1/ Co-authored a paper on PRC Ministry of Public Security's First Bureau, its most powerful, political security unit. We confirm that the Bureau reverted to its original Chekist name, as rumored in 2020, and map its activities that include political influence work in the US.
2/ The 'new' name Political Security Protection Bureau (政治安全保卫局) refers to the Soviet political protection concept that made the Soviets fund and establish the CCP. The core idea is pacification of frontiers, physical or virtual, and protection of the regime.
3/ Vladimir Neiman (known in China as Nikolsky), a military intelligence (later state political protection bureau) officer in the Far Eastern Republic, a Bolshevik-controlled buffer state, brought money and orders from the Soviets to the CCP. He was also at the CCP 1st Congress.
4/ The renaming occurred in 2019, when the CCP's core put new stress on polsec and the MPS minister warned against colour revolutions. These actions are likely related to Hong Kong '19 and '20, culminating in the creation of secret police in HK, co-led by a former MPS1 chief.
5/ But First Bureau (and its deputy chief, a former PLA official) and its local analogues have engaged in cooperation with the PRC-backed ethnic armed forces in Myanmar, which includes Fox Hunt repatriations as well as donations to the separatists' law enforcement units.
6/ Furthermore, we conclude that MPS1 attempted to influence the #Trump presidency, using a network linked to attempted influencing of the #Clinton, and #Obama campaigns. In this case, MPS1 tried to e.g., repatriate #GuoWengui in exchange for US citizens held hostage.
7/ MPS(1) also uses nameplates and fronts to engage in law enforcement cooperation with democratic states (and e.g., Europol or Interpol), exploiting the targets' lack of understanding of its secret police nature, perceiving it as standard police counterpart.
8/ As Xi's regime focuses more on political security, in turn bringing the country toward the totalitarian ideal, cooperation with the MPS(1) should cease or be modified so that it cannot be exploited at all.
(Below: the MSS' state security tree with political security on top)
9/ Bonus: The MPS1 also runs a movie studio, which has been involved in an upcoming blockbuster action movie called Snafu starring the legendary #JackieChan and @JohnCena. Bound to be a political security blast.
imdb.com/title/tt687944…
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