China should encourage its citizens to join counterespionage work, including creating channels for individuals to report suspicious activity, as well as commending and rewarding them, the Chinese Ministry of State Security wrote on social media yesterday.
A system that makes it “normal” for the masses to participate in counterespionage must be established, said the ministry, which is the main agency overlooking foreign intelligence and anti-spying.
It made the comments in its first post on its WeChat account, which went live on Monday.
Photo: Reuters
In protecting itself from espionage, China would need the participation of its people in building a defense line, the ministry wrote.
The call to popularize work to counter spying among the public follows an expansion of China’s counterespionage law that took effect last month.
The law, which bans the transfer of information related to national security and interests has prompted criticism from the US, which has said that foreign companies in China could be punished for regular business activities.
The revised law allows authorities carrying out an anti-espionage probe to gain access to data, electronic equipment and information on personal property.
Political security is the top priority of national security, and the “core” of political security is the security of China’s political system, Chinese Minister of State Security Chen Yixin (陳一新) wrote last month in an article in a Chinese legal magazine. “The most fundamental is to safeguard the leadership and ruling position of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics.”
In the past few years, China has arrested and detained dozens of Chinese and foreign nationals on suspicion of espionage, including an executive at Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma in March.
Australian journalist Cheng Lei (成蕾), accused by China of providing state secrets to another country, has been detained since September 2020.
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