Chinese CIA spy unveils power struggle between security ministries
Staff Reporter 2013-02-25 11:09
Public security officials were accused of illegal surveillance and brutality in preventing pro-democracy protests in 2011. (Internet photo)
Last year's failed defection attempt by an official from the Chinese Ministry of State Security has uncovered a bitter and long-standing power struggle between the country's state security and public security organs, reports Boxun, an overseas Chinese community website which provides an alternative source of news from China, though its claims cannot always be verified.
In May last year, the secretary of state security vice minister Lu Zhongwei was arrested after leaking sensitive information to the CIA, including top secret intelligence and information on China's political and legal system. A source close to the CIA told Boxun that the secretary also shocked US officials by describing an acrimonious relationship between the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Public Security.
According to Boxun's sources, the power struggle began when the state security ministry was first established in 1983 and significantly reduced the power and jurisdiction of the public security ministry.
The state security ministry is supposedly the Chinese government's largest and most active foreign intelligence agency. Though it is also involved in domestic security matters, the ministry is primarily responsible for intelligence and countering espionage, especially since China began implementing its economic reform policies.
The status of the state security ministry rose sharply under the former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, when national leaders felt the country was being contained by Western powers and needed an intelligence breakthrough, which is why the state security ministry's powers were expanded to allow the targeting of domestic enemies, especially those who threatened the power of the government or the Communist Party.
Two incidents in 1999, however, caused the power of the state security ministry to slide backwards. Fairly or unfairly, the ministry was blamed for the intelligence failures leading to the widescale protests of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in April and the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in May — an incident which occurred during the NATO bombing campaign against the Serbian government and which Beijing still maintains was deliberate. Together with improvements in China's diplomatic relations with foreign countries, the state security ministry began a steady decline in relevance while the public security ministry embarked on a rapid ascension.
By 2002, the surveillance capabilities of the public security ministry had overtaken those of the state security, with the former possessing more staff members and advanced technology than the latter.
Boxun's sources claim that resentment has mounted between officials from both sides over the years. State security officials have been particularly unhappy with the way public security officials have been overstepping boundaries and abusing their power. The state security ministry employs strict protocols for surveillance and usually only targets special foreign suspects to collect intelligence. In 2004, however, former party general secretary Hu Jintao began permitting the public security ministry and local public security bureaus to use these highly invasive surveillance techniques on ordinary citizens.
The practice spiraled out of control as local officials began using surveillance tactics for corrupt pursuits. One notable example is when former Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun tapped the phones of senior party members when they visited Chongqing and gave them to his boss, the disgraced former party chief Bo Xilai, to use as leverage if the opportunity arose.
Former minister of public security Zhou Yongkang was also rumored to have freely used illegal surveillance techniques for personal gain and to destroy political opponents, to the extent where his conduct angered others in the party's highest echelons.
Another incident where public security officials blatantly flouted the law was in preventing the abortive pro-democracy Jasmine Revolution protests of 2011. To prevent the planned protests from escalating in several Chinese cities, public security bureaus across the country illegally detained at least 600 citizens and reportedly beat and tortured more than 354 people.
To make matters worse, the public security ministry suspected that the ringleader of the movement may have come from within the government and arrested two contacts working for the state security ministry, causing tensions between the two sides to to reach a boiling point.
Boxun also reported that state security officials have employed various methods to gain access to incriminating evidence against the public security ministry. Sources claim at least seven local public security chiefs have been found to possess assets of at least 60 million yuan (US$9.6 million) with no clear sources regarding where they obtained their fortunes.
