Here, Chinese intelligence operations take on the distinctive trademark No. (7) of Chinese intelligence work, which does not rely solely on recruiting influential agents to obtain direct and sensitive information, as much as it relies on flooding foreign intelligence services and other opposing counter-espionage agencies with thousands of small-scale espionage operations that many of them seem worthless, but the final result of China’s espionage on its enemies is the sum of what was extracted from these slow and complex intelligence and espionage operations, which is known in Chinese as the “Guanski” tradition, which has its roots dating back many centuries, and is concerned with exploiting slow and strong networks of personal relationships.  For Chinese agents to influence events and obtain information. But we find that much of the information about the Chinese intelligence services comes primarily from dissidents and dissidents fleeing outside Chinese territory, whom the People’s Republic of China accuses of lying to promote an anti-China agenda.

Chinese intelligence services operate through various means, such as: (Ministry of State Security, United Front Work Administration, People’s Liberation Army). The Chinese Ministry of State Security, which was established in China in July 1983 and has 150,000 Chinese employees officially, performs the work of China’s national intelligence service. It is symbolized by the MSS, meaning Chinese Ministry of State Security.

 It is a security agency and intelligence service of the People’s Republic of China, responsible for counter-espionage and all foreign intelligence and political security operations inside and outside Chinese territory, which is its headquarters is located near the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China in the Chinese capital, Beijing. The influence of the Chinese Ministry of State Security extends throughout Chinese society, starting from the headquarters of the main central ministry in the capital, Beijing, to its branches in various provinces and municipalities. We find out that “Chen Wenqing” was the first former Chinese Minister of State Security to be officially appointed to the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, which consists of 24 members, and its Central Secretariat.

What remains worthy of mention and analysis for me, as an expert in Chinese political affairs, is the recent attempt by the Chinese Ministry of State Security to increase its public and political role and to emerge for the first time publicly, by promoting its role in “combatting subversion, separatism, and espionage,” by issuing an official announcement. Thus, to introduce the scope of its work, on the occasion of the “Chinese Police Day”, in the month of January 2024, and this is what, from my analytical point of view, represents a major change in the way the ministry works, and my closest interpretation of this new approach is that the increasing public visibility of the Chinese Ministry of State Security is a Part of the increasing focus of Chinese President Comrade “Xi Jinping” and the ruling Communist Party on security, and President Xi’s attempt to present himself as the most powerful Chinese leader since “Mao Zedong”.

Also, what is new about the same matter, according to my follow-up of the Chinese interior, is the “Chinese Ministry of State Security” is issuing publicly in 2021 details regarding its recruitment mechanism, announcing that it is conducted through a civil service test, and the ministry launching an account on the “Chinese WeChat” application, which it is considered a very popular social networking platform within China to publish all the daily developments of its work. What is interesting and perhaps surprising at the same time is that China celebrated for the first time in 2016 the annual “National Security Education Day” by issuing a cartoon, entitled “Dangerous Love”, in which it urged girls to be wary of foreigners who might be spies. China celebrated  “National Police Day” in 2021 to celebrate the enforcement and passing of this new law in the country.

The Chinese Ministry of State Security works by merging several main departments and divisions, most notably: (the Central Investigation Department, the espionage units in the Ministry of Public Security), and others.  According to Article 4 of the Chinese Criminal Procedure Law, the Chinese Ministry of State Security has the same authority as the regular police to arrest or detain anyone involved in state security crimes under the supervision of prosecutors and courts. The Chinese Ministry of State Security has become China’s main civilian intelligence service, and all official and unofficial intelligence structures in the country operate under its supervision, with the exception of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which has maintained its own military intelligence service, which is directly under the supervision of the Chinese Communist Party and not under direct control to the government.  The two most dangerous departments run by Chinese military intelligence are: (the International Liaison Department of the General Political Department of the People’s Liberation Army, and the United Action Front, which is a body directly affiliated with the supervision of the Chinese Communist Party).

It is based on the work of military intelligence in China, through what is known as the (Third Office), whose mission also focuses on preparing and supervising the selection and employment of Chinese military attaches in foreign embassies, and training them in collecting intelligence information. Therefore, American military intelligence focuses on all workers in the Chinese military attaché has, and constantly accuses them of involvement in secret intelligence activities, and this is what counts in favor of (the Third Bureau of Chinese Military Intelligence) and its success in developing new and innovative methods, and achieving progress in penetrating all foreign intelligence agencies and their military and defense institutions, especially within the United States of America.  Therefore, the United States of America targeted several Chinese companies, accusing them of being used by Beijing within the United States of America to recruit American military companies to obtain emerging American civilian technology for military purposes.

The Chinese Ministry of State Security runs all its intelligence operations based on its agents’ business units, known as “Danwei business networks”. The Chinese Ministry of State Security often begins monitoring and recruiting its officers from the university level, as most of them come from students (Beijing University of International Relations), and this is the fundamental reason for China’s intelligence superiority due to its innovative approach to recruiting intelligence officers at the university levels in order to  Selection of qualified people more precisely, in addition to examining their backgrounds and the extent of their contacts with foreign parties or their travel for a period of residence abroad, and the (Chinese Ministry of State Security) also focuses on the proficiency of its network of agents in foreign languages, through its management of an intensive school to teach languages ​​to officers, in addition to placing them for a long period under supervision. A special department for internal security known as the Ninth Office). The main function of this office is to qualify and train all their agents and cadres in particular. On the other hand, the (Ministry of Public Security in China), which is considered the main national security organization or apparatus in China, supervises all local and regional police departments surrounding Chinese society, and undertakes the task of following up on dissidents and opponents of the policies of China and its ruling Communist Party, in addition to having the powers  Broad, especially in the cyber or technological field.

For this reason, the United States of America no longer has a true vision of the Chinese leadership’s plans and intentions at all, after the execution and imprisonment of many Chinese persons involved in providing information to the United States of America, including high-ranking Chinese officials. At a time when the “CIA” is still keen on rebuilding its espionage capabilities inside China. For this reason, the US Central Intelligence Agency established (a special center to deal with the global challenge posed by China) in 2021, known as the “China Special Task Center” or for short known as: “CMC”.

The United States of America accuses China of using its media offices abroad for intelligence activities, including Chinese governmental and semi-governmental bodies, academies, universities, companies, and even various media outlets, which China has always strongly denied. The United States of America also accused what is known as the National Defense Administration for Science, Technology and Industry of China (or Sustained for short), which is similar to the work of the American Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). American accusations against the “Chinese news agency Xinhua” also increased, that it acts as a cover for Chinese intelligence officers and agents around the world.

For these aforementioned reasons, the administration of former US President Donald Trump classified a number of Chinese institutions as Chinese spy networks within the United States of America, the most prominent of which are: (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), the giant Chinese chip producing company, and the Chinese Petroleum Corporation (CSPC), which is known as “Cinoc”, and the US authorities placed them at the top of a Chinese blacklist, and classified them as companies affiliated with the Chinese army. The US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) also classified four Chinese companies as owned or controlled by the Chinese army, including (China Construction Technology) and  (China International Engineering Consulting Corporation). This brings the number of Chinese companies officially listed on the American blacklist to 35 Chinese entities. The United States of America also accused Chinese hackers linked to working with the (Third Technical Department of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army) of launching extensive and continuous piracy campaigns targeting several  American targets.

Former US President “Donald Trump” also announced on August 1, 2020, the signing of an executive letter to ban the “Chinese TikTok video application” within the United States of America, due to the American authorities’ claim that extensive espionage operations had been carried out through Chinese intelligence through this tool.  Application within the United States. The Director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation “Christopher A. Wray”, also described in July 2020 China as the greatest long-term threat to the United States, stressing that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation opens a new counterintelligence case related to China every 10 hours, out of nearly five thousand active cases of the counterintelligence throughout the country, about half of which is linked to China.

Based on our understanding of this analysis, we find that the utmost importance at the present time within China lies in maintaining national security considerations and combating corruption at all levels of the Chinese state, which led to the dismissal of (9 military officials within the Central Military Committee of the ruling Communist Party in China on charges related to corruption in January 2024, in addition to introducing several amendments to the (Anti-Espionage Law), expanding the scope of China’s definition of espionage, developing new legislation related to data, and China launching a major campaign targeting all foreign consulting companies in 2023.  This explains the reasons for this sensitive intelligence and information conflict between China and the United States of America, with each party accusing the other of interfering in its affairs.

***Dr.Nadia Helmy, Associate Professor of Political Science, Faculty of Politics and Economics / Beni Suef University- Egypt. An Expert in Chinese Politics, Sino-Israeli relationships, and Asian affairs- Visiting Senior Researcher at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES)/ Lund University, Sweden- Director of the South and East Asia Studies Unit

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2024/03/03/how-the-chinese-civilian-and-military-intelligence-agencies-confronting-cia-and-the-pentagon/