China encourages citizens to engage in counter-espionage activities

The Chinese state security ministry on Tuesday said that citizens should be encouraged to engage in counter-espionage work like creating channels for individuals to report suspicious activity and reward them accordingly. The Ministry of State Security is responsible for overlooking foreign intelligence and anti-spying activities in China. In a social media post, the agency said that a system that normalises people participating in anti-espionage activities must be created. The call to popularise anti-spying work among the masses follows an expansion of China’s counter-espionage law that took effect in July. The law criminalises the transfer of national security-related information. Following its promulgation, the US said that owing to the law foreign companies in China could be punished for carrying out 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. Chen Yixin, the Minister of State Security, said that political security remains the top-most priority of national security and the “core” of political security is the security of China’s political system. “The most fundamental is to safeguard the leadership and ruling 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 on suspicion of espionage, including an executive at 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 declaration that it is under threat from spies comes as Western nations, most prominently the United States, accuse China of espionage and cyberattacks, a charge that Beijing has rejected.

With inputs from Reuters