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THREAD on the reorganisation of the United Front Work Department, which is behind much of the CCP's overseas interference. This is one of the largest restructurings of a core CCP agency since the 1950s, documented in @ChinaBriefJT jamestown.org/program/reorga… 1/
After October 2018, I kept seeing references to entities like the 12th bureau of the UFWD. The department's website only lists nine bureaus. It turns out four bureaus were created (9, 10, 11 and 12) while one appears downgraded, so the department now has 12 bureaus (see chart) 2/ 
This follows the creation of the New Social Strata Individuals Work Bureau in 2016 and the Xinjiang Bureau around 2017. Since 2016, the number of bureaus has increased from 7 to 12. The department also has more vice ministers, incl 2 responsible for Chinese diaspora work 3/
Two of the bureaus are responsible for "overseas Chinese work", another two responsible for united front work on religions. They were formed from two state council agencies absorbed by the UFWD after a March 2018 announcement gov.cn/zhengce/2018-0… 4/
The announcement explicitly gave the UFWD "unified management" (统一管理) of religion work and overseas Chinese affairs work, subsuming the State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA) and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO) 5/
One of the new overseas Chinese affairs bureaus, bureau 9, includes divisions with different regional responsibilities, including a Europe and Americas Division. Large numbers of its cadres had been posted overseas when they worked in the OCAO. 6/
The UFWD will continue to use the names "SARA" and "OCAO" for foreign interacts, the announcement states, an example of "one organ; two signs" 一个机构两块牌子 gov.cn/zhengce/2018-0… 7/
This hasn't substantially changed personnel working in those areas—SARA and OCAO officials have been moved into the new bureaus. According to the UFWD these reforms "have only one objective: to strengthen the party’s centralized and unified leadership of united front work." 8/
For religious affairs, this coincides with a push to subordinate religions that likely highlighted the need for greater control of religious affairs agencies. See Xie Shengjin and @paul_farrelly: press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/pres… 9/
For matters of overseas Chinese affairs, this means the UFWD has subordinated the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had a close relationship with the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office 10/
This has important implications for counter foreign interference efforts because it has injected more overseas experience into the UFWD and gives the it greater control over UF and "overseas Chinese affairs" work carried out through PRC embassies and consulates 11/
Most PRC embassies have people responsible for overseas Chinese, mostly from the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Those OCAO diplomats will now come straight from the UFWD. Their MFA colleagues will also be under greater UFWD direction. 12/
While there are now three bureaus primarily carrying out overseas work (3, 9 and 10), I can't emphasise enough that all areas of united front work include overseas reponsibilities in practice. 13/
Senior officials from the UFWD Xinjiang Bureau (now Bureau 8), travelled to Finland where they met with local united front groups. They are probably building an international response to the outrage over the detention of 1m+ in Xinjiang web.archive.org/web/2019040604… 14/
Besides these bureaus, the UFWD also runs a number of offices (e.g. research office), two universities (Huaqiao University & Jinan University), other work units (China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification), fronts (e.g. China Overseas Friendship Assn) etc 15/
