| 国家安全部 | |||||||
 Seal of the MSS | |||||||
| Ministry overview | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Formed | 1 July 1983 (1983-07-01) | ||||||
| Preceding agencies | |||||||
| Type | Constituent Department of the State Council | ||||||
| Jurisdiction | People's Republic of China | ||||||
| Headquarters | Yidongyuan No. 100Xiyuan,Haidian, Beijing, China[1][2] 39°59′32″N116°16′42″E / 39.9921°N 116.2783°E /39.9921; 116.2783 | ||||||
| Motto | "Serve the people firmly and purely, reassure the party, be willing to contribute, be able to fight hard and win" | ||||||
| Employees | 110,000 (Alex Joske) 800,000 (FBI estimate perCalder Walton)[3] | ||||||
| Minister responsible | |||||||
| Deputy Ministers responsible |
| ||||||
| Ministry executive |
| ||||||
| Parent organization | Central National Security Commission Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission | ||||||
| Child agencies | |||||||
| Website | www | ||||||
| Footnotes | |||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 国家安全部 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 國家安全部 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | State Security Ministry | ||||||
| |||||||
TheMinistry of State Security[a] (MSS) is the principal civilianintelligence andsecurity service of thePeople's Republic of China, responsible forforeign intelligence,counterintelligence, andpolitical security of theChinese Communist Party (CCP). One of the largest and most secretive intelligence organizations in the world, it maintains powerful semi-autonomous branches at theprovincial,city,municipality andtownship levels throughout China. The ministry's headquarters,Yidongyuan, is a large compound inBeijing'sHaidian district.
The origins of the MSS date to the beginnings of the CCP'sCentral Special Branch, replaced by theCentral Committee Society Department from 1936 through theproclamation of the People's Republic in 1949. In 1955, the department was replaced with theCentral Committee Investigation Department, which existed in various configurations through theCultural Revolution to 1983, when it was merged with counterintelligence elements of theMinistry of Public Security (MPS) to form the MSS.
Anexecutive department of theState Council, the contemporary MSS is anall-source intelligence organization with a broad mandate and expansive authorities to undertake global campaigns of espionage andcovert action on the so-called "hidden front." Within China, the ministry leverages extrajudicial law enforcement authorities to achieve its domestic objectives: theState Security Police serve as asecret police authorized to detain and interrogate people in what is known as an "invitation to tea." Those remanded by state security are detained in the ministry'sown detention facilities.
Outside the mainland, the ministry is best known for its numerousadvanced persistent threat groups, someoutsourced to contractors, which carry out prolificindustrial andcyber espionage campaigns. The ministry has also been implicated inpolitical andtransnational repression andharassment of dissidents abroad. Itsinfluence operations, carried out with theUnited Front Work Department in accordance with the "three warfares" doctrine, have produced some of the country's most pervasive diplomatic rhetoric including "great changes unseen in a century" and "China's peaceful rise." Estimates of the ministry's size range from 110,000 to 800,000 employees, with most of the workforce spread between the dozens of semi-autonomous bureaus across the country.
MSS functions as China'sintelligence,security andsecret police agency.[4] A document from theU.S. Department of Justice described the agency as being like a combination of theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) andFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).[5] Australian authorClive Hamilton described it as being similar to an amalgamation of theAustralian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and theAustralian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) "with a lot more power and less subject to the constraints of the rule of law."[6] It is anall-source intelligence organization with a broad mandate and expansive authorities to undertake global campaigns of espionage andcovert action on the so-called "hidden front."[7][8][9] Itsinfluence operations have been carried out with theUnited Front Work Department in accordance with the "three warfares" doctrine.[10]
According to Peter Mattis, president of theJamestown Foundation and former CIA analyst, and his fellow analyst Matthew Brazil, a former U.S. Army officer and diplomat in Asia:
"The language Chinese intelligence uses reflects its Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary heritage. The lexicon suggests (as has been borne out in interviews with former officials who had routine contacts with their Chinese counterparts) that the intelligence services are bastions of faith in the CCP. Although they may be practical in terms of techniques and methods to acquire intelligence, this information is filtered through a Marxist–Leninist lens. The implication is that foreign targets are viewed in the worst possible light."[11]
The MSS is a civilian agency that controls its own secret police force, theState Security Police, which is one of the four components of thePeople's Police. The State Security Police is authorized to detain and interrogate people in what is known as an "invitation to tea."[12] Those remanded by state security are detained in the ministry'sown detention facilities.[13][14] The MSS seal contains theemblem of the Chinese Communist Party and the official uniform is identical to that of the other People's Police, with the only difference being the police insignia include theChinese characters "国安" ("State Security").[15]
Article 4 of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China gives the MSS the same authority to arrest or detain people as MPS for crimes involving state security with identical supervision by the procuratorates and the courts.[16] TheNational Intelligence Law of 2017 grants the MSS broad powers to conduct many types of espionage both domestically and abroad; it also gives the MSS the power to administratively detain those who impede or divulge information on intelligence work for up to 15 days.[17]
In November 1927, the CCP established its first formal intelligence service, withZhou Enlai founding the Central Special Branch (often shortened toTeke; sometimes written Special Services Section (SSS)) to conduct "special operations" work.[11][18] WithXiang Zhongfa andGu Shunzhang's assistance, Zhou designed the organization that many Chinese intelligence officers today see as the origins of their enterprise. Establishing secret bases across the Chinese territory, the Teke was composed of four sections led by Gu Shunzhang andKang Sheng.[19][18]
Zhou's primary objective was to disrupt theKuomintang's secret police attempts to penetrate the CCP which required both a defensive counterintelligence effort to identify potentiallytraitorous members of the party and an offensive intelligence effort to plant spies within the Kuomintang's security and intelligence services. To prevent leaks and limit damage caused by infiltration by Nationalist spies, agents of Teke were forbidden to have any relationship with other agents making the party so compartmentalized that many never knew the name of the organization only calling it "Wu Hao's Dagger", a reference to Zhou Enlai'snom de guerre.[19][18]
Based in Shanghai, Teke grew to become "a small army of messengers, people smugglers, and informers" with a constant presence in clubs, religious organizations, music groups, and brothels serving as Zhou Enlai's (and subsequently the CCP's) eyes and ears both in Shanghai and across the nation. Nonetheless, Teke had to compete with the newly established KMTBureau of Investigation and Statistics (BIS) under the notoriousDai Li whose nickname as the "ChineseHimmler" lives on for his horrific torture record which included death in excruciating agony and forcedheroin overdosing.[19] Under Dai Li, the BIS created vast networks of 100,000 operatives across and outside the borders of China and mastered new means of intercepting communist communications — an art taught to the KMT by American cryptographerHerbert Yardley for use against the Japanese. The overwhelming advantages of the KMT were challenged only by the extensive and thorough infiltration of the security services by Teke agents includingQian Zhuangfei,Li Kenong, andHu Di.[19][18]
Gu Shunzhang, whom Zhou Enlai had chosen to head operations for Teke, would prove to be one of the most adversely consequential members of the CCP's underground intelligence ring. Having been born in Shanghai on "thewrong side of the tracks" according to French authorRoger Faligot, Gu lived crudely out of bars smoking opium, having affairs, and joining theGreen Gang but made a name for himself as a magician. Made a bodyguard forMikhail Borodin, theComintern agent and advisor to the Kuomintang from Soviet Russia, Gu was sent to Vladivostok to learn the tactics of insurrection and tradecraft of espionage as Borodin feared division between the Chinese nationalists and communists. A trained spy, Gu led Teke operations from the group's 1927 founding until 25 April 1931.[citation needed]
While performing the typical magic show for young children that usually covered for his espionage missions, a nationalist informer who had turned on the CCP recognized Gu from a photograph and alerted the KMT authorities. A number of KMT agents appeared and tackled Gu, not only gleeful to have detained one of their most challenging communist adversaries but were successful in turning the spymaster against the communists making Gu the most notorious intelligence traitor in modern Chinese history. As Gu provided the KMT with a flood of Teke agents' names and safe house locations, Zhou's spy inside the BIS, Qian Zhuangfei, immediately notified Zhou and Kang Shang who were able to relocate every Teke agent within two days — avoiding a potential extermination of CCP's core. Some agents, however, were located and arrested. On 21 June 1931, presumably with help from Gu's defection, the KMT capturedCCP General Secretary Xiang Zhongfa hiding in a jewelry store with hiscabaret dancer mistress. Despite offering to convert to the KMT party, Xiang was shot by his jailers before the received word ofChiang Kai-shek's pardon. Though the CCP's nascent intelligence branch under Kang Shang had narrowly escaped destruction, the damage done by Gu's defection and the number of communist spy arrests attrited the group until, in 1935, the CCP elected to disband it. While many of Teke's agents moved to theRed Army's Political Protection Bureau (PPB) led by Dong Fa, the PPB focused entirely on counterintelligence meaning real intelligence collection would go largely dormant until the formation of the Society Department.[11][19]
In 1936, the CCP established theSociety Department at the CCP Central Committee (中国共产党中央委员会社会部) inYan'an,Shaanxi to consolidate the party's foreign intelligence and counterintelligence efforts. It wasn't until 1938 when Kang Sheng took control of the department and restructured the organization that it took its final form in the merging of the preceding Special Branch, the Political Protection Bureau (which Kang Sheng had previously headed), and theGuard Office. The Political Protection Bureau provided rear area security to CCP forces prior to theLong March and close security to Mao during the march while the Guard Office established a localconstabulary and counterintelligence service. Under Kang Sheng and his deputy Li Kenong, the Society Department provided the CCP foreign intelligence, domestic intelligence, military security, and political security in every province in which communist forces held terrain.[19][18]
From 1942 to 1944, as the Society Department expanded, Kang Sheng became paranoid and fearful ofspies within his organization. Kang, known as the "ChineseBeria" abroad, frequently reminded others that political deviation was inextricably linked to being a traitorous spy, remarking "There is a close link between the twin crimes ofespionage anddeviationism. One is not a deviationist, as we have tended to believe, by chance or error. It is, ineluctably, dialectically, because one is aJapanese agent or a Kuomintang spy—or both. We must begin a ruthless hunt to root out these two plagues from Yan'an because, by fighting against deviationism, we weaken the clandestine plots of our enemies, and vice versa." Convinced that at least 30 percent of his organization were counterrevolutionaries and spies, Kang established a counterintelligence quota which contributed greatly to the practice ofbigongxin, forcing a false confession in order to build a case against the accused. Kang's counterintelligence inquisition utilized "techniques ofpunishment andinterrogation inspired by the millennia-long Chinesetradition oftorture, updated by twentieth-centuryStalinism for the requirements of the era" with torture practices including drivingbamboo spikes underfingernails, inserting hair from a horse's tail into thepenis, pumping high-pressure water into thevagina, cutting off the breasts of women looking for their tortured husbands, forcing the ingestion of large amounts ofvinegar, applying burningincense toarmpits, tying to a whipped horse's tail, and live burials. Kang's perceived connection between political deviation and traitorship led many senior leaders to avoid criticizing Kang's purges.[19][18]
Known by 1944 as the "party hangman", Kang was eventually opposed by Zhou Enlai and later Mao Zedong who forced Kang to produce his own self-criticism proclaiming that perhaps only 10 percent of the comrades accused were spies and, in November 1944, relieved him of the position as head of the Society Department. Various rumors for the cause of his removal endure. One version claims that his paranoidpurges made him a target of many senior communist officials, many of whom found themselves in Kang's sights. Another less likely explanation from Mao'sphysician,Li Zhuisui, claims that Kang sufferedacuteparanoia and symptoms ofschizophrenia and was consequently sent to amental asylum.American intelligence reportedly believed Kang's downfall was the result of the collapse of the pro-Stalinist faction proceeding the deaths ofStalin and Beria since Kang had trained as anintelligence officer inMoscow. Li Kenong, the new head of the Society Department, developed the organization's intelligence networks and was appointed by Zhou Enlai to simultaneously serve as the nation's deputy minister of foreign affairs.[19][18][20]
In an effort to disaffiliate the intelligence service from Kang Sheng's paranoia-driven legacy of purges, the organization was renamed to the CCP Central Committee Investigation Department (中国共产党中央委员会调查部) with only one SAD branch moved out to its own organization, the Legal and Administrative Work Department.[19]
In the 1950s, nearly everyChinese embassy abroad had an Investigation and Research Office, acover for a group of intelligence officers belonging to the Investigation Department who kept close watch ondiplomats and embassy staff, often sitting in on meetings and reporting back to CID headquarters' Eight Bureau (known later as the "Institute of Contemporary International Relations").[19][20][21]
On 9 February 1962, Li Kenong died after a period of illness from the residual effects of brain damage from a fall he had sustained three years prior. Kong Yuan, Kang Sheng's former secretary and friend of Zhou Enlai, ran the service with Zou Dapeng andLuo Qingchang as his deputies.[19]
Early in 1966, Mao Zedong and his defense chief MarshalLin Biao plotted to overthrow army Chief of Staff and Deputy Prime MinisterLuo Ruiqing who, despite being a lifelong supporter of the CCP and founder of the MPS, had opposed the political training in the military instituted at Mao's directive. Eager to thieve for the second time a senior position in the security services from Luo and to gain a stronghold over the party's security apparatus, Kang Sheng prepared a traitorous dossier on Luo complete with accusations of "illicit intercourse with foreigners". Lin Biao sent for Luo's arrest, and, under appalling conditions ofincarceration and interrogation, Luo attempted to commitsuicide in March by throwing himself from his cell breaking two legs after whichRed Guards forced him to make his ownself-criticism. As Mao Zedong launched hisCultural Revolution in 1966, Kang Sheng attempted to limit the destructive influence of the revolution on his intelligence and security apparatus issuing in September the directive "Codes,telegrams,confidential documents, files, and secret archives are the essential secrets of the Party and State; the safeguarding of all of these elements is the responsibility of all cadres, revolutionary masses, students, and revolutionary teachers." Despite this, Kang Sheng soon found that the calamitous red wave that overtook Mao's China would grow beyond his control. It wouldn't be until October 1978, after Mao's death in September 1976, thatHua Guofeng andWang Dongxing would rebuild the Investigation Department which was officially reestablished on 28 July 1978. The organization still lacked experience or establishedtradecraft which would cause them a number of embarrassments.[19]
The most impactful embarrassment of the newly reestablished Investigation Department (orDiaochabu) was their inability to predict theVietnamese invasion of theRepublic of Kampuchea (todayCambodia) in 1979. Following a visit toDemocratic Kampuchea by Wang Dongxing in early November 1978, he and head of the new Investigation Department Luo Qinchang praised the ten-year friendship with theKhmer Rouge and helpedKaing Khek andTa Mok to establish the neighboring communist party's notorious S-21 interrogation andextermination camp where around 20,000Cambodians would be killed underPol Pot's genocide.[22][23] Within a month of Wang and Luo's return to China, theSocialist Republic of Vietnam launched a full-scaleinvasion of Kampuchea in response to a series of border attacks on theLiberation Army of Kampuchea.[citation needed] Perhaps by ideological closeness toPol Pot and his followers, Chinese intelligence under the Investigation Department, and consequently PRC leadership, was caught by surprise by the Vietnamese invasion. Unable to contact the Khmer Rouge who, under the leadership of Ta Mok, had escaped into the jungles to organize aguerrilla resistance with only one Chinese agent carrying a defectivesatellite radio, a thousand Chinese military advisors fled Cambodia viaThailand and left 4,000 civilian advisors to the invading Vietnamese army. Compounding the intelligence failure, as the invasion broke the Investigation Department expressed confidence to Chinese leaders that the invasion would be easily repelled and that the Chinese embassy in the capital,Phnom Penh, would be unharmed.[19]
Hoping to force aVietnamese withdrawal from its ally Cambodia, the People's Republic of China launched their ownsouthward invasion acrossthe border into Vietnam in February 1979 which was withdrawn four weeks later after heavy resistance by Vietnamese guerrillas bearingSoviet and American weapons.[citation needed] Nonetheless, head of the CCP Deng Xiaoping supported the Khmer Rouge for another ten years in exile limiting his criticism of the two million-victim genocide assessing "the domestic counterintelligence activities created a negative atmosphere, slowing down many activities and causing social problems as well as many other problems... A thorough study of this political aspect should be undertaken and concrete measures taken."[19]
At the end of the Cultural Revolution, as China struggled to regain its footing after a tumultuous decade, Deng Xiaoping and his fellow reformersHu Yaobang andZhao Ziyang endeavored down the road of governmental reform. CCP general secretary Hu Yaobang decried Kang Sheng's destructive and paranoid legacy in a speech in November 1978 enumerating many of the crimes Kang Sheng had been found guilty of, up to and through the Cultural Revolution. Kang's condemnation was bolstered by the investigation prepared by Luo Qingchang's Investigation Department which detailed how Kang had organized the Yan'an purges and named any of his opponents "counter-revolutionary".[19]
Deng Xiaoping was himself a victim of Mao's Cultural Revolution, theGang of Four, and Kang Sheng's secret police. Deng's son,Deng Pufang, becameparaplegic and needed to use a wheelchair after Red Guardsthrew him from a high window. After these experiences, Deng was committed to reforming the Chinese intelligence services. Deng first initiated a small but meaningful campaign to degrade Kang Sheng's legacy, which began with Hu Yaobang's speech. Next, Deng subordinated the Investigation Department into a minor political organ. Finally, Deng took all the "external intelligence expertise" from the Investigation Department and consolidated it and all the CCP's espionage and counterintelligence functions into a new, "revolutionized" Chinese intelligence service, fitting of the new era of the Chinese "opening-up" to the world.[19]
Proposed byPremier Zhao Ziyang and Minister of Public SecurityLiu Fuzhi and approved at the first session of the sixthNational People's Congress (NPC), the Ministry of State Security (MSS) was approved on 20 June 1983 to be a merger between the Investigation Department and the Bureau of Investigating Counterrevolutionaries (or the First Bureau) of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) to "protect the security of the state and strengthen China's espionage work".[11][19][24][25][26] The following day, the NPC appointedLing Yun to be the first Minister of State Security which would announce its establishment on 1 July 1983.[11] There were serious political reasons behind the merger, as Luo Qingchang, who had been Director of the CID since 1973 and was a powerful player in Chinese Communist intelligence since the 1940s, was a fierce opponent of Deng Xiaoping. Although Deng had risen to supreme power in the late 1970s, he initially couldn't remove Luo from his post, until he finally succeeded in 1983.[11] But even after this, Luo still remained influential as an adviser on theCentral Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs.[11] Although the MSS maintains loyalty to party and ideology as a central mission,[27] its founding represents the first time that a Chinese intelligence organ was placed under the State Council instead of the party.[11]
The 1st Bureau of the new MSS managed internal affairs and security in each of the provinces with the help of local and regional offices. The MSS also maintained a number of concentration camps (Chinese:劳改;pinyin:Láogǎi) where apprehended enemy spies like theTaiwanese "Society of the Continent" network inTianjin. The 2nd Bureau of the MSS was responsible forforeign intelligence collection beginning in the nearbycapitals ofTokyo,Bangkok, andSingapore. Intelligence officers of the 2nd Bureau operated under diplomatic cover posing asadvisors orsecretaries to diplomats in-country. The MSS' 3rd Bureau was responsible for nearby areas the People's Republic of China wished to draw back into the CCP's control:Hong Kong, Taiwan, andMacau. The 4th Bureau focused on the technical aspects of espionage, the 5th Bureau for local intelligence, the 6th Bureau for counterintelligence, the 7th Bureau that conductedsurveillance orspecial operations, and the 8th Bureau engaged in research through open sources (OSINT). The 8th Bureau took control over the former branch of the Investigation Department called theChina Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) whose members denied any connections to the Chinese intelligence apparatus. The 9th Bureau managed the threat of enemy infiltration and MSS officer defections, the 10th Bureau worked with the State Scientific & Technological Commission and the intelligence section of theCommission for Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND). The 11th Bureau managedcomputers,networks, andinformation technology equipment, and finally the 12th Bureau was responsible for liaising with foreign intelligence services under the name of the Office of Foreign Affairs. Officers of the 12th Bureau worked with the CIA's David Gries,BND's Dr. Herms Bahl,MI6'sNigel Inkster, and theDGSE's Thierry Imbot while keeping them under surveillance. The so-called Office of Foreign Affairs also took up duties to surveil visitingtourists, diplomats, andjournalists who began to enter the country after China's opening to the world. The MSS' first head announced "The intelligence agencies and secret services of some foreign countries have increased their spying activities against China's state secrets and are now sending agents tosubvert and destroy our country."[19]
One of the longest-serving Ministers of State Security wasJia Chunwang, a native of Beijing and a 1964 graduate ofTsinghua University, reportedly an admirer of the AmericanCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA).[citation needed] He served as Minister of State Security from 1985 until March 1998, when the MSS underwent an overhaul andXu Yongyue, a former secretary of party elderChen Yun was appointed the new head of the organization.[28] Jia was largely responsible for the development of the MSS out of each of the provincial departments of state security, wherein many police officers found themselves intelligence officers the next day.[11] Within the first year, Jia consolidated the security departments of Beijing,Fujian,Guangdong,Guangxi,Heilongjiang,Jiangsu,Liaoning, and Shanghai.[11] Between 1985 and 1988 Jia had managed to incorporate those departments ofChongqing,Gansu,Hainan,Henan,Shaanxi,Tianjin, andZhejiang.[11] From 1990 to 1995, Jia incorporated security departments fromAnhui,Hunan,Qinghai, andSichuan provinces.[11] Jia was then appointed to theMinister of Public Security post, after 13 years as head of the MSS. After becoming the secretary ofCentral Political and Legal Affairs Commission in 2007, the MSS was under the command and influence ofZhou Yongkang until his ouster and conviction for corruption in 2014.[29] One of the people responsible for "taking down" Zhou Yongkang wasChen Wenqing of theCentral Commission for Discipline Inspection, who was nominated Minister of State Security by Chinese PremierLi Keqiang in 2016, partly as a reward for purging Zhou and his network, as well as replacing the prior ministerGeng Huichang.[30]
Since CCP general secretaryXi Jinping assumed power in 2012, the MSS gained more responsibility overcyberespionage vis-à-vis the PLA, and has sponsored variousadvanced persistent threat groups such asDouble Dragon.[31][32] Starting in 2016, provincial and local state security bureaus were brought under centralized control.[33] In October 2018, the Deputy Minister of State Security,Yanjun Xu, was charged witheconomic espionage by the United States prosecutors.[34]
On May 28, 2021, a federal grand jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California returned an indictment against four People's Republic of China (PRC) citizens for their alleged roles in a long running campaign of computer network operations targeting trade secrets, intellectual property, and other high value information from companies, universities, research institutes, and governmental entities in the United States and abroad, as well as multiple foreign governments. The indictment alleges that Zhu Yunmin, Wu Shurong, Ding Xiaoyang, and Cheng Qingmin targeted the following sectors: aerospace/aviation, biomedical, defense industrial base, healthcare, manufacturing, maritime, research institutes, transportation (rail and shipping), and virus research from 2012 to 2018, on behalf of the PRC Ministry of State Security. Additionally, the indictment alleges the use offront companies by the Ministry of State Security to conduct cyber espionage.[35][36]
Under Xi, the ministry has drastically increased its profile.[37] While its inner workings remain opaque,propaganda posters about national security branded with the ministry's seal are now a common sight in Chinese cities.[38] In July 2023, the MSS opened aWeChat account, where it wrote its first post that it wishes to popularize counterintelligence among the population and make such activity "normal" with systems of rewards.[39] In another post in September, the MSS criticized the policies of the United States towards China, saying that the US was "decoupling and disconnecting at the economic level, ganging up at the political level, deterrence and containment at the security level, discrediting and disparaging at the public opinion level, and constraining and locking down at the rules level".[40] The ministry's WeChat posts receive millions of views.[38]
In January 2024, the MSS published a list of "10 conditions", euphemistically referred to as "cups of tea"[41] to its official WeChat channel; which would subject individuals to scrutiny and questioning by state security authorities, including but not limited to: endangering national security, illegally acquiring or holding state secrets, committing or assisting espionage, refusing to cooperate in an espionage investigation, leaking state secrets related to counter-espionage and intelligence works and "failing to take security precautions against spying".[42] In October 2025, the MSS deployed anAI-generated anchor in uniform called "Agent 012339" on its WeChat channel to deliver national security narratives.[43]
The MSS recruits new intelligence officers primarily from major universities, police and military academies.[44]
In March 2009, former MSS operative Li Fengzhi told theWashington Times in an interview that the MSS was engaged in counterintelligence, the collection of secrets and technology from other countries, and repressing internal dissent within China. The internal repression, according to Li, includes efforts againsthouse churches, theunderground church and theFalun Gong religious group, andcensoring the Internet. Li emphasized that MSS's most important mission is, "to control the Chinese people to maintain the rule of the Communist Party."[45][unreliable source?]
In 2012, an executive assistant to MSS vice minister Lu Zhongwei was found to have been passing information to the CIA. Lu Zhongwei was not formally charged, but that incident was said to have infuriatedHu Jintao and led to a tightening on information dissemination and increased counterintelligence activities in Beijing and abroad.[46]
TheShanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB) of the MSS has repeatedly been involved in both failed and successful attempts to recruit foreign agents. In 2010, the SSSB directed US citizenGlenn Duffie Shriver to apply for a position at the National Clandestine Service of the CIA. In 2017, SSSB case workers were implicated in the recruitment of US Department of State employee Candace Claiborne who was charged with obstruction of justice.[47]
In 2013, a Chinese driver was employed by SenatorDianne Feinstein who was notified that the driver was being investigated for possible Chinese spying. At some point, he visited China and was recruited by China's MSS. He worked for Senator Feinstein for several years. The FBI concluded the driver hadn't revealed anything of substance.[48]
The fundamental purpose of our counter-espionage struggle is to defend the security interests of our country. We must take resolute measures and never allow any country or political force to infiltrate, subvert or sabotage us. But we will also never carry out infiltration, subversion, and sabotage against other countries because we are a socialist country led by the Communist Party of China, which is determined by the nature of our country...
...The combination of public and secret, and the combination of specialised groups, is a fine tradition of our Party and an effective magic weapon in our concealed front to counter traitors and prevent spies. We must carry forward this fine tradition and make new developments in the new situation.
During January 2017, the FBI arrested Candace Claiborne, a State Department employee who had previously worked in the American Embassy in Beijing between 2009 and 2012. In April 2019 Claiborne pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the United States. Prosecutors argued that she had passed sensitive information to the MSS.[50]
In early 2017, ex-CIA officer Kevin Mallory was having financial difficulties when he was contacted by a "headhunter" on LinkedIn, who turned out to be a Ministry of State Security operative. The operative set up a phone call with Mallory and another person, pretending it was a job with theShanghai Academy of Social Sciences. After two visits to China, Mallory consented to selling defense secrets to his Chinese contacts.[51][52]
Companies such asHuawei,China Mobile, andChina Unicom have been implicated in MSS intelligence collection activities.[53][54]
In 2017, MSS officials entered the United States on the pretense of transit visas as cultural officials. During the visit the officials made an attempt to persuade Chinese dissidentGuo Wengui to return to China in order to face charges for prosecution. Guo Wengui accepted the meeting, out of apparent gratitude for one of the officials, named Liu Yanping, having previously assisted in bringing his wife to America. However, Guo Wengui recorded the conversations and alerted the FBI. Subsequently, the Chinese officials were confronted by FBI agents inPennsylvania Station, the Chinese officials initially claimed to be cultural affairs diplomats but ultimately admitted to being security officials. The Chinese officials were given a warning for their activities in New York and were ordered to return to China. Two days later, the officials again visited the apartment of Guo Wengui once more prior to leaving the country. While at the apartment the second time, the officials reportedly ate dumplings made by the wife of Guo Wengui, and Guo Wengui walked them out of the building after again declining their offer of clemency for silence. The FBI was aware of the second visit and agents were prepared to arrest the Chinese security officials atJFK Airport prior to theirAir China flight on charges of visa fraud and extortion, but arrests were not made following pressure from the State Department to avoid a diplomatic crisis. The FBI did, however, confiscate the Chinese officials’ phones before the plane took off.[55]
In 2019, according to a report released by theEuropean External Action Service, there were an estimated 250 MSS spies operating in Brussels.[56]
In September 2020, a journalist, a Chinese MSS operative and her Nepalese informant were arrested in India for providing classified information about Indian army deployments inDoklam area and India'sMinistry of External Affairs to two officers of Yunnan State Security Department (YSSD) of the MSS.[57]
In December 2020, 10 MSS Operatives of Xinjiang State Security Department (XSSD) were arrested inKabul,Afghanistan by theNational Directorate of Security. During questioning, one operative told the interrogators that they were gathering information aboutal Qaeda, theTaliban, and theTurkistan Islamic Party in Kunar and Badakhshan Provinces, and wanted to trap and assassinate high-level members of Turkistan Islamic Party. At least two of the operatives were also in contact with theHaqqani network for this job. After days of negotiations between Afghanistan and China, all of them were pardoned and were flown out of the country in a plane arranged by the Chinese government.[58][59]
In February 2021,The Daily Telegraph reported that Britain had expelled three MSS agents posing as journalists.[60]
In late April 2021, the Ministry of State Security announced that it was introducing several new measures to fight alleged infiltration by "hostile forces" of Chinese companies and other institutions. These measures include drawing up a list of companies and organizations considered to be at risk of foreign infiltration and requiring them to take security measures. In addition, staff travelling on business trips to theFive Eyes countries (the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) have been ordered to report all contact with foreign personnel, participate in anti-espionage seminars, and leave mobile phones, laptops, and USB drives at home before traveling abroad.[61][62]
In September 2022, it was reported during Congressional testimony that the FBI had informedTwitter of at least one MSS agent on its payroll.[63]
In December 2023, a joint investigation byFinancial Times,Der Spiegel andLe Monde reported that Belgium former senatorFrank Creyelman accepted bribes from MSS for three years to influence discussions within theEuropean Union.[64]
In March 2024, the MSS warned that overseas intelligences services had used foreignconsulting firms as a cover to steal classified information and pose "major risks to national security."[65]
In 2017, the cyberespionage threat group known as Gothic Panda or APT3 was determined to havenation-state level capabilities and to be functioning on behalf of the MSS by researchers.[66]
In 2018, theUnited States Department of Justice indicted two individuals of the cyber-espionage groupAPT10, which it stated was under the direction of theTianjin State Security Bureau (TSSB) of MSS.[67]
In 2020, the United States Department of Justice indicted two MSS contractors who were involved in hackingModerna, a biotechnology company developing a vaccine for theCOVID-19 pandemic.[68][69] In September 2020, theCybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a security advisory regarding hacking by groups affiliated with the MSS.[70]
In February 2024, files from an MSS contractor calledI-Soon were leaked publicly.[71] In March 2024, theUnited States Department of the Treasury'sOffice of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and UK government sanctioned an MSS front company called Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology and affiliated individuals for placing malware in critical infrastructure andbreaching the UKElectoral Commission.[72][73]
In September 2024,Salt Typhoon, an advanced persistent threat (APT) affiliated with the MSS,[74] was publicly reported to have gained access to multipleinternet service providers in the U.S. and attempted to gain access to the phones of staff of theKamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign as well as those ofDonald Trump andJD Vance.[75][76][77]
Domestically, the MSS undertakes surveillance of ethnic minorities, especially inTibet andXinjiang.[78]: 121
According toNicholas Eftimiades, "[o]ne of the MSS's responsibilities has been penetrating Chinese dissident groups abroad — what they call the 'five poisons': democracy advocates, Taiwan, Tibetans, Uyghurs and Falun Gong."[79]In the United States, MSS officers were reported to have worked with students affiliated with local university chapters of theChinese Students and Scholars Association to surveil other students.[80]
The core of political security is regime and institutional security, the most fundamental of which is to safeguard the leadership and governing position of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics...national security organs have always placed the maintenance of political security at the top of their agenda, and have made political security their main focus.
During the2008 Summer Olympics torch relay, MSS agents coordinated counter-protesters to disrupt pro-Tibetan independence demonstrations in San Francisco.[81][82]
In September 2020, Baimadajie Angwang, aNew York City Police Officer of Tibetan descent, was arrested for allegedly gathering information on theTibetan American community for the MSS. He was also accused of trying to recruitinformants inside the local Tibetan community.[83][84] In January 2023, federal prosecutors dismissed all charges against the officer.[85]
In March 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted individuals, including an MSS officer, for surveilling and conspiring to harass Chinese American pro-democracy dissidents, including political candidateXiong Yan, Olympic figure skaterAlysa Liu and her father Arthur Liu.[86][87][88] In May 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice charged a US citizen for spying under the direction of the MSS on Hong Kongpro-democracy activists,Taiwan independence supporters, andUyghur and Tibetan activists.[89]
In December 2023, a joint investigation byFinancial Times,Der Spiegel andLe Monde reported an agent of theZhejiang branch of the MSS had been tasked with discrediting German anthropologistAdrian Zenz.[64]
The MSS also leverages so-called "united front" work for intelligence activity.[90][91][92] In 1939, Zhou Enlai espoused "nestling intelligence within the united front" while also "using the united front to push forth intelligence."[90] According to Australian analystAlex Joske, "the united front system provides networks, cover and institutions that intelligence agencies use for their own purposes." Joske added that "united front networks are a golden opportunity for Party's spies because they represent groups of Party-aligned individuals who are relatively receptive to clandestine recruitment."[90]
Roger Faligot stated that the aftermath of the1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre led to the "growing use of party organizations, such as the United Front Work Department and friendship associations, as fronts for intelligence operations."[19]: 182
According to theFederation of American Scientists, MSS headquarters is in the Xiyuan (Chinese:西苑;pinyin:Xīyuàn;lit. 'Western Park') area ofBeijing'sHaidian District.[93] According toDavid Wise, Xiyuan also contains other MSS facilities.[94] Bureaus may usecover identities under "one institution with two names". The MSS maintains powerful semi-autonomous branches at theprovincial,city,municipality andtownship levels throughout China.[2][95][96]
| Bureau | Name | Responsibilities |
|---|---|---|
| First | ||
| Second | Lead bureau for 'open line' foreign operations underofficial cover, collecting strategic international intelligence, particularly political intelligence.[90] | |
| Third | ||
| Fourth | Taiwan,Hong Kong, andMacau Bureau[11] | Intelligence work in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau[11] TheInstitute of Taiwan Studies is its public facing front for Taiwan operations.[90] |
| Fifth | Report Analysis and Dissemination Bureau[11] | Analysis and reporting on intelligence and collecting guidance on how to handle intelligence matters, responsible for coordinating operations with provincial bureaus[90] |
| Sixth | ||
| Seventh | Counterespionage Intelligence Bureau[11] | Gathering information and developing intelligence on hostile intelligence services inside and outside China[11] |
| Eighth | Counterespionage Investigation[11] | Monitoring, investigating, and apprehending foreigners (often diplomats, businessmen, and journalists)[97] suspected of espionage in China[11] |
| Ninth | Internal Protection and Reconnaissance Bureau[11] | Protecting the MSS from infiltration by foreign entities by monitoring domestic reactionary organizations and foreign institutions[11] |
| Tenth | Foreign Security and Reconnaissance Bureau[11] | Monitoring students organizations and institutions abroad in order to investigate international anti-communist and reactionary activities, protecting overseas staff[11] |
| Eleventh | China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations[11][90] | Performs open-source research, translation, and analysis often meeting foreign delegations or traveling abroad as visiting fellows[11] |
| Twelfth | Social Investigation Bureau[90] | Conducting polling, surveying the population, and managing theChina International Culture Exchange Center.[90] Once the dominant bureau for US operations[90] |
| Thirteenth | Network Security and Exploitation[11] | Better known as theChina Information Technology Security Evaluation Center (CNITSEC), the bureau oversees science and technology projects and China's national computervulnerability database, theChinese National Vulnerability Database[11][98] |
| Fourteenth | Technical Reconnaissance Bureau[11] | Inspecting mail and telecommunications[11] |
| Fifteenth | Taiwan operations include the public-facingInstitute of Taiwan Studies at theChina Academy of Social Sciences[11][99] | |
| Sixteenth | ||
| Seventeenth | ||
| Eighteenth | United States Operations Bureau[11] | Conducting and managing clandestine intelligence operations in and against the United States[11] |
Many MSS personnel are trained at theUniversity of International Relations in Haidian, due north of MSS housing and offices in Xiyuan, as well asJiangnan Social University.[100][101]
The Ministry of State Security operates the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR, pronouncedKICK-er), an academic think tank on international affairs.[11][102]
CICIR was the eighth bureau of the former Investigation Department (CID) of theCCP Central Committee, but became the eleventh bureau of the MSS when the CID was merged with the counter-intelligence department of the Ministry of Public Security to form the new Ministry of State Security in 1983.[102]
Although the Chinese government has not publicly acknowledged CICIR's connection to the MSS, numerous press reports, scholars, and think tanks within and without China have detailed the relationship between the two organizations.[102][11][90] The institute is managed by the MSS, and overseen by the CCP Central Committee.[103][104][102] The organization itself does not speak much about its relationship with the Chinese government; however, and Chinese media reports rarely acknowledge the institution's ties with the regime.[102]
中央国家机关后勤改革享受税收政策汽车修理厂: １． 铁道部汽车修理厂（大兴县西红门）；２． 新华社新华汽车维修中心（海淀区四季青板井）；３． 国管局汽车修理厂（丰台区西五里店１７８号）；４． 外交部汽车修理厂（东城区外交部街丙31号）；５． 国家安全部行管局汽车修理厂（海淀区西苑１００号）；６． 国家安全部迅捷汽车修理厂（海淀区西苑甲１号对面）；[Central government agencies’ logistics institutions that benefit from tax policies in the category of auto shops: 1. Railway Ministry auto repair shop (Daxing County Xihongmen); 2. Xinhua News Agency Xinhua Auto Repair Center (Haidian District Sijiqing Banjing); 3. State Administration Bureau auto repair shop (Fengtai District Xiwulidian No. 178); 4. Ministry of Foreign Affairs auto repair shop (Dongcheng District Foreign Affairs Street C No. 31); 5. State Security Bureau Administration auto repair shop (Haidian District Xiyuan No. 100);]
The MSS headquarters was located where the previous CID was, at No. 100 Xiyuan, a location with tight security in the western suburbs of Beijing
China will prosecute a former high ranking official in its secret police for suspected bribery...Ma Jian, once a vice minister at China's Ministry of State Security
by state security...a Chinese academic stopped from returning to Australia refused to undergo a lie-detector test for China's secret police, one of his friend's claims
the Chinese Ministry of State Security – also well known as the Chinese secret police
National leader Simon Bridges is rejecting the claim he met with the head of China's "secret police", saying that is an "unfair characterisation" of the man he met. Bridges was back in Wellington on Tuesday following his five-day visit to the superpower, where he met with Guo Shengkun who is responsible for the Ministry of State Security (MSS).
Dmitri Alperovitch said his firm is observing an increase in hacks by China's Ministry of State Security, which he says is far more adept and proficient than the People's Liberation Army, which previously had conducted most of the hacks into private Western companies. "That's troubling, because they've always been the better actor," he said.
Like the MPS, the MSS has a wide scope of authority in domestic intelligence activities, and that authority overlaps with the law enforcement responsibilities of the MPS. Thus, the MSS not only is involved in police functions (similar to the U.S. FBI) but also fulfills other roles, such as court hearings (akin to the role of the judiciary in Western democracies).
In 1983, the CID and the espionage, counterintelligence operations, and security divisions of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) were merged to form the new Ministry of State Security (MSS) under the State Council. In other words, the majority of the MPS's Bureau of Investigating Counterrevolutionaries (dui fangeming zhencha ju, or the First Bureau) merged with the MSS, even though many functions of the Bureau of Investigating Counterrevolutionaries remained in the MPS. Even after the MSS was established in 1983 and began to dispatch agents to foreign countries for intelligence and espionage activities, the MPS continued to send agents to conduct similar activities outside of China.
National security organs recruit people's police from the public through the civil service examinations of central agencies and their directly affiliated institutions and provincial civil service examinations. Every year during the graduation season, national security agencies will go to major colleges and universities to preach recruitment plans and policies. Passionate young people who are interested in national security work are welcome to apply for national security organs.
Huawei's former chairwoman, Sun Yafang, who retired in 2018, had previously worked for the Ministry of State Security, China's main foreign intelligence service, according to an essay published under her name in a Chinese magazine in 2017.
In one case in the mid-2000s in the Midwest, a student affiliated with a CSSA reported another Chinese student's contact with the FBI to an MSS officer operating under diplomatic cover in Chicago, said a former intelligence official. The student was quickly flown out of the country. And, roughly half a decade ago in the Bay Area, counterintelligence officials believed that a graduate student affiliated with the Berkeley CSSA was working for the MSS, and reporting on the activities of other Chinese students on campus, said another former official.
The police officer, Baimadajie Angwang, who was born in the autonomous region of Tibet in China, allegedly repeatedly reported to officials at the Chinese Consulate in New York on the activities of other ethnic Tibetans in the New York area.
The officer, Baimadajie Angwang, 33, was arrested Monday, according to the US Attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged him with acting as a foreign agent without notifying American authorities, wire fraud and making false statements, according to a complaint. They also charged him with obstruction of an official proceeding -- prosecutors claim he lied on a national security clearance form that granted him a "secret" security clearance.
United front work not only serves foreign policy goals, but can sometimes be used as a cover for intelligence activities.
A source with ties to the leadership has previously told Reuters that Ma was director of the ministry's "No.8 bureau", which is responsible for counter-espionage activities on foreigners, mainly diplomats, businessmen and reporters.
| Organization |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Ministers | ||
| Major international operations | ||
| Notable works | ||
| Activities by country | ||
 | | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
.svg)
_cap_insignia.svg)
.png)
