CCP's Covert Infiltration of Hong Kong and the US: Insights from a Veteran Journalist

CCP's Covert Infiltration of Hong Kong and the US: Insights from a Veteran Journalist - Hong Kong has been rated as the freest economy in the world by the Heritage Foundation for 24 consecutive years, and now it has been completely degraded to become just another ordinary city within mainland China. However, Mr. Ching Cheong, a senior journalist in Hong Kong, said that Hong Kong has long been infiltrated by China's Communist Party (CCP) and riddled with gaping wounds for a long time.

CCP's Covert Infiltration of Hong Kong and the US: Insights from a Veteran Journalist

CCP's Covert Infiltration of Hong Kong and the US: Insights from a Veteran Journalist

Hong Kong has been rated as the freest economy in the world by the Heritage Foundation for 24 consecutive years, and now it has been completely degraded to become just another ordinary city within mainland China. However, Mr. Ching Cheong, a senior journalist in Hong Kong, said that Hong Kong has long been infiltrated by China's Communist Party (CCP) and riddled with gaping wounds for a long time.

CCP’s History in Hong Kong Can Be Traced Back to 1921

In 1921, the CCP was established in the French Concession in Shanghai and later established its presence in British Hong Kong in August of the same year.

The CCP has never stopped its activities in Hong Kong for more than a century. Mr. Ching said at least 400,000 party members were involved in clandestine operations within Hong Kong by 2012.

From "selling tea" and operating "opaque ‘gray line’ activities" to instigating the “1967 riots,” attracting elites from student movements, and then implementing the Basic Law and the National Security Law, the CCP has long been pervasive in all areas of Hong Kong.

CCP’s Strategy to Infiltrate Hong Kong

Mr. Ching said that the CCP’s infiltration network in Hong Kong operates under the United Front and consists of four streams.

Stream 1: The visible red stream, which is the ‘hard core’ institutions directly and openly organized by the CCP, such as the labor unions, schools, newspapers, bookstores, film productions, China products shops, banks, trading companies, shipping and transportation, so on and so forth.

Stream 2: The semi-transparent gray line. On the outside, they do not look like pro-communist associations, but they are actually a variety of organizations established by the CCP.

Stream 3: The many covert underground party members dispersed among all walks of life and government departments. They may not show any political affiliation on the outside, or they may even be members of other political parties. This group is nicknamed the "termites."

Stream 4: Extremely covert, high-ranking agents that have been well planted inside the core of the opponent for a long time. They have one single line of reporting within the organization. There are not many of them, but they play a vital role at critical moments. They are the so-called "idle and dormant chess pieces."

Mr. Ching also said that according to the CCP’s top-secret document “Record of the Conversation from Wu Dizhou, Deputy Head of the Hong Kong and Macao Section of the Foreign Affairs Office, to Hong Kong and Macao Workers (1966),” Mr. Wu asked the CCP’s underground party in Hong Kong to learn the “termite spirit” and “do work like termites. By chewing secretly, destroying a complete house without making a noise.”

"Your life should not be any different from the others. You must connect with the masses and live a simple life. Life might be a little difficult at times, but it is the sacrifice for the sake of the global revolution. Be prepared to endure for ten, maybe twenty, odd years, or even a lifetime."

Part of the top-secret document "Wu Dizhou, Deputy Head of the Hong Kong and Macau Section of the Foreign Affairs Office, talking to Hong Kong and Macau workers (1966)." (Courtesy of Mr. Ching)
Part of the top-secret document "Wu Dizhou, Deputy Head of the Hong Kong and Macau Section of the Foreign Affairs Office, talking to Hong Kong and Macau workers (1966)." (Courtesy of Mr. Ching)


According to media reports, as early as 1948, the then Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Alexander Grantham, described in the top-secret cable "Half Yearly Report of 1948" that the CCP's propaganda agencies and organizations were spread throughout Hong Kong's news agencies, bookstores, labor organizations, social welfare institutions, among others. These groups are all under the Southern Bureau of the CCP. Moreover, some commercial organizations are also under the control of Xinhua News Agency.

Mr. Ching pointed out that before the handover of sovereignty in 1997, there were 8,695 officially registered associations in Hong Kong. By 2017, the number soared to 52,386, a more than five-fold increase within 20 years.

In number, nearly 50,000 associations have been established within those 20 years. What does that indicate? "It shows that the CCP uses various local associations as a cover for the party’s direct involvement," said Mr. Ching.

Some media reported in 2016 that according to Hong Kong government records, since 1997, nearly 900,000 mainlanders have arrived in Hong Kong under the “one-way permit” scheme. Many family members of former or current senior CCP officials, and even the officials themselves, have used aliases and used the one-way permit issued by Hong Kong and Macau to move to Hong Kong.

CCP’s Infiltration into the United States

The CCP also tries relentlessly and seeks every chance to infiltrate the world to achieve its ambition to dominate every corner of the globe.

Mr. Ching pointed out that after the CCP usurped power, it planned to use Hong Kong as a stepping stone to "establish its stronghold all over the world."

According to an extract of the CCP’s top-secret document “Record of the Conversation from Wu Dizhou, Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Office, to Hong Kong and Macao Workers (1966),” Mr. Wu said: “The British want to remain in Hong Kong for a long time...  As for us, we want to get the whole world.”

Mr. Ching said that it is evident from this that the CCP is very ambitious and wants to conquer the whole world; its methods are insidious and often impossible to prevent; it uses secret detrimental means to eliminate opponents before they know it; it is a wise old bird and highly sophisticated and conducts infiltration work on a massive scale over a long period.

Has the CCP established an underground organization in the United States? Mr. Ching's answer is a simple "Yes, certainly.

The authoritative American magazine "Foreign Policy" reported in 2018 that the CCP is establishing party branches in colleges and universities in major states across the United States, including New York, Illinois, West Virginia, California, Connecticut, Ohio, and North Dakota.

In particular, the core circle of power in the United States has also been seriously penetrated by the CCP. Mr. Ching said that Zhai Dongsheng, a senior policy adviser to the CCP and a professor at Beijing’s Renmin University, once mentioned in a video speech on Nov. 28, 2020: "Between 1992 and 2016, all kinds of crises between China and the United States can be resolved within two months.”

"The reason for that? We have people up there; we have our old friends in the inner circle of power in the United States!”

Overseas Chinese Must Resolutely Oppose CCP Infiltration

The CCP is an expert at infiltration. Mr. Ching gave an example. Even during the Great Escape from China to Hong Kong from the 1950s to the 1970s and the 1989 pro-democracy movement,  the CCP sent many agents posing as refugees fleeing to Hong Kong. In this way, it can plant resources for infiltration and covert operations.

There are many reasons why the overseas democracy movement has not taken off and is sidelined, thus becoming ineffective. Still, the CCP's success in infiltration and causing damage from within is one of the key reasons.

"The CCP directive against the overseas democracy movement is coined within its 16 words motto: join the democracy movement, lead the democracy movement, divide the democracy movement, eliminate the democracy movement." Mr. Ching said, who would have thought that Wang Shujun, a well-known democracy activist, who also served as the Secretary General of the "Commemorating Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Foundation" since 2006, could be a spy of the CCP?

Mr. Ching added that when any social or non-governmental organization becomes significant, the CCP will infiltrate them. "This is an unchanged rule."

People from the Ministry of National Security will want to understand the political leanings of the organization, who its leaders are, and its attitude toward the CCP.

Also, people from the United Front Department will subdivide the people in this organization into three categories, pro-communist, anti-communist, and neutral, and use different United Front tactics to divide them.

Moreover, the CCP will set up files for anyone who has attained a certain degree of popularity and influence in society and follow their every move.

Mr. Ching also said that someone from the Ministry of National Security once told him that each person who had acquired a certain degree of fame in Hong Kong has his/her file held at the Ministry of National Security.

However, Mr. Ching said that he had no magic wand to identify and tell the overseas Chinese community how to distinguish who was a spy and who was not, nor who was an infiltrator and who was not one.

But as overseas Chinese, we must be fully aware and realize that the CCP will never stop attempting to infiltrate overseas Chinese communities.

"Everyone must be fully alert." All overseas Chinese must avoid being brainwashed (by the CCP) and always take precautions. "I know you are engaged in infiltration, but I am not afraid of you. I am firmly against you." Mr. Ching said.