Law enforcement in China consists of an extensive public security system and a variety of enforcement procedures used to maintain order in the country. Along with the courts and procuratorates, the country's judicial and public security agencies include the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) and the Ministry of State Security (MSS), with their descending hierarchy of departments, bureaus, subbureaus, and stations.
The Ministry of Public Security is a government ministry of the People's Republic of China responsible for public and political security. It oversees more than 1.9 million of the country's law enforcement officers and as such the vast majority of the People's Police. While the MPS is a nationwide police force, conducting counterintelligence and maintaining the political security of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remain its core functions.
The United Front Work Department 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 University of International Relations is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China.
The Ministry of State Security (MSS) 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 maintains powerful branches at the provincial, city, municipality and township levels throughout China. The ministry's headquarters, Yidongyuan, is a large compound in Beijing's Haidian district.
The Government of China is engaged in espionage overseas, directed through diverse methods via the Ministry of State Security (MSS), the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), the United Front Work Department (UFWD), People's Liberation Army (PLA) via its Intelligence Bureau of the Joint Staff Department, and numerous front organizations and state-owned enterprises. It employs a variety of tactics including cyber espionage to gain access to sensitive information remotely, signals intelligence, human intelligence as well as influence operations through united front activity targeting overseas Chinese communities and associations. The Chinese government is also engaged in industrial espionage aimed at gathering information and technology to bolster its economy, as well as transnational repression of dissidents abroad such as supporters of the Tibetan independence movement and Uyghurs as well as the Taiwan independence movement, the Hong Kong independence movement, Falun Gong, pro-democracy activists, and other critics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The United States alleges that the degree of intelligence activity is unprecedented in its assertiveness and engagement in multiple host countries, particularly the United States, with economic damages estimated to run into the hundreds of billions according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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.
The Chinese Students and Scholars Association is the official organization for overseas Chinese students and scholars registered in most colleges and universities outside of the People's Republic of China. The associations in different institutions share a common name. The stated function of CSSAs is helping overseas Chinese in their life, study, work, and other issues, bringing Chinese students together on campus, serving as a bridge between Chinese and other communities, and promoting Chinese culture. The groups typically host events such as annual Chinese New Year galas, holiday celebrations, academic forums and talent recruitment competitions tied to the Thousand Talents Plan.
Wang Jisi is a Chinese academic and international relations scholar. He currently serves as the president of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University. He served as the Dean of Peking University's School of International Studies from 2005 to 2013 and has held the position of Peking University Boya Chair Professor since 2017.
The China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations is the cover identity of the 11th Bureau of the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS). It is a set of research institutes used 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. Born into an elite princeling family, Yu ascended to head of North American operations for China's Ministry of State Security (MSS), during which time he acted as a double agent, passing information to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Described by his former FBI handler as "the ultimate risk taker", Yu ultimately fled China for the United States in 1986. His disclosures most famously exposed CIA officer Larry Wu-Tai Chin as having been a mole for China for more than 40 years.
The Guangming Daily, also known as the Enlightenment Daily, is a national Chinese-language daily newspaper published in the People's Republic of China. It was established in 1949 as the official paper of the China Democratic League. Starting from 1982, it was run by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and was officially recognized as an institution directly under the Central Committee of the CCP from 1994. As one of China's "big three" newspapers during the Cultural Revolution, it played an important role in the political struggle between Hua Guofeng and the Gang of Four in 1976 and between Hua and Deng Xiaoping in 1978.
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.
The 12th Bureau of the Ministry of State Security, known publicly as the China International Culture Exchange Center under an arrangement called "one institution with two names", is a set of research institutes operated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), the principal civilian intelligence agency of the People's Republic of China as a front organization. CICEC was founded in 1984 and is active in operations to influence foreign think tanks, academics, and other high-profile foreigners. In addition to the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, CICEC is considered one of the main front organizations utilized for foreign influence operations by the MSS.
Alex W. Joske is a Chinese-Australian author, sinologist, open-source intelligence researcher, and risk consultant who investigates the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), particularly its influence operations. Previously a researcher with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NBC News His first major work influenced legislation in the United States Congress to ban Chinese military (PLA) officials from sensitive U.S. government laboratories. He was publicly banned from entering China by the Chinese government in 2020 due to his work. In 2022, he released his first book, Spies and Lies, about the clandestine operations of the Ministry of State Security and United Front Work Department.
The minister of state security is a Chinese government position within the constituent departments of the State Council which functions as the head of the Ministry of State Security. The position reports directly to the head of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission (CPLC) of the Chinese Communist Party. Within the State Council, the position is ninth in order of precedence. All ministers of state security have held the position as civilians, they are each awarded the police rank of Commissioner General. Like the minister of public security, the minister holds the police badge identification number 000001.
Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer is a 2019 book by Peter Mattis and Matthew Brazil which examines the history of intelligence collection, analysis, and exploitation since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The Shanghai State Security Bureau is a municipal bureau of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) charged with intelligence operations in the country's most populous city. With tens of thousands of employees, it is one of the most aggressive and internationally active units of the MSS, conducting long-term global foreign espionage operations and major cyberespionage campaigns which stretch far beyond the Shanghai metropolis. The bureau acts in concert with the Shanghai Municipal Party Secrecy Committee, and the two represent themselves publicly as one institution, a front called the Shanghai Secrecy Administration Bureau.
Chinese espionage in California includes influence operations, political intelligence gathering, and industrial espionage. The state faces "the most mature" MSS networks of any in the United States. Activities in California may be coordinated by the Ministry of State Security (MSS) United States Bureau, which was established around 2010 to manage operations across the country. Espionage activities are especially common in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Chinese government's effort is long-term; they try to recruit politicians early in their career so that if they advance to the national level, that politician will be primed to advocate for Chinese interests.
The Guangdong State Security Department is a division of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) responsible for intelligence collection and secret policing in the province of Guangdong. Established as one of the original 14 semi-autonomous provincial MSS units in 1983, the department is involved in expansive human intelligence efforts, information operations, and cyber espionage campaigns. It is headquartered in the provincial capital of Guangzhou.
