Chinese Whispers: What is China's 'United Front' agenda?
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The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
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Summary
When Chinese spy scandals break, like the latest involving Prince Andrew and his Chinese business associate, one organisation often comes up – the United Front. Mao Zedong had dubbed it one of the Chinese Communist Party’s three ‘magic weapons’.
So what is this mysterious ‘United Front’ and how important is it to advancing the CCP’s agenda? Joining the podcast is Charlie Parton, a former British diplomat in Beijing and a special advisor on China to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. He is now chief advisor to the Council on Geostrategy’s China Observatory.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before we get started, I just want to draw your attention to the fact that Chinese Whispers is nominated in the Political Podcast Awards 2025. |
| 0:07.3 | The show is in contention for a few categories, but most importantly, every nominee has a chance to win the People's Choice category. |
| 0:14.6 | If you enjoy this podcast, do cast a vote for it at the link in the description. |
| 0:19.0 | Now, on to the show. |
| 0:29.7 | Thank you. a vote for it at the link in the description. Now, on to the show. Hello and welcome to Chinese Whispers with me, Cindy Yu. Every episode, I'll be talking to |
| 0:34.5 | journalists, experts, and long-time China watchers about the latest in Chinese politics, society, and more. There'll be a to journalists, experts and long-time China watches about the latest |
| 0:37.8 | in Chinese politics, society and more. There'll be a smattering of history to catch you up on the |
| 0:43.0 | background knowledge and some context as well. How do the Chinese see these issues? |
| 0:49.2 | Now whenever spy scandals about China break in the West, one organisation often comes up, |
| 0:54.0 | the United Front. |
| 0:55.2 | So what is this mysterious organisation that Mao had dubbed one of the party's three magic |
| 0:59.8 | weapons? How much does it advance the party's agenda? I'm joined today by Charlie Parton, who is a former |
| 1:05.4 | British diplomat in Beijing, a former advisor to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, and now chief |
| 1:10.6 | advisor to the Council on |
| 1:11.7 | Geo Strategy's China Observatory. Charlie, welcome back to Chinese Whispers. Thank you very much. |
| 1:16.1 | So the United Front is an arm of the Chinese Communist Party, but more widely it's a strategy. |
| 1:20.2 | So let's start with the principles of that strategy. What are we talking about when we're talking |
| 1:23.4 | about a United Front? I think that's very wise because the United Front work department |
| 1:27.6 | has become the whipping boy of the press and actually we need to see what it's really about. |
| 1:32.7 | So the United Front strategy says that you identify the main enemy. So back in the early days |
| 1:38.4 | of the Communist Party's struggle to come to power, that was the KMT. Nowadays you might say |
| 1:43.3 | that it's the United States in the global |
... |
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