BOOK REVIEW: Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer
by Peter Mattis and Matthew Brazil
Reviewed by Martin Petersen
Martin Petersen is a Cipher Brief Expert and former Director of the Office of East Asian Analysis and the Office of Asian Pacific and Latin American Analysis in the CIA’s Directorate of Intelligence. All opinions and statements are his own.
Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer is precisely what the subtitle says it is, a primer, and a very useful one. It is not a history of PRC intelligence organs or an examination of Chinese tradecraft and operations, although the primer touches on both. It is more reference aid, one the authors hope “will appeal to both general interest readers…and to specialists in fields such as intelligence and security, recent Chinese history, and the politics of the PRC.” And, to their credit, the authors have walked well the difficult path of serving the interests of two different audiences.
There are chapters on PRC intelligence organizations since the Party’s founding in 1921; prominent figures in the history of PRC intelligence; notable spies during the civil war and early PRC; economic espionage cases; CCP and PRC intelligence operations before 1989; more recent cases; and surveillance practices today. Each chapter is a compilation of thumbnails—brief descriptions of organizations, people, and incidents. There is some repetition as a result, but because it is a reference aid, a reader can focus on a topic or incident and come away with the essentials without having to read the book cover to cover.
The authors have done a fine job of pulling together a great deal of information in one place. The chapter on economic espionage is the longest, and is enlightening both to the scale of Chinese activities, their breath of interests, and what the authors characterize as the PRC’s “entrepreneurial” approach to collection. With over 360,000 students in the United States—few of whom are studying American literature--an entrepreneurial approach, and a sophisticated cyber capability, the PRC is well positioned to acquire proprietary as well as classified information.
The authors have covered all the major personalities and cases that I can recall with the exception of the Loral Hughes satellite launch controversy and allegations of illegal campaign contributions, both in 1996. These led to a series of Congressional investigations, which were more notable for their political theater than for anything they uncovered. But, these cases plus the Wen Ho Lee accusations, which the authors cover, led to the creation in 1998 of the House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China. Better known as the Cox Committee, its report led to some major legislative and administrative reforms.
There is no real discussion or analysis of Chinese tradecraft, although the reader can pull threads from the thumbnail sketches. The introduction to the book tries to highlight themes, but I would have welcomed a more overarching essay, one that presented the authors’ key takeaways on Chinese tradecraft and what we can expect going forward.
Serious students of Chinese espionage and anyone interested in doing additional research—which the authors encourage—will find the footnotes and the bibliography extremely helpful. There are 68 pages of footnotes, and the bibliography covers 18 pages, including seven of primary Chinese language sources from the mainland and Taiwan. There is also an online glossary of Chinese intelligence terms at www.ccpintelterms.com, which the authors plan to update. I encourage them to add a list of abbreviations and a consolidated timeline.
The secondary sources are comprehensive, although I would encourage any researcher to also look at Yeh Wen-hsin’s article in the August 1989 issue of the Journal of Asian Studies, Dai Li and the Liu Geqing Affair: Heroism in the Chinese Secret Service During the War of Resistance, and Brian Martin’s extensive work on the Green Gang, especially The Shanghai Green Gang Politics and Organized Crime 1919-1937 and Shield of Collaboration: The Wang Jingwei Regime’s Security Service, 1939-1945 in the Winter 2001 issue of Intelligence and National Security.
Because it is a valuable reference aid and excellent starting point for further research, Chinese Communist Espionage earns a prestigious four out of four trench coats.
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