As Chinese power grows, Stanford University’s Larry Diamond breaks down Beijing’s efforts to direct “sharp power” against democratic institutions, notes War On The Rocks.
The key battleground appears to be educational institutions and China’s main instrument is its United Front Work Department, a critical part of the Communist Party apparatus that aims to enlist, coerce, and induce support for the party around the world, he tells the University of Virginia’s Brad Carson. The department’s efforts involve intimidation of Chinese and ethnic Chinese students in the West, corrupting and non-transparent funding to universities, and more, adds 
Diamond, the founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy and senior consultant at the National Endowment for Democracy’s International Forum for Democratic Studies.
Diamond is the author of Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency (Penguin Press, 2019) and co-authored the Hoover Institute’s recently released major report, Chinese Influence & American Interests: Promoting Constructive Vigilance, on Chinese influence activities in the United States. RTWT
