Qiu’s highest-ranking united front position is as chairman of ACFROC’s Shanghai Overseas Chinese Foundation (SOCF), which promotes overseas “cultural exchanges” and operates as the “only charity in the Shanghai UFWD system,” according to DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements. The former Shanghai detective joined SOCF as a director in May 2017 and has served as the foundation’s chairman since May 2021, according to DCNF translations of SOCF’s announcements.
“[SOCF] will continue to execute General Secretary Xi Jinping’s directive to ‘comprehensively implement the party’s overseas Chinese affairs policy, unite the hearts of overseas Chinese and serve overall interests,’” Qiu said during a 2021 foundation meeting, according to a DCNF translation of a SOCF announcement.
“With overseas Chinese hearts turned toward the party and pursuing a common dream, [SOCF] will actively embody responsibility and commitment to the overseas Chinese community in public welfare, charity and people-to-people exchanges,” Qiu continued. “[We] will strive to build SOCF into a charity with social influence to contribute the strength of the overseas Chinese community toward realizing the shared Chinese Dream.”
As chairman, Qiu has referred to the CCP as “our party” during SOCF party-building events he organized and has also represented the foundation’s party branch during Shanghai ACFROC party meetings, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements and accompanying photos. A “party branch” is the smallest “grass-roots” CCP organization and is required of Chinese institutions containing three or more party members, according to a DCNF translation of an announcement from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, which is China’s agency for legal supervision.
SOCF has also employed several other individuals belonging to Chinese intelligence arms including its secretary general, who has served as a director of the Shanghai International Culture Association (SICA), which, according to Alex Joske, former analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, is a front for China’s premier civilian intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS).
“The MSS is roughly the CIA, with a dash of the FBI,” Wright told the DCNF. “The MPS, however, is a mash-up of DHS and FBI. The key difference is the MPS is generally the overt, visible, heavy hand of the state and party.”
