ABSTRACT
In countries like the USA, the UK and Russia, intelligence work is seen as a prestige occupation with the intelligence agencies able to recruit high-quality applicants. The Chinese intelligence services are no exception in having a culture defined by their early experiences and political context. The role of intelligence in statecraft has had a long history within China beginning with Sunzi’s Bingfa, generally translated into English as The Art of War. In 1983, the re-established Investigation Department of the CCP was merged with the counter-intelligence and counter-espionage departments of the Ministry of Public Security to form a new Ministry of State Security. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) headquarter in Beijing comprises some eighteen bureaux covering different aspects of intelligence collection, analysis, counter-intelligence, counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, communications, technical imagery and administration. MSS targeting efforts against the USA were also greatly facilitated by cyberattacks on the database of the Office of Personnel Management that took place between 2014 and 2015.
