“China’s main spy agency, the Ministry of State Security—or MSS—is now the largest and most active spy agency in the world,” declared the anchor of 60Minutes in a revealing broadcast on May 18.
The American news program on the CBS television network, known for its investigative depth, painted a stark picture of Beijing’s global espionage ambitions, revealing how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remains intent on leveraging a worldwide network of covert agents to monitor and influence events beyond its borders—and to surveil and intimidate Chinese dissidents in America.
The CBS report suggests that the MSS has expanded its reach far beyond traditional intelligence-gathering, embedding operatives in academia, businesses, and even local governments across the West.
With China’s rise as a superpower, its spy apparatus has grown in sophistication, targeting not just state secrets but also shaping narratives, stealing technology, and silencing critics abroad.
The MSS’s Primary Focus: Watching Its Own People
“MSS’s top target isn’t a foreign government, though the United States comes in a close second. Instead, its highest priority is China’s own people, including those living abroad, especially in the US,” Jim Lewis, a former U.S. diplomat with over 30 years of experience countering Chinese intelligence, told CBS News.
Lewis underscores why Chinese nationals overseas represent a uniquely sensitive challenge for President Xi Jinping’s regime: “They could be plotting—this has happened before.”
“They might be agents of a hostile foreign power, or they could be uncovering truths Xi doesn’t want them to know. To the MSS, they’re not necessarily a direct threat, but a risk that must be managed.”
This perspective echoes a broader pattern revealed in a recent CBS News report: “The Chinese Communist Party remains intent on leveraging a global network of covert agents to monitor and influence events beyond its borders, while surveilling and intimidating Chinese dissidents right here in America.”
In this shadow war, the MSS’s true mission extends beyond traditional espionage—it is about controlling narratives, loyalty, and dissent within the very communities it claims to protect.
The Silent Giant: How Big Is China’s MSS?
China’s intelligence machine is not only massive—it’s everywhere.
Founded in 1983, the Ministry of State Security is among the most opaque arms of the Chinese state, traditionally shrouded in secrecy and largely absent from public discourse.
However, under President Xi Jinping, that shadowy presence started to step into the light. Since Chen Yixin took the helm in 2022, the MSS has grown bolder and more visible, often using propaganda videos and digital campaigns to project its power.
The agency’s responsibilities span a vast range: counterintelligence, political security, domestic surveillance, and foreign intelligence gathering—both traditional (Human intelligence) and cyber.
Unlike its Western counterparts, such as the CIA or MI6, the MSS is deeply intertwined with the Communist Party’s political mission, particularly its obsession with internal control and regime preservation.
“The MSS is sort of the equivalent of the CIA, but it has much greater powers,” says Jim Lewis. “One estimate says the MSS might have 600,000 employees. And they are committed to going after the United States.”
To support this narrative of omnipresence, the MSS released a propaganda video last year on China’s biggest social network. The cinematic clip boldly claims the agency “senses things before they happen” and “fights against evil.”
But as Lewis points out, the video wasn’t just for patriotic flair. “It’s both an advertisement to recruit people, and it’s a warning—fall afoul of us, and we’ll come after you.”
Indeed, the reach of the MSS is no longer speculative. Over the past five years, the US Department of Justice has indicted more than 140 individuals for crimes tied to Chinese espionage, cyberattacks, harassment, and the intimidation of diaspora communities.
In some cases, China’s spy network has even targeted recently laid-off U.S. federal employees, particularly in the wake of Elon Musk’s dramatic workforce reductions at key contractors and tech partners.
The Countermove: CIA Launches Digital Espionage Campaign
This growing intelligence confrontation has prompted the United States to fight back on the same turf. In an unusual move, the CIA has launched a flashy recruitment campaign targeting Chinese nationals and officials. Recently, the agency released two slick Mandarin-language videos encouraging Chinese insiders to become US informants. The new videos build on an earlier campaign launched in October 2023, which included detailed instructions—in Chinese—on how to contact the CIA safely.
These ads aim to tap into discontent within China’s authoritarian system, offering a way out for officials disillusioned with the Communist Party. But the stakes are high. As Lewis explained on 60 Minutes, many Chinese nationals abroad fear cooperating with foreign intelligence services because MSS operatives often threaten retaliation against family members left behind in China.
The espionage war between China and the United States is no longer confined to dark alleyways and secret cables. It’s now a public, digital, and psychological contest playing out on screens worldwide—one recruitment ad at a time.
China’s Expanding Campaign Of Coercion And Espionage
“People with ties to China are not the only ones who should care about Beijing’s coercion abroad,” warns Lewis.
The tactics deployed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are not only targeting dissidents or defectors — they represent a systemic challenge to international norms and democratic sovereignty.
A case in point: In 2022, the FBI uncovered a clandestine Chinese police station operating in plain sight in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Disguised as a help center for Chinese expats renewing driver’s licenses and other documents, prosecutors say the real purpose was more sinister — to monitor, threaten, and harass Chinese dissidents on American soil.
“They’ve done it in the Netherlands, they’ve done it in Canada,” said Lewis. “But the idea that you’d open a police station in another country — that’s a signal disrespect of the sovereignty of that nation.” Two Chinese-American men were later charged with conspiring to act as unregistered agents of a foreign government.
The US Intelligence Community’s Annual Threat Assessment, released in March, puts it bluntly: “Beijing will continue to expand its coercive and subversive malign influence activities to weaken the United States internally and globally.” The report warns that as China increasingly integrates artificial intelligence into its operations, its ability to conduct espionage and influence campaigns undetected will grow.
Despite Beijing’s public denials, evidence of a far-reaching, coordinated espionage effort is mounting across continents.
LinkedIn Espionage: Social Media As A Battlefield
In August 2023, MI5 (the UK’s intelligence agency) Director General Ken McCallum revealed that China’s MSS had approached more than 20,000 UK nationals, mainly through LinkedIn, in attempts to extract confidential information.
France’s intelligence services reported a similar pattern in 2018, when the MSS had reached out to 4,000 individuals on LinkedIn. In Germany, more than 10,000 citizens were reportedly targeted using the same method.
The strategy is clear: cast a wide net across professional networks to lure targets into seemingly innocuous conversations that gradually become intelligence probes.
Europe Under Watch
China’s spying efforts in Europe have taken increasingly bold forms. In one of the latest cases, German prosecutors charged Jian G, a former aide to far-right lawmaker Maximilian Krah, with spying for Beijing. Jian allegedly began working with Chinese intelligence as far back as 2002, passing along over 500 sensitive European Parliament documents and surveilling Chinese dissidents.
To bolster his cover, Jian even posed online as a critic of the Chinese government — a tactic designed to build trust among anti-CCP circles while secretly feeding information back to Beijing.
The Indo-Pacific Is No Exception
China’s global intelligence footprint extends far beyond the West. In April 2025, authorities in the Philippines arrested a Chinese national for allegedly conducting surveillance near the national election commission just weeks before midterm polls. The man, carrying a device known as an IMSI catcher (capable of intercepting mobile communications), had also visited other high-profile sites, including the Supreme Court and the U.S. Embassy. Beijing denied any involvement.
In South Korea, the National Intelligence Service reported at least eleven incidents since June 2024 involving Chinese nationals photographing military bases, ports, and airports. Though the suspects claimed they were just tourists, the NIS concluded these were “low-intensity intelligence activities” aimed at probing U.S. and South Korean defense infrastructure.
Taiwan: The Prime Target
Nowhere is China’s espionage focus more intense than in Taiwan. According to former Military Intelligence Bureau director Liu Te-liang, the number of Chinese operatives embedded across Taiwan likely exceeds 5,000. These spies are believed to be working in government agencies, political parties, think tanks, and even corporations. The catch? It typically takes two to three years to gather enough evidence to prosecute such deep-cover agents.
The Security Cost Of Repression
China’s intelligence offensive is not just about secrets—it’s about values.
As Jim Lewis warns, “One of the precedents I thought we’d learned in the 1940s is that countries that don’t respect their own citizens don’t respect their neighbors.”
His message is clear: the abuse of citizens at home often foreshadows aggression abroad. “Fundamental rights are the basis of international security,” Lewis said. “Because when they mistreat their own citizens, you’re next.”
Repression at home begets aggression abroad. The MSS doesn’t just target threats—it seeks to redefine the rules of international engagement. Free speech, privacy, sovereignty—these are casualties in a silent war.
- Shubhangi Palve is a defense and aerospace journalist. Before joining the EurAsian Times, she worked for ET Prime. She has over 15 years of extensive experience in the media industry, spanning print, electronic, and online domains.
- Contact the author at shubhapalve (at) gmail.com
