Preface ix
1. An overview of the CCP's ambitions 1
2. A Leninist party goes out to the world 8
The CCP's Cold War mentality 8
'Big external propaganda' 12
The Party rules 14
The united front 16
Double-hatting and double-plating 18
The people and their friends and enemies 20
The 5 per cent rule and quiet diplomacy 23
CCP operating procedures 26
3. Political elites at the centre: North America 28
Making friends 28
The sad case of John McCallum 31
Influence in Washington D.C. 33
The White House 37
The Department of Enemy Work 41
Canada's Beijing elite 45
4. Political elites at the centre: Europe 51
Party-to-party diplomacy 51
Grooming Europe 54
The EU-China Friendship Group 56
Britain's 48 Group Club 60
The Italian conversion 67
Elite entanglement in France 71
China's friends in Germany 75
5. Political elites on the periphery 80
Subnational work 80
The curious case of Muscatine 85
Malleable mayors 86
BRI support in Germany's 'countryside' 89
Sister cities 91
6. The Party-corporate conglomerate 95
The Parry and business 95
Comrade billionaire 97
America's 'globalise billionaires' 99
The princelings of Wall Street 102
CCP in the City of London 106
Shaping economic perceptions 110
Yi shang bi zheng 113
The Belt and Road strategy 115
BRI as discourse control 117
7. Mobilising the Chinese diaspora 119
Qiaowu: overseas Chinese work 119
United Front: modus operandi and structure 121
Threats and harassment 129
Huaren canzheng 131
Huaren canzheng in the United Kingdom 133
8. The ecology of espionage 139
Influence and spying 139
China's espionage agencies 141
Recruitment methods 144
Think tanks and research institutes 148
A thousand talents 150
Professional associations 153
PLA scientists in Western universities 155
Cyber attacks and influence ops 158
The Huawei case 159
9. Media: 'Our surname is Party' 164
Media discourse 164
Party above all 165
A global media force 167
Westerners finetune CCP propaganda 170
Crossing the Great Firewall 172
Borrowing boats 174
Cooperation agreements 176
Chinese-language media 177
Buying boats 179
Self-censorship by foreign media 181
10. Culture as battleground 185
Political culture 185
Poly Culture 186
The China Arts Foundation 190
Cultural monopolisation 192
Crushing cultural deviance 195
Film and theatre censors 196
'The Marxist view of art and culture' 200
11. Think tanks and thought leaders 205
'Eating the CCP's food' 205
The Hong Kong connection 210
Party-linked money in Brussels 212
Other forms of pressure 214
Opinion-makers 216
The Party's domestic think tank expansion 219
12. Thought management: CCP influence in Western academia 226
Universities as a political battlefield 226
Confucius Institutes 228
Direct pressure 231
Self-censorship 234
Financial dependence 236
Reshaping Chinese studies 237
University cooperation 239
Academic publishing 243
13. Reshaping global governance 249
'Champion of multilateralism' 249
Sinicising the United Nations 250
Pushing Taiwan off the international stage 253
Policing goes global 255
Exporting Beijing's definition of 'terrorism' 258
Creating parallel and pseudo-multilateral organisations 259
Human rights with Chinese characteristics 261
Exporting 'internet sovereignty' and standards for new technologies 264
Afterword 267
Acknowledgements 271
Glossary 273
Acronyms 277
Notes 288
Index 398