On October 12, 2026, a conference marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC, 中国侨联) was held in Beijing. Wang Huning, a member of the Communist Party of China's Politburo Standing Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), attended and addressed the gathering, stressing the need to thoroughly study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important statements on work related to overseas Chinese affairs. He also met with delegates attending the conference. In his remarks, Wang described ACFROC as a people's organization under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, calling it a bridge and link connecting the Party and government with returned overseas Chinese, their relatives, and overseas Chinese communities abroad, and he reviewed the distinct role the organization has played over 70 years in rallying and guiding overseas Chinese to serve the country's broader development. This year also happens to mark the opening year of China's 15th Five-Year Plan period, and some observers have noted that the timing of the anniversary conference carries added significance as a result.

ACFROC's full name is the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese. Preparatory work began in June 1956, and on October 12 of that year, with the approval of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the federation was formally established in Beijing. Its first chairman was Tan Kah Kee (Chen Jiageng), a prominent patriotic overseas Chinese leader. Tan had built his fortune in business in Southeast Asia and later provided long-standing support for education and the anti-Japanese war effort inside China; in 1940 he led a delegation of overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia to visit and show solidarity with Yan'an, after which his political alignment gradually shifted toward the Communist Party of China — an episode that official Chinese media continue to treat as a central part of ACFROC's founding narrative. Over the following seven decades, the organization went through various political upheavals and institutional adjustments, but it has endured as the country's sole nationwide mass organization representing returned overseas Chinese and their relatives. Today, ACFROC maintains a multi-tiered organizational structure reaching down to the provincial, municipal and county levels across China, linking a broad network of people connected to overseas Chinese communities, overseas Chinese entrepreneurs and overseas Chinese professionals, and it ranks as one of the largest mass organizations in China's overseas Chinese affairs field.

According to official descriptions, ACFROC is a people's organization operating within China's constitutional framework, whose mandate is to safeguard the overall interests of the nation while lawfully protecting the domestic rights and interests of returned overseas Chinese and their relatives, and to pay attention to the legitimate rights and interests of overseas Chinese living abroad. Academic research generally places it among the mass organizations within China's united front work system, operating alongside the Communist Party's United Front Work Department and the State Council's overseas Chinese affairs offices in carrying out work related to overseas Chinese, including outreach and mobilization within overseas Chinese communities abroad. This year's anniversary conference was hosted by ACFROC under Wang Linggui, its Party secretary and chairman, reflecting the organization's continued positioning as a key instrument of Party-led overseas Chinese affairs work under the current institutional arrangement.

In his speech, Wang Huning reviewed how, since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, ACFROC's work has been guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, achieving what he described as a unity between serving the Party and the state's overall agenda and serving the broad community of overseas Chinese. The priorities he cited included mobilizing overseas Chinese to take part in China's economic and social development, promoting national reunification, carrying forward and spreading Chinese culture, and enhancing people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries. He stressed that overseas Chinese affairs work is a long-term, strategic undertaking for the Party and the state, and called on federation organizations at all levels to deeply study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important statements on overseas Chinese affairs work so as to better fulfil their role as a bridge connecting Chinese communities at home and abroad.

Chinese authorities have long placed emphasis on communities of overseas Chinese. Estimates of the global overseas Chinese population vary considerably depending on definitions used: counting only people born in mainland China who later settled abroad yields a figure of roughly 10 million. Using a broader definition based on ethnic or ancestral identity produces widely differing figures: some research puts the global total at around 45 million, while other publicly available sources cite a figure of more than 60 million spread across nearly 200 countries and territories. The lack of a single authoritative standard, and the resulting gap between these figures, itself reflects how loosely the boundaries of the term 'overseas Chinese' are drawn. Southeast Asia is widely regarded as the region with the largest concentration of overseas Chinese communities. Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia are often cited among the countries with the largest such populations worldwide, though because countries differ in how they define and count ethnic Chinese identity in censuses, specific figures vary significantly between sources. In Thailand's case, estimates cited in publicly available sources put the ethnic Chinese population at roughly 7.0 to 7.5 million; figures that also include people with partial Chinese ancestry run as high as 9 to 10 million. In the absence of an authoritative, unified official count, however, such figures should be treated as indicative estimates rather than verified data.

Thailand is home to one of Southeast Asia's oldest and largest ethnic Chinese communities, and for centuries overseas Chinese have played a prominent role in Thai commerce, education and cultural life, helping to build close people-to-people and economic ties between China and Thailand. Against the backdrop of China's push in recent years to advance the Belt and Road Initiative and deepen economic cooperation with Southeast Asian countries, Chinese officials have repeatedly described overseas Chinese communities as an important bridge linking China economically and culturally with their countries of residence, and organizations such as ACFROC have been tasked with strengthening identification with China and promoting exchange and cooperation within overseas Chinese communities abroad.

Wang Huning currently serves as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, and he has long overseen work related to the united front. This year alone, he has made several appearances at overseas-Chinese-related events: in June he met representatives of an association of Chinese students and scholars returned from abroad; in July he met in Beijing with delegates to the 11th Conference for Friendship of Overseas Chinese Associations; and in September he attended and spoke at the National Day reception jointly hosted by the General Office of the CPPCC National Committee, the Communist Party's United Front Work Department, the State Council's overseas Chinese affairs office and other bodies, six in total. Observers say this latest anniversary conference continues a pattern in which Chinese authorities have, in recent years, steadily reinforced overseas Chinese affairs work and sought to consolidate ties with Chinese communities around the world.

These overseas-Chinese-related remarks were not an isolated event, but echoed a broader series of united front moves Wang Huning has made throughout the year. In January, he told a national meeting of united front department heads to thoroughly implement the Party Central Committee's decisions on united front work in order to create a favorable environment for the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan period. In April, at a CPPCC-related meeting, he stressed that the CPPCC should be built into the most inclusive organization within the patriotic united front. In July, at another CPPCC-related meeting, he called on committee members to better fulfil the CPPCC's role as a specialized consultative body. Viewed alongside these moves, the ACFROC anniversary conference suggests that authorities want overseas Chinese affairs work to reinforce, and be reinforced by, broader united front and CPPCC work, together serving China's external engagement and people-to-people diplomacy needs during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.