China Shaking Up Spy Agencies?

Rumors abound that Xi wants a firmer hand on state security organs

The non-communist Chinese press was abuzz last week with rumors that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) plans to reorganize its IC (intelligence community) by merging the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Public Security together into a new organ of state security, directly under the Central Committee.

Ministry of State Security badge

Citing Ming Pao (Hong Kong), China Times, a Taiwan news outlet, says here that the supposed new super-security organ, to be established under the CCP Central Committee, would be called the "Central Internal Affairs Commission" [中央内务委员会, Zhongyang Neiwu Weiyuanhui].

This rumor is also being written up in the usual Falun Gong-affiliated sources as well as Radio Free Asia’s new site. Supposedly, this reorganization will be announced during the "two sessions" (the NPC and the CPPCC) next month.

I have yet to find the original Ming Pao report: I don't see it on their website and wonder if it was taken down after publication, or if it was never there in the first place.

Mystery Sources

This sort of news is troublesome because no sources are ever cited, yet the nature of the information is that, even if completely accurate, it will be kept secret by the CCP, a highly conspiratorial organization that is generally good at keeping secrets.

I polled three scholars who have long studied the organs of Chinese state security. None none had heard any information to confirm or refute the idea of another PRC IC reorganization (the last one was in 2015, creating the PLA Strategic Support Force and before that, in 1983, when MSS was founded).

"Possible but not probable" said one, "it makes sense" said another, since Xi Jinping seems to favor consolidation of Party control and because of the longstanding issues of corruption in the ranks of both agencies. (See, for example, the downfall of former MSS Vice Minister Ma Jian.)