(TibetanReview.net, Aug01’24) – The physical assault on activists of Tibet and other campaign groups during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit over Nov 14-15 last year was coordinated by the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) with the participation of a few dozen US-based community organizations tied to it, according to a report published Jul 30 by two groups.
The report calls for investigation into those attacks and educate the law enforcement about the tactics employed by CPC-tied organizations that appeared to work in coordination with one another.
“We all see the report as a testament to the strength of our cross-movement solidarity and as a significant step towards exposing the insidious spectre of the CCP’s united front,” nationalreview.com Jul 30 quoted Pema Doma, the executive director of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), as telling reporters.
SFT and the Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC) produced the report together, running photographs and videos from the assaults through facial-recognition software and by cross-referencing the results with media reports and websites of united-front organizations.
The report identifies a few dozen US-based community organizations that they said were at the sites of these incidents and are linked to Beijing’s “united front” political-influence operations.
The report identified 34 instances in which pro-Beijing demonstrators had harassed and assaulted members of groups that protested Xi, victims of which had said that they were beaten to the point of being severely bruised and, in one case, knocked out.
As pro-Xi partisans chased the protesters across San Francisco for four days last year, the city’s law enforcement rarely intervened. While the FBI has, according to the report, conducted interviews with some of the individuals who were attacked, it’s not clear if a broader criminal probe is underway, noted the nationalreview.com report.
HKDC executive director Anna Kwok, who was at the protests, and on whose head the Hong Kong authorities placed a $138,000 bounty for information leading to her arrest, has said she sat for one of those interviews but that she believes the FBI has not interviewed more than ten other people.
The United Front Work Department-linked people and groups in the US carry out ostensibly legal activities and infrequently publicize their direct affiliation with party organs in China. Members of some of these groups had travelled to San Francisco from across the US, including from Southern California, Oregon, and New York.
Brian Kern, the lead researcher on the report, has said there was no evidence of direct participation by officials from the United Front Work Department but “we have evidence of ties between these united-front groups in the US and these organs in China.”
While the Department of Justice (DOJ) has declined to comment, the FBI has said: “In keeping with DOJ policy, the FBI can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”
United-front work is a strategy the CPC has long used to influence non-CPC members to advance Beijing’s interests. The House Select Committee on the CPC has described it as “a unique blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations” carried out by a range of actors.
The All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, the China Overseas Friendship Association, and several chapters of the US-based Association for the Peaceful Reunification of China were stated to have taken took part in demonstrating support for Xi and attacking the protesters.
These groups are understood by analysts to be subsidiaries of a United Front Work Department branch called the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification.
Also, China’s diplomatic corps is believed to have played a role in organizing and coordinating the travel of pro-Beijing demonstrators to San Francisco APEC summit. The groups have published emails showing that the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles had notified a few chapters of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association — a collegiate group that is believed to report to China’s embassy and its consulates across America — about Xi’s trip and informed them that they were invited to San Francisco.
“This message also said that all travel, accommodation, and food expenses would be covered, notified students that this ‘glorious mission’ was a significant duty, and advised addressees not to share the contents of the message with others,” the report stated.