The Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China is the wing of the Chinese government that today manages everyday

police-on-the-street law enforcement.

But from its creation, in the wake of the communist victory during the Chinese Civil War

in 1949, until the year 1983, when the Ministry of State Security was established, it was

also responsible for domestic and

international intelligence operations, fighting espionage efforts from foreign and local entities

of the state, and during the Cold War, especially, fomenting revolution around the world

by spreading ideological information and funneling weapons, money, and other resources

to pro-Chinese and pro-communist regimes and groups elsewhere.

From 1983 onward, though, the Ministry of State Security took over most of those spy-related

activities, allowing the Ministry of Public Security to focus primarily on at-home policing efforts.

China being a one-party state, though, which keeps order in part through strict surveillance

and security practices, taking down anyone who might threaten the status quo's stability,

and you might mess with the plans of the people in charge of that single party,

their policing efforts are a bit more expansive than those that you are likely to find elsewhere.

One of their policing responsibilities, for example, is running what's called the Golden

Shield Project, also called the National Public Security Work Informational Project, which is a

collection of integrated systems that plug security management infrastructure into criminal

information systems, exit and entry informational systems, traffic management systems, and a

collection of tools that allow those in control of the Golden Shield to compile and mesh

disparate information quickly, using various surveillance and database apparatuses to recognize

a face in the crowd, attach that face to all the information about the person who wears it,

...