Q&A: What was the Relationship Between the United Front System and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office?
Q&A: What was the Relationship Between the United Front System and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office?
by Cheryl Yu and Peter Mattis
Editor’s Note: Q&A articles are short responses to research queries that we have received from external readers, including government officials and journalists, and that we believe are useful to a wider audience.
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO) merged with the United Front Work Department (UFWD) across all levels in 2017. Some people who engaged with OCAO prior to the merger defend their engagement on the grounds that OCAO was not conducting united front work. How should we understand the relationship between the OCAO and the united front system prior to their official merger in 2017?
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO) was a constituent element of the united front system prior to their official merger in 2017 under the aegis of the United Front Work Department (UFWD). Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and government guidance documents, bureaucratic and budgetary linkages, and dual-hatted personnel all show clear relationships between OCAOs and their respective UFWDs. The official merger removed bureaucratic duplication.
United front work has a long history of being the responsibility of the entire party. Agencies at all levels, including OCAOs, are tasked with carrying out united front work. The centrality of united front work has been reiterated by every Party leader. In 1951, while he was primarily in charge of consolidating CCP control over southwestern China, Deng Xiaoping (邓小平) said, “united front work is the responsibility of all departments within the Party. If every cadre and every Party member does not understand this point, this work will not be done well” (China Association for Promoting Democracy, Accessed September 25). Jiang Zemin (江泽民) and Hu Jintao (胡锦涛) made similar comments (CPC News, Accessed September 25; China Reform Data, July 10, 2006). More recently, during the Central United Front Work Conference in July 2022, Xi Jinping also stated: “United front work is the responsibility of the entire Party. It must be taken seriously by the whole Party, and everyone should work together. We must establish a united front work framework in which the Party committee provides unified leadership, the united front departments take the lead in coordination, and relevant sectors assume their respective responsibilities” (PRC Central Government, July 30, 2022).
Overseas Chinese, which OCAO oversees, are a target of united front work and have been since at least 1948. Policy guidance has repeatedly reaffirmed the connection. In 1948, the CCP clarified that overseas Chinese affairs are one of the key responsibilities of the Central United Front Work Department (Tongxin, February 22, 2018). In 1979, carrying out united front work toward overseas Chinese was officially mentioned in the “Guiding Principles and Tasks of the United Front in the New Historical Period” published at the National United Front Work Conference (Tongxin, February 22, 2018). In 1981, at the 15th National United Front Work Conference, then-CCP chairman Hu Yaobang proposed ten united front targets, overseas Chinese being one of them (CPC News, Accessed October 4). Most recently, as written in the Regulations on the United Front Work of the Communist Party of China, “overseas Chinese remain a key target of united front work” (PRC Central Government, January 5, 2021).
OCAO has always been a part of the united front system. In 1986, Xi Zhongxun (习仲勋), Vice Chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee and father to current CCP Chairman Xi Jinping, stated at the 16th National United Front Work Conference that OCAO should be part of the united front work leading group (UFWD of CSUST, June 15, 2016). OCAO officials were part of the team that drafted the “Regulations on the United Front Work of the Communist Party of China” in 2014 (UFWD of SJTU, June 9, 2015).
This means that OCAO was considered part of the united front system prior to the merger in 2017. In 2014, for instance, the Huangpu District OCAO in Shanghai was considered part of the Huangpu District united front system (China News, March 27, 2014). In March that year, the head of the UFWD in Wenzhou’s Ouhai District visited OCAO as part of a united front system event (Wenzhou Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, March 20, 2014).
Regular coordination and participation in work conferences between OCAO and UFWD personnel is another indicator that OCAO is a constituent part of the united front system. OCAO personnel attend united front work conferences and vice versa. For instance, in February 2005, the chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a central united front body, was present at the National Overseas Chinese Affairs Work Conference (CPPCC, March 1, 2005). In October 2011, the vice chairman and head of UFWD also attended the National Overseas Chinese Affairs Work Conference (History of the PRC, October 20, 2011). In 1979 and 1993, the head of OCAO attended the National United Front Work Conference (CPC News, Accessed September 25; University of South China, December 5, 2006). These activities are also mirrored at the local level, where local OCAO and UFWD branches regularly engage in each other’s events and meetings (Shanghai Socialism College, August 7, 2012; Foreign Affairs Office of Wenzhou Municipal People’s Government, August 5, 2015).
Dual-hatted UFWD personnel tend to have more senior roles within their respective OCAOs than in their UFWDs. Prior to the merger of OCAO and UFWD in 2017, there were local UFWD officials who had dual roles as directors of OCAO branches and as deputy directors within UFWD. This indicates that UFWD is superior to OCAO. For example, in 2011, Zhong Yinteng (钟荫腾), Vice Minister of the Shenzhen UFWD, was simultaneously the director of the local OCAO (Shenzhen UFWD, May 18, 2011). In September 2015, Fu Yuebing (傅岳炳) was announced as the vice minister of the Ningbo UFWD and the director of the local OCAO (Ningbo UFWD, September 28, 2015). In Jiaxing, Xuzhou, and Songjiang, the UFWD deputy director also held the role of the director of OCAO (Zhejiang Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, December 31, 2013; Jiangsu Normal University, March 12, 2014; Songjiang PPCC, January 9, 2015). An additional sign of the long-standing subordination of OCAO to UFWD comes from a 2014 meeting in which the Shanghai OCAO head presented its overseas Chinese affairs work to the head of Shanghai UFWD. The latter affirmed the work of Shanghai OCAO and laid out requirements for the 2014 overseas Chinese affairs work in Shanghai. This instance of the local UFWD effectively providing work guidance to OCAO indicates the hierarchy between the two organizations (China News, March 21, 2014).
Operationally, the overseas Chinese affairs and united front activities of OCAO and UFWD have overlapped. They often share offices, functions, and budgets. In their own words, OCAOs conduct united front work and UFWDs conduct overseas Chinese affairs work. According to local government documents, they carry out overseas Chinese affairs work interchangeably (Guangdong People’s Government, January 5, 1995; Danfeng People’s Government, October 16, 2015). In some cases, UFWD and OCAO shared office space and functions prior to the 2017 merger. This was the case for UFWD in Chongqing’s Yubei District, which operated with OCAO and the District’s Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau from the same location (Yubei District People’s Government, September 29, 2017). Examples from Shenzhen, Huangpu, Wuyi, and Pan’An also show that OCAO’s budget may have been included as part of UFWD’s budget (Shenzhen UFWD, July 15, 2015; Shanghai Huangpu District People’s Government, April 15, 2015; Wuyi County People’s Government, June 10, 2014; Pan’An County People’s Government, October 29, 2014).
The official merger of OCAO with UFWD in 2017 streamlined their overlapping responsibilities, but OCAO was already an integral part of the united front system. The merger formalized a long-standing relationship characterized by shared personnel, coordinated activities, and operational overlap, demonstrating that united front work targeting overseas Chinese has always been a core function of OCAO.
This article originally appeared in China Brief Notes. Check it out here!
Cheryl Yu is a Fellow in China Studies at The Jamestown Foundation.
Peter Mattis is President of The Jamestown Foundation.