Chinese Influence Operations

APPENDIX 1 Chinese Influence Operations Bureaucracy While recent months have brought increased attention to the United Front Work Department, or “United Front activities,” it is important to emphasize that this is but one of many institutions within the Chinese party-state involved in influence operations. As the accompanying graphic illustrates, the bureaucracy involved in extending China’s global influence is large, complex, and specialized in function. Generally speaking, there are three types of bureaucratic organizations included in the chart: (1) policy coordination; (2) policy formulation and implementation; and (3) organizations with specialized functions. As a Leninist party-state, CCP organizations have higher political status than government institutions. This has become even more pronounced under the Party’s general secretary Xi Jinping and following the bureaucratic reorganization announced after the March 2018 meeting of the National People’s Congress. Generally speaking, Party organs make policies, which are then implemented by state bureaucracies. There is no single organization overseeing the entirety of the country’s influence operations abroad. The most important CCP organizations in the diagram are the Foreign Affairs Commission, the External Propaganda Leading Group/State Council Information Office, the CCP Propaganda Department, the CCP United Front Work Department, the CCP International Liaison Department, and United Front departments inside the People’s Liberation Army. Critical policies related to foreign affairs are formulated in these bodies. The same organizations are also involved in coordinating the implementation of these policies. The Policy-Making Process in the Chinese Party-State The process is driven both by top leadership and functional bureaucracies. Policy formulation, which involves the generation of ideas and proposals, typically takes place in functional bureaucracies and specialized departments within these bureaucracies. In the process of policy formulation, one bureaucracy specializing in the functional or issue area (for example, propaganda) may take charge, but it HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020592