On June 2nd, 2026, the Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Wang Huning, delivered a speech to the members of the 9th Council of the China Overseas-Educated Scholars Association (COESA) in Beijing, urging the organization to “follow the party.” Analysts believe that the COESA itself is characterized as a united front organization of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and Wang Huning’s remarks seem to suggest suspicion that some members of the organization may not be following the CCP.
According to official Chinese state media reports, the second national congress of the COESA was held in Beijing on June 1st. The presidency of the association changed hands, with Ding Zhongli, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, serving as the Chairman of the 8th Council, and Yang Zhen, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC, as the Chairman of the 9th Council. During the meeting with the members of the 9th Council of the COESA, Wang Huning called on the organization to “listen to the party and follow the party.”
The COESA is introduced on its official website as a national organization of returned overseas-educated scholars, and is described as a “mass-based, high-level, united front” group under the leadership of the CCP.
Commentator Li Linyi stated that it is well-known that the COESA is an organization of the CCP, so Wang Huning’s call for them to “follow the party” is just a more overt expression of that fact. However, the CCP tends to reveal its intentions based on what it lacks, and individuals who frequently interact with foreign countries may have the chance to understand the true nature of the CCP’s evils, leading them to not truly follow the CCP. Therefore, Wang Huning’s words seem to imply that there may be some members who are not loyal.
Public records show that the COESA was initiated in October 1913 by Gu Weijun, Liang Dunyan, Yan Huiqing, Cai Yuanpei, and others to unite returned overseas-educated scholars in Beijing and Tianjin. Whereas the CCP, originally an offshoot of the Communist International, was established in 1921. During the Cultural Revolution, the COESA ceased its activities, only to resume in 1982, becoming a united front organization for overseas-educated scholars under the leadership of the Central Secretariat and the guidance of the Central United Front Work Department. In 2003, it was renamed the “China Overseas-Educated Scholars Association” by the CCP.
The official website of the COESA indicates that there are more than 1,400 regional COESA organizations nationwide, with approximately 390,000 individual members. These organizations maintain connections with overseas Chinese student groups in major host countries.
The COESA has a CCP party committee, with the party secretary usually serving as the secretary-general. The current party committee secretary and secretary-general is Li Min.
Highlighted events in the “2025 Timeline of the COESA” show that the association frequently instills CCP ideology among its staff and overseas-educated scholars. For instance, in April 2025, a “National Education Seminar” was conducted for overseas-educated scholars in Wuhan, Hubei Province. In August of the same year, a seminar was held on the so-called “important congratulatory letter spirit” for overseas Chinese student community representatives to learn and implement Xi Jinping’s ideology. In September, an ideological work training workshop was held in Qingdao, Shandong Province.
Documents obtained by Epoch Times in 2020 show that the CCP has long been controlling returned overseas-educated scholars through various “COESAs” across mainland China, utilizing their services for the CCP’s “Belt and Road” strategy. Nanyang City in Henan Province has detailed statistics on 343 overseas-educated returnees.
Senior commentator Cai Shenkun previously stated that the CCP has long been dedicated to united front work, with Western political, business, and academic elites as targets of infiltration. “The methods of infiltration and bribery it employs are beyond Western imagination, leading many Western elites to inadvertently fall into traps, eroding and disintegrating the good social systems and values of the West,” he pointed out, indicating that many Western political and business elites have long become captives or even accomplices of the CCP.