Right now the Chinese communist party and the United States are fighting a hidden spy war against one another. On the frontlines of this battle for China is their minsitry of state security also known as the MSS. This agency has a long history of brutal political purges and interrogation tactics. Right now the Chinese Communist party and the United States are fighting a hidden spy war against one another. And on the frontlines of this battle for China is their shadowy Ministry of State Security also known as the (MSS). It’s one of the world’s largest and most secret agency of all. For context they are said to have an estimated 110,000 agents compared to the CIA’s roughly 21,000. It’s like their version of the FBI and CIA all rolled up into one. They have both a domestic and a foreign mission under one roof. At least that’s how this partially redacted document from the US justice department described it.But not many people in the west know about the history that informs their tactics today. Not many people know about some of the most brazen intelligence missions where they’ve targeted and killed dozens of CIA agents in their country including in brutal public executions. I find this agency interesting because they have such a different mode of operating compared than a lot of other nations. We’ll see how they use their power differently. Take for example Jack Ma the billionaire Chinese founder of Alibaba. He disappeared from public view in 2020 after he made the mistake of publicly criticizing China’s financial regulators. Then authorities halted the roughly $34 billion dollar IPO of his company Ant Group, which was going to be the worlds largest IPO in history at the time.Ma missed high profile events which sparked widespread fears for his safety. 3 months later her resurfaced in a video saying he was okay. Jack Ma had learned his lesson, the MSS will come for you if you gain enough influence in China.Peter Mattis and Matthew Brazil closely studied the MSS for many years and wrote a book called communist espionage that reveals many of the MSS secrets. According to them “The language Chinese intelligence uses reflects its Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary heritage. The intelligence services are bastions of faith in the CCP. Although they may be practical in terms of techniques and methods to acquire intelligence, this information is filtered through a Marxist–Leninist lens. The implication is that foreign targets are viewed in the worst possible light.”The way it works is the MSS has control of its own separate police force called the “state security police” which is a component of the people’s police.