Ministry of State Security
The principal civilian intelligence and counterintelligence service of China since 1983
Overview
The MSS was created in 1983 by merging party and government intelligence elements into a single civilian service. Western governments assess that it holds an unusually broad mandate, blending classic espionage with collection against commercial and technological targets. Its counterintelligence arm has detained foreign citizens in prominent cases, and provincial bureaus run operations across the country. It operates with far less public legal visibility than Western agencies, and its budget and staffing remain state secrets. Its officers sometimes operate under academic and business cover, according to prosecuted cases abroad.
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