A Chinese flag flies near people queuing to be tested at a makeshift nucleic acid testing site, amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak in Beijing, China, May 18 2022. Photo by Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
China should encourage its citizens to join in counterintelligence work, including creating channels for individuals to report suspicious activity as well as praising and rewarding them, China’s Security Ministry said on Tuesday. State.
A system that makes mass participation in counterintelligence “normal” must be put in place, the Ministry of State Security, the main foreign intelligence and counterintelligence agency, wrote in its first message on his WeChat account, which went live on Monday.
The call to popularize anti-intelligence work among the masses follows an expansion of China’s counter-intelligence law that came into effect in July.
The law, which prohibits the transfer of information related to national security and interests it does not specify, has alarmed the United States, saying foreign companies in China could be punished for regular business activities.
The revised law allows authorities conducting an anti-espionage investigation to access data, electronic equipment and personal property information.
Political security is the top priority of national security, and the “core” of political security is the security of China’s political system, State Security Minister Chen Yixin wrote in an article in a Chinese legal magazine. in July.
“The most fundamental thing is to safeguard the leadership and leading position of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics,” Chen said.
In recent years, China has arrested and detained dozens of Chinese and foreign nationals suspected of spying, including an executive of Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma in March.
Australian journalist Cheng Lei, accused by China of providing state secrets to another country, has been detained since September 2020.
China’s statement that it is under threat from spies comes as Western countries, primarily the United States, accuse China of espionage and cyberattacks, a charge Beijing has denied.
The United States itself is “the piracy empire,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.
To protect itself from espionage, China would need the participation of its people in building a line of defense, the Ministry of State Security wrote in its WeChat post.
