Redesigning state security: The 2018 reorganisation of the Ministry of State Security
Alex Joske and YunGeun Jeon
Deserepi 1 (2025)
In 2018, China’s premier intelligence agency initiated an unprecedented reorganisation of its secretive internal structure. The Ministry of State Security’s new structure concentrates operational resources around key intelligence and security missions and shows how the MSS has expanded to tackle new priorities. One bureau points to a growth in MSS’s overseas security work, such as protecting Belt and Road Initiative investments. A Political Security Protection Bureau has likely been established to counter threats to the CCP regime, laying the foundation for the MSS to become a major player in elite politics. A new bureau probably leads MSS use of data and artificial intelligence, operationalising the masses of data the MSS collects through hacking and surveillance. We also present new details and sources on the MSS’s previous organisational structure, which was inaccurately or incompletely described in available literature.