(Minghui.org) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) recently intensified its overseas infiltration and influence. Besides using economic power and the media, the tactics also include fake news websites disguised as Western mainstream media and numerous United Front organizations. It uses these to manipulate public opinion and target minorities groups such as Falun Gong.
Fake News Websites
A report by Graphika, a New York-based social media research firm, reveals that dozens of websites affiliated with Chinese companies have been used to promote the CCP’s authoritarian rhetoric overseas while masquerading as traditional Western media. These fake news websites were created between 2020 and 2025 by Chinese public relations and marketing firms.
The report states that these websites plagiarized design elements and impersonated internationally renowned media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian. In addition to publishing business information and pro-CCP content, they also publish articles attacking Falun Gong.
The CCP’s fake news websites plagiarize design elements and impersonate mainstream American media. (Screenshot courtesy The Epoch Times)
According to the report, research uncovered evidence that these companies and/or individuals use these website domains in contracts to promote activities conducted by entities affiliated with the CCP.
These fake news websites typically publish a mix of content from Chinese state media and articles promoting China and Chinese businesses. The report shows that at least ten such websites have been used to publish anti-Falun Gong content since 2023 or earlier.
The cybersecurity community has long been aware that Beijing uses privately operated fake news websites to spread CCP propaganda. In 2022, Mandiant, a cybersecurity company owned by Google, discovered more than 70 such fake media outlets. Several cybersecurity organizations conducted additional research and discovered a network of hundreds of websites capable of rapidly distributing content globally, which appear to be coordinated by a single organization. This information was revealed in a report released in October 2025 by the French Institute for Strategic Research (IRSEM).
According to the report “BayBridge, Anatomy of a Chinese Information Influence Ecosystem,” “Some of the content disseminated to the propaganda website was linked to Beijing’s foreign policy interests. Articles mostly taken from CGTN or the Global Times, two state-driven media outlets aimed at foreign audiences.”
Nearly 2,000 CCP United Front Organizations in the US, the UK, Canada, and Germany
According to a report published on February 11, 2026, by the Jamestown Foundation, more than 2,000 organizations in the US, Canada, Germany, and the UK exert influence in democratic countries and assist the CCP in advancing its transnational infiltration and repression agenda.
Titled “Mapping Overseas United Front Work in Democratic States,” the report maps these organizations, which, according to some statistics, mobilize tens of thousands of participants on behalf of the CCP’s interests. These organizations are affiliated with the CCP’s United Front Work Department. The report’s authors identified 347 organizations in Germany, 405 in the UK, 575 in Canada, and 967 in the US, and noted that these numbers are likely only the tip of the iceberg.
According to the report, under CCP leader Xi Jinping, the 12 groups currently targeted include members of democratic parties, non-Party members, intellectuals, ethnic minorities, religious figures, people in the non-public sector of the economy, people in the new social strata, international students, Hong Kong residents, people from Taiwan, and Chinese people returning from overseas and their families.
The report points out that a wide variety of civil and social associations participate in the CCP’s carefully cultivated network of United Front work. Their goals include “telling China’s story well” and “acting as a bridge between China and the world” in order to persuade various groups to accept the CCP’s narrative on key issues. The report notes that, while these individual organizations have vertical connections with the United Front, they are generally unconnected to each other.
According to the report, more than 539 student organizations were found to have ties to the United Front. These organizations organize events and are able to track students. “Convening these groups can be conducive to advancing CCP influence in academia, which is a highly valued sector,” the report states.
According to the report, the goals of these professional organizations are talent recruitment or intellectual property acquisition. There are over 170 such organizations, 71 of which are in the US. One of the largest is the Chinese American Association for Science and Technology (CAST-USA), which has four offices in China and 16 chapters in the US.
The report also points out that there are 162 Chinese-language media organizations operating under the United Front, 77 of which are located in the US. The study found that some of these groups attempt to conceal their ties to the CCP and are used to “build strategic relationships with foreign media.”
“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has created a global network of individuals and organizations as part of its united front system… This includes engaging in malign and illegal activities in foreign countries,” the report stated. “In democratic countries, these groups influence political decision-making by conditioning stakeholders to consider Beijing’s interests and sensitivities.”
Fake Social Media Accounts and Overseas Companies
Building on the aforementioned fake news websites, the CCP also established fake accounts on overseas social media platforms (including but not limited to X and YouTube) to strengthen its overseas infiltration. This way, it can comprehensively promote the authoritarian rhetoric of the CCP regime abroad.
Similar to its infiltration into Taiwanese society, communities, and NGOs, the CCP also established fake overseas private companies on Amazon. The registrants and operators of these companies may not be US citizens or residents; they simply exploit Western society’s loopholes and register companies in the US through US agents to sell Chinese products to the American market.
Many customers discovered that orders from these companies made through Amazon may take weeks or even months to arrive, and the after-sales service is extremely poor because the shippers and their companies are based in China and do not understand English. One YouTuber said that some customers ordered clothing from Amazon but never received the orders or received products that were completely different from the product images and descriptions.
Category: Perspectives
