| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In comparison with other major powers, relatively little has been written about the modern capabilities of the Chinese intelligence agencies. The public consciousness of Western audiences is certainly not infused with dramatic episodes equivalent to the United Kingdom's code-breaking successes against Nazi Germany during the Second World War, or the spy/counter-spy narrative which characterised the Cold War. Within China itself, there is such a narrative, but it is situated squarely within the context of the anti-Japanese war and in the post-war struggle between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Kuomintang (KMT), both campaigns in which intelligence played a significant role. This era is amply covered in both academic writings and an increasing array of novels, films and television series which form part of the CCP's ongoing Patriotic Education Campaign, established in the aftermath of the 1989 June 4 Incident.1 Far less coverage is devoted to China's contemporary intelligence capabilities, in particular in terms of successes in collecting against foreign targets. There is nothing remotely comparable to the huge expansion in academic writings on all aspects of intelligence that has developed in the West since the end of the Cold War.
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