China’s spy chief lays out threat landscape

China's spy chief sees risks from across the spectrum.

On April 15, Minister of State Security Chen Yixin published a lengthy editorial in Qiushi, the Party's top theory journal.

Chen identifies six categories of threat confronting China (Qiushi):

• Foreign-backed subversion
• Hegemonic coercion
• Separatism (Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang)
• Terrorism
• Espionage
• The great power technology contest

He indicated that the US-Israel-Iran conflict has freaked Beijing out:

• “Major powers are locked in fierce competition over strategic minerals, strategic straits, and strategic energy resources, with escalating risks of energy crises, chokepoint threats, and financial shocks.”
• "Deep applications of AI in intelligence fusion, decision support, target recognition, combat operations, and cognitive warfare in the US-Israel-Iran conflict...[show] the tremendous impact of AI on future warfare and human civilization."

According to Chen, China needs to go on the front foot:

• “[We must] shift national security work from reactive response toward early warning, rapid response, and proactive shaping.”

Get smart: The Iran war is accelerating Beijing's sense of urgency around energy and supply chain diversification, tech self-reliance, and AI military applications.

Get smarter: The proactive framing signals that Beijing intends to keep building out leverage.

• The rollout of two counter-sanctions regulations in quick succession is likely just the beginning.