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The United Front is a unit of the Chinese Communist Party tasked with controlling key members of the overseas Chinese diaspora and suppressing voices critical of China, thereby expanding China’s influence. As part of these efforts, the United Front maintains contact with representatives and associations of the overseas Chinese diaspora worldwide. Direkt36 has identified 26 Chinese associations and 56 individuals linked to this network in Hungary, including [the Chinese citizen] Ma Wenjun and the Chinese-European Cultural, Art, and Sports Association he founded.

Ma, originally from [the Chinese city of] Nanjing, said he moved to Hungary in 2013 through a residency bond program and currently owns a wholesale and retail company. Alongside his influential Chinese political connections, Ma, as president of his association, also appears alongside Hungarian government politicians. In 2017, his association helped organize the Hungarian Chinese Film Festival, which was attended by Hong Kong film star Jackie Chan, a known supporter of the Chinese Communist Party. Zoltán Balog, a former Hungarian minister, also gave a speech at the event. That same year, Ma shook hands with [Hungarian] Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó at an economic conference.

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Journalists […] interviewed more than 100 people worldwide who have been targets of Chinese state intimidation.

[They] also examined confidential Chinese documents—a 2004 Chinese police textbook and a 2013 guideline for domestic security officers—that revealed the techniques used by Chinese authorities. These included digging up possible past offenses by the targets and harassing their Chinese relatives.

“The principle and general playbook hasn’t changed, but they are operating at a very different level today,” [said] Katja Drinhausen, a researcher at the Mercator Institute for Chinese Studies in Berlin.

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Half of those interviewed who had been targeted by Chinese authorities reported that the harassment extended to family members living in China, who were regularly visited and interrogated by police or state security officials. Several victims also told the ICIJ that their relatives in China or Hong Kong were contacted by police shortly after the targeted individuals participated in protests or public events abroad.

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“Only when they see my dead body will they act,” said Nuria Zyden, a Dublin, [Ireland]-based Uyghur, referring to the police response after she reported being followed by three Chinese men.

Experts say repression against perceived enemies of the party-state has intensified since the start of Xi Jinping’s presidency in 2012. In internal statements, Xi has urged security officials to stay vigilant against “Western anti-China forces,” including dissidents.

“Xi is committed to deepening Communist Party control over China and the diaspora,” said Emile Dirks, who researches authoritarianism at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. “No opposition to this goal, however small or weak, is tolerated.”

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