User:Abovfold/Sandbox/Organizational Structure of the Ministry of State Security

Insignia of the Ministry of State Security

The Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China is divided between a headquarters and semiautonomous affiliates under joint control of the agency headquarters and each of the provinces. The headquarters, located in the Yidongyuan compound in the Xiyuan area of the Haidian District in Beijing, contains a variety of its own subordinate bureaus and an estimated 10,000 employees.

The remaining 100,000 employees of the MSS are spread across the semi-autonomous units whose names vary somewhat across the country.[1] Generally there is a State Security Department (國家安全廳; guójiā ānquán tīng) in each province and each of the country's five autonomous regions (Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Xinjiang, and Tibet), and State Security Bureaus (國家安全局; guójiā ānquán jú) in the most cities, most notably the four direct-administered municipalities (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing).[2] "State security" is sometimes alternately transliterated as "national security", with SSD/Bs sometimes referred to as NSD/B's.

The MSS is engaged in widespread use of front organizations, and also operates several think tanks, schools, and training facilities.

The cream of the crop MSS recruits, those that attended universities in Beijing, and have high party connections, end up working directly for MSS headquarters, as do many transfers who have proven themselves in other agencies. Capable recruits with slightly lower grades or fewer elite connections are often assigned to the best subordinate offices, such as the municipal bureaus of Shanghai or Tianjin, or the provincial departments of Guangdong or Zhejiang.[3] The Shaanxi and Gansu state security departments may only get high quality talent if recent graduates are forced back to their original homes because of China’s internal migration controls. According to sinologist Peter Mattis "there may also be other differences that affect the quality of MSS elements, such as access to technology or those skilled in its use, as well as foreign language capability. The responsibilities for state security undoubtedly vary across locations."[4]

  1. ^ Pei, Minxin (2024). The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China. Harvard University Press. p. 117. ISBN 9780-674296466. The naming conventions for local MSS agencies vary; for the sake of simplicity, I will refer to them using one of the common terms: state security bureau, or SSB.
  2. ^ Joske, Alex (2022). Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World. Melbourne: Hardie Grant. ISBN 9781743797990. OCLC 1347020692.
  3. ^ Joske, Alex (2022). "The Revolving Door: Scholars and the MSS". Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World. Melbourne: Hardie Grant. p. 128. ISBN 9781743797990. OCLC 1347020692. China Reform Forum's MSS officers come from the agency's headquarters, where staff are usually the cream of the crop. Many are transfers from other agencies, like the police or military, or top-tier graduates of specialised MSS training institutions like the University of International Relations and other elite universities in Beijing. Capable graduates with local connections and somewhat lower grades might find jobs in Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Tianjin.
  4. ^ Mattis, Peter (2015-07-22). "China's New Intelligence War Against the United States". War on the Rocks. Retrieved 2023-08-02.