
Thirty-Seven Years On, a Wound That Never Closed
A former star of Chinese state television turns her camera on a Taiwanese journalist wounded in the Tiananmen crackdown — and on the limits of what witnesses could say at the time.

The All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (中華全國歸國華僑聯合會), or ACFROC, established October 12, 1956, operates as a “people’s organization” — or a state-sanctioned, mass-membership group under the CCP — within the united front system to influence overseas Chinese communities worldwide. Tracing its roots to Yan’an-era associations, ACFROC gained expanded authority in 2018 when the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee transferred responsibilities for “friendship with overseas Chinese associations” from the State Council’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office to ACFROC. The organization maintains ties with diaspora communities through cultural exchanges, business networks, and friendship associations, working to mobilize overseas Chinese support for Beijing’s economic development and geopolitical objectives. Through its network of affiliated organizations and direct engagement programs, ACFROC serves as a primary channel for the party-state to extend influence among Chinese communities abroad while facilitating technology transfer and advancing China’s vision of national rejuvenation.
