Yidongyuan

Yidongyuan
颐东苑社区
Buildings within Yidongyuan rise above the perimeter wall at left. The camera is faced north, positioned just past the main entrance.
Yidongyuan is located in Beijing
Yidongyuan
Location within Beijing
General information
AddressNo. 100, Xiyuan, Qinglongqiao, Haidian District, Beijing, China[1]
Coordinates39°59′32″N 116°16′42″E / 39.9920929°N 116.2782940°E / 39.9920929; 116.2782940
Current tenantsMinistry of State Security
Year(s) builtUnknown
Renovatedc. 1983
OwnerGovernment of China
Other information
Public transit accessTrain: Beijing Subway  4   16  Xiyuan
Bus: 129, 303, 346, 432, 476, 610, 636, 671

Yidongyuan (Chinese: 颐东苑社区; pinyin: Yídōngyuàn shèqū; lit. 'East Summer Palace Garden') is a government compound comprised of an office complex and residential community occupying a full city block in the Xiyuan area of the Haidian District of Beijing, China. Closed to the public, and separated by a perimeter wall, the secretive nondescript facility serves as headquarters and staff residences for the Ministry of State Security (MSS). It is believed to be staffed by approximately 10,000 intelligence officers and support staff.[2][3][4][5][6][7]

Unlike foreign counterparts such as the George Bush Center for Intelligence which serves as headquarters for the American CIA, or the Lubyanka Building of the Russian FSB, Yidongyuan is distinct in housing many employees and their families in apartments onsite.

  1. ^ "国家税务总局关于国务院各部门机关后勤体制改革有关税收政策具体问题的通知" [Notice of the State Administration of Taxation on Specific Issues Concerning Taxation Policies Related to the Reform of the Logistics System of Departments and Organs of the State Council]. State Administration of Taxation. August 30, 2000. Archived from the original on 2024-09-02. 中央国家机关后勤改革享受税收政策汽车修理厂: １． 铁道部汽车修理厂（大兴县西红门）；２． 新华社新华汽车维修中心（海淀区四季青板井）；３． 国管局汽车修理厂（丰台区西五里店１７８号）；４． 外交部汽车修理厂（东城区外交部街丙31号）；５． 国家安全部行管局汽车修理厂（海淀区西苑１００号）；６． 国家安全部迅捷汽车修理厂（海淀区西苑甲１号对面）； [Central government agencies’ logistics institutions that benefit from tax policies in the category of auto shops: 1. Railway Ministry auto repair shop (Daxing County Xihongmen); 2. Xinhua News Agency Xinhua Auto Repair Center (Haidian District Sijiqing Banjing); 3. State Administration Bureau auto repair shop (Fengtai District Xiwulidian No. 178); 4. Ministry of Foreign Affairs auto repair shop (Dongcheng District Foreign Affairs Street C No. 31); 5. State Security Bureau Administration auto repair shop (Haidian District Xiyuan No. 100);]{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. ^ Joske, Alex (2022). Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World. Melbourne: Hardie Grant. ISBN 9781743797990. OCLC 1347020692. The Xiyuan or West Garden compound occupies an entire block just east of the Summer Palace, an opulent imperial resort that was looted by foreign armies during the Boxer Rebellion. Street imagery from Chinese internet giant Baidu shows its guarded entrance decorated for the Spring Festival and large golden letters giving another name for the compound: Yidongyuan, the East Summer Palace Garden. Few tourists wandering past its modest walls would know that it houses the headquarters of the MSS, China's peak espionage agency.
  3. ^ Smith, I.C.; West, Nigel (2021). Historical Dictionary of Chinese Intelligence (2nd ed.). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 256. ISBN 9781538130193. The Ministry of State Security, Guojia Anquanbu, is the People's Republic of China's (PRC) government's intelligence arm, headed since 2016 by Chen Wenqing and responsible for foreign intelligence collection and counterintelligence. It is located in Beijing in a large compound in Xiyuan on Eastern Chang'an Avenue, close to Tiananmen Square. Within the security perimeter is an apartment block, Qian Men, where many of the MSS staff and their families live.
  4. ^ Faligot, Roger (2019). Chinese Spies: From Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping. Translated by Lehrer, Natasha (2nd ed.). London: C. Hurst & Co. pp. 118, 125. ISBN 9781787380967. Beijing's Western Park (Xiyuan), one stop after the zoo on the 332 bus and one before the Summer Palace, is an extensive royal park within the Imperial City. It housed the former Diaochabu buildings, now extended and modernized to accommodate the Guoanbu. Satellite photos today show the full extent of this secret ministry. At the beginning of the 1980s, it brought together a dozen large departments." "The consequences of this affair would be great. It triggered an earthquake not only at CIA headquarters in Langley, and in Washington, but also at Xiyuan, the Guoanbu headquarters in Beijing.
  5. ^ Guo, Xuezhi (2012). China’s Security State: Philosophy, Evolution, and Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139150897.010. ISBN 978-1-107-02323-9. The MSS headquarters was located where the previous CID was, at No. 100 Xiyuan, a location with tight security in the western suburbs of Beijing, twenty-five kilometers west of Tiananmen Square.
  6. ^ Wise, David (2011). Tiger Trap: America's Secret Spy War with China. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-547-55310-8. The secret headquarters of the Ministry of State Security is located in Xiyuan, the West Garden section of Beijing, near the Summer Palace. Unsuspecting crowds of foreign and Chinese tourists visit the palace daily, not realizing that they are passing China's spy headquarters.
  7. ^ Mattis, Peter; Brazil, Matthew (2019). Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781682473030. Those in the know referred obliquely to the "Organ in the Western Garden" (中直西苑机关, Zhongzhi Xiyuan jiguan), referring to its location in northwestern Beijing. Under secure circumstances, its name in plain language was Diaocha bu or Zhongdiao bu (调查 部,中调部)