--- title: China's Global Sharp Power Weekly Alerts | 2025-06-29 --- Xi Jinping made a surprise announcement that he will skip this year’s BRICS Summit that is set to take place in Brazil this summer. | View in browser 2025 Issue 26 \| Sunday, June 29, 2025 Xi Jinping made a surprise announcement that he will skip this year’s BRICS Summit that is set to take place in Brazil this summer.   Under the long-running theme of Chinese Communist Party interference in other countries, Newsweek released new evidence that Governor Newsom’s initiative with the PRC is yet another route for the Chinese Communist Party to exert influence over political decisions in the United States at the sub-national level. An Indian researcher reveals how the Party has built an apparatus to manipulate Indian public opinion through disinformation and the subversion of certain Indian media outlets. The Washington Post also released a year-long investigation into how the Chinese Communist Party uses criminal gangs and organized crime to push their geo-political interests across multiple countries.   China Digital Times releases a report on how Chinese dissidents face compulsory “vacations” by Chinese Communist authorities to keep them from speaking out during important annual events. Newsom California Initiative Accused of Links to Chinese Influence Network  June 25, 2025   A Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong report says the “U.S.–China Bay-to-Bay Dialogue,” championed by California Governor Gavin Newsom and the San Francisco Bay Area Council, meshes with Beijing’s drive to woo sub-national officials via its Guangdong-Hong Kong “Greater Bay Area.” Investigators tie the project to the United Front system and the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. Critics argue economic collaboration masks political leverage and security risks, while the Council and the PRC’s San Francisco consulate insist the initiative is strictly commercial and climate-focused. China’s Quiet Push in India June 23, 2025   Indian scholar Sriparna Pathak examines how China seeks to influence India’s diverse media landscape through academic infiltration and digital manipulation. China has emerged as a sophisticated actor in India’s vast media landscape, deploying influence campaigns that exploit India’s open media environment despite deteriorating bilateral relations following the 2020 Galwan Valley clash. Unlike countries with significant Chinese diaspora communities, India’s minimal Chinese-speaking population has forced Beijing to adapt its strategies, utilizing AI translation, English-language content farms, and academic infiltration to reach Indian audiences. Chinese association accused of mixing crime and patriotism as it serves Beijing  June 24, 2025   A year-long Washington Post inquiry shows the World Hongmen History and Culture Association—sanctioned by the U.S. as a 14K triad front—advances Chinese Communist Party goals across Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Pacific while running scams, trafficking, and money-laundering centers. Despite 2020 Treasury sanctions, Hongmen leaders mingle with provincial CCP bodies, promote Belt-and-Road projects, open “overseas police” stations, and back unification rhetoric. Investigations are active in Malaysia, Thailand, Palau, the Philippines, Uganda, and South Africa, but members often evade prosecution by relocating to PRC-friendly jurisdictions. Words of the Week: “Being Traveled” June 20, 2025   A new China Digital Times report dissects the CCP practice of “being traveled”—escorting dissidents on compulsory “vacations” during politically sensitive dates to keep them from protesting. Interviews show the measure persisted through COVID-19 lockdowns, then resumed in thriftier form amid fiscal strain. The study explains the broader “involuntary passive” linguistic trend (e.g., “being harmonized,” “being volunteered”) and catalogs rights violations: arbitrary detention, surveillance, curtailed movement, and psychological pressure, all dressed up as benign sightseeing trips. China Tells Brazil Xi Jinping Will Miss BRICS Summit in Rio June 24, 2025   President Xi Jinping will miss a meeting of BRICS leaders in Rio de Janeiro, according to a Brazilian official familiar with the matter, marking the first time the Chinese leader has skipped the summit since taking power. China's industrial policy has an unprofitability problem June 23, 2025    “China is paying its national champions to fight each other to the death.” Noah Smith gives a detailed rundown of how Xi Jinping’s massive push for ever greater national industrial policies is making Chinese companies less profitable and creating a race to the bottom. Authoritarianism Read articles on materials that illuminate the lack of personal freedom and political liberty under the Chinese Communist Party. Cyber and Information Technology Articles on the Chinese Communist Party as it seeks to control information technology as a means to shape and censor the communications and opinions of its own people, as well as the communications of individuals beyond their borders. Environmental Harms As the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases and enormous pollution and environmental degradation, this section highlights the activities carried out by entities controlled by the Chinese Communist Party that harm our environment. Foreign Interference and Coercion The Chinese Communist Party wages a series of foreign interference and coercion campaigns and this section provides articles and reports explaining those actions, as well as the damage this does to those countries. Human Rights and Religious Persecution This section documents the myriad abuses that the Chinese Communist Party commits against its own people in violation of its commitments under the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Industrial Policies and Economic Espionage This section highlights articles and reports on the harmful impacts of the commercial and economic policies employed by the Chinese Communist Party. Military and Security Threats Articles on the Chinese Communist Party which through its control of the People’s Liberation Army and the intelligence services, has undertaken a comprehensive military modernization and expansion program that threatens the safety of its neighbors as the Party pursues an increasingly aggressive foreign policy. One Belt, One Road Strategy The section describes how the Chinese Communist Party employs its foreign infrastructure and development program to further their strategic interests in third countries and international institutions. Opinion Pieces This section collects opinion pieces from across the world commenting on the harms caused by the activities of the Chinese Communist Party and provides insight to the various solutions that experts and leaders suggest we pursue to protect our interests. China's Global Sharp Power Report compiles the week’s most compelling analysis and commentary about the Chinese Communist Party and its activities. The Hoover Institution was established one hundred years ago by Herbert Hoover at his alma mater Stanford University. From its initial charge to collect materials documenting the experience of war and the pursuit of peace, the institution stands today as the world’s preeminent archive and policy research center dedicated to freedom, private enterprise, and effective, limited government. The Hoover Institution occasionally links to stories that, for some readers, may require a subscription.   The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University.   Copyright © 2025 by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University Hoover Institution, 434 Galvez Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA Manage preferences | | --- |