The New Spy-Hunting Season in China
China’s State Security Ministry issued a public social mobilization order on Aug. 1 through the Chinese social media platform WeChat entitled “Full-Society Mobilization Needed for Counter-Espionage!” It proclaims the need for “all-around social mobilization against espionage” and urges the entire population to report spies, with rewards promised for successful reports.
China’s State Security Ministry is responsible for intelligence and counter-espionage tasks both within and outside China’s borders. It is often likened to a combination of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but it remains a highly secretive government institution with no publicly accessible website detailing its activities. It is known for its unchecked power and practices unbounded by laws. (RELATED: China’s Bid for a Place at the Table)
The State Security Ministry’s Beijing Bureau quickly answered the anti-spy call by offering up to 500,000 yuan (US$72,000) for tips on spy activities. The majority of Chinese earn less than 30,000 yuan per year, so this is a lot of money. Such a hefty reward makes foreigners high-value targets for spy reporting — they are like walking money bags of half-million yuan. The running joke in Chinese social media is, “Let’s go net a few walking money bags.”
After each round of chaotic arrests and executions, the CCP often acknowledges that many of the so-called spies have been falsely accused.
All these calls for mutual surveillance and reporting by members of society remind many Chinese people of the history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aggressively pursuing spies.
Before the CCP seized power in China in 1949, it had already been arresting and executing thousands of CCP members under the pretext of capturing spies in the 1920s and 1940s. In the 1960s, during the Cultural Revolution initiated by Mao Zedong, the CCP even arrested the wife of China’s President Liu Shaoqi on charges of being an “American strategic spy,” and she was imprisoned for over a decade. Countless ordinary Chinese people were also arrested, sentenced, and executed on vague charges of being spies or traitors. (READ MORE: Too Little Too Late?: Biden Administration Bans Investment in Chinese Quantum Computing)
After each round of chaotic arrests and executions, the CCP often acknowledges that many of the so-called spies have been falsely accused. Some of the victims, if they survived the purge, would get their names cleared and rejoin the next round to catch others or be caught again.
Consequently, many Chinese citizens have grown disillusioned with the CCP’s calls to catch spies. However, the popular discontent hasn’t stopped the CCP. Communist parties are known for devouring their owns, and spy-catching is a part of this process.
China passed a comprehensive Counter-Espionage Law in 2014, which is vague yet wields significant power. When the CCP promoted the law, it openly encouraged Chinese children to closely monitor their parents for suspicious activities. Furthermore, China amended the law in April of this year, broadly expanding the coverage of espionage activities without specifics, enabling the state to arrest people on espionage charges at will. All these triggered strong resentment and fear among the Chinese population.
The CCP constantly wages anti-spy campaigns in order to maintain its absolute rule, which it does by terrifying people and creating enemies to distract them from policy failures. Furthermore, due to its lack of legitimacy, the CCP is always paranoid about being overthrown. So its leadership genuinely believes that many Chinese people and foreign states are trying to topple it. Now, facing strong domestic discontent from three-years of Covid lockdowns and the rising confrontation with the West, the CCP senses an unprecedented threat, which may have pushed it to resort to the old trick of mobilizing the entire nation to catch spies.
Needless to say, the new spy-hunting season has caused a serious concern for many countries. Michael Hart, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, told reporters “the campaign has had a chilling effect on US businesses in China, leading some to wonder ‘who’s next?’” The British Chamber of Commerce in China has also said its members are feeling unsettled. Many insurance underwriters no longer provide or have reduced their coverages of political risks to foreign companies in China.
Foreign visitors, business travelers, and especially employees of foreign firms in China are at high risk. Foreign-related firms specializing in information collection and analysis, such as consulting firms, rating agencies, or even accounting firms, are most vulnerable. (READ MORE: China’s Post-Covid Economy Circles the Drain)
Facing such a risk, what can foreign travelers and firms do?
I was a victim of the CCP’s spy-hunting campaign in 2001 when I went to China for business. I was secretly arrested upon entering China. The CCP did not like my political view and my support for Taiwan and charged me with “spying for Taiwan.” With strong support from the international community and especially the US government, I was freed after five months. Based on my experience, I have the following comments for potential travelers to China.
First, consider not going. Even if you never criticized the CCP, you are still at risk because arrests are arbitrary, and you can be arrested because of someone you know or just because it is convenient; the CCP may just need a hostage.
Second, be prepared for the worse before you go. If you are arrested, be calm, be prepared for the long haul, and demand to see the US consul immediately. Lawyers cannot help you much.
Third, international pressure helps. Before you go, tell your family to publicize your case if you are arrested and to seek international help. Do not believe the CCP’s “advice” to keep it quiet so that they will release you soon.
Finally, regarding its new spy-catching campaign, will the situation get better? Will the CCP end the campaign?
People who hope that the CCP will restore the rule of law and end the spy-catching craze misunderstand the nature of the CCP. Yes, the CCP had some more reasonable period in which it deemphasized spy-catching. But the CCP did that not because it wanted to establish the rule of law, but rather because it had other priorities, such as saving the economy and desperately seeking foreign investment. We must remember that the CCP is highly practical and opportunistic; it can emphasize catching spies or deemphasize it depending on its priority, not on the rule of law. So even if it ends the anti-spy campaign in the near future, we should not believe that the CCP has had a change of heart; it can reactivate the campaign anytime. All these opportunistic policies serve one paramount goal: maintaining absolute rule.
Shaomin Li is a Professor of International Business at Old Dominion University.
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