LETTER FROM BEIJING

Liu is a second-year college student in a coastal city in southern China. He met Xiao Min on a dating app and with their deepening relationship, she introduced him to a magazine that offered him a part-time freelance job, photographing tourists and pleasure boats in the harbor. Liu was pleased to make a bit of money but also thought he could surf two waves on one board – that taking the small photography job would also help him win Xiao Min's heart for good.

After a few successful initial photo orders, she suggested that he should also take photos of naval vessels entering and leaving the harbor. The charming Xiao Min even rented an apartment for him that was near the military base and also asked him to switch to a foreign messaging app as a precaution. Deep down, Liu began to suspect that she was a spy but weakly, and lured by financial gain, he continued endangering himself and China. Until the state security agency intervened.

Wang is another young man, who soon to graduate, had already entered his personal information and his CV on a job search site. He soon received a positive response, and a company offered him a job as a surveyor in the environmental sector; he was to photograph the marine environment, including the boats: Civilian to begin with but then he was told to take the military zones and the warships which to him seemed a sensitive area. He was immediately suspicious and took appropriate action. With the assistance of one of his teachers, he contacted 12339, the hotline for reporting threats to the Chinese state security.

According to its authors, the post, published on March 13, 2024, was based on real events and is one of 170 that have appeared on the Ministry of State Security's (MSS) page, which on August 1, 2023, opened on WeChat, China's major social media app. The first publication stressed that "counter-espionage requires the mobilization of the entire society." The detailed comic-strip narratives have been highly successful, and the citizens who follow the agency’s account are constantly reminded that the threat is omnipresent.

And there’s the question of food security: Foreign companies are targeting the Chinese grain market and will do anything to steal the country's production data – "the US has always used food as a weapon in its foreign policy," read a post on September 22, 2023. There are the usual classic posts condemning American imperialism or those recalling young people to their sense of patriotism: "We have red genes." Another post details ten reasons that could result in an "invitation to drink tea," a euphemism for being interrogated by the authorities. Some provide useful instructions on how to avoid one's computer hardware being hacked.

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