Paramount leader is an informal term for the most important political figure in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The paramount leader typically controls the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), often holding the titles of CCP General Secretary and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC). The state representative (president) or head of government (premier) are not necessarily paramount leader—under China's party-state system, CCP roles are politically more important than state titles.
The Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense was a civilian ministry within the State Council of the People's Republic of China, responsible for setting policy for defense procurement. It was considered as the Chinese counterpart of DARPA of the US. The ministry was formed in 1982 to centralize Chinese defense procurement and technology whose responsibility had been distributed among several agencies. In March 2008, COSTIND was merged into a new super bureaucracy called the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and renamed as the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND). Former COSTIND deputy director, Chen Qiufa, was named as the head of SASTIND.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese state research institute and think tank. It is a ministry-level institution under the State Council of the People's Republic of China.
The United Front Work Department (UFWD) is a department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tasked with "united front work." It gathers intelligence on, manages relations with, and attempts to gain influence over elite individuals and organizations inside and outside mainland China, including in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and in other countries.
The Ministry of State Security is the principal civilian intelligence, security and secret police agency of the People's Republic of China, responsible for foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, and the political security of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). One of the largest and most secretive intelligence organizations in the world, it is headquartered in the Haidian District of Beijing, with powerful semi-autonomous branches at the provincial, city, municipality and township levels throughout China.
Larry Wu-tai Chin was a Chinese Communist spy who worked for the United States Government for 37 years (1944–1981), including positions at the U.S. Army and the CIA, while secretly being a mole for the Chinese Communist Party's intelligence apparatus from the very beginning. He kept passing classified documents and secret information to the People's Republic of China even after his retirement, until he was finally exposed in 1985.
Xi Jinping is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus the paramount leader of China, since 2012. Xi has also been the president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2013. He belongs to the fifth generation of Chinese leadership.
Future Cola is a cola-flavoured carbonated beverage manufactured by Hangzhou Wahaha Group of China, where its market share is 12-15%, making it the third-largest manufacturer of soft drinks in China behind Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola. It is distributed by Reed's, Inc., in the United States as China Cola.
Wang Guangmei was a Chinese politician, philanthropist and the wife of Liu Shaoqi, who served as the President of the People's Republic of China from 1959 to 1968.
The united front is a political strategy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) involving networks of groups and key individuals that are influenced or controlled by the CCP and used to advance its interests. It has historically been a popular front that has included eight legally-permitted political parties and people's organizations which have nominal representation in the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Under CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, the united front and its targets of influence have expanded in size and scope.
Roger Faligot is a French journalist, who started covering The Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1973 before becoming a freelance investigative journalist for British, Parisian and foreign newspapers and magazines. Considered one of the best French specialists on Ireland, he was special correspondent of the weekly The European, based in London, for seven years in the 1990s. Faligot presided over the Association des journalistes bretons et des pays celtiques from 1993 to 2000.
The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission (CPLC), commonly referred to as Zhongyang Zhengfawei in Chinese, is the organization under the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) responsible for "political and legal affairs". Based on the principles of Leninism and democratic centralism, the organization acts as the overseer and coordinator of all legal enforcement authorities, including the Ministries of State Security, Public Security and Justice, as well as the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate. All provincial, municipal, county and autonomous region CCP committees have their own political and legal affairs commissions.
Gu Shunzhang, born Gu Fengming was an early leader, spymaster, and defector of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Sent to Soviet Russia to train in espionage, Gu was chosen by Zhou Enlai to lead the CCP's first intelligence service, the Central Special Branch. After he was captured by the Kuomintang (KMT), Gu defected and revealed to the KMT intelligence all he knew of Zhou Enlai's underground communist spy network earning him a reputation as "the most dangerous traitor in the history of the CCP."
The 11th Bureauof the Ministry of State Security, outwardly known as the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations under an arrangement called "one institution with two names", is a set of research institutes operated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) as a front to influence foreign diplomats and academics and collect intelligence. Located in Beijing, CICIR is operated by senior MSS officers. A 2009 report from the CIA's Open Source Center concluded that CICIR resembles a "Soviet-style intelligence organ" whose principle intelligence customer is the Foreign Affairs Leading Group. CICIR is overseen by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
Yu Qiangsheng is a former high-ranking Chinese intelligence officer who defected to the United States in 1985. During a career which saw him rise to head of the North America Bureau of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS), Yu passed information to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) which most famously exposed CIA officer Larry Wu-Tai Chin as having been a mole for Chinese intelligence for more than 40 years.
Chen Wenqing is a Chinese intelligence officer, politician and member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party who currently serves as the secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. He previously led the Ministry of State Security.
Jiangnan Social University is school of intelligence tradecraft operated by the Ministry of State Security (MSS) of the People's Republic of China. Sometimes called Institute of Cadre Management Suzhou by Western observers, the school was intended to be an annex of the University of International Relations, but instead has become an MSS training facility. It is located adjacent to Yinshan Lake in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, an hour's drive from Shanghai.
Natasha Lehrer is a writer and literary translator. She was born in London and studied at Oxford University and the Université de Paris VIII. Her translations have received multiple awards, and been longlisted and shortlisted for several prizes. She was the joint winner of the 2016 Scott Moncrieff Prize for their translation of Nathalie Léger's Suite for Barbara Loden. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Observer, the Times Literary Supplement, The Nation, Haaretz, Frieze Magazine, Fantastic Man, The Paris Review, among other publications. She is a former judge of the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize.
The China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC) is a united front organization subordinate to the Liaison Bureau of the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission. CAIFC was founded in 1984 and is active in overseas influence operations to promote the interests of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The Intelligence Bureau of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission a bureau of the Joint Staff Department. It is one of the People's Republic of China's primary intelligence organizations and the principal military intelligence organ of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
