Cash rewards of up to 500,000 yuan (US$72,400) are on offer to encourage Beijing residents to report foreign spies, according to new municipal state security regulations published on Monday.
Cash rewards of up to 500,000 yuan (US$72,400) are on offer to encourage Beijing residents to report foreign spies, according to new municipal state security regulations published on Monday.
Photo:Tripc
Observers said the rewards reflected Beijing’s growing suspicion towards foreign organisations, and were an attempt by the leadership to justify tighter domestic security ahead of a major Communist Party personnel reshuffle later this year.
Citing the Beijing municipal branch of the state security bureau, Beijing Daily reported that residents could notify the authorities in person, via a hotline or through the mail about any activity endangering national security or the theft of national secrets.
The rewards varied depending on the significance of the intelligence, according to the report.
The bureau said the state security apparatus had decided to motivate the masses to “gradually build up a steel Great Wall against spies and espionage”.
Any reports that proved unfounded would be tolerated as long as the informer was not deliberately giving false information or trying to harass someone.
“Beijing is the top choice for overseas spy agencies and other hostile forces to conduct activities of infiltration, subversion, division, destruction and information theft,” the bureau said.
The state security apparatus has decided to motivate the masses to “gradually build up a steel Great Wall against spies and espionage”, the statement added.
The poster campaign shows a ‘handsome’ foreign spy wooing a Chinese civil servant, Xiao Li, into passing on secrets by telling her: ’You’re pretty, sweet and exceptional; honestly I fell for you the first time I saw you.’ Photo: chinalawtranslate
At the same time National Security Education Day made a
comic-book poster warning young female government workers about dating handsome foreigners, who could turn out to have secret agendas.
Titled Dangerous Love, the 16-panel poster tells the story of an attractive young Chinese civil servant nicknamed Xiao Li, or “Little Li”, who meets a red-headed foreign man at a dinner party and starts a relationship.
Just a Romantic walk in the walk… which leads to trouble for Chinese Civil servant Xiao Li. Photo: chinalawtranslate
The man, David, claims to be a visiting scholar, but actually he is a foreign spy who butters up Xiao Li with compliments about her beauty, bouquets of roses, fancy dinners and romantic walks in the park.
After Xiao Li provides David with secret internal documents from her job at a government propaganda office, the two are arrested.
Xiao Li sits in handcuffs in front of two policement, in the poster, after passing on secrets to a handsome foreign agent. Photo: chinalawtranslate
In one of the poster’s final panels, Xiao Li is shown sitting handcuffed before two policemen, who tell her that she has a “shallow understanding of secrecy for a state employee. You are suspected of violating our nation’s law.”
The poster has appeared on local governments’ public bulletin boards, targeting mainly rank-and-file state employees.
A Beijing district government said in a statement that it would display the poster to educate its employees about keeping classified information confidential and reporting to state security agencies if they spotted any spying activity.
It said it would ensure employees were familiar with ways to counter espionage.
The central government’s inaugural National Security Education Day, held last Friday, was meant to make people aware about security problems in China, and was marked by speeches and the distribution of materials.
Source:SCMP
