This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
China’s spy agency has called on the country’s citizens to beware of “endangering national security” over the holiday period, a phrase commentators said was a warning to people to be careful what they say, and to not pass on information that hasn’t been officially released.
“Certain traps that endanger national security can enter our lives unannounced,” the Ministry of State Security said in a Jan. 28 post to its official WeChat account, the day most people would be gathering back at their family home to eat a meal and welcome in the Year of the Snake.
The much-feared Ministry has been cranking up propaganda warning of foreign “spies” in recent months, in a bid to get more people to inform on each other and steer clear of anything linked to the West.
The post called on people to enjoy the New Year as usual, but to be mindful of “ulterior motives to spy and steal state secrets,” particularly when attending gatherings and making visits.
“Don’t let your guard down when it comes to security and confidentiality,” the notice warned. “The public is warned to beware of people using the exchange of news … and other normal exchanges and interactions to acquire state secrets.”
“We must be vigilant against foreign spy agencies who collect and steal secrets both online and through secret infiltration,” it said.
U.S.-based lawyer Gao Guangjun said such notices have become common over the festive period in recent years, and has coincided with China’s growing sense of isolation from the international community.
He said such notices rarely define a “state secret,” leaving the authorities free to “enforce the law at will.”
What’s a state secret?
The Chinese authorities have typically employed a highly elastic definition of what constitutes a state secret, and national security charges are frequently leveled at journalists, rights lawyers and activists, often based on material they post online.
Article 14 of China’s Law on Safeguarding State Secrets, which was amended last year, divides state secrets into three categories: top secret; confidential and secret.
Which information falls into which category is left to the authorities to decide, according to Article 15.
The lack of definition makes “endangering state security” an easy crime to pin on anyone sharing information the government doesn’t like, Gao said.
The Ministry also called on people to “avoid military restricted zones, confidential scientific research institutions, communications bases and key power facilities” when going out to have fun.
It also called on social media users to be careful what they say online.
“Beware of spy agencies using social media comment areas to collect and steal state secrets and information,” it said.
U.S.-based political scientist Wang Juntao said the notice was “absurd.”
“It’s getting more and more ridiculous and over the top,” he said of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s obsession with security.
He said the authorities are nervous because people typically gather and exchange news over the Lunar New Year holiday, making it a time of potential unrest in their eyes.
“There are large movements of the population around Spring Festival, when people go back to their family home,” Wang said.
“As the migrant workers go back home, they’ll take with them news of everything they saw and heard in Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places,” he said. “So the authorities will want to control people’s speech and thoughts around this time.”
“They don’t want people to start saying stuff that is different from the government line.”
Meanwhile, China’s Cyberspace Administration named and shamed a number of “illegal and irregular” online news and information service providers in a Jan. 19 announcement, according several organizations of peddling “fake news.”
Websites including the China International News Network, Heilongjiang Online, Huaxia Morning News on Netease and the video account Xinxi Xinbao were all accused of “compiling and publishing false and untrue information and misleading the public,” the notice said.
Others had run news operations without a license, and “illegally recruited reporters,” and carried out reporting and publishing of “so-called” news, it said.
The agency said the “rectification” campaign would continue in 2025.
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