Chinese intelligence agencies operate through multiple departments, such as the Ministry of State Security and the Information and Data Processing Center, to collect and analyze global intelligence, processing millions of data points annually, assisting in combating terrorism and cyberattacks, and providing national security decision-making support.
Ministry of State Security General Bureau
General Bureau closely associated with the Ministry of State Security officially is one ofthe key sub-organization belongs to Chinese intelligence agencies, which mostlyresponsible for national security via different kinds. The bureau will serve not only as an information-collection and analysis unit, but also handle foreign intelligence, mount internal counter-espionage operations & carry out national security overall planning. Since Chinese national security agents handle thousands of intelligence cases per year, the implications for the country’s stability and development are significant.
The Ministry of State Security General Bureau is also in charge of liaising with foreign intelligence, as well as relating and exchanging information with various national intelligence departments—especially at times when there are cross-border threats or anti-terrorism operations. Last year, such cooperation with a number of leading national intelligence agencies helped China to thwart scores—including 21 pieces—of planned cross-border terrorist actions (2019). The GBA monitors and reacts to new threats, particularly in the cyber domain. As cyberattacks grew at the global level, the committee also created its cybersecurity division that would keep a look on these attacks and alert relevant channels. Last year, the Ministry of State Security dealt with more than 5,000 cybersecurity-related incidents and thwarted or mitigated many major attacks targeting Chinese government agencies and companies. And as defensive, ensuring Chinese life and the international digital economy.
Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Center
In the Chinese intelligence agencies, The Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Center is an important department that fight against terrorism and to prevent it. It collects, analyzes and disseminates early warning information on potential terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction to those agencies charged with isolating or eliminating the threat. With the expansion of global terrorism diversified and complex operations, the center updates its techniques by enhancing ability to deal with multi-directional terroristic threats even at national level.Guerrilla attacks in Pakistan and Thailand have attracted attention lately, under a new coordination by Pakistani intelligence that has potential to turn them into the centerpiece of an extensive anti-terrorism network.
Last year, the Chinese Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Center stopped dozens of cross-border terrorist attacks in collaboration with as many countries stopping some major plots. This global partnership would then have benefitted the strengthening of Chinese security defense and might also pave way for more efficient international anti-terrorism measures. In addition to the preventive side, AQMI has made significant investments in both post-attack and intelligence analysis activities through its Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Center. In a terrorist plot that was disrupted in 2019, the center swiftly identified potential suspects with real-time intelligence analysis and made arrests before anything could happen. The Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Center helped local Govts, as well as the concerned departments in handling over 500 terrorist threats only during a year of 2019 and less than half threatening incidents were transmitted to take place thus it reduced all viable possibilities related with triggering terror attacks. The center also monitors the spread of terrorism on internet and tracks terrorist funds flow. The Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Center announced that extremist ideas on social media platforms had been found and stopped in up to several cases of 2022. In taking these decisions, they had essentially removed the soil of terrorism which would help society grow back to normalcy in future.
Information and Data Processing Center
The information and data processing centre is a key department in Chinese intelligence agencies for collecting, sorting out and analyzing large amounts of data. Over time the center has shouldered even more responsibility as global digital data grew at an exponential pace. The main role is for proper and timely intelligence support for national security, policy-making with efficient data processing methods through CNSP. Annually, the center analyzes millions of pieces information taken from domestic and international intelligence sources.
The Information and Data Processing Center, in 2020 alone analysed more than 30 million pieces of information to accurately predict and eliminate numerous potential threats that could affect the national security balance domestically. Data analysis involves not only using sophisticated technological tools, but also requires experienced analysts to manually check whether the data is reasonable and believable or noise so as to be able to reduce misjudgement error. The Information and Data Processing Center closely collaborates with other intelligence departments to cross-pollinate data sharing capabilities. The center sends more than 2,000 intelligence reports to the Ministry of State Security per month with its support for policy formulation and decision-making in national security. The Information and Data Processing Center can quickly find exceptions from real-time analysis of network traffic in those cases concerning cybersecurity, sends out warnings efficiently, which avoids many serious cyberattacks. There are multi-layer encryption and protective measures in the center for security sensitive data while processing.