Ministry of Public Security (China)

The Ministry of Public Security (MPS, Chinese: 公安部; pinyin: Gōng'ānbù) is a government ministry of the People's Republic of China responsible for public and political security. It oversees more than 1.9 million of the country's law enforcement officers and as such the vast majority of the People's Police. While the MPS is a nationwide police force, conducting counterintelligence and maintaining the political security of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remain its core functions.
The ministry was established in 1949 after the CCP's victory in the Chinese Civil War as the successor to the Central Social Affairs Department and was known as Ministry of Public Security of the Central People's Government until 1954. As the ministry's organization was based on Soviet and Eastern Bloc models, it was responsible for all aspects of national security; ranging from regular police work to intelligence, counterintelligence and the suppression of anti-CCP political and social sentiments. Military intelligence affairs remained with the General Staff Department, while the CCP's International Department was active in fomenting revolutionary tendencies worldwide by funneling weapons, money and resources into various pro-CCP movements. Most of its counterintelligence responsibilities were taken over by the Ministry of State Security with its creation in 1983.
The ministry employs a system of public security bureaus throughout the provinces, cities, municipalities and townships of China. The special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau maintain nominally separate police forces. The ministry is headed by the minister of public security. Wang Xiaohong has been the minister in charge since June 2022.
The Ministry of Public Security was among the first government organs established in the PRC. It superseded the Ministry of Public Security of the CCP's Central Military Commission (CMC), a transitional body created in July 1949 by removing the security service remit from the CCP's Central Social Affairs Department (SAD). The MPS began operations on 1 November 1949, at the end of a two-week-long National Conference of Senior Public Security Cadres. Most of its initial staff of less than 500 cadres came from the (former) regional CCP North China Department of Social Affairs. At the national level, its creation signaled the formal abolition of the SAD. The ministry moved to its present location, in the heart of the one-time foreign legation quarters in Beijing, in the spring of 1950.
The Ministry of Public Security of the Central People's Government was formed in 1954. Grand General Luo Ruiqing of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) served as its first minister. As the ministry's organization was based on Soviet and Eastern Bloc models, it was responsible for all aspects of national security; ranging from regular police work to intelligence, counterintelligence and the suppression of anti-CCP political and social sentiments. Military intelligence affairs remained with the General Staff Department, while the CCP's International Department was active in fomenting revolutionary tendencies worldwide by funneling weapons, money and resources into various pro-CCP movements.
The MPS's Guangzhou office historically handled foreign spies such as Larry Wu-tai Chin.
With the creation of the Ministry of State Security (MSS) in July 1983, MPS lost much of its counterintelligence personnel and remit. Scholars Jichang Lulu and Filip Jirouš have argued that the establishment of the MSS "may have contributed to the illusion that the MPS is simply a law-enforcement police body, separate from intelligence agencies." According to analyst Alex Joske, "the MPS lost much of its foreign intelligence remit after the MSS's creation, but has established new units for cross-border clandestine operations since then." The MPS remains a commonly used cover by MSS officers.
Following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the MPS worked to counter Operation Yellowbird.
The MPS and its officers have been active abroad in Operation Fox Hunt and Operation Sky Net. The MPS under Sun Lijun had reporters from The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong under "full operational surveillance" for their reporting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.
In 2017, Europol signed a "strategic cooperation agreement" with the MPS. Starting in 2019, the MPS began replacing "domestic security" with "political security" in the names of its units. In 2020, the United States Department of Commerce added the MPS Institute of Forensic Science to the Entity List over human rights issues related to the Uyghur genocide. The institute was removed from the list in 2023 as part of an agreement during the APEC United States 2023 to combat fentanyl trafficking.
MPS has at times been involved in security diplomacy between China and other countries. For example, between 1997 and 2020, it organized 11 bilateral police diplomacy meetings with African countries. Under Xi Jinping, MPS has increased its training of police officers from other countries.
In 2022, it was reported that the MPS had established numerous overseas police service stations, which sparked investigations by law enforcement organs in multiple countries. In 2023, the United States Department of Justice stated that the MPS engages in covert "intelligence and national security operations far beyond China's borders," including "illicit, transnational repression schemes". It charged 34 MPS officers with using fake social media accounts to harass overseas dissidents. The same year, disinformation operations known as Spamouflage or "Dragonbridge" were linked to the MPS. In the run-up to the 2024 United States elections, Spamouflage was identified as having used fake social media accounts in an attempt to amplify divisions in US society.
The Ministry of Public security is the main police agency of China. It manages the vast majority of the People's Police. The ministry's functions and responsibilities include criminal investigations, managing detention centers, counterterrorism, counternarcotics, transport security, traffic safety, anti-smuggling intelligence gathering and maintaining public security. Additionally, conducting counterintelligence and maintaining the political security of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remain its core functions. It has the primary authority for preventing cyberattacks and it operates the Golden Shield Project.
The ministry is headed by the minister of public security. Wang Xiaohong has been the minister in charge since June 2022. The MPS is organized into functional departments (see below). Subordinate to the MPS are the provincial- and municipal-level PSB's (Public Security Bureau) and sub-bureaus at the county and urban district levels. At the grassroots level, finally, there are police stations (Chinese: 派出所; pinyin: Pàichūsuǒ) which serve as the direct point of contact between police and ordinary citizens. While public security considerations have weighed heavily at all levels of administration since the founding of the PRC, the police are perceived by some outside observers to wield progressively greater influence at lower levels of government. Provincial public security bureaus are subject to dual supervision by both local provincial governments and the central government. The ministry is also closely associated with the development of surveillance technologies used by police in China through the Third Research Institute (Chinese: 第三研究所; pinyin: Dì-sān Yánjiūsuǒ; lit. 'No. 3 Research Institute') focused on the development of AI based “smart surveillance,” and censorship technologies.
On 5 March 1989, the MPS issued the "Notice on Issuing the 'Three Rules' Program of the Ministry of Public Security." In order to facilitate the work, the bureaus and departments of the MPS were re-numbered into the first, second, third bureau model. These serial numbers are only used for the public security functional organs. Offices, services, research centers, political departments, etc. do not use serial numbers.
According to the July 2019 "Provisions on the Functions, Internal Structure, and Staffing of the Ministry of Public Security" (Chinese: 公安部职能配置、内设机构和人员编制规定), the MPS is organized into the following institutions:
In line with the extensive use of two names, one institution in Chinese bureaucracy, the Economic Crime Investigation Bureau is co-located with the Securities Crime Investigation Bureau. The International Arrests Bureau is located in the International Cooperation Bureau, and is under the unified leadership of the Central Anti-Corruption Coordination Group. The daily work of the Political Department of the Ministry of Public Security is carried out by the Inspectorate Audit Bureau, the Personnel Training Bureau, and the Press and Publicity Bureau.
Each provincial-level unit has a Public Security Department (公安厅), or for direct-rule Municipalities a Public Security Bureau with provincial department rank, whose head is appointed by the local People's Government and approved by the MPS.
The journal Public Security Construction（Chinese: 公安建设; pinyin: Gōng'ān jiànshè）was a classified serial publication for internal purposes. During the disastrous Great Leap Forward between 1958 and 1961, the circular Public Security Work Bulletin (Chinese: 公安工作简报; pinyin: Gōng'ān gōngzuò jiǎnbào) was a top-secret serial which often described China's serious food shortages, social unrest and famine directly contradicting Mao Zedong's claims of "bountiful economic fruit".
MPS also produces another journal, People's Public Security News (Chinese: 人民公安报; pinyin: Rénmín gōng'ān Bào), and a website, China Police Daily (Chinese: 中国警察网; pinyin: Zhōngguó Jǐngchá Wǎng), for both internal communication and external publicity.
The MPS' First Bureau operates a united front organization called the China Association for Friendship.
The Border Defense Corps was a People's Armed Police unit that was under formal dual control by the MPS' 4th department. It was dissolved in 2018, with all border control duties passing to the National Immigration Administration and border defense duties passing fully to the People's Liberation Army.