Chinese “friendship associations” and student groups in Germany have developed extensive networks promoting Beijing’s rhetoric and positions to an at times unsuspecting European audience. For example, the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) has multiple agreements with German cultural and social organizations and, according to one German interlocutor, “avoids politics.” However, the CPAFFC has substantial ties to the United Front Work Department, a CCP entity responsible for responsible for ensuring Party control of PRC society, including Chinese business people and members of the Chinese diaspora, and has been linked to cases of political interference around the world. The CPAFFC’s president is the daughter of a high-ranking official who used to run the People’s Political Consultative Conference, and she herself is said to have a rank equivalent to a minister in Chinese bureaucratic circles. The Chinese organizations have sought to soften perceptions of China and the CCP in Germany, in part by emphasizing culture and trade over political and security concerns.