ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the concepts deployed in English-language discussions on the PRC's overseas political activities. It discusses the ambiguities of the English-language term Chinese influence', showing how, deployed to describe problematic or nefarious PRC political activities, it is likely to exaggerate their success and project a much broader scope of involvement than users of the term typically intend. While influence operations and political warfare are absent from the CCP's political lexicon, 'United Front' work is a Leninist concept of tactical alliances whose relevance to overseas political activities Xi himself has repeatedly emphasised. Concepts and terminology are crucial to the methodical and effective development of public policy, but many of the terms that now dominate the global English-language discussion of PRC overseas political activities have been vague or inaccurate. The root of this definitional problem lies in the fact that the English-language term ‘Chinese’ simultaneously denotes an ethnicity, geography, culture and state.
