Facebook Oversight Board Co-Chair Headlined Top Chinese Communist Party Influence Group’s Conference.
MAY 10, 2021NATALIE WINTERS
Helle Thorning-Schmidt, a co-chair of Facebook’s Oversight Board, headlined an event hosted by the “public face” of a top Chinese Communist Party influence group flagged by the U.S. government for its efforts to “co-opt and neutralize” opposition to the regime.
One of the board’s four co-chairs, former Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt, has ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department (UFWD).
The United Front functions as China’s premier influence and propaganda organization, raising flags with the U.S. government’s Economic and Security Review Commission. It seeks to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party” and coerce American leaders “to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies.”
Overwhelmingly comprised of George Soros-linked, left-wing activists, the Facebook Oversight Board recently upheld the platform’s decision to ban former President Donald Trump – a strong source of opposition to the Chinese Communist Party.
Schmidt headlined an event hosted by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), which is led by the daughter of a former Chinese Communist Party paramount leader, regarded as the “public face” of the United Front, and functions as “avowedly an arm of the party-state.” What’s more, the U.S. State Department has described the group as seeking to “directly and malignly influence” U.S. state and local leaders.
Schmidt spoke at the group’s 2017 event “Healthier Future for Children,” a Beijing-based dialogue focusing on the efforts of the United Nations Every Woman Every Child China Partnership Network (EWECCPN).” Alongside Schmidt, CPAFFC Vice President Xie Yuan also spoke at the event.
What’s more, the CPAFFC called for participants to “actively support the action plan” designed by the conference and its United Nations sponsor. Among the requirement were “to encourage and coordinate members and other Chinese powers to participate more in international cooperation for improving women’s and children’s health under the strategic framework of the Belt and Road Initiative,” “to form bigger multi-level platform to share with the world China’s experiences and achievements,” and “to set up China’s great national image of full responsibility.”
A CPAFFC Summary outline remarks delivered by Schmidt, who served as CEO of the Save the Children Foundation at the time:
“CEO Thorning-Schmidt said in her speech, Save the Children promised to donate 2 billion US dollars all around the world until 2020 for the health and nutrition, to guarantee the most poverty and needed women, children and their communities may have equal access to high-quality service of nutrition and sanitation. In China, Save the Children had been working together with related government and institutions for years, to bring the most advanced medical technologies to China, made active contribution to the improvement of women and children, especially those in remote poverty-stricken areas and minority areas. Save the Children and CPAFFC are both members of EWEC High-level Steering Group. The two organizations will have more collaboration on children’s health, reduction of children’s mortality rate, helping children have equal access to education, children’s protection etc.”