Ministry of State Security (China)

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The Ministry of State Security (MSS) is the principal civilian intelligence and security service of the People's Republic of China, responsible for foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, covert action, and the political security of the Chinese Communist Party. One of the largest and most secretive intelligence agencies in the world, it maintains powerful semi-autonomous branches in every province and city and administers the country's secret police, the State Security Police. The ministry is headquartered at Yidongyuan, a large compound in Beijing's Haidian district. The origins of the MSS date to the beginnings of the CCP's Central Special Branch, established in 1927. It was replaced by the Central Social Affairs Department from 1936 through the proclamation of the People's Republic in 1949. In 1955, the department was replaced with the Central Investigation Department, which existed in various forms through the Cultural Revolution to 1983, when it was merged with counterintelligence...

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