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The Ministry of Public Security was among the first government organs established in the PRC. It superseded the Ministry of Public Security of the CCP's Central Military Commission (CMC), a transitional body created in July 1949 by removing the security service remit from the CCP's Central Social Affairs Department (SAD). The MPS began operations on 1 November 1949, at the end of a two-week-long National Conference of Senior Public Security Cadres. Most of its initial staff of less than 500 cadres came from the (former) regional CCP North China Department of Social Affairs. At the national level, its creation signaled the formal abolition of the SAD. The ministry moved to its present location, in the heart of the one-time foreign legation quarters in Beijing, in the spring of 1950.[8]
The MPS's Guangzhou office historically handled foreign spies such as Larry Wu-tai Chin.[1]
With the creation of the Ministry of State Security (MSS) in July 1983, MPS lost much of its counterintelligence personnel and remit.[1] Scholars Jichang Lulu and Filip Jirouš have argued that the establishment of the MSS "may have contributed to the illusion that the MPS is simply a law-enforcement police body, separate from intelligence agencies."[2] According to analyst Alex Joske, "the MPS lost much of its foreign intelligence remit after the MSS's creation, but has established new units for cross-border clandestine operations since then."[1] The MPS remains a commonly used cover by MSS officers.[9]
MPS has at times been involved in security diplomacy between China and other countries.[17]:219–220 For example, between 1997 and 2020, it organized 11 bilateral police diplomacy meetings with African countries.[17]:220 Under Xi Jinping, MPS has increased its training of police officers from other countries.[17]:241
In 2022, it was reported that the MPS had established numerous overseas police service stations, which sparked investigations by law enforcement organs in multiple countries.[18][19][20] In 2023, the United States Department of Justice stated that the MPS engages in covert "intelligence and national security operations far beyond China's borders," including "illicit, transnational repression schemes".[21] The same year, disinformation operations known as "Spamouflage" or "Dragonbridge" were linked to the MPS.[22]
Organization
The MPS is organized into functional departments (see below). Subordinate to the MPS are the provincial- and municipal-level PSB's (Public Security Bureau) and sub-bureaus at the county and urban district levels. At the grassroots level, finally, there are police stations (Chinese:派出所; pinyin:Pàichūsuǒ) which serve as the direct point of contact between police and ordinary citizens. While public security considerations have weighed heavily at all levels of administration since the founding of the PRC, the police are perceived by some outside observers to wield progressively greater influence at lower levels of government. Provincial public security bureaus are subject to dual supervision by both local provincial governments and the central government.[23] The ministry is also closely associated with the development of surveillance technologies used by police in China through the Third Research Institute (Chinese:第三研究所; pinyin:Dì-sān Yánjiūsuǒ; lit.'No. 3 Research Institute') focused on the development of AI based “smart surveillance,” and censorship technologies.[24]
Internal departments
MPS' internal departments include the General Office, Supervision, Personnel & Training, Public Relations, Economic Crime Investigation, Public Order Administration, Border Control, Criminal Investigation, Exit & Entry Administration, Fire Control, Security Protection, Public Information Network Security Supervision, Penitentiary Administration, Traffic Control, Legal Affairs, International Cooperation, Logistics and Finance, Drug Control, Science & Technology, Counter Terrorism and Info-communications.[25][26] The ministry also allegedly includes a secret police agency. This force-within-a-force is known as the political-security protection unit (zhengbao), according to Minxin Pei.[27]
The journal Public Security Construction(Chinese:公安建设; pinyin:Gōng'ān jiànshè)was a classified serial publication for internal purposes.[5] During the disastrous Great Leap Forward between 1958 and 1961, the circular Public Security Work Bulletin (Chinese:公安工作简报; pinyin:Gōng'ān gōngzuò jiǎnbào) was a top-secret serial which often described China's serious food shortages, social unrest and famine directly contradicting Mao Zedong's claims of "bountiful economic fruit".[28][5] Another periodical the People's Public Security (Chinese:人民公安; pinyin:Rénmín gōng'ān)[note 2] was also produced and classified as "for official use only", functioning for the purposes of internal intelligence sharing and coordination among various branches of the public security apparatus.[5][29]
United front organization
The MPS' First Bureau operates a united front organization called the China Association for Friendship.[2]
Lulu, Jichang; Jirouš, Filip (February 21, 2022). "Back to the Cheka: The Ministry of Public Security's political protection work"(PDF). Sinopsis. Archived(PDF) from the original on February 21, 2022. Retrieved March 2, 2022. The CCP security apparatus exploits foreign perceptions of the MPS as equivalent to their own police to further its state security mission. Foreign judiciaries and law enforcement agencies cooperating with the MPS and other organs in the CCP political and legal system become ancillary to the protection of the party's political security.
Guo, Xuezhi (2012). "From the Social Affairs Department to Ministry of Public Security". China's Security State: Philosophy, Evolution, and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.64–105. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139150897.003. ISBN978-1-139-15089-7. OCLC1277069527.