User:Abovfold/Sandbox/Organizational Structure of the Ministry of State Security

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Insignia of the Ministry of State Security

The Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China is divided between a headquarters and semiautonomous affiliates under joint control of the agency headquarters and each of the provinces. The headquarters, located in the Yidongyuan compound in the Xiyuan area of the Haidian District in Beijing, contains a variety of its own subordinate bureaus and an estimated 10,000 employees.

The remaining 100,000 employees of the MSS are spread across the semi-autonomous State Security Departments (國家安全廳; guójiā ānquán tīng) in each province and each of the country's five autonomous regions (Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Xinjiang, and Tibet), and State Security Bureaus (國家安全局; guójiā ānquán jú) in the most cities, most notably the four direct-administered municipalities (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing).[1] There are a few unreliable reports that starting in 2018, all of the State Security Departments and Bureaus began to be redesignated as State Security Committees and subordinated to their respective local party committees.[2] "State security" is sometimes alternately transliterated as "national security", with SSD/Bs sometimes referred to as NSD/B's.

The MSS is engaged in widespread use of front organizations, and also operates several think tanks, schools, and training facilities.

The cream of the crop MSS recruits, those that attended universities in Beijing, and have high party connections, end up working directly for MSS headquarters, as do many transfers who have proven themselves in other agencies. Capable recruits with slightly lower grades or fewer elite connections are often assigned to the best subordinate offices, such as the municipal bureaus of Shanghai or Tianjin, or the provincial departments of Guangdong or Zhejiang.[3] The Shaanxi and Gansu state security departments may only get high quality talent if recent graduates are forced back to their original homes because of China’s internal migration controls. According to sinologist Peter Mattis "there may also be other differences that affect the quality of MSS elements, such as access to technology or those skilled in its use, as well as foreign language capability. The responsibilities for state security undoubtedly vary across locations."[4]

MSS Headquarters[edit]

The headquarters has operations divided by target area and by intelligence discipline, as well as support functions. Intelligence entities under the operational control of MSS headquarters include nearly 20 known numbered bureaus, though their numbering appears to have evolved over time and may be unreliable.

Confidential Communication (1)

International Intelligence (2)

Political & Economic Intelligence (3)

Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao (4)

Analysis and Dissemination (5)

Operational Guidance (6)

Counterespionage (7)

Counterespionage Investigation (8)

Internal Security (9)

External Security Bureau (10) - [5]

China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (11) - CICIR manages open source intelligence and foreign academic outreach

Social Investigation Bureau (12) - the most important bureau to study. Its subsidiary is the China International Culture Exchange Center (CICEC).

China Information Technology Security Evaluation Center (13) - Manages the Chinese National Vulnerability Database. Sometimes called the Bureau of Technical Investigation of Science and Technology[6]

Technical Reconnaissance (14)

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (15)

Imaging Intelligence (16)

Enterprises (17)

United States Bureau (18) - also responsible for the California Bureau, California is the only known state in the United States to receive its own bureau within MSS, signifying the importance and magnitude of MSS operations within the state.

Counterterrorism

Educational facilities[edit]

University of International Relations - UIR, whose campus is located a five minute walk north from MSS headquarters in the Haidian District of Beijing, serves as a recruitment pipeline for raw MSS recruits.

Jiangnan Social University - located outside Shanghai in Suzhou, this facility does not admit students from the general public, but operates the academic publication Journal of Jiangnan Social University, which issues public calls for papers and publishes thought on communist national security theory from academics throughout the country.

Municipal State Security Bureaus[edit]

Beijing State Security Bureau - Runs the Beijing State Security Bureau Detention Centre, a central location for political prisoners. Involved heavily in repression against journalists and activists, appears not to conduct major cyberespionage operations. According to Peter Mattis "the huge number of foreign officials and businesspeople living in and transiting the city probably keep the focus on counterintelligence."[4]

Shanghai State Security Bureau - Significant role in human intelligence (HUMINT) operations against the United States, as well as operating the Nanshan Temple in Hainan as an influence operation against the Buddhist community. Massive array of front organizations. Probably the wealthiest MSS unit.

Tianjin State Security Bureau - Conducts operations against Japan. They run APT10.

Chongqing State Security Bureau

Provincial State Security Departments[edit]

Anhui State Security Department

Fujian State Security Department - Owing to Fujian's location across the strait from Taiwan, this department is heavily involved with operations against the country.

Gansu State Security Department

Guangdong State Security Department - they run APT3.[7]

Guizhou State Security Department

Hainan State Security Department - they run APT40.[7]

Hebei State Security Department

Heilongjiang State Security Department -

Henan State Security Department - The backwater of the MSS.[8]

Hubei State Security Department - They run APT31.[9][10]

Hunan State Security Department

Jiangsu State Security Department - they run APT26.

Jiangxi State Security Department

Jilin State Security Department

Liaoning State Security Department

Qinghai State Security Department

Shaanxi State Security Department

Shandong State Security Department

Shanxi State Security Department

Sichuan State Security Department

Yunnan State Security Department - 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 in Doklam area and India's Ministry of External Affairs to two officers of YSSD.

Zhejiang State Security Department - aligned to espionage operations against Europe[11]

State Security in the autonomous regions[edit]

Inner Mongolia State Security Department

Xinjiang State Security Department - In December 2020, 10 MSS Operatives of Xinjiang State Security Department (XSSD) were arrested in Kabul, Afghanistan by the National Directorate of Security. During Questioning, one of operative told the interrogators that they were gathering information about al Qaeda, Taliban and Turkistan 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 the Haqqani 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.[12][13]

Ningxia State Security Department

Guangxi State Security Department

Tibet State Security Department - In September 2020, A New York City Police Officer of Tibetan descent was arrested for gathering information on Tibetan American community for the Tibet State Security Department (TSSD) of MSS. He was also trying to recruit potential informants inside the local Tibetan community.[14][15] In January 2023, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss charges against the officer.[16]

Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps National Security Bureau

National Security Office of the Central Government in Hong Kong

Front organizations[edit]

Nanshan Temple (which features prominently the Guanyin of Nanshan) is a front operation run by the Shanghai SSB to target the Buddhist community in Southeast Asia.

China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy - A think tank run by MSS veterans to engage in Social Investigation work and open source intelligence collection and influence operations.

China National Technical Import and Export Corporation - A front company engaged primarily in engineering projects in the Belt and Road Initiative which is also used by the Shanghai SSB to fund and manage intelligence operations including the Nanshan Temple of which it owns a 54% stake.

Cyberespionage[edit]

The MSS has been found to be responsible for many advanced persistent threat groups including:

Threat actor MSS unit attributed Time active Characteristics
APT3 Guangdong State Security Department[7]
APT10 Tianjin State Security Bureau[7]
APT26 Jiangsu State Security Department
APT30 Jinan City State Security Bureau[7]
APT31 Hubei State Security Department[9][10] Known for router and IoT exploitation
APT40 Hainan State Security Department

References[edit]

  1. ^ Joske, Alex (2022). Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World. Melbourne: Hardie Grant. ISBN 9781743797990. OCLC 1347020692.
  2. ^ "State Security Bureau | Bitter Winter". 2019-01-22. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  3. ^ Joske, Alex (2022). "The Revolving Door: Scholars and the MSS". Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World. Melbourne: Hardie Grant. p. 128. ISBN 9781743797990. OCLC 1347020692. China Reform Forum's MSS officers come from the agency's headquarters, where staff are usually the cream of the crop. Many are transfers from other agencies, like the police or military, or top-tier graduates of specialised MSS training institutions like the University of International Relations and other elite universities in Beijing. Capable graduates with local connections and somewhat lower grades might find jobs in Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Tianjin.
  4. ^ a b Mattis, Peter (2015-07-22). "China's New Intelligence War Against the United States". War on the Rocks. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
  5. ^ Joske, Alex (2022). "Wikileaks Reveals the MSS". Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World. Melbourne: Hardie Grant. p. 124. ISBN 9781743797990. OCLC 1347020692. In the 1990s, he was second in command of the 10th Bureau, which handles the Party's 'overseas security' work. That means it ensures security for Chinese diplomatic missions and state-owned enterprises but also actively infiltrates overseas Chinese student groups and dissident organisations
  6. ^ Guo, Xuezhi (2012). China's Security State: Philosophy, Evolution, and Politics. Cambridge University Press. p. 365. ISBN 978-1-107-02323-9. The complete name of the Thirteenth Bureau is the Bureau of Technical Investigation of Science and Technology. This bureau is responsible for the management, research, and development of high technology.
  7. ^ a b c d e "APT40 is run by the Hainan department of the Chinese Ministry of State Security". Intrusion Truth. 2020-01-16. Retrieved 2023-08-07.
  8. ^ Joske, Alex (2022). "The Revolving Door: Scholars and the MSS". Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World. Melbourne: Hardie Grant. p. 128. ISBN 9781743797990. OCLC 1347020692. Woe to those who end up in the landlocked Henan State Security Department, under-resourced, undertrained and overlooked. While Henan province's intelligence officers may have had the same mission as their comrades in Beijing, they had more rustic ways of going about it.
  9. ^ a b "MiSSing links". Intrusion Truth. 2023-05-17. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  10. ^ a b "Trouble in Paradise". Intrusion Truth. 2023-05-15. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  11. ^ Joske, Alex (2022). "Chinagate: The Plot to Buy the White House". Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World. Melbourne: Hardie Grant. p. 68. ISBN 9781743797990. OCLC 1347020692. Danish scholar Jonas Parello-Plesner wrote about how undercover officers of the Zhejiang State Security Department, an MSS branch known for its focus on Europe, attempted to recruit him through the career networking website LinkedIn and then in person
  12. ^ "Apologise, Afghanistan tells China after busting its espionage cell in Kabul". The Hindustan Times. 25 December 2020. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  13. ^ "10 Chinese spies caught in Kabul get a quiet pardon, fly home in chartered aircraft". The Hindustan Times. 4 January 2021. Archived from the original on 15 July 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  14. ^ "New York City police officer spied on fellow Tibetans for China, prosecutors charge". CNBC. 22 September 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-09-22. 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.
  15. ^ Moghe, Sonia (21 September 2022). "NYPD officer accused of acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government". CNN. Archived from the original on 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2021-07-20. 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.
  16. ^ del Valle, Lauren; Levenson, Eric (16 January 2023). "Prosecutors drop charges against NYPD officer accused of acting as foreign agent for China". CNN. Retrieved 17 January 2023.

See also[edit]

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