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United Front Work Department

Chinese Communist Party body

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The United Front Department was first established in 1938 following the establishment of the Second United Front with the Kuomintang during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1944, Central Urban Work Department was established to co-ordinate united front efforts. During the Chinese Civil War, it worked to rally as much as support for the CCP in its fight against the Kuomintang. The department was renamed to the United Front Work Department in 1948. During the Cultural Revolution, the UFWD was forced to shut down. It was re-established in 1979 under Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Since 2012, the role and scope of the UFWD has expanded and intensified under CCP general secretary Xi Jinping.

The UFWD is primarily responsible for managing and implementing the CCP Central Committee's guidelines and policies on the united front, specifically including work related to China's minor parties, ethnic minorities, religious affairs, the non-public sector, overseas Chinese, "new social strata," non-CCP intellectuals, as well as matters relating to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang. The UFWD focuses its work on people or entities that are outside the CCP who hold political, commercial, religious, or academic influence, or who represent interest groups. Through its efforts, the UFWD seeks to ensure that these individuals and groups are supportive of or useful to CCP interests and that potential critics remain divided.

History

The United Front Work Department was created during the Chinese Civil War, and was reestablished in 1979 under paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. Since 2012, the role and scope of the UFWD has expanded and intensified under CCP general secretary Xi Jinping.

Civil war and gaining power

United front policies were most used in two periods before the Chinese Communist Revolution, namely from 1924 to 1927, and from 1936 to 1945, when the CCP cooperated with the Kuomintang ostensibly to defeat the Japanese. The simplest formulation of united front work in the period was to "rally as many allies as possible in order to...defeat a common enemy." According to Mareike Ohlberg, its stated goal was to "build the broadest possible coalition with all social forces that are relevant".

In the early years, the CCP also used united front policies to cooperate with "disaffected warlords, religious believers, ethnic minorities, overseas Chinese, and minor parties and groups," in order for the CCP to appear democratic and to persuade key groups that the Nationalists were "illegitimate and repressive while the CCP embodied progress, unity, and democracy." CCP began to establish united front work departments following the establishment of the Second United Front with the Kuomintang during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1938, the CCP Central Committee stipulated the establishment of united front work departments under CCP committees at the district level and above. On 5 January 1939, a Central United Front Department with Wang Ming in charge was established. In May 1944, the Central Urban Work Department was established to coordinate united front efforts.

The department ceased operation following the end of the war but was re-established during the Chinese Civil War. During the war, the Urban Work Department was important in efforts to develop allies and support for the CCP, including from minor political parties, termed "democratic parties." In September 1948, the Urban Work Department was renamed to the Central United Front Work Department. Li Weihan was director of the UFWD from 1944 to 1964. Regarding religious policy, Li's view was that there were few counterrevolutionaries among religious believers, and that the majority were "patriotic". He believed that the CCP should be patient with most religious believers and work to increase their political consciousness. Li contended that the CCP should avoid harsh stances on religion, deeming harsh measures as counterproductive and damaging to the Party's credibility.

After the Chinese Civil War, the CCP continued to deploy united front strategies to train intellectuals, "and, using thought reform based on criticism, began the transformation of the old society intellectuals." This involved violent elimination of what were termed "bourgeois and idealistic political beliefs," to instill faith in "class struggle and revolutionary change." The UFWD was used in the early years of PRC rule "to guarantee CCP oversight" over groups that were not directly associated with the Party and government. Those groups, including NGOs, were brought under the authority of the UFWD, whose job it was to "continuing to play its part in mobilizing and rallying the whole people in common struggle" after the 1949 proclamation of the People's Republic of China. When the CCP "shifted its focus from the 'mass line' to 'class struggle', the real united front disappeared. While the United Front Department still existed, its duties of uniting with all forces for the 'common struggle' shifted mainly to serving the Party's leadership and 'consolidating the proletarian dictatorship'," according to Brookings Institution visiting fellow Zhang Ye.

Cultural Revolution

During the Cultural Revolution, the UFWD was accused of being "capitulationist" and forced to shut down.

Reform and opening up

In 1977, Ulanhu became head of the UFWD. In this role, he contributed to the political rehabilitation of those related to pre-Cultural Revolution policies of the UFWD, such as Li Weihan.

In the late 1970s the policy was used for the common cause of reform and opening up. From there the CCP expanded the scope of its work internationally during the reform era, and again following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. The department includes a bureau tasked with handling Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas affairs, and articulates the importance of using overseas Chinese populations to promote unification.

In 1980, the CCP Central Committee approved a request by the UFWD to create a national conference for religious groups. The participating religious groups were the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the Islamic Association of China, the Chinese Taoist Association, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, and the Buddhist Association of China.

It played an important role in building support for "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong during the 1980s and 1990s, operating under the name of the "Coordination Department." The UFWD has been critically described as serving to co-opt non-Communist community leaders outside China, and "using them to neutralize Party critics," sometimes coercively.

Scholar of Chinese political history John P. Burns presents in his book The Chinese Communist Party's Nomenklatura System excerpts from internal party documents demonstrating the role of the UFWD. The UFWD is to "implement better the party's united front policy and to assess and understand patriotic personages in different fields... so that we can arrange for correct placements for them and fully mobilize and bring into play their positive role in the Four Modernizations and to accomplish the return of Taiwan to the motherland so as to fulfill the cause of uniting the whole country, and to carry forward and solidify the revolutionary, patriotic united front."

According to Roger Faligot, the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre led to the "growing use of party organizations, such as the United Front Work Department and friendship associations, as fronts for intelligence operations." Based on their actions in Taiwan and elsewhere the United Front Work Department appears to be used as a cover to conduct intelligence operations against targets of interest to the CCP.

Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the importance to the UFWD, adopting Mao's phrasing that "united front work" is one of the CCP's three "magic weapons".

In 2018, the UFWD was reorganized through a series of institutional reforms in which it absorbed the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO) to become two internal bureaus. As part of the "one institution with two names" system, the UFWD retains OCAO and SARA (also called National Religious Affairs Administration) as external nameplates. The UFWD also assumed direct control of the National Ethnic Affairs Commission. With the reorganization, the UFWD effectively became China's main agency overseeing and managing ethnic, religious and overseas Chinese affairs. The State Religious Affairs Commission and the State Council Overseas Chinese Office were also merged within the United Front Work Department.

In 2021, UFWD and SARA issued the directive Some Views on Managing Folk Beliefs, which provides a framework for legitimizing Chinese folk religion, which it characterizes as "folk belief". Previously, few folk religious temples were able to obtain registered legal status, often by registering as Buddhist or Daoist sites. Following the policy changes in the Xi administration, folk religion temples can register as folk belief activities sites.

In June 2026, the UFWD launched official Kuaishou and Douyin accounts called "United Front New Words."

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