as inviting members of

13340-469: Was founded by King Rama I who himself was partly of Chinese ancestry. His predecessor, King Taksin of the Thonburi Kingdom , was the son of a Chinese immigrant from Guangdong Province and was born with a Chinese name. His mother, Lady Nok-iang (Thai: นกเอี้ยง), was Thai (and was later awarded the noble title of Somdet Krom Phra Phithak Thephamat). In the Philippines, the Chinese, known as

13456-610: Was the source for many of economic migrants. In the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong in China, there was a surge in emigration as a result of the poverty and village ruin. San Francisco and California was an early American destination in the mid-1800s because of the California Gold Rush. Many settled in San Francisco forming one of the earliest Chinatowns. For the countries in North America and Australia saw great numbers of Chinese gold diggers finding gold in

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