Executive Summary
Li Ganjie’s appointment as head of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work Department (UFWD) showcases a trend towards professionalisation and increasing technological sophistication in the Chinese apparatus of political warfare and influence. His technocratic background and surprisingly rapid ascent in the CCP reflect President Xi’s modernisation agenda. We expect the UFWD, under Li’s leadership, to further intensify its foreign influence operations. However, global awareness and challenges to their activities are rising.
Images Sourced From: China Daily
Profile
Li Ganjie (born in November 1964) is a Chinese technocrat and a significant political figure within the Chinese Communist Party. He is of Han ethnicity, and comes from the Wangcheng county of the Hunan province. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1984. In 1986, he obtained a Master of Engineering from Tsinghua University, and he later held various positions in the National Nuclear Safety Administration. Furthermore, from September 1991 to January 1993, Lie Ganjie also studied in France at the Institute of Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection.
Li became closer to the party and professionally involved in its activities when he started working in 1998 as a deputy secretary of the county party committee; the following year, he became first secretary at the Chinese embassy in France, showcasing that he was a trusted member of the CCP machinery. Although he started his career in nuclear safety engineering, with time, he was appointed to several government positions, swiftly rising in the ranks.
Those included leading the Ministry for Environmental Protection and later the Ministry of Ecological Environment (which absorbed the former one). Furthermore, following only two years as Shandong governor, characterised by economic restructuring and environmental crackdowns, he became the youngest Politburo member. His rise happened at an incredibly fast pace for Chinese politicians’ standards.
As of 2 April 2022, Li Ganjie and Shi Taifeng swapped their respective positions as head of the Organisation Department and head of the United Work Front Department (UWFD). This is, arguably, an unprecedented reshuffle and job swap among Politburo members.
[source, source, source, source]
United Front Work Department (UFWD)
The UFWD is a key part of the CCP’s machinery for political warfare. It is not an espionage agency itself, but it facilitates the tasks of the Ministry of State Security (China’s foreign espionage service). Its role and objective are to coordinate domestic and overseas influence and interference work. It pushes Beijing’s view and pro-China narratives, and often represses opinions of dissent among the Taiwanese, Hong Kongers, and ethnic and religious minorities such as Mongolians, Tibetans, and Uyghurs.
Its activities are varied; they interfere with Chinese diasporas, gather intelligence, suppress dissidents, facilitate strategic businesses and more. Namely, in 2019, they were allegedly involved in electoral interference on Canadian soil, showcasing their broad reach and role in Chinese influence operations.
The longstanding system, once called a “magic weapon” by Mao Zedong, grew sharply under Xi Jinping. Its size and strategic importance were restructured between 2015 and 2018 to involve twelve bureaus (from seven), its organisational chart revamped, and the power flow to it streamlined to come directly from the Party’s centre.
[source, source, source, source]
