Xi Jinping’s letter emphasized the Overseas-educated Scholars Association of China (OSAC)’s connection to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work Department and its role in infiltrating the West. This has gained international attention. The CCP celebrated the 110th anniversary of OSAC, also known as the Western Returned Scholars Association, on October 21. In his letter, Xi called on the association to gather talent from around the world and use their creativity for the development of the Party and the country. He praised the association for uniting overseas Chinese students and urged them to continue serving the country.
Wang Huning, a top adviser to Xi and a member of the CCP’s Political Bureau Standing Committee, gave a speech at the celebration, emphasizing the association’s role in rallying overseas students and scholars around the Party. Shi Taifeng, the head of the CCP’s United Front Work Department, read Xi’s letter aloud at the gathering. The United Front is a department of the CCP responsible for influencing and infiltrating non-party, non-governmental circles both within and outside China.
The Western Returned Scholars Association was originally established in October 1913 in Beijing by Chinese intellectuals who had been educated in the West, predating the establishment of the CCP. It stopped its activities during the Cultural Revolution but resumed in 1982 under the CCP’s Secretariat of the Central Committee. Since then, it has been managed by the CCP’s United Front Department and renamed the “Overseas-educated Scholars Association of China” in 2003. The association currently has numerous local organizations, chapters, and individual members, along with connections to many overseas Chinese student organizations.
Xi’s letter brought attention to the association’s affiliation with the CCP’s United Front Work Department and its overseas infiltration function, sparking discussions on social media among overseas Chinese. Some questioned whether the letter constituted a “crime of leaking state secrets.” Others highlighted the association’s connection to key figures involved in projects like the Wuhan P4 laboratory. Observers expressed concerns about the CCP’s infiltration and bribery methods, undermining the West’s social and value systems. Some social media users even called for the deportation of all association members.