Common Sense Society Helps Uncover Chinese Communist Party Infiltration in United Kingdom

Newsweek investigation identifies hundreds of groups in Britain tied to the CCP.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM—Common Sense Society (CSS), a leading international educational and civic network, announced a breaking investigation by CSS senior researcher Cheryl Yu and Newsweek’s Didi Kirsten Tatlow, identifying hundreds of groups in the United Kingdom working to promote the interests of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“The CCP has seeded many groups in the United Kingdom that appear to be innocent organizations that promote Chinese culture but whose purpose is much more insidious,” said Marion Smith, CSS president and C.E.O. “Under the guise of cultural engagement, they seek to expand the reach of Beijing’s tentacles of statecraft, spread CCP propaganda, and increase the regime’s ability to influence and even control Western actors. CSS applauds Tatlow and Yu for their hard work doing what Beijing hates—discussing its shadowy, effective influence operations in the open.”

Key excerpts include:

“From London’s touristy Chinatown to windswept Stirling in Scotland, from South Wales to Belfast in Northern Ireland, Newsweek‘s investigation found 384 groups in the U.K. that are part of United Front networks amplifying the CCP’s political line and working to influence public opinion overseas, for example by calling for unification with Taiwan in line with Beijing’s policy, supporting party congresses and policies, extolling Chinese leader Xi Jinping, staging pro-Beijing demonstrations, and building relationships with politicians and business people at every level of society.”

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“Some of the groups openly say they adhere to the Chinese constitution, as well as British laws. Some monitor the overseas Chinese community, especially since about 150,000 Hong Kongers fled to Britain, Hong Kong’s former ruler, escaping deepening repression by Beijing at home. And some people in the groups have engaged in documented assaults on critics of the Communist Party.”

Read the full article here. 

Common Sense Society (CSS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes liberty, prosperity, and beauty through education and public discourse. The fellowships, curriculum resources, publications, cultural programs, and national campaigns of CSS illuminate the enduring ideas that have transformed the course of human history for the better. CSS does not accept funding from governments or political parties.

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For more information, contact Emily Soper at emily@commonsensesociety.org.