All the places China says spies are hiding, including pens and dates

• China has tried this year to get its population to be more vigilant about foreign spies.
• The government has issued warnings about things to be wary of, like strange pens and strangers.
• Xi urged officials last year to adopt “the worst-case scenario” for national security.

This year has been busy for the frontline team of China's Ministry of State Security.

They follow a nationwide initiative by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to raise awareness about foreign espionage.

Xi told officials in June 2023 that the country's national security concerns had increased significantly and that they should adopt “worst-case scenario thinking” to prepare for possible “perilous and stormy seas” ahead.

This mandate took shape in part in 2024 through a series of publications on government accounts on WeChat, or the Chinese version of Facebook.

These include eye-opening anecdotes about military documents found at recycling plants, tour guides discover spiesand the students are deceived by agencies promising entry into good universities.

But they also contain clear warnings about things that might seem innocent, like beautiful women offering “love traps” or drones disguised as dragonflies.

Fun lighters, pens and dragonflies

Spy gadgets are not just a cinematic concept, the Ministry of State Security said in August.

“In real life, some discreet daily necessities around us can also contain mysteries,” he wrote in a statement. article on “hidden gadgets”.

It told the story of an anonymous businessman who was bidding on an overseas project and discovered microphones in a box of napkins.

The ministry added that pens can be cameras, lighters can be listening devices and insect-like drones can be used to gather intelligence.

“Good-hearted people” who have money to spare

The same month, the ministry told the story of Little Weia university student who grew up an orphan in a poor mountainous region.

It warned that Wei, an aspiring and high-achieving student, had met a generous donor named “Professor L” who offered to subsidize him until he graduated from college. In return, Wei would have to contribute to research projects and field investigations, for which he would receive even more money.

The ministry said Wei later found a job that gave him access to confidential information, which he passed to Professor L at the latter's request.

The ministry has dubbed these people “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

“Their methods are despicable and have no results. They often disguise themselves as 'good-hearted people', 'passionate people' and 'caring people' towards young people,” he adds.

Job offers

Young students have been a recurring concern in the ministry's messages this year.

He written in September that he had discovered foreign spy agencies trying to recruit students for jobs in market research or science, touting “low effort and high returns.”

Officials said that eventually, the spies would have students begin “collecting and compiling internal scientific research and academic documents, photographing sensitive military areas.”

“Beautiful men or beautiful women”

Online dating could also pose many dangers, the ministry warned in the same September article.

Foreign spies can “even disguise themselves as 'handsome men' or 'beautiful women' and pretend to be close friends and lure young students into a false 'love' trap,” he writes.

The ministry urged young people who make friends online to be “very vigilant and lucid”.

Express delivery

Authorities have also issued statements regarding courier deliveries, which are particularly cheap and widely used in China.

“In recent years, foreign spy and intelligence agencies have increasingly been stealing secrets through transmission channels,” the ministry wrote in August.

She said she discovered a case in which a “foreign institution” sent a dangerous powder to a Chinese research center. The ministry also said it had discovered shipments of non-native animal species, sent to disrupt the local ecology, such as “red-eared sliders, alligator snapping turtles, American bullfrogs, fall armyworms and fire ants.” .

Telling Your Partner You Work in the Military

In November, the Chinese Navy asked its “Internet generation” personnel, or millennial and Gen Z sailors, not to post their military status online.

“The military profession is political, confidential and disciplinary in nature. Resolve not to reveal your military identity online,” the navy said. said in his message.

He particularly warns against young officers and sailors who are “thirsty for love” and who might try to land dates by displaying their military status.

“If you expose your military identity to attract attention, it is very easy to become a target for criminals,” the Navy wrote.

Rock music

South China Morning News reported in September that a new core textbook for students warned against rock music and pop culture as “covers” for color revolutions.

Color revolutions generally refer to the Arab Spring and anti-government protests in post-Soviet states. For years, Beijing has accused the United States of orchestrating them.

It is likely that the textbook will become required reading in at least some schools. State media called it the “first unified manual” of all the principles and ideals that a central committee answering to Xi has tried to promote over the past decade.

The unspoken part

It's worth noting that China rarely says who these “foreign spies” are working for, even though these messages come amid frosty tensions between Washington and Beijing.

The US Department of Justice, for its part, has regularly indicted people this year accused of spying for China and attempting to manipulate local politics in favor of Beijing.

“Some of this is inevitable,” Dylan Loh, a professor at the National Technological University of Singapore's public policy and global affairs program, told Business Insider. “As China grows, national security concerns and interests will certainly increase.”

“The other part reflects today's geopolitics, especially in the context of competition between the United States and China,” he said.

Overall, Loh said, this indicates a stronger desire by China to bring more issues into the realm of national security.

Ian Ja Chong, a professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, said the effectiveness of China's message is unclear, but its strategy appears to rely on repetition.

“Even if a large majority of people ignore or become desensitized to such claims, there may be some in the public for whom these ideas of danger become a source of motivation,” he said.

The danger could lie in this suspicion turning into nationalism, he said.

“There remain allegations that attacks on Japanese schools in Suzhou and Shenzhen earlier this year, as well as an attack on American teachers in Jilin, resulted from a growing sense of foreign threat in the PRC,” said Chong, referring to China in his official speech. name.

Xi's motivation goes beyond messages on social media. BI's Huileng Tan reported in May 2023 on sweeping updates to China's anti-espionage law that expanded the definition of espionage and the transfer of important information.

Since the initial law was passed in 2014, China has arrested and charged dozens of foreign businessmen on espionage charges. One of the most recent cases involves a Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma, a Tokyo-based pharmaceutical company, accused by China of espionage. According to Japanese mediahe was the 17th Japanese citizen to be arrested on suspicion of espionage in China, and his trial began in November.