China's top intelligence agency is using AI to track American spies and others in Beijing's embassy district, according to a new report that highlights the growing Cold War-style rivalry between the agency and the CIA.
Once overshadowed by Chinese military intelligence units, the Ministry of State Security (MSS) has grown in reputation and prowess to become the country's premier spy agency.
Powerful and well-funded, the MSS combines the CIA's mission of foreign surveillance with the FBI's mandate of domestic counterintelligence, all in one overtly political agency explicitly dedicated to protecting the Chinese Communist Side.
The MSS is now using AI and facial recognition to track foreign diplomats, military officers and intelligence agents in Beijing's embassy district, according to a report New York Times reported Wednesday, citing U.S. officials and a person with knowledge of the matter.
The system creates instant files on every person of interest in the area, tracks their movements and contacts, and can be used to identify their networks and potential vulnerabilities, the Times reported.
China's top intelligence agency is using AI to track American spies and others with surveillance cameras in Beijing's embassy district, according to a new report (file photo)
Chen Yixin, a longtime aide to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, heads the MSS and has sought to raise the profile of the notoriously secretive agency
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington DC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on Wednesday evening.
China's sophisticated espionage program underlines the prominent role of advanced technology in the emerging rivalry between the MSS and the CIA.
“For China in particular, exploiting others' existing technology or trade secrets has become a popular shortcut, encouraged by the government,” Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center in DC, told the Times.
'The urgency and intensity of technological espionage have increased significantly.'
While China has long tried to steal other countries' advanced technologies and trade secrets, the CIA is now devoting more resources to gathering information about China's advances in AI and quantum computing, the Times said.
David Cohen, deputy director of the CIA, told the newspaper that the agency has increased its focus on gathering information about Chinese technological advances.
“We have been counting tanks and understanding the capabilities of missiles for longer than we have focused as sharply on the capabilities of semiconductors or AI algorithms or biotech equipment,” Cohen told the Times.
The former head of the MSS, Chen Wenqing, was promoted to China's Politburo in October 2022, the first spymaster to be elevated to such a high-level role in decades.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, bottom center, and senior members of the government are seen at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October 2022
A Chinese police officer patrols outside the US Embassy in Beijing in a file photo
His replacement as head of the MSS, Chen Yixin, is a longtime aide to Chinese leader Xi Jinping and has sought to raise the profile of the notoriously secretive organization.
Unlike the CIA or MI6, the MSS still does not have a public website or public contact information.
But Chen has launched social media accounts for MSS, including one on WeChat, where the agency proclaimed: “The United States' multi-faceted obstruction, containment and suppression will only make China stronger and more self-reliant in the fight.”
In addition to its focus on high-tech, the MSS has also increased its efforts to recruit American citizens as spies.
In one such case, American student Glenn Shriver, while studying abroad in Shanghai, was recruited by MSS handlers who offered him money and encouraged him to apply for jobs with the U.S. State Department and the CIA.
Shriver pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage for a foreign government and was sentenced to four years in prison in 2011.
He later admitted he was motivated by “greed” and filmed a public service video for the FBI, imploring other American students not to fall into the same trap he did.
American student Glenn Shriver (left) was recruited while studying abroad in Shanghai, while Kun Shan Chun (right), a naturalized American citizen, was approached while working at the FBI with a top secret clearance
The case, which received little media attention at the time, raised alarm bells in the intelligence community because it demonstrated Beijing's growing ambition to recruit young Americans without ethnic or family ties to China.
In another case, Kun Shan Chun, a naturalized US citizen, was sentenced to 24 months in prison in March 2016 for acting as an agent of China.
Chun, an FBI employee with top secret clearance, provided the Chinese government with information on FBI surveillance methods and details of an FBI agent's travel arrangements.
Last year, the first Chinese government intelligence official ever extradited to the United States to face trial was sentenced to 20 years in prison for crimes of espionage and attempting to steal trade secrets.
Yanjun Xu, 42, was convicted in federal court in Cincinnati in November 2022 after targeting U.S. aviation companies to obtain trade secrets and recruiting employees to travel to China on behalf of the Chinese government.
The 42-year-old was working for the MSS when he was arrested in 2018 during a business trip to Belgium.