Bookmarked this tweet on Tuesday because I wanted to come back to it with a thread on a historical example demonstrating how the transition of UF work from secret to open is deliberate, and is part of the strategy the Party follows in subverting its enemies. /thread https://twitter.com/SheridanAsia/status/1275588837591224320

One of my favorite sources on this is Liu Shaoqi in 1939. When he wrote this essay "On Open and Secret Work" he was in charge of all underground Party work in the "white" areas of China (meaning the parts under KMT or Japanese control). https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ecpoPdjHSkAFO41PstKUwlqOygzvCr1q/view?usp=sharing

In it, he lays out very clearly the purpose of secrecy, when Party work should be open and secret, and what are the factors that mediate the transition between the two states.

This document should be viewed as an important source text for the philosophies underlying United Front work, since bending non-Party entities to the Party's will (including the KMT and what the Party called the "revolutionary classes" like farmers) was a huge part of LSQ's job.

Some good snippets from therein are below (if you can read Chinese I encourage you to read the whole thing). If you've been following the evolution of events in Hong Kong and elsewhere, it's not super difficult to see how this ethos expresses itself even today.

Early in the essay he describes the overarching rationale for the existence of secret work:

"As long as enemies exist, a portion of the Party’s work must be secret. This is what typically produces the long-term nature of the Party’s secret work. This is also the origin of the two mutually reinforcing pillars of the Party’s work: open and secret work...

"The fact that open and secret work are both the Party’s work, and are both meant to achieve the Party’s unified goals, produces the inseparable relationship between and compatibility of open and secret work...

"Only when the Party’s foreign and domestic enemies more or less cease to exist, will the need for the Party’s secret work cease to exist of its own accord."

Later on in the essay he describes how open and secret work are to be done under three different sets of conditions:

"1) When the Party is underground; that is, when it is illegal and suppressed: In this state, the Party’s existence and organizational work are all illegal, and must be secret. But it is precisely in this state that the Party should place extra emphasis on using...

"every legal and semi-legal possibility objectively available to each of its departments to conduct its activities, so as to establish, preserve, and solidify the Party, and establish links with the masses...

"In this state, where the Party is concerned, illegal struggle and secret work are the primary aspect [of its work]."

"2) “When the Party ‘s status is open and legal. That is, although the Party is in opposition, its existence receives legal protection. In this state, a portion of the Party’s existence and organizational work are legal and open; another part are illegal and secret...

"In this state, legal activities and open work are the primary aspect [of the Party’s work].”

"3) When the Party is in a ruling position. At this time the Party’s existence and organizational activities are all legal. But because of the existence of internal enemies, and because [there are] enemies [who seek to] encircle us, the work of some of the Party’s departments..."

"must temporarily remain secret. The characteristics of this secret work are fundamentally different with those in the first two states, in that they are completely legal and receive the support of the regime.”

Later on he also describes the transition from open to secret work (and vice versa):

“Generally speaking, the Party’s activities with the revolutionary classes shift from secret to open occur when the environment is favorable, and move from open to secret when the environment worsens. Shifting from secret to open is easy...

"but shifting from open to secret is difficult … so it is extremely important to the work of the Party to prepare and make advance arrangements, such that the transition from open to secret is done with preparation and organization.”

The transition from secret to open in Hong Kong would seem to be well underway.