Beijing sees forces bent on undermining it everywhere: embedded in multinational companies, penetrating social media, revolving around young students. And it wants its people to see them too.
Chinese universities require teachers to take courses on protecting state secrets, even in departments such as veterinary medicine. A kindergarten in the eastern city of Tianjin organized a meeting to teach staff how to “understand and use” China’s anti-espionage law.
China’s Ministry of State Security, a normally secretive department that oversees the secret police and intelligence services, has even opened its first social media account, as part of what is official news media. described as an effort to increase public engagement. Its first post: a call for a “society-wide mobilization” against spying.
“Mass participation,” the post said, should be “normalized.”
China’s ruling Communist Party is ordering ordinary people to guard against perceived threats to the country, in a campaign that blurs the line between vigilance and paranoia. The country’s economy is facing its worst slowdown in years, but China’s authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping, appears more focused on national security and fending off threats to party control.
“We must be prepared for the worst and extreme situations,” Mr. Xi said China’s National Security Commission in May. He called on officials to “improve real-time surveillance” and “prepare for actual combat.”
The sense of urgency may be heightened by the fact that Beijing is facing some of its biggest challenges since Mr. Xi in heaven more than a decade ago. Despite the economic gloom, China’s relationship with the West is increasingly tense. And unexplained personnel changes at the highest levels of power — including the sudden removal in July of China’s foreign minister and two senior generals — suggest that Mr. Xi may have feared threats to his control.
In July, China amended its anti-espionage law to expand the already broad scope of activities it considers espionage. It offers rewards of tens of thousands of dollars to people who report spies.
While the call for mass vigilance has inspired widespread caution, it is unclear to what extent this translates into action on the ground. Last month, authorities announced the capture of at least four spies, including two men recruited by the CIA., but some of the cases appear to be old ones that have been announced too late, such as a couple was arrested in 2019.
Authorities also said earlier this year they sentenced an American citizen to life in prison for espionage, and arrested a high-ranking Chinese newspaper editor while he was dining with a Japanese diplomat. (The editor’s family called the allegations fabricated.)
“The push reflects the deep legitimacy challenges and crises facing the regime,” said Chen Jian, a professor of modern Chinese history at New York University. Professor Chen says that the call to mass action gave rise to mass campaigns that Mao Zedong unleashed in part to consolidate his own power. The most notable was the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long period of unrest and bloodshed when Chinese leaders encouraged people to report their teachers, neighbors or even families as “counter-revolutionaries.”
Chinese society is no longer easily stirred up by chaos today, given how modern the country has become, Professor Chen said. And China has grounds for caution: The director of the CIA, William Burns, said recently that America is rebuilding its spy network in China.
Nor is China alone in adopting increasingly dire warnings about foreign influence. Some warn that Washington is fanning a new Red Scare, as with the Justice Department’s now-scrapped China Initiative targeting academics. The United States and other Western countries are also working to restrict access to TikTok, the Chinese-owned short video app, citing security concerns.
But China’s strategy stands out for its size and ubiquity.
In high-speed trains, a video on loop warned passengers to be careful when taking pictures for social media, in case they get hold of sensitive information. At government offices where residents file routine paperwork, posters remind them to “form a line of defense of the people.”
A local government in Yunnan Province published a video of men and women in traditional clothing of the Yi, an ethnic group there, happily dancing and singing about China’s national security law.
“Those who do not report will be prosecuted. Covering crimes will lead to jail,” the performers sang as they fanned themselves in a circle, the women shedding their bright yellow, blue and red skirts.
Other forms of anti-espionage education are more formal. The National Administration of State Secrets Protection runs an app with an online secret-keeping course, which many universities and companies have. ordered their staff to complete. The first lesson opens with a quote from Mao Zedong on the importance of confidentiality; a later one warned that iPhones and Android devices are foreign products and may be vulnerable to manipulation.
One hotel, in the seaside city of Yantai, routinely advertises beach getaways and dinner deals on its social media posts. But last October, this published an infographic regarding groups deemed by the Ministry of Security to be most at risk of cooperation by foreign enemies. They include people who studied abroad and “young internet users.”
Chinese youth are of particular concern, especially after last year’s mass protests against China’s draconian Covid restrictions. Some participants are college students who have been confined to their campuses for months. And today many young people face a series of other problems, including record unemployment.
But authorities attribute the discontent to external instigators. After last year’s protests, a Chinese official said those who attended had been “bought off by external forces.”
Chinese academics are still pushing that idea. At a conference on international relations organized by Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University in July, a scholar suggested that the protesters had been victims of “cognitive and ideological manipulation” by countries including the United States. Such efforts by “hidden forces” are increasingly difficult to detect, said the professor, Han Na, from the People’s Public Security University, the country’s top police academy.
“Some call them spies, others call them special operations. They are our people from some special department.”
He added: “That’s why we have the current problem.”
Part of the authorities’ solution is teaching young people to be more vigilant. Mr. called Xi for expanding national security education, and create universities group of students duty to report people who, among other things, use foreign websites.
But the constant admonitions also remind students that they, too, are being watched. University students in Beijing have been questioned by police or administrators for exchanging messages with New York Times reporters — in at least two cases, before any articles were published.
Perhaps the main effect — or purpose — of the campaign was to make even the slightest connection with foreigners cause for suspicion. That extends to cultural fields where exchange used to be richest.
Some academics stopped meeting foreigners. Venues across China have canceled performances by foreign musicians.
Cancellations increased in May, amid a crackdown on cultural events deemed inconsistent with the party’s agenda. But months later, the scrutiny remains intense, said Brian Offenther, an American DJ in Shanghai. In one week in August, venues in three different cities told him they couldn’t host him. One said the police threatened to shut down the place if a foreigner performed, according to a screenshot of the chat shared by Mr. Offenther. One said simply, in English: “It is not the right time for foreign DJ”
Beijing has not issued any clear directives about dealing with foreigners; it maintains that China remains open, praising the importance of foreign investment. But the signs are conflicting. This spring, authorities raided or questioned the offices of several American consulting and advisory firms, accusing one of trying to obtain state secrets through Chinese experts it hired.
Even sharing a name with a foreign organization can invite scrutiny, as a volunteer group in Guangzhou found out when they were forced to cancel a speaker conference scheduled for August under the name TEDxGuangzhou.
TED, the US-based company known for its speaker showcases, allows groups to use the TEDx branding for free, and the Guangzhou group has no other affiliation with it, organizers said. said in a statement. TEDx conferences have taken place in Guangzhou since 2009. However, police said this year that volunteers cannot proceed unless they are registered as a foreign non-governmental organization.
Some Chinese are skeptical of the call for continued vigilance.
At an airport in Hunan Province recently Teslas were banned from its parking lots, arguing that the American company’s cars could be used for espionage, some commenters on social media asked if Boeing jets should also be banned. Even Hu Xijin, the retired editor of the Global Times, a nationalist party tabloid, wrote online which is already troubling academics who he knows shun foreigners.
But officials brushed off the concerns. In a editorial about the call for mass mobilization, the Global Times said critics were paranoid.
“If you haven’t done anything wrong,” he said, “why are you afraid?”
Siyi Zhao contributed research from Seoul.
