U.S. State Department’s Assistant Secretary David Stilwell recently warned the public:
“Influence and interference operations are fundamental to how the Chinese Communist Party engages with the world.” Through two leaked documents, the rest of the world recently discovered more about how aggressive and extensive the CCP’s influence and interference operations are: a database of CCP members and a secret agreement between Switzerland and Chinese police.
The CCP Member Database
One of the largest newspapers in Australia, The Australian, reported last weekend it obtained a leaked database of nearly two million CCP members, including their national ID number, birth date, and party position. Additionally, the database contains information on almost 80,000 party branches, showing these CCP members are currently working inside international corporations, universities, and even government agencies around the world.
Leaked Documents Reveal Beijing Created a Tech Alliance With Former Soviet Bloc Countries
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has stepped up tech collaboration with eastern European and central Asian countries within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), according to leaked government documents The Epoch Times recently obtained from a trusted source. An analyst believes this is an attempt to counter the West’s attempts at limiting transfer of intellectual property to China.
BRI is Beijing’s foreign policy project to build political influence via investing in infrastructure projects throughout parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa.
One of the documents suggests that in June 2018, amid the U.S.-China trade war, the CCP established the Belt and Road Alliance for Science and Technology (BRAST), an agency to coordinate tech cooperation between Beijing and BRI-participating countries.
2020/12/14 18:04 Gondolas go up next to the Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland on Dec. 3, 2020. Gondolas go up next to the Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland on Dec. 3, 2020. (AP photo) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) A recently expired, renewable five-year agreement between the Swiss government and China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) that allows Chinese agents to covertly roam Switzerland on two-week trips funded by Swiss taxpayers has drawn intense criticism, which officials in the Central European country have dismissed since the full text of the agreement became public. The deal had been entirely unknown to the Swiss Parliament, the Swiss Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Swiss public until August, when it was first reported on by Swiss newspaper NZZ. It expired on Dec. 8, but the government is currently pursuing its renewal.
Switzerland gave Chinese security agents free run inside its borders and the rest of Europe for five years as part of a secretive immigration agreement between the two countries, according to human rights watchdog Safeguard Defenders.
While the agreement officially expired this week, Safeguard Defenders warned that it was up for renewal in a report released on Thursday.
The deal allows Chinese officials to visit Switzerland for up to two weeks to interview and remove nationals who have been found to be residing illegally in the European country and take them back to China.
While Switzerland maintains similar agreements with immigration authorities from 52 other countries and territories, including Hong Kong and Macau, its deal with China is unique in that it grants powers to China’s Ministry of Public Security as opposed to immigration officials, according to Safeguard Defenders.