Beijing State Security Bureau

Beijing State Security Bureau
Chinese: 北京市国家安全局

BSSB listing address at the Beijing Ministry of Public Security headquarters
Bureau overview
FormedMay 1984; 40 years ago (1984-05)
Preceding bureau
  • Beijing Public Security Bureau counterintelligence unit
JurisdictionBeijing, China
HeadquartersPuhuangyu, Fangzhuang, Fengtai District, Beijing, China
EmployeesClassified
Annual budgetClassified
Bureau executive
  • Director
Parent ministryMinistry of State Security
Child bureau
  • Beijing State Security Bureau Detention Centre

The Beijing State Security Bureau (Chinese: 北京市国家安全局; BSSB) is a municipal bureau of the Chinese Ministry of State Security tasked with national security, intelligence and secret policing in the country's capital. Like other state security bureaus, the Beijing bureau is semi-autonomous from the national headquarters of the MSS located across the city. Established in May 1984 from parts of the Beijing public security bureau,[1] the bureau has been accused of numerous human rights abuses, and has been involved in the arrest of journalists, jailing of dissidents, torture of businessmen, and was responsible for abducting the "two Michael's" used as hostages in exchange for Canada's release of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wangzhou.

The bureau appears to place a heavy emphasis on internal and political security operations. While Beijing may be well suited for operations against foreign countries, and nearly all MSS bureaus specialize in one area or another, according to Chinese intelligence expert Peter Mattis, "the huge number of foreign officials and businesspeople living in and transiting the city probably keep the focus on counterintelligence."[2]

The bureau has 21 operational divisions and is headquartered in a nondescript building at Puhuangyu in Fangzhuang subdistrict, Fengtai District of Beijing.[3][better source needed] One of the most recent additions was the Shijingshan District bureau, established in 2005.[4] The bureau also operates a detention facility which holds sensitive political prisoners transferred from across the country to a central location in Beijing.[5]

  1. ^ Joske, Alex (2023). "State security departments: The birth of China's nationwide state security system" (PDF). Deserepi: Studies in Chinese Communist Party External Work.
  2. ^ Mattis, Peter (22 July 2015). "China's New Intelligence War Against the United States". War on the Rocks. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  3. ^ Yifan, Li (25 April 2006). "揭揭北京市国家安全局的老底" [Exposing the old background of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of State Security]. Google Groups (in Chinese). Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  4. ^ Pei, Minxin (2024). The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China. Harvard University Press. p. 117. ISBN 9780674257832. For example, the state security outfit in Beijing's Shijingshan District was established only in 2005. (from 北京石景山年鉴 ["Beijing Shijingshan Statistical Yearbook"] 2006, p. 201.)
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).