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the chinese secret service
From mao to the Olympic Games

 Outline of the Chapters

Chapter 1. The Battle for Shanghai This chapter reveals the facets of early CCP (Chinese Communist Party) intelligence operations. How young Mao narrowly escaped arrest from French detectives at the launching of the CCP in Shanghai in 1921. How future Prime minister and Foreign secretary Zhou Enlai founded an inner circle in Paris with members from the mysterious Hakka minority (including Deng Xiaoping) and later the first secret service that led a merciless war against Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists, French and British agents as well as the Green Gang mafia in Shanghai. Post Cold War documents provide new insights on how the Soviet secret service helped their Chinese comrades. However the defection of Soviet spy ‘Captain Pick’ and of Chinese ‘Magician Gu’ the head of the Chinese Red Squadron crippled their actions. Special operations, murders by the ‘Extermination of Running Dogs Special Squad’, the use of red moles within Chiang Kai-shek radio system, honey traps known in Chinese as ‘The Beauty Trap’ (Meiren ji) and many other tricks: needless to say, the model founded in the 1930s is still seen as an inspiration to Chinese intelligence operatives today.

Chapter 2. Mao’s Secret Services The incredible story of Mao’s spy who warned Stalin of Hitler’s impending invasion in 1941. Soviet-trained Kang Sheng is flown back from Moscow to Yan’an, the center of Chinese revolution. After Mao is married to Kang’s former mistress, Jiang Qing, Kang Sheng takes over the ‘Social Affairs Department’ (the CP intelligence service) and launches a huge political purge known as the ‘Rectification campaign’ almost leading the CCP to self-destruction. Zhou Enlai’s personnal intelligence services and the Soviet influence successfully outmanoeuver Kang Sheng. A much broader secret service (both political and military) is organized and it will play a leading role in Japan’s defeat in 1945 as well as Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist army being routed into Taiwan. Meanwhile Zhou Enlai’s diplomatic networks and agents of influence play around the world (as shown in the case of the Gong sisters and Nobel Prize writer Pearl Buck influencing Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as the mysterious Blue Lotus file). In 1949, as the Red Flag flies over Beijing, a Public security system is set up, with the founding of the Chinese Gulag, the Laogai, and a powerful counter-intelligence service, the Gonganbu, under general Luo Ruiqing. The CIA organizes the first operations in Tibet and Manchuria, helped by the French, the British as well as the extraordinary Australian ‘Surveyors’’system in China. The first clash between Soviet and Chinese intelligencers. A new external secret service led by Li Kenong, the Central Investigative Department. The CID and saves Zhou Enlai’s life in 1955 when CIA-supported Taiwanese agents sabotage his plane en route to the Bandoeng non-aligned conference and engages in many operations around the world.

Chapter 3. The Spies’Cultural Revolution The reader will visit Beijing’s underground city and galleries leading to the Forbidden City and the Bamboo Garden, i.e. Kang Sheng hidden secret service HQ. Above ground, in the 60’s, the manipulated young Red guards take over the intelligence service headquarters and lynch spy-masters as ‘pro-Soviet revisionists’ such as Luo Ruiqing. The fall of CID chief Kong Yuan, a unique master-spy and close to Deng Xiaoping who is under house arrest. The CID is dissolved with Chinese spies all over the world defecting or hiding low. As CIA archives reveal today, it seemed impossible to Western intelligence to fully comprehend what really happened then on Chinese mainland. But this is changed now thanks to new documents and interviews from all sides of the Bamboo Curtain. Back in the forefront, Kang Sheng and his ‘comrades’ from the Gang of Four led by his close friend Jiang Qing, organize new networks to set Third World countries ablaze (especially Africa) and link up with newly formed Maoist parties all over the planet. The Dutch security service (BVD) organizes a bogus Maoist group to trap Chinese spies. The real story of The Hague double agent Liao Hexu. Once again, Zhou Enlai reorganizes his own networks and opens up links with Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon. Meanwhile the Soviet KGB organised special operations never disclosed until now. By 1976, Mao, Kang and Zhou are dead. The Gang of four under arrest. Strange minister for security, Hua Guofeng, is an unlikely and furtive President (Is he as some sources suggest Mao’s hidden son ?) Whatever, the real power lays in Deng Xiaoping’s hands. Springing back to power he will change China and her secret services.

Chapter 4. Deng Xiaoping and his ‘Deep-Sea Fishes’ In 1983, Deng Xiaoping gives green light to the forming of the new State Security Ministry, the Chinese KGB, known in Chinese as ‘Guoanbu’. One of the major tasks assigned is naturally to support the economic revolution in the framework of the ‘Four modernizations’. The Birth of Chinese business and economic intelligence is a major turn. A portrait of a master-spy, Jia Chunwang and his undercover special agents known as ‘deep water fishes’. The story of ‘ Mister Chin’ the Chinese mole within the CIA and the death of his networks from Hong Kong to Paris. Kang Sheng is expelled post-mortem. The rising star of Chinese intelligence, Qiao Shi organizes new alliances with the Israeli Mossad, the Iranian SAVAK, the Pakistani ISI and Rumanian Securitate. The founding of a strategic research centers and think tanks change the face of intelligence analysis. The role of the Chinese secret service in Afghanistan and of Mao’s grandson, undercover operative with the Afghan Mujahideen. They also help the Khmers rouges and work with the US in joint Signal Intelligence network.

Chapter 5. The Fifty Days of Tiananmen How the Soviet KGB learnt the truth about the Tiananmen massacre in June 1989 including the armed clashes between several rival PLA regiments led students to their death. The role of Qiao Shi trying to negociate with the students and later helping some leaders to escape from the mainland through the Hong Kong ‘tunnel’ : Operation ‘Yellow Bird’ (the role of British, US and French intelligence). In the early 1990’s Chinese spies are deployed monitor the students and infiltrate their democratic movement all over the world. How the East-German authorities called the Chinese security for help before Fall of the Berlin Wall. New setbacks for the Chinese in Rumania and Russia. However as the KGB organizes a putsch against Gorbachev, and is dismantled under Boris Yeltsin, China’s intelligence service becomes bolder and the most agressive spying system.

Chapter 6. Operation ‘Autumn orchid’ in the Far East The Guoanbu head of station dies in Tokyo in 1987 in a Love Hotel. The special operations in Japan from the 90s up to now. Prime Minister Hashimoto also falls for a Honey Trap. The Japanese intelligence services open their files on the Chinese. The new joint venture of North Korean and Chinese espionage helping Pakistanis and Iranians to get their nuclear striking power. The war between the Indian RAW and the Chinese Guoanbu. The ‘Autumn Orchid’ Operation in Hong Kong and Macau. How Chinese spies use the traditional Triads and newly formed gangs known as the Snake’Heads. The New China Press Agency and in a wider scale a world-wide cover for espionage. Undercover operations against British intelligence. Taiwan sends 376 spies back to the continent. The ongoing secret war while the Prince of Wales hands over the keys of Hong Kong to Jiang Zemin.

Chapter 7. Jiang Zemin & global intelligence Following the Gulf War with Saddam Hussein, Chinese military intelligence was tasked by Jiang Zemin to reorganize and prepare for the future high-tech war. Profile of star general Xiong Guangkai, the founder of the new Qingbaobu military intelligence networks. Their targets : the space race (copying the Russian MIR station), building a seapower, buying an aircraft carrier, stealing secrets of French and US missiles, high-tech transfers from Japan and Korea. The new alliance with his friend Putin’s Russian services FSB, SVR and GRU. Jiang Zemin and the founding of a Chinese National Security Council. The Rise of the ‘Shanghai Gang’ taking over the secret service. In a new globalized world, President Jiang re-organizes the Guoanbu intelligence service under a new chief Xu Yongyue. The reader will visit it and learn how this agency is organized and how are trained its agents. Another two leading CCP political intelligence services, the United Front Work Department and International Liaisons Department expand their operations in Europe. In 1996, at a Conference on Strengthening Intelligence Work, an intelligence chief salute 10 000 undercover spies, the deep water fishes scattered over 170-odd cities worldwide: ‘Tens of thousands of nameless heroes who cherish and loyally serve their motherland are quietly fighting in their special posts abroad in complicated environments.’

Chapter 8. Guoanbu and former KGB versus CIA The fall of military intelligence chief Ji Shengde linked to the US scandal of the Chinagate (trying to compromise the Clintons). The ‘Red Princes’, children of top CCP cadres play a key-role in joint US-Chinese ventures on technological transfers. The organization of scientific and technological spying in the United States. The Fox report on Chinese espionage shows : the Guoanbu does not only spy, it also organizes disinformation campaigns, activates lobbies, corrupts politicians and journalists, etc. Chinese moles unearthed by the FBI. The wrongly led investigation on the Los Alamos Chinese spy. The Kosovo War: the real reason why the US bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Following September 11th, 2001, the Chinese decide to help the US chase Islamists. They organize their war against the Uighurs of Xinjiang, yet the keep helping the Afghan Talibans and good links with Pakistan and Iranian services. How fake Uighur terrorists in Guatanamo were Chinese agents. The capture of the US EP 3 spy-plane. Interview with the head of Canadian counter-intelligence on Chinese spying : « Canada is a back-door ». To combat US influence, a new alliance is upgraded with the Russian SVR and GRU in the Shanghai Club. Chinese intelligence advisers to Latin America, inVenezuela and Cuba. 

Chapter 9. Economic War: The ‘Lamprey Stratagem’ ‘60% of our counter-intelligence work is aiming at China’ say the German counter-spies in 2007 reacting to industrial and economic spying. The world vacuum cleaner system of the The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) under Iron Lady Wu Yi ( inspired by the powerful Japanese MITI system) can boast some of the world's top economic intelligence-gathering units. Their mission is to accompany China's massive economic change on the world economic stage by such actions as gaining headway within the World Trade Organization (WTO), negotiating intellectual property agreements, hammering out trade strategy, acquiring new technologies and forming joint ventures. Are reviewed: commercial acquisitions, open sources, and grey intelligence. The Certification and Patents program. Why the intelligence services play a major role in the copyright battle. The special research & intelligence units with the energy seeking state and private companies (How they operate in oil and gas procuding countries). Chen Yun, the old spy from Shanghai, godfather of the economic intelligence system. The newly formed United Front 5th Bureau organizes financial and business networks to promote China’s economic networks (guanxi). The new school for Economic spies in Guoanbu. Special training by British MI 5 to protect businessmen working in China. How French, British and German counter-spies organize to protect their indsutries. How some exchange students are being used in Business schools and scientific labs. The role of major telecom multinationals such as Huawei. A new technique: regional ‘research departments’ from Chinese provinces twin with strong provinces, Cataluña in Spain, Brittany in France, Bavaria, etc. How state networks help Chinese capitalism (The Procter & Gamble and Danone cases). The new African strategic offensive.

Chapter 10. Fighting the ‘Five poisons’ around the world As the Olympic Games were in sight, the special ‘610 Office’ led by hard-line Luo Gan swarming the world with agents to fight the 5 Poisons to prevent any ‘terrorist attack’ in Beijing. Prime of all, the Falungong Cult which shattered Beijing in 1999. The true story of secret agents and diplomats defecting as they refuse to hunt down Falungong followers ( with German, French, Canadian and Australian sources). Did the CIA promote Falungong as the Chinese believe ? Who really formed the Falungong ? How did the Chinese infiltrate Qi Gong and Tai ji quan martial arts circles in Western Europe and North America. The secret war against another two ‘poisons’: Uighur muslim separatists (in former Soviet Republics, Turkey and Germany), against Tibetans (including the special conduit for negociations with the Dalai Lama launched by President Hu Jintao). The remaining two ‘poisons’: the Taiwanese separatists and Chinese democrats (especially in Hong Kong) targeted by special task forces.

Chapter 11. France, Target Number One in Europe ‘The weakest countries facing Chinese intelligence are Australia and France’ said a recent counter-intelligence report. Forty years of Chinese spying in France following general de Gaulle’s diplomatic recognition of China (How French intelligence learnt first about Nuclear test in China). The use of French Maoist networks and intelligence networks activated from Belgium and Switzerland. New untold stories on ‘Mr Butterfly’s love story’, the transvestite Guoanbu agent who recruited a French diplomat as a spy (interviewed by the author). The French counter-intelligence DST discovers the ‘invisible city’ in China where trainee spies learn how to become deep water fishes in France and other Western countries. Recent cases of technological and scientific spying. How CCP top leaders got ‘black subsidies’ in the scandal of the French frigates sold to Taiwan under President Mitterrand.

Chapter 12. The People’s Cyberwarriors Australia and the biggest Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) operation against China. How the US NSA and allies encircle the Middle Kingdom with spy-ships, AWACS, land intercept stations in Japan, Taiwan, Korea. The Oxford spy ship story and ‘Oyster Operations’ against Chinese embassies. The Big Ears of China run by the People’s Liberation Army stations. The PLA exports SIGINT bases in Burma, Mongolia or Cuba. Top-secret joint operations between the Chinese, the US and Germans, even after the end of the Cold War. Fake oceanographic survey ships. A new satellite program. An army of cyberwarriors under General Dai Qingmin. The special infowar task force set up at Jiang Zemin’s request. How their labs manufacture spams and viruses to penetrate and paralyze their enemy in a war situation. The Trojan Horse technique infiltrating foreign governments, in Washington, Tokyo or Berlin. Controlling the internet in China, and setting up the ‘Golden Shield’ program to monitor e-mails, chats and mobile phone SMS.

Chapter 13. China - Gold Medal in Spying This book has 13 chapters like Sun Zi’s famous Art of War, the final of which dealt with spying… The last chapter will sum up today’s objectives and techniques used around the time of the 2008 Olympic Games. It will also recall that Chinese art of spying has come a long way from traditions going back to 5000 years mixed with the Soviet-inspired system (as regards counter-intelligence) and Wester and Japanese methods of economic intelligence at the time of the Information Technology revolution. In 2008, a new troika leads the intelligence world : CCP Politburo standing committee’s Zhou Yongkang, PLA deputy chief-of-staff general Chen Xiaogong and the Guoanbu minister Geng Huichang. Along with Hu Jintao and the political leaders, they are organizing the security for the Olympic Games and set the new strategic priorities for China to become a superpower in the 21st Century.

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