by Christos Zabounis

All Western intelligence services agree: Chinese spies are everywhere. We may have been taken by surprise by the betrayal—without quotation marks – of an air force wing commander, but for years experts have been sounding the alarm. The CIA in particular, which incidentally uncovered the activity of our rogue officer, has made the hunt for agents of the MSS (Ministry of State Security) its number-one priority. The Guanbu, as it is known in Chinese, is estimated to have 200,000 “employees,” with its new chief, Chen Wenging, traveling around the world. Recently he was in Syria, earlier in Afghanistan, while his trips to Russia have been frequent since the war in Ukraine. People from all over the planet also come to meet him, even from Turkey, and his favorite phrase is: “China sees the world through the lens of security.”Wenging, the son of a humble gendarme, followed in his father’s footsteps; however, thanks to his ruthless character, he quickly rose through the ranks, either by informing on friends and colleagues or by violently suppressing uprisings. His performance did not escape the attention of Xi Jinping when he assumed office in 2012 as the seventh president of the People’s Republic of China. It was Xi who tasked him with transforming the MSS from a ministry focused on monitoring dissidents or censoring the press into a modern intelligence organization, spearheaded by the theft of technology from the West and covert operations such as electronic infiltration (hacking). In a report by the Strategic Research Institute of the École Militaire (IRSEM), China’s rapid infiltration – through the cultivation of contacts – into high-ranking officials, even in allied states such as Russia, is highlighted. The funds allocated, it notes, are colossal, and the methods extremely inventive.