Chinese Ministry of State Security

China’s Ministry of State Security on Friday released a news video of building a strong national security people's defense line, which describes some representative cases of citizens reporting acts that endangered national security during recent years. The state security authorities affirm the general public’s important role in safeguarding national security, and called on the public to work to safeguard the country.

In 2023, the general public actively reported a large number of valuable tipoffs to the security organs, providing strong support for the detection, prevention and prosecution of all kinds of activities that potentially put at risk national security, which has played a unique and important role in safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests.

In 2023, two individuals were awarded for special contributions to national security, 29 for major contributions and 54 for important contributions, according to the ministry.

The video listed a few cases including a foreign spy trying to gain access to state secrets by making friends with an employee of an enterprise. The employee reported the information to the security organs and played an important role in assisting the security organs to detect and address the attempt at espionage. 

In another case, a citizen reported that a foreign research institution, under the guise of conducting biological species research activities, recruited volunteers in China and misled them into illegally collecting data and information on the distribution of biological species nationwide without their knowledge. The foreign institution deceived them into using special mobile phone software to transmit the data overseas, leading potential harm to the biological and the ecology security, security authorities stated.

Wang Qihui, a researcher from the Institute of Microbiology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in the news video that biosecurity is an important component of national security. It involves a wide range of sectors including the prevention and control of major new and sudden infectious diseases, animal and plant epidemics, and the research, development and application of biotechnology, as well as prevention of bio-terrorist attacks, and defense against biochemical threat, according to Wang.

China's Biosecurity Law came into effect in 2021 and stipulated the establishment of 11 basic systems for biosecurity risk prevention and control.

The authorities also warned the public not to treat tipoffs as a joke. There was a case saying that a citizen surnamed Li who had maliciously called the reporting hotline on more than 20 occasions and lied about being threatened by a spy. In another case, due to the business disputes with others, a person surnamed Zhao falsely accused others of engaging in terrorism-related activities. Both Li and Zhao were punished with administrative detention, according to  authorities.

Everyone is responsible for national security. It is in the fundamental interests of the people to safeguard national security. The ministry called on the public to make efforts together, and unswervingly implement the overall national security concept.

Global Times