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118-783: The origins of the MSS begin with the CCP's Central Special Branch, better known as the Teke, which was replaced by the Central Social Affairs Department (SAD) in 1936, which was in turn succeeded by the Central Investigation Department (CID) – the MSS's immediate predecessor – in 1955. In 1983 CID was merged with the counterintelligence elements of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) to create

236-426: A traitor . Historically, in common law countries, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife or that of a master by his servant. Treason (i.e. disloyalty) against one's monarch was known as high treason and treason against a lesser superior was petty treason . As jurisdictions around the world abolished petty treason, "treason" came to refer to what

354-402: A Chinese driver was employed by Senator Dianne Feinstein who was notified that the driver was being investigated for possible Chinese spying. At some point, he visited China and was recruited by China's MSS. He worked for Senator Feinstein for several years. The FBI concluded the driver hadn't revealed anything of substance. The fundamental purpose of our counter-espionage struggle is to defend

472-421: A citizen and not enjoying any of the benefits of being one - Billy owed no loyalty to Virginia and therefore had committed no treason. This was a ground-breaking case, since in earlier similar cases slaves were found guilty of treason and executed. Under very different circumstances, a similar defense was put forward in the case of William Joyce , nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw , who had broadcast Nazi propaganda to

590-594: A decision taken by the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party on 18 February 1939. The decision assigned to the department some five major tasks, including those of overseeing CCP counter-intelligence work and intelligence . An alternative designation of the department at this early stage was the "Central Commission for Enemy Area Operations." The first director of the SAD was Kang Sheng . By

708-417: A false confession in order to build a case against the accused. Kang's counterintelligence inquisition utilized "techniques of punishment and interrogation inspired by the millennia-long Chinese tradition of torture , updated by twentieth-century Stalinism for the requirements of the era" with torture practices including driving bamboo spikes under fingernails , inserting hair from a horse's tail into

826-584: A form of political control. Edward Coke decides in R v Owen that mere speech about the monarch could be treason if it "disabled his title" in departure from his earlier statement "it is commonly said that bare words may make a heretick, but not a traytor without an overt act". In English law , high treason was punishable by being hanged, drawn and quartered (men) or burnt at the stake (women), although beheading could be substituted by royal command (usually for royalty and nobility). Those penalties were abolished in 1814, 1790 and 1973 respectively. The penalty

944-610: A list of companies and organizations considered to be at risk of foreign infiltration and requiring them to take security measures. In addition, staff travelling on business trips to the Five Eyes countries (the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) have been ordered to report all contact with foreign personnel, participate in anti-espionage seminars, and leave mobile phones, laptops, and USB drives at home before traveling abroad. In September 2022, it

1062-547: A local constabulary and counterintelligence service. Under Kang Sheng and his deputy Li Kenong, the SAD provided the CCP foreign intelligence, domestic intelligence, military security, and political security in every province in which communist forces held terrain. The Social Affairs Department was constructed similarly to the Soviet model (as Kang had been trained by Soviet intelligence in Moscow): From 1942 to 1944, as

1180-601: A mandatory sentence of life imprisonment . According to Brazilian law , treason is the crime of disloyalty by a citizen to the Federal Republic of Brazil , applying to combatants of the Brazilian military forces. Treason during wartime is the only crime for which a person can be sentenced to death (see capital punishment in Brazil ) . The only military person in the history of Brazil to be convicted of treason

1298-658: A number of concentration camps ( Chinese : 劳改 ; pinyin : Láogǎi ) where apprehended enemy spies like the Taiwanese "Society of the Continent" network in Tianjin . The 2nd Bureau of the MSS was responsible for foreign intelligence collection beginning in the nearby capitals of Tokyo , Bangkok , and Singapore . Intelligence officers of the 2nd Bureau operated under diplomatic cover posing as advisors or secretaries to diplomats in-country. The MSS' 3rd Bureau

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1416-598: A person helping an enemy in time of war or conflict. During the American Revolution , a slave named Billy was sentenced to death on charges of treason to Virginia for having joined the British in their war against the American colonists - but was eventually pardoned by Thomas Jefferson , then Governor of Virginia . Jefferson accepted the argument, put forward by Billy's well-wishers, that - not being

1534-475: A photograph and alerted the KMT authorities. A number of KMT agents appeared and tackled Gu, not only gleeful to have detained one of their most challenging communist adversaries but were successful in turning the spymaster against the communists making Gu the most notorious intelligence traitor in modern Chinese history. As Gu provided the KMT with a flood of Teke agents' names and safe house locations, Zhou's spy inside

1652-517: A radically different concept of loyalty and treason, under which sovereignty resides with "The Nation" or "The People" - to whom also the monarch has a duty of loyalty, and for failing which the monarch, too, could be accused of treason. Charles I in England and Louis XVI in France were found guilty of such treason and duly executed. However, when Charles II was restored to his throne, he considered

1770-687: A senior position in the security services from Luo and to gain a stronghold over the party's security apparatus, Kang Sheng prepared a traitorous dossier on Luo complete with accusations of "illicit intercourse with foreigners". Lin Biao sent for Luo's arrest, and, under appalling conditions of incarceration and interrogation, Luo attempted to commit suicide in March by throwing himself from his cell breaking two legs after which Red Guards forced him to make his own self-criticism . As Mao Zedong launched his Cultural Revolution in 1966, Kang Sheng attempted to limit

1888-469: A target of many senior communist officials, many of whom found themselves in Kang's sights. Another less likely explanation from Mao's physician , Li Zhuisui , claims that Kang suffered acute paranoia and symptoms of schizophrenia and was consequently sent to a mental asylum . American intelligence reportedly believed Kang's downfall was the result of the collapse of the pro-Stalinist faction proceeding

2006-576: A wheelchair after Red Guards threw him from a high window . After these experiences, Deng was committed to reforming the Chinese intelligence services. Deng first initiated a small but meaningful campaign to degrade Kang Sheng's legacy, which began with Hu Yaobang's speech. Next, Deng subordinated the Central Investigative Department into a minor political organ. Finally, Deng took all the "external intelligence expertise" from

2124-435: Is a Japanese agent or a Kuomintang spy—or both. We must begin a ruthless hunt to root out these two plagues from Yan'an because, by fighting against deviationism, we weaken the clandestine plots of our enemies, and vice versa." Convinced that at least 30 percent of his organization were counterrevolutionaries and spies, Kang established a counterintelligence quota which contributed greatly to the practice of bigongxin , forcing

2242-610: Is also illegal for a Canadian citizen or a person who owes allegiance to His Majesty in right of Canada to do any of the above outside Canada. The penalty for high treason is life imprisonment. The penalty for treason is imprisonment up to a maximum of life, or up to 14 years for conduct under subsection (2)(b) or (e) in peacetime. In China , there are different laws regarding treason in Mainland China , Hong Kong or Macau . The law defining treason in Mainland China

2360-718: Is going on outside the country. Li emphasized that MSS's most important mission is, "to control the Chinese people to maintain the rule of the Communist Party." In 2012, an executive assistant to MSS vice minister Lu Zhongwei was found to have been passing information to the CIA. Lu Zhongwei was not formally charged, but that incident was said to have infuriated Hu Jintao and led to a tightening on information dissemination and increased counterintelligence activities in Beijing and abroad. The Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB) of

2478-585: Is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for 14 years. Finnish law distinguishes between two types of treasonable offences: maanpetos , treachery in war, and valtiopetos , an attack against the constitutional order. The terms maanpetos and valtiopetos are unofficially translated as treason and high treason, respectively. Both are punishable by imprisonment, and if aggravated, by life imprisonment. Maanpetos (translates literally to betrayal of land ) consists in joining enemy armed forces, making war against Finland , or serving or collaborating with

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2596-457: Is liable on conviction on indictment to life imprisonment. where "enemy at war with China" is defined as a government of a foreign country or external armed force that is at war with China and "external armed force" means an armed force that does not belong to China. Section 11 of the same ordinance also provides that: A Chinese citizen who intends to commit an offence under section 10(1) and publicly manifests such intention commits an offence and

2714-633: Is provided under article 102 of the Criminal Law as follows: Whoever colludes with a foreign State to endanger the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of the People's Republic of China shall be sentenced to life imprisonment or fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years. Section 10 of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance provides that: A Chinese citizen who— commits an offence and

2832-400: Is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government , spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state . A person who commits treason is known in law as

2950-495: Is the internal treason, and may include a coup d'état . "Crimes Related to Foreign Aggression" is the treason of cooperating with foreign aggression positively regardless of the national inside and outside. "Crimes Related to Inducement of Foreign Aggression" is the crime of communicating with aliens secretly to cause foreign aggression or menace. Depending on the country, conspiracy is added to these. In Australia , there are federal and state laws against treason, specifically in

3068-655: The Washington Times in an interview that the MSS was engaged in counterintelligence, the collection of secrets and technology from other countries, and repressing internal dissent within China. The internal repression, according to Li, includes efforts against house churches , the underground church and the Falun Gong religious group, plus censoring the Internet to prevent China's population from knowing what

3186-555: The Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs . Although the MSS maintains loyalty to party and ideology as a central mission, its founding represents the first time that a Chinese intelligence organ was placed under the State Council instead of the party. The 1st Bureau of the new MSS managed internal affairs and security in each of the provinces with the help of local and regional offices. The MSS also maintained

3304-543: The Commission for Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND). The 11th Bureau managed computers , networks , and information technology equipment, and finally the 12th Bureau was responsible for liaising with foreign intelligence services under the name of the Office of Foreign Affairs. Officers of the 12th Bureau worked with the CIA's David Gries, BND 's Dr. Herms Bahl, MI6 's Nigel Inkster , and

3422-719: The Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) creates an offence which is derived from section 3 of the Treason Felony Act 1848 : 12 Compassing etc deposition of the Sovereign–overawing Parliament etc Whosoever, within New South Wales or without, compasses, imagines, invents, devises, or intends to deprive or depose Our Most Gracious Lady the Queen, her heirs or successors, from the style, honour, or Royal name of

3540-550: The DGSE 's Thierry Imbot while keeping them under surveillance. The so-called Office of Foreign Affairs also took up duties to surveil visiting tourists , diplomats, and journalists who began to enter the country after China's opening to the world. The MSS' first head announced "The intelligence agencies and secret services of some foreign countries have increased their spying activities against China's state secrets and are now sending agents to subvert and destroy our country." One of

3658-494: The Expatriation Act of 1868 , which granted Americans the right to freely renounce their U.S. citizenship. Britain followed suit with a similar law, and years later, signed a treaty agreeing to treat British subjects who had become U.S. citizens as no longer holding British nationality - and thus no longer liable to a charge of treason. Many nations' laws mention various types of treason. "Crimes Related to Insurrection"

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3776-456: The French armed forces , or all or part of the national territory, to a foreign power, to a foreign organisation or to an organisation under foreign control, or to their agents". It is punishable by life imprisonment and a fine of € 750,000. Generally parole is not available until 18 years of a life sentence have elapsed. Articles 411–3 to 411–10 define various other crimes of collaboration with

3894-583: The Galwan Valley clash. Those bloggers had suggested that the death toll of the China-India border clash was 11   times higher than the official count of four. In late April 2021, the Ministry of State Security announced that it was introducing several new measures to fight alleged infiltration by "hostile forces" of Chinese companies and other institutions. These measures include drawing up

4012-469: The German criminal code is defined as an attempt against the existence or the constitutional order of the Federal Republic of Germany that is carried out either with the use of violence or the threat of violence. It carries a penalty of life imprisonment or a fixed term of at least ten years. In less serious cases, the penalty is 1–10 years in prison. German criminal law also criminalises high treason against

4130-594: The Roman authorities under threat of persecution during the Diocletianic Persecution between AD 303 and 305. Originally, the crime of treason was conceived of as being committed against the monarch ; a subject failing in his duty of loyalty to the sovereign and acting against the sovereign was deemed to be a traitor. Queens Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were executed for treason for adultery against Henry VIII , although most historians regard

4248-632: The Treason Act 1351 (25 Edw.3 c. 2). This section reproduces section 6 of the Treason Felony Act 1848 . The offence of treason was created by section 9A(1) of the Crimes Act 1958 . It is punishable by a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. In South Australia, treason is defined under Section 7 of the South Australia Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 and punished under Section 10A. Any person convicted of treason against South Australia will receive

4366-594: The Treason Act 1817 have been repealed by Section 11 of the Crimes Act 1900 , except in so far as they relate to the compassing, imagining, inventing, devising, or intending death or destruction, or any bodily harm tending to death or destruction, maim, or wounding, imprisonment, or restraint of the person of the heirs and successors of King George III of the United Kingdom , and the expressing, uttering, or declaring of such compassings, imaginations, inventions, devices, or intentions, or any of them. Section 12 of

4484-693: The U.S. Department of Justice described the agency as being like a combination of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Australian author Clive Hamilton described it as being similar to an amalgamation of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) "with a lot more power and less subject to

4602-570: The emblem of the Chinese Communist Party and the official uniform is identical to that of the other People's Police, with the only difference being the patch on the right arm with the Chinese characters "国安" ("State Security"). Article 4 of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China gives the MSS the same authority to arrest or detain people as MPS for crimes involving state security with identical supervision by

4720-425: The penis , pumping high-pressure water into the vagina , cutting off the breasts of women looking for their tortured husbands, forcing the ingestion of large amounts of vinegar , applying burning incense to armpits , tying to a whipped horse's tail, and live burials. Kang's perceived connection between political deviation and traitorship led many senior leaders to avoid criticizing Kang's purges. Known by 1944 as

4838-545: The "party hangman", Kang was eventually opposed by Zhou Enlai and later Mao Zedong who forced Kang to produce his own self-criticism proclaiming that perhaps only 10 percent of the comrades accused were spies and, in November 1944, relieved him of the position as head of the Social Affairs Department. Various rumors for the cause of his removal endure. One version claims that his paranoid purges made him

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4956-408: The 1867 Fenian Rising , when Irish-Americans who had gone to Ireland to participate in the uprising and were caught were charged with treason, as the British authorities considered them to be British subjects. This outraged many Irish-Americans, to which the British responded by pointing out that, just like British law, American law also recognized perpetual allegiance. As a result, Congress passed

5074-481: The BIS, Qian Zhuangfei, immediately notified Zhou and Kang Shang who were able to relocate every Teke agent within two days — avoiding a potential extermination of CCP's core. Some agents, however, were located and arrested. On 21 June 1931, presumably with help from Gu's defection, the KMT captured CCP General Secretary Xiang Zhongfa hiding in a jewelry store with his cabaret dancer mistress. Despite offering to convert to

5192-658: The CCP's underground intelligence ring. Having been born in Shanghai on "the wrong side of the tracks " according to French author Roger Faligot , Gu lived crudely out of bars smoking opium, having affairs, and joining the Green Gang but made a name for himself as a magician. Made a bodyguard for Mikhail Borodin , the Comintern agent and advisor to the Kuomintang from Soviet Russia, Gu was sent to Vladivostok to learn

5310-482: The CCP. Although they may be practical in terms of techniques and methods to acquire intelligence, this information is filtered through a Marxist–Leninist lens. The implication is that foreign targets are viewed in the worst possible light." The MSS is a civilian agency that controls its own separate police force, the "State Security Police", which is one of the four components of the People's Police . The MSS seal contains

5428-477: The Central Investigation Department (CID) who kept close watch on diplomats and embassy staff, often sitting in on meetings and reporting back to CID headquarters' Eight Bureau (known later as the "Institute of Contemporary International Relations"). On 9 February 1962, Li Kenong died after a period of illness from the residual effects of brain damage from a fall he had sustained three years prior. Kong Yuan, Kang Sheng's former secretary and friend of Zhou Enlai, ran

5546-407: The Central Investigative Department and consolidated it and all the CCP's espionage and counterintelligence functions into a new, "revolutionized" Chinese intelligence service, fitting of the new era of the Chinese "opening-up" to the world. Proposed by Premier Zhao Ziyang and Minister of Public Security Liu Fuzhi and approved at the first session of the sixth National People's Congress ( NPC ),

5664-547: The Central Investigative Department, and consequently PRC leadership, was caught by surprise by the Vietnamese invasion. Unable to contact the Khmer Rouge who, under the leadership of Ta Mok, had escaped into the jungles to organize a guerrilla resistance with only one Chinese agent carrying a defective satellite radio , a thousand Chinese military advisors fled Cambodia via Thailand and left 4,000 civilian advisors to

5782-477: The Central Special Branch ( Chinese : 中央特科 ; pinyin : Zhōngyāng Tè Kē , often shortened to Teke; sometimes written Special Services Section (SSS)) to conduct "special operations" work. With Xiang Zhongfa and Gu Shunzhang 's assistance, Zhou designed the organization that many Chinese intelligence officers today see as the origins of their enterprise. Establishing secret bases across

5900-650: The Chinese territory, the Teke was composed of four sections led by Gu Shunzhang and Kang Sheng . Zhou's primary objective was to disrupt the Kuomintang 's secret police attempts to penetrate the CCP which required both a defensive counterintelligence effort to identify potentially traitorous members of the party and an offensive intelligence effort to plant spies within the Kuomintang's security and intelligence services. To prevent leaks and limit damage caused by infiltration by Nationalist spies, agents of Teke were forbidden to have any relationship with other agents making

6018-608: The Cultural Revolution. Kang's condemnation was bolstered by the investigation prepared by Luo Qingchang's Central Investigative Department which detailed how Kang had organized the Yan'an purges and named any of his opponents "counter-revolutionary". Deng Xiaoping was himself a victim of Mao's Cultural Revolution, the Gang of Four , and Kang Sheng's secret police. Deng's son, Deng Pufang , became paraplegic and needed to use

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6136-524: The Department of Social Affairs of the regional CCP Committee (orig. Work Committee) was not abolished until 2 May 1961. Directors: Kang Sheng (October 1939 – 1948?), Li Kenong (acting dir. May 1948-?; - May 1951?) Deputy directors: Kong Yuan (October 1939-), Pan Hannian (October 1939-), Li Kenong (March 1941-), Chen Gang (November 1945-August 1949), Tan Zhengwen (June 1948-November 1949), Liu Shaowen (May 1948-) Treason Treason

6254-776: The Deputy Minister of State Security, Yanjun Xu , was charged with economic espionage by the United States prosecutors. On May 28, 2021, a federal grand jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California returned an indictment against four People's Republic of China (PRC) citizens for their alleged roles in a long running campaign of computer network operations targeting trade secrets, intellectual property, and other high value information from companies, universities, research institutes, and governmental entities in

6372-595: The FBI arrested Candace Claiborne, a State Department employee who had previously worked in the American Embassy in Beijing between 2009 and 2012. In April 2019 Claiborne pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the United States. Prosecutors argued that she had passed sensitive information to the MSS. Companies such as Huawei , China Mobile , and China Unicom have been implicated in MSS intelligence collection activities. In 2017, MSS officials entered

6490-523: The Imperial Crown of the United Kingdom, or of any other of Her Majesty's dominions and countries, or to levy war against Her Majesty, her heirs or successors, within any part of the United Kingdom, or any other of Her Majesty's dominions, in order, by force or constraint, to compel her or them to change her or their measures or counsels, or in order to put any force or constraint upon, or in order to intimidate or overawe, both Houses or either House of

6608-475: The KMT by American cryptographer Herbert Yardley for use against the Japanese. The overwhelming advantages of the KMT were challenged only by the extensive and thorough infiltration of the security services by Teke agents including Qian Zhuangfei , Li Kenong , and Hu Di . Gu Shunzhang, whom Zhou Enlai had chosen to head operations for Teke, would prove to be one of the most adversely consequential members of

6726-495: The KMT party, Xiang was shot by his jailers before the received word of Chiang Kai-shek's pardon. Though the CCP's nascent intelligence branch under Kang Shang had narrowly escaped destruction, the damage done by Gu's defection and the number of communist spy arrests attrited the group until, in 1935, the CCP elected to disband it. While many of Teke's agents moved to the Red Army 's Political Protection Bureau (PPB) led by Dong Fa,

6844-540: The MSS has repeatedly been involved in both failed and successful attempts to recruit foreign agents. In 2010, the SSSB directed US citizen Glenn Duffie Shriver to apply for a position at the National Clandestine Service of the CIA. In 2017, SSSB case workers were implicated in the recruitment of US Department of State employee Candace Claiborne who was charged with obstruction of justice. In 2013,

6962-612: The MSS. The MSS is active in industrial and cyber espionage , where it has replaced the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as the country's most sophisticated and prolific advanced persistent threat actor. It makes arrests through its own People's Police units and retains the authority to conduct extrajudicial court hearings.. Today the agency is estimated to have at least 110,000 employees, with 10,000 directly attached to MSS headquarters and 100,000 spread across its dozens of provincial branches. MSS functions as China's intelligence , security and secret police agency. A document from

7080-771: The MSS. In December 2020, 10 MSS Operatives of Xinjiang State Security Department (XSSD) were arrested in Kabul , Afghanistan by the National Directorate of Security . During questioning, one operative told the interrogators that they were gathering information about al Qaeda , the Taliban , and the Turkistan Islamic Party in Kunar and Badakhshan Provinces, and wanted to trap and assassinate high-level members of Turkistan Islamic Party. At least two of

7198-674: The Ministry of State Security (MSS) was approved on 20 June 1983 to be a merger between the Central Investigation Department and the Bureau of Investigating Counterrevolutionaries (or the First Bureau) of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) to "protect the security of the state and strengthen China's espionage work". The following day, the NPC appointed Ling Yun to be the first Minister of State Security which would announce its establishment on 1 July 1983. There were serious political reasons behind

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7316-421: The PPB focused entirely on counterintelligence meaning real intelligence collection would go largely dormant until the formation of the Social Affairs Department. In 1936, the CCP established the Social Affairs Department (often abbreviated as SAD in English) in Yan'an , Shaanxi to consolidate the party's foreign intelligence and counterintelligence efforts. It wasn't until 1938 when Kang Sheng took control of

7434-625: The Parliament of the United Kingdom, or the Parliament of New South Wales, or to move or stir any foreigner or stranger with force to invade the United Kingdom, or any other of Her Majesty's dominions, or countries under the obeisance of Her Majesty, her heirs or successors, and expresses, utters, or declares such compassings, imaginations, inventions, devices, or intentions, or any of them, by publishing any printing or writing, or by open and advised speaking, or by any overt act or deed, shall be liable to imprisonment for 25 years. Section 16 provides that nothing in Part 2 repeals or affects anything enacted by

7552-424: The People's Republic of China (which succeeded the CID in 1983) both trace their institutional origins to the SAD. Worth noting in an institutional history context is the fact that some of the SAD's sub-national counterparts (e.g., the Department of Social Affairs of the CCP Committee of province X) continued to exist as party bodies for quite some time after the founding of the PRC. In the Tibet Autonomous Region ,

7670-458: The People's Republic of China , while the task of collecting political and military intelligence overseas was assigned to the Intelligence Department of the Central Military Commission . In 1955, the task of political intelligence work was transferred to a newly created Communist party body, the CCP Central Investigation Department (CID) with Li Kenong as its first director. Today, China's Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of State Security of

7788-478: The Social Affairs Department expanded, Kang Sheng became paranoid and fearful of spies within his organization. Kang, known as the "Chinese Beria " abroad, frequently reminded others that political deviation was inextricably linked to being a traitorous spy, remarking "There is a close link between the twin crimes of espionage and deviationism . One is not a deviationist, as we have tended to believe, by chance or error. It is, ineluctably, dialectically, because one

7906-584: The State Department to avoid a diplomatic crisis. The FBI did, however, confiscate the Chinese officials’ phones before the plane took off. In 2019, according to a report released by the European External Action Service , there were an estimated 250 MSS spies operating in Brussels. In September 2020, a journalist, a Chinese MSS operative and her Nepalese informant were arrested in India for providing classified information about Indian army deployments in Doklam area and India's Ministry of External Affairs to two officers of Yunnan State Security Department (YSSD) of

8024-406: The UK from Germany during the Second World War . Joyce's defence team, appointed by the court, argued that, as an American citizen and naturalised German, Joyce could not be convicted of treason against the British Crown . However, the prosecution successfully argued that, since he had incorrectly stated his nationality to obtain a British passport and voted in Britain, Joyce did owe allegiance to

8142-1031: The US was "decoupling and disconnecting at the economic level, ganging up at the political level, deterrence and containment at the security level, discrediting and disparaging at the public opinion level, and constraining and locking down at the rules level". In January 2024, the MSS published a list of "10 conditions", euphemistically referred to as "cups of tea" to its official WeChat channel; which would subject individuals to scrutiny and questioning by state security authorities, including but not limited to: endangering national security, illegally acquiring or holding state secrets, committing or assisting espionage, refusing to cooperate in an espionage investigation, leaking state secrets related to counter-espionage and intelligence works and "failing to take security precautions against spying". The MSS recruits new intelligence officers primarily from major universities, police and military academies. In March 2009, former MSS operative Li Fengzhi told

8260-439: The United States and abroad, as well as multiple foreign governments. The indictment alleges that Zhu Yunmin, Wu Shurong, Ding Xiaoyang, and Cheng Qingmin targeted the following sectors: aerospace/aviation, biomedical, defense industrial base, healthcare, manufacturing, maritime, research institutes, transportation (rail and shipping), and virus research from 2012 to 2018, on behalf of the PRC Ministry of State Security. Additionally,

8378-417: The United States on the pretense of transit visas as cultural officials. During the visit the officials made an attempt to persuade Chinese dissident Guo Wengui to return to China in order to face charges for prosecution. Guo Wengui accepted the meeting, out of apparent gratitude for one of the officials, named Liu Yanping, having previously assisted in bringing his wife to America. However, Guo Wengui recorded

8496-529: The apartment of Guo Wengui once more prior to leaving the country. While at the apartment the second time, the officials reportedly ate dumplings made by the wife of Guo Wengui, and Guo Wengui walked them out of the building after again declining their offer of clemency for silence. The FBI was aware of the second visit and agents were prepared to arrest the Chinese security officials at JFK Airport prior to their Air China flight on charges of visa fraud and extortion, but arrests were not made following pressure from

8614-498: The best interest of their constituents. In certain cases, as with the Dolchstoßlegende (stab-in-the-back myth), the accusation of treason towards a large group of people can be a unifying political message. Frederic William Maitland explained that "Treason is a crime which has a vague circumference and more than one centre". The Treason Act of 1351 , called "the pole star of English jurisprudence" by Joseph Story ,

8732-722: The border into Vietnam in February 1979 which was withdrawn four weeks later after heavy resistance by Vietnamese guerrillas bearing Soviet and American weapons. Nonetheless, head of the CCP Deng Xiaoping supported the Khmer Rouge for another ten years in exile limiting his criticism of the two million-victim genocide assessing "the domestic counterintelligence activities created a negative atmosphere, slowing down many activities and causing social problems as well as many other problems... A thorough study of this political aspect should be undertaken and concrete measures taken." At

8850-509: The calamitous red wave that overtook Mao's China would grow beyond his control. It wouldn't be until October 1978, after Mao's death in September 1976, that Hua Guofeng and Wang Dongxing would rebuild the Central Investigative Department which was officially reestablished on 28 July 1978. The organization still lacked experience or established tradecraft which would cause them a number of embarrassments. The most impactful embarrassment of

8968-468: The combination of specialised groups, is a fine tradition of our Party and an effective magic weapon in our concealed front to counter traitors and prevent spies. We must carry forward this fine tradition and make new developments in the new situation. — Qiu Jin (邱进), Deputy Minister for National Security: Study and implement the anti-spy law with the overall national security concept as a guide, People's Daily (February 12, 2015) During January 2017,

9086-431: The constraints of the rule of law." According to sinologists Peter Mattis and Matthew Brazil, who have studied the MSS for many years: "The language Chinese intelligence uses reflects its Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary heritage. The lexicon suggests (as has been borne out in interviews with former officials who had routine contacts with their Chinese counterparts) that the intelligence services are bastions of faith in

9204-541: The conversations and alerted the FBI. Subsequently, the Chinese officials were confronted by FBI agents in Pennsylvania Station , the Chinese officials initially claimed to be cultural affairs diplomats but ultimately admitted to being security officials. The Chinese officials were given a warning for their activities in New York and were ordered to return to China. Two days later, the officials again visited

9322-476: The deaths of Stalin and Beria since Kang had trained as an intelligence officer in Moscow . Li Kenong, the new head of the Social Affairs Department, developed the organization's intelligence networks and was appointed by Zhou Enlai to simultaneously serve as the nation's deputy minister of foreign affairs . In an effort to disaffiliate the intelligence service from Kang Sheng's paranoia-driven legacy of purges,

9440-660: The department and restructured the organization that it took its final form in the merging of the preceding Special Branch, the Political Protection Bureau (which Kang Sheng had previously headed), and the Guard Office . The Political Protection Bureau provided rear area security to CCP forces prior to the Long March and close security to Mao during the march while the Guard Office established

9558-478: The destructive influence of the revolution on his intelligence and security apparatus issuing in September the directive "Codes, telegrams , confidential documents , files, and secret archives are the essential secrets of the Party and State; the safeguarding of all of these elements is the responsibility of all cadres, revolutionary masses, students, and revolutionary teachers." Despite this, Kang Sheng soon found that

9676-423: The end of the Cultural Revolution, as China struggled to regain its footing after a tumultuous decade, Deng Xiaoping and his fellow reformers Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang endeavored down the road of governmental reform. CCP general secretary Hu Yaobang decried Kang Sheng's destructive and paranoid legacy in a speech in November 1978 enumerating many of the crimes Kang Sheng had been found guilty of, up to and through

9794-622: The enemy, sabotage, and the like. These are punishable with imprisonment for between seven and 30 years. Article 411-11 make it a crime to incite any of the above crimes. Besides treason and espionage, there are many other crimes dealing with national security, insurrection, terrorism and so on. These are all to be found in Book IV of the code. German law differentiates between two types of treason: "High treason" ( Hochverrat ) and "treason" ( Landesverrat ). High treason, as defined in Section 81 of

9912-464: The enemy. Maanpetos proper can only be committed under conditions of war or the threat of war. Espionage, disclosure of a national secret, and certain other related offences are separately defined under the same rubric in the Finnish criminal code. Valtiopetos (translates literally to betrayal of state ) consists in using violence or the threat of violence, or unconstitutional means, to bring about

10030-530: The evidence against Anne Boleyn and her alleged lovers to be dubious. As asserted in the 18th century trial of Johann Friedrich Struensee in Denmark , a man having sexual relations with a queen can be considered guilty not only of ordinary adultery but also of treason against her husband, the king. The English Revolution in the 17th century and the French Revolution in the 18th century introduced

10148-540: The former branch of the Central Investigative Department called the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) whose members denied any connections to the Chinese intelligence apparatus. The 9th Bureau managed the threat of enemy infiltration and MSS officer defections, the 10th Bureau worked with the State Scientific & Technological Commission and the intelligence section of

10266-496: The indictment alleges the use of front companies by the PRC Ministry of State Security to conduct cyber espionage. In July 2023, the MSS opened a WeChat account, where it wrote its first post that it wishes to popularize counterintelligence among the population and make such activity "normal" with systems of rewards. In another post in September, the MSS criticized the policies of the United States towards China, saying that

10384-604: The intelligence departments of the Ministry of Public Security and of the People's Liberation Army . The Central Committee Investigation Department was formed in 1955 to integrate civilian intelligence services of China. In 1983, the Investigation Department and other relevant agencies were merged to form the Ministry of State Security (MSS) as its successor. The creation of the Central Social Affairs Department (SAD) followed

10502-433: The invading Vietnamese army. Compounding the intelligence failure, as the invasion broke the Central Investigative Department expressed confidence to Chinese leaders that the invasion would be easily repelled and that the Chinese embassy in the capital, Phnom Penh , would be unharmed. Hoping to force a Vietnamese withdrawal from its ally Cambodia, the People's Republic of China launched their own southward invasion across

10620-561: The king. Thus, Joyce was convicted of treason, and was eventually hanged . After Napoleon fell from power for the first time, Marshal Michel Ney swore allegiance to the restored King Louis XVIII , but when the Emperor escaped from Elba, Ney resumed his Napoleonic allegiance, and commanded the French troops at the Battle of Waterloo . After Napoleon was defeated, dethroned, and exiled for

10738-497: The longest-serving Ministers of State Security was Jia Chunwang , a native of Beijing and a 1964 graduate of Tsinghua University , reportedly an admirer of the American Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ). He served as Minister of State Security from 1985 until March 1998, when the MSS underwent an overhaul and Xu Yongyue , a former secretary of party elder Chen Yun was appointed the new head of

10856-520: The merger, as Luo Qingchang, who had been Director of the CID since 1973 and was a powerful player in Chinese Communist intelligence since the 1940s, was a fierce opponent of Deng Xiaoping. Although Deng had risen to supreme power in the late 1970s, he initially couldn't remove Luo from his post, until he finally succeeded in 1983. But even after this, Luo still remained influential as an adviser on

10974-498: The nation. Nonetheless, Teke had to compete with the newly established KMT Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (BIS) under the notorious Dai Li whose nickname as the "Chinese Himmler " lives on for his horrific torture record which included death in excruciating agony and forced heroin overdosing . Under Dai Li, the BIS created vast networks of 100,000 operatives across and outside the borders of China and mastered new means of intercepting communist communications — an art taught to

11092-601: The neighboring communist party's notorious S-21 interrogation and extermination camp where around 20,000 Cambodians would be killed under Pol Pot's genocide . Within a month of Wang and Luo's return to China, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Kampuchea in response to a series of border attacks on the Liberation Army of Kampuchea . Perhaps by ideological closeness to Pol Pot and his followers, Chinese intelligence under

11210-620: The newly reestablished Central Investigative Department (or Diaochabu ) was their inability to predict the Vietnamese invasion of the Republic of Kampuchea (today Cambodia ) in 1979. Following a visit to Democratic Kampuchea by Wang Dongxing in early November 1978, he and head of the new Central Investigative Department Luo Qinchang praised the ten-year friendship with the Khmer Rouge and helped Kaing Khek and Ta Mok to establish

11328-559: The operatives were also in contact with the Haqqani network for this job. After days of negotiations between Afghanistan and China, all of them were pardoned and were flown out of the country in a plane arranged by the Chinese government. In February 2021, The Daily Telegraph reported that Britain had expelled three MSS agents posing as journalists. In March 2021, at least six Chinese bloggers were arrested by MSS for 'insulting' People's Liberation Army Ground Force soldiers who died in

11446-544: The organization was renamed to the CCP Central Investigation Department ( Chinese : 中央调查部 ; pinyin : Zhōngyāng Diàochá Bù ) with only one SAD branch moved out to its own organization, the Legal and Administrative Work Department. In the 1950s, nearly every Chinese embassy abroad had an Investigation and Research Office, a cover for a group of intelligence officers belonging to

11564-656: The organization. Jia was largely responsible for the development of the MSS out of each of the provincial departments of state security, wherein many police officers found themselves intelligence officers the next day. Within the first year, Jia consolidated the security departments of Beijing, Fujian , Guangdong , Guangxi , Heilongjiang , Jiangsu , Liaoning , and Shanghai. Between 1985 and 1988 Jia had managed to incorporate those departments of Chongqing , Gansu , Hainan , Henan , Shaanxi , Tianjin , and Zhejiang . From 1990 to 1995, Jia incorporated security departments from Anhui , Hunan , Qinghai , and Sichuan provinces. Jia

11682-566: The overthrow of the Finnish constitution or to overthrow the president, cabinet or parliament or to prevent them from performing their functions. Article 411-1 of the French Penal Code defines treason as follows: The acts defined by articles 411-2 to 411–11 constitute treason where they are committed by a French national or a soldier in the service of France, and constitute espionage where they are committed by any other person. Article 411-2 prohibits "handing over troops belonging to

11800-447: The party so compartmentalized that many never knew the name of the organization only calling it "Wu Hao's Dagger", a reference to Zhou Enlai's nom de guerre . Based in Shanghai, Teke grew to become "a small army of messengers, people smugglers, and informers" with a constant presence in clubs, religious organizations, music groups, and brothels serving as Zhou Enlai's (and subsequently the CCP's) eyes and ears both in Shanghai and across

11918-480: The person: A person is not guilty of treason under paragraphs (e), (f) or (h) if their assistance or intended assistance is purely humanitarian in nature. The maximum penalty for treason is life imprisonment . Section 80.1AC of the Act creates the related offence of treachery . The Treason Act 1351 , the Treason Act 1795 and the Treason Act 1817 form part of the law of New South Wales . The Treason Act 1795 and

12036-412: The procuratorates and the courts. The National Intelligence Law of 2017 grants the MSS broad powers to conduct many types of espionage both domestically and abroad; it also gives the MSS the power to administratively detain those who impede or divulge information on intelligence work for up to 15 days. In November 1927, the CCP established its first formal intelligence service, with Zhou Enlai founding

12154-426: The revolutionaries who sentenced his father to death as having been traitors in the more traditional sense. In medieval times, most treason cases were in the context of a kingdom's internal politics. Though helping a foreign monarch against one's own sovereign would also count as treason, such were only a minority among treason cases. Conversely, in modern times, "traitor" and "treason" are mainly used with reference to

12272-749: The second time in the summer of 1815, Ney was arrested and tried for treason by the Chamber of Peers . In order to save Ney's life, his lawyer André Dupin argued that as Ney's hometown of Sarrelouis had been annexed by Prussia according to the Treaty of Paris of 1815 , Ney was now a Prussian , no longer owing allegiance to the King of France and therefore not liable for treason in a French court. Ney ruined his lawyer's effort by interrupting him and stating: "Je suis Français et je resterai Français!" (I am French and I will remain French!). Having refused that defence, Ney

12390-421: The security interests of our country. We must take resolute measures and never allow any country or political force to infiltrate, subvert or sabotage us. But we will also never carry out infiltration, subversion, and sabotage against other countries because we are a socialist country led by the Communist Party of China, which is determined by the nature of our country.. ..The combination of public and secret, and

12508-456: The service with Zou Dapeng and Luo Qingchang as his deputies. Early in 1976, Mao Zedong and his defense chief Marshal Lin Biao plotted to overthrow army Chief of Staff and Deputy Prime Minister Luo Ruiqing who, despite being a lifelong supporter of the CCP and founder of the MPS, had opposed the political training in the military instituted at Mao's directive. Eager to thieve for the second time

12626-662: The states of New South Wales , South Australia and Victoria. Similarly to Treason laws in the United States , citizens of Australia owe allegiance to their sovereign at the federal and state level. The federal law defining treason in Australia is provided under section 80.1 of the Criminal Code, contained in the schedule of the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995. It defines treason as follows: A person commits an offence, called treason, if

12744-400: The tactics of insurrection and tradecraft of espionage as Borodin feared division between the Chinese nationalists and communists. A trained spy, Gu led Teke operations from the group's 1927 founding until 25 April 1931. While performing the typical magic show for young children that usually covered for his espionage missions, a nationalist informer who had turned on the CCP recognized Gu from

12862-578: The time the Chinese Civil War flared up again after World War II, Kang had been replaced by his senior deputy Li Kenong as acting director. Li was officially department director in August 1949, when the SAD was dissolved and its tasks parceled out to other agencies. After the founding of the PRC, domestic counter-intelligence work was at the central level managed by the Ministry of Public Security of

12980-718: Was Carlos Lamarca , an army captain who deserted to become the leader of a communist-terrorist guerrilla against the military government . Section 46 of the Criminal Code has two degrees of treason, called "high treason" and "treason". However, both of these belong to the historical category of high treason , as opposed to petty treason which does not exist in Canadian law. Section 46 reads as follows: High treason (1) Every one commits high treason who, in Canada, Treason (2) Every one commits treason who, in Canada, It

13098-414: Was duly found guilty of treason and executed. Until the late 19th century, Britain - like various other countries - held to a doctrine of "perpetual allegiance to the sovereign", dating back to feudal times, under which British subjects, owing loyalty to the British monarch, remained such even if they emigrated to another country and took its citizenship. This became a hotly debated issue in the aftermath of

13216-446: Was historically known as high treason. At times, the term traitor has been used as a political epithet , regardless of any verifiable treasonable action. In a civil war or insurrection , the winners may deem the losers to be traitors. Likewise the term traitor is used in heated political discussion – typically as a slur against political dissidents, or against officials in power who are perceived as failing to act in

13334-588: Was nominated Minister of State Security by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in 2016, partly as a reward for purging Zhou and his network, as well as replacing the prior minister Geng Huichang . Since CCP general secretary Xi Jinping assumed power in 2012, the MSS gained more responsibility over cyberespionage vis-à-vis the PLA, and has sponsored various advanced persistent threat groups such as Double Dragon . Starting in 2016, provincial and local state security bureaus were brought under centralized control. In October 2018,

13452-555: Was reported during Congressional testimony that the FBI had informed Twitter of at least one MSS agent on its payroll. Central Social Affairs Department The Central Social Affairs Department ( Chinese : 中国共产党中央委员会社会部 ) was the intelligence and counter-intelligence agency of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee from 1939 to 1949, prior to the establishment of the People's Republic of China . Its successors include

13570-456: Was responsible for nearby areas the People's Republic of China wished to draw back into the CCP's control: Hong Kong , Taiwan, and Macau . The 4th Bureau focused on the technical aspects of espionage, the 5th Bureau for local intelligence, the 6th Bureau for counterintelligence, the 7th Bureau that conducted surveillance or special operations , and the 8th Bureau engaged in research through open sources ( OSINT ). The 8th Bureau took control over

13688-511: Was the first time treason was defined by statute. During the 12th century the rights of the king were gradually set apart from the other nobles. Beginning with the reign of Edward I the Crown asserted its authority to recognize rebellions ("levying war") as treasonous. By the Elizabethan age courts had shed the restrictions of statutory treason in favor of constructive treason applied as

13806-568: Was then appointed to the Minister of Public Security post, after 13 years as head of the MSS. After becoming the secretary of Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission in 2007, the MSS was under the command and influence of Zhou Yongkang until his ouster and conviction for corruption in 2014. One of the people responsible for "taking down" Zhou Yongkang was Chen Wenqing of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection , who

13924-473: Was used by later monarchs against people who could reasonably be called traitors. Many of them would now just be considered dissidents . The words "treason" and "traitor" are derived from the Latin tradere , "to deliver or hand over". Specifically, it is derived from the term " traditors ", which refers to bishops and other Christians who turned over sacred scriptures or betrayed their fellow Christians to

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