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(THREAD) Exporting Xi Jinping thought: I wrote about the little-understood International Department of the CCP, which cultivates relationships with high-ranking and up-and-coming stars in political parties around the world https://www.economist.com/china/2020/12/10/how-chinas-communist-party-trains-foreign-politicians
The International Dept was a hugely important force in foreign affairs in the 50s and 60s, when the CCP was actively supporting revolutionary parties and trying to stoke insurrections around the world. It retreated into obscurity after Mao's death, but it didn't go away
Under Xi Jinping the International Dept has been resurgent. High-level party-to-party meetings jumped by 50+% between 2012 and 2017, per @CHackenesch and Julia Bader. Martin Hala of @sinopsiscz has likened the modern incarnation of the Intl Dept to a “new Comintern”
One of the Intl Dept's main activities has been training sessions of foreign party members where it promotes the virtues of strong centralised leadership. They don't outrightly saying authoritarianism is good or to follow a "China model," but they sure do come close
One example: in November department boss Song Tao claimed in a briefing of party leaders from 36 sub-Saharan African countries that the party’s achievements in development proved the wisdom of 5-year plans. “The Chinese system,” he said, could “serve as a reference” for them
Worth watching the impact in developing countries where the ID is most active. The sec-gen of Kenya's ruling Jubilee Party was asked about their affinity for the CCP. He said he didn't see what was wrong with “learning from the most successful and the best run” party in the world
As usual I could not quote everyone I wanted to in this piece. An important early conversation was with @DaveShullman of IRI, who emphasized the party's use of these trainings to popularise authoritarianism. (And pointed me to the interesting case of the Jubilee Party in Kenya)
. @Anne_MarieBrady patiently explained to me the complexities of ID work especially in advanced democracies (including the US). At Sinopsis I am indebted to @JirousFilip and Frank Juris for deepening my understanding of how the ID cultivates rising political figures in Europe
At CCP Watch David Gitter and Julia Bowie (and others) provide an immensely helpful service in tracking and writing about the International Department's work. Their website is an underappreciated gem. Bookmark their weekly report on CCP doings https://www.ccpwatch.org/weekly-report-1
The Int'l Dept is not studied nearly enough but some reading recs. This @CHackenesch / Bader paper: https://academic.oup.com/isq/article/64/3/723/5855278. David Shambaugh (very presciently): https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004302488/B9789004302488_013.xml. @Joshua_Eisenman expores ID work in Africa in an upcoming book (you'll have to wait on that)
Sinopsis has done a lot of work on the International Dept in Europe. Interesting details on Iceland here https://sinopsis.cz/en/a-new-comintern-for-the-new-era-the-ccp-international-department-from-bucharest-to-reykjavik/ and in Estonia https://sinopsis.cz/en/ild-estonia/
The question of how much of ID's work qualifies as United Front-like influence ops is not a settled one. @Anne_MarieBrady argues it is now very integrated with UF work https://www.ccpwatch.org/single-post/2018/10/18/party-watch-annual-report-2018 The disagreements on this highlight how much more there is to learn in this area /end
