Happy National Security Day! Be Careful Dating Foreigners, They Could Be Spies

On everyone’s favorite new day of awareness, National Security Day, a bunch of these comics titled Dangerous Love (sounds like a title for an erotic thriller starring Michael Douglas) were plastered up in residential communities across Xicheng District, and caught the attention of the folks at China Law Translate. These were made to warn women working in political office about the dangers of dating foreigners.

Here’s the plot in a nutshell. Woman who works in the foreign publicity department of a Chinese government department gets invited to a dinner party, woman meets a visiting scholar, they go on dates, things get serious (oo-la-la), and then the scholar begins to ask her for confidential internal references from her office to help with some academic papers he’s writing. Then he disappears, never to be heard from again, resulting in a little visit from the Public Security Bureau.

So the moral is, ladies working in government offices must stay vigilant and don’t trust those sneaky scholars, or foreigners in general, as they all probably have some sort of hidden agenda to squeeze confidential materials from naive government workers. In movies and television, this is normally how these things work. Maybe she will be able to do the double agent thing to shave a couple of years off her prison sentence. But your best bet is not to be put in this totally f-awkward situation in the first place.

However, who can resist that fellow in the glasses? His Aquiline nose and ginger hair would make even the most cautious government worker swoon. Without a doubt, we would also hand over our social security numbers or other sensitive materials to this hunk of manliness if he so much as reached across the table, held our hands in his, and stared at us deeply with his black cartoon eyes. It’s getting hot in here.

Here’s the full comic for your reading pleasure and don’t forget these things happen. Beijing has always been a city full of intrigue and betrayal.

A foreign friend has organized a gathering tonight ... You're always trying to increase your foreign language level, why don't you go with me? – OK.

My name is David and I'm a visiting scholar researching issues about China. I'm really interested in chatting with all of you.

Everybody please introduce yourself and say a little something about your work. Let's start with this pretty lady. – Oh, OK!

I'm Xiao Li, I just tested into the civil service after graduating college and work in a foreign publicity department. – OK.

After that party, David began to meet with Xiao Li often and gave her gifts.

DAVID: You're pretty, sweet and exceptional; Honestly I fell for you the first time I saw you.

Having a handsome, romantic and talented foreign boyfriend is pretty good.

The two begin a romantic involvement.

DAVID: Dear, what exactly do you do at your work?

XIAO LI: I write internal references as a basis for central policies.

DAVID: Great! Lend me those internal references so I can take a look. This will really help me write academic articles.

XIAO LI: I can't, we have a confidentiality system.

DAVID: Dear, do you still need to keep secrets from me? I'm just taking a look to use in academic articles.

XIAO LI: Unh, OK then.

XIAO LI: This is a copy I made, give it back as soon as you're done.

DAVID: Relax, Sweetheart.

What happened? David hasn't called me recently, and his phone is always off.

OFFICER: Are you Xiao Li? We're from the State Administration of National Security. Please come with us.

XIAO LI: What? What's going on?

OFFICER: David is an overseas spy in China to steal political and military information, and we have already captured him. Did you provide him with these 'internal references?'

XIAO LI: I didn't know he was a spy; he used me!

OFFICER: You show a very shallow understanding of secrecy for a State employee. You are suspected of violating our nation's law.

A warning from the National Security Organs: According to Chapter 1 on crimes endangering national security, article 111 of the Criminal Law of the P.R.C.: Whoever steals, secretly gathers, purchases, or illegally provides state secrets or intelligence for an organization, institution, or personnel outside the country is to be sentenced from not less than five years to not more than 10 years of fixed-term imprisonment; when circumstances are particularly serious, he is to be sentenced to not less than 10 years of fixed- term imprisonment, or life sentence; and when circumstances are relatively minor, he is to be sentenced to not more than five years of fixed-term imprisonment, criminal detention, control, or deprivation of political rights.

Article 27 of Chapter IV of the Counter-Espionage Law provides that: Where extraterritorial institutions, organizations or individuals carry out, or instigate or financially support others in carrying out espionage activities, or where an institution, organization or individual within the territory linked to a foreign institution, organization or individual conducts espionage activities, and it constitutes a crime, it is pursued for criminal responsibility in accordance with law.

In fairness to the local security apparatus, this warning comes two years almost to the day that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation went public with a video teaching would-be American students in China how to fend off attempts to be recruited in the other direction. American student Glenn Shriver was arrested, tried, and convicted of attempting to get hired by US intelligence services in order to pass secrets to Chinese intelligence operatives.

Nailing foreigners is a good business. Turn someone in successfully and you could earn yourself RMB 3,000.

Photos: Jeremy Daum/China Law Translate