Australians are still exposed to the threat of Beijing’s “police” network that has rapidly expanded into a “superstructure” of 1,250 official groups worldwide carrying out transnational repression.
Researchers at the Spain-based Safeguard Defenders first revealed the existence of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) police network in 2022, which projects its domestic law enforcement network globally to implement “mass surveillance, control, and suppression.”
“There is a file on every resident. Anything seen as a threat to Party rule is escalated to a hub where enforcement stands ready to act,” the report says.
A general view of the Chinese embassy building in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 11, 2026. David Gray/AFP via Getty Images
These hubs comprise police, prosecutors, courts, and justice departments and serve to deal with any discontent before it gets out of hand.
Internationally, this grid is amplified and uses organisations or “liaisons” linked to the United Front Work Department, the CCP’s principal agency for foreign influence operations.
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These liaisons are typically “hometown” organisations, groups that purport to represent Chinese migrants with roots in the same province, town, or village, for example, the Shandong Association.
These groups also maintain ties with the CCP’s Overseas Chinese Federation, which is part of the United Front.
Rapidly Expanding Network
Safeguard Defenders now warns that the CCP’s network has 1,250 formally designated liaisons across 91 countries.
These are embedded in Chinese communities across Western nations and serve the function of a “grid manager,” but Safeguard Defenders estimates the actual number should be much higher.
Since 2014, when CCP leader Xi Jinping announced an expansion in the police network, the volume of liaisons has grown from 73 in 2015, to 1,178 by the end of 2025.
CCP supporters (members of the Fuqing Association) jostling and attempting to block banners held by the Falun Gong community calling for human rights in China in Canberra, Australia, on June 16, 2024. Luo Ya/The Epoch Times
“Every liaison designated and every task carried out by them are breaches of sovereignty,” says Safeguard Defenders.
“They are transnational repression embodied, affecting entire communities around the world. Their standing order to carry out any task as required by the Party represents an active national security threat.”
The report named several organisations that have appointed liaisons in Australia, including the Beijing Municipal Overseas Chinese Federation, Chongqing Municipal Overseas Chinese Federation, the Changle District People’s Court from Fujian Province, the Wuhan Municipal Overseas Chinese Federation, as well as the Xuzhou Municipal Overseas Chinese Federation from Jiangsu Province.
The list is not exhaustive given the sheer volume of China-based organisations that have Australian interests.
Some of these groups proactively mobilise to stunt public human rights activities critical of the CCP.
The Fuqing (pronounced Fu-Ching) Association in Sydney has played a lead role on several occasions to disrupt rallies by practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline, which faces heavy persecution under the CCP.
Members of the pro-CCP Fuqing Association attempt to cover banners held by Falun Gong practitioners calling for the CCP leadership to be held to account for its human rights abuses in Canberra, Australia on Nov. 24, 2025, during the official visit of CCP leader Zhao Leji. Supplied
In response to the report, The Epoch Times contacted the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) for comment.
They directed The Epoch Times to comments by Director-General Mike Burgess during recent Annual Threat Assessments.
“Last year, for example, the Taskforce uncovered and disrupted an individual working on behalf of a foreign government who wanted to physically harm an Australia-based critic of the regime. The individual tried to identify his target’s home address and bank details, hired a subcontractor to take photos of the house and even asked how much money would be required to get the subcontractor to quote ‘take severe action’ against the dissident,” Burgess said.
“Even more recently, a foreign intelligence service tried to find an Australian who would be willing to make a different dissident quote ‘disappear.’”
Meanwhile, Safeguard Defenders has called for policymakers to “confront this superstructure of CCP interference”. Its recommendations include identifying and exposing groups with direct links to Beijing’s United Front, as well as enabling local police to charge “foreign agents” who act as liaisons.
