A former Chinese official, who now resides in the United States, has come forward as a whistleblower on the Chinese system, exposing how China spies on its citizens at home and overseas, including the US.
According to a cnn report, Ma Ruilin, who runs a Chinese restaurant in New York, claims that the former cadres in China’s ruling Communist Party would not understand the reason behind his leaving his comfortable life as a government official.
Ma’s choice to publicly criticize the system he fled offers rare insider testimony at a time when US authorities are intensifying efforts to counter what they describe as Beijing’s “transnational repression”, alleged tactics used to intimidate and silence members of the Chinese diaspora abroad.
However, for Ma, who grew increasingly disillusioned with Beijing’s policies, the decision to leave Beijing was not easy, as he left everything behind, including his family. “The system has always been evil,” he said, adding, “If you don’t leave, you’ll keep doing evil there.”
During his time with the Chinese government, Ma recalled his role in designing and implementing programs that suppressed China’s religious minorities. He outlined how the scope and reach of the United Front Work Department (UFWD), the secretive Communist Party body where he was employed, had significantly expanded.
Minorities targeted in China and Ma’s role
According to Ma, Beijing’s alleged tactics of surveillance over its expats in the US come after it has perfected the tactics at home. Ma, a Hui Muslim, a Chinese-speaking minority group, had a task to carry out surveillance on religious groups for much of his career, which included Christians and Muslims.
He added that his department was to shut down mosques, remove domes, and expel imams. Further, informants were hired, and surveillance cameras were installed at the mosque in Gansu, following which, the officials gathered information that sent innocent people either to prison camps or jail.
UFWD’s evolving role
The UFWD, which was established during Mao Zedong’s era, has since then evolved. Under Xi Jinping, the current Chinese leader, the department has evolved into a broad propaganda and influence network, one that is aimed at mobilizing support for the Chinese Communist Party’s policies, both within the country and abroad.
Since the department’s inception, UFWD has worked as a political philosophy and a branch of the ruling Communist Party, which Mao and Xi have termed as one of China’s “magic weapons” to strengthen the party. UFWD is heavily connected with the public and state security apparatus, forming “one chessboard, all together, one whole,” he said.
In recent years, the Communist Party has expanded its strategy with calls for stronger measures to implement the department’s work and to “enhance the capacity” of its operations, according to China’s state news agency Xinhua News Agency. Ma said staffing levels have “basically doubled” since 2019.
He added that even in the United States, the department has some activity going on, adding that he once saw a confidential document showing that some of the informants of the UFWD were arrested in the US.
According to Ma, sometimes the department recruits people with money or benefits, adding that there are many ways to win over someone and corrupt them.
UFWD’s links outside China
The department is said to have links to certain student organizations and community groups in the US, including so-called “hometown associations”. Beijing maintains that such groups assist members with routine matters like obtaining driver’s licenses. However, according to Roman Rozavsky, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, they may also serve as recruiting grounds for individuals willing to take part in what authorities describe as transnational repression.
Over 2,000 organizations, which are connected to the United Front Work Department, have been identified in four democratic countries, including the US, Canada, Britain, and Germany.
China’s attempt to silence dissent on US soil: Experts
CNN, citing experts, said that this is a campaign by the Chinese government to silence dissent on US soil, calling it aggressive and widespread.
Rozhavsky said there are “hundreds” of Chinese operatives in the United States, describing their presence as a serious violation of US sovereignty.
Meanwhile, Laura Harth of the human rights group Safeguard Defenders argued that the United Front Work Department has effectively been turned into a tool, with coercive tactics forming the flip side of its broader influence efforts.
Those connected to the department have often faced allegations of harassing and intimidating activists and critics, especially those who are associated with groups Beijing labels the “Five Poisons”, supporters of independence or expanded freedoms for Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang, as well as adherents of the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong.
China denies allegations of espionage on foreign soil
According to the report, Beijing has consistently denied any accusations of carrying out espionage or illegal activities on foreign soil.
“America on the one hand repeatedly disseminates false information about so-called Chinese spies, and yet on the other hand openly declares it wants to launch large-scale espionage activities against China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in January 2024.
