Three Dangerous Men by Seth G. Jones

Author:Seth G. Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2021-08-07T00:00:00+00:00

LOCATION OF CONFUCIUS INSTITUTES IN THE UNITED STATES, 202139

Goethe-Instituts—which were all funded by their respective governments.40 But unlike the Confucius Institutes, these organizations were not housed at universities and didn’t attempt to directly influence foreign education systems from within.41 Over the next decade, a growing number of US colleges and universities closed down institutes on their campuses. By 2021, the number of Confucius Institutes had decreased to sixty-three in cities across the United States.42

The Confucius Institutes were part of a broader effort by China to wage three warfares overseas. Many of these efforts were tied to the activity of China’s overseas United Front Work Department, or UFWD. Overseen by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the UFWD attempted to protect and bolster the image of the Communist Party by monitoring and countering criticism overseas—often by recruiting or pressuring Chinese diaspora. The Chinese government considered diaspora huaqiao tongbaomen (“overseas compatriots”), who owed a measure of loyalty to the Chinese motherland.43

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AS FEARS OF Chinese influence spread in Chicago and on campuses around the world, Zhang’s fortunes changed dramatically in the fall of 2012. His childhood friend, Xi Jinping, became general secretary of the Communist Party and then president of the People’s Republic of China, taking over from Hu Jintao.44 With Xi at the helm, Zhang’s career took off. He was promoted to director of the PLA General Armaments Department in 2012 and, most important, selected to China’s prestigious Central Military Commission (CMC).45 Zhang’s position on the CMC gave him direct access to Xi, making him one of China’s most powerful military leaders.

“Zhang was now at the top of the top of the military in a government run by civilians,” said China analyst Dennis Blasko. “He knew his lane and he stayed in it.”46 Ever the faithful politician, Zhang frequently reminded his soldiers that loyalty to the Communist Party came first.47 In a speech a few years earlier, Zhang had urged young PLA soldiers to “listen to the party’s command.” The good soldier, he said, “has the courage to make sacrifices, always put the interests of the people first, and always maintain the political nature of the people’s army.”48 Zhang had become one of China’s leading military figures through political adroitness and unrelenting party loyalty. “What Xi now needs is not talent, but people who absolutely obey his orders, and Zhang is one of the people in his camp he can rely on,” said a senior PLA colonel.49

Zhang’s promotion to the top of China’s military leadership occurred just as China began to expand its power in Asia. While nominally adhering to a “defensive defense,” China’s foreign policy under Xi, Zhang, and other Chinese leaders shifted to “peaceful expansion.”50 As China’s most recent defense white paper had argued in a nod toward the United States: “International military competition remains fierce. Major powers [such as the United States] are stepping up the realignment of their security and military strategies, accelerating military reform, and vigorously developing new and more sophisticated military technologies,” such as space and cyber capabilities.

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