BEIJING, April 12 (ChinaMil) -- Since the Beijing Municipal National Security Bureau released a document on awarding bonus for citizens and organizations to report espionage on April 10, 2017, the “12339” hotline, as the only public hotline for reporting potential spies to the national security agency, has received lots of reports over the past year.
According to statistics, there have been nearly 5,000 reports from people from all walks of life and people outside China in the past year, providing important support for national security agencies to conduct in-depth legal investigations and effectively fight against espionage crimes.
Among the bonus winners is a taxi driver surnamed Wang, who noticed one day during his work a few foreigners carrying suspicious equipment loitered near a restricted military area. He called the hotline immediately.
An in-depth investigation by the national security agencies revealed that these foreigners had overseas spy intelligence agency backgrounds and wanted to spy on core secrets of Chinese military with their underground detection equipment.
Another award owner is a research fellow surnamed Zhao from a military research institute, who was approached by a foreigner at a bookstore near the institute. The foreigner pretended to consult Zhao about relevant academic problems and took the opportunity to ask about Zhao’s work and promised to give Zhao a large sum of money if he could provide internal information of the institute.
Zhao turned down the offer and called the “12339” hotline. After investigation, the national security agency found that the foreigner had relations with an overseas spy intelligence agency.
A man surnamed Liu often chatted through QQ, a Chinese popular communication application, with his schoolmate Chen, a researcher of a computer research institute in China, and on many occasions asked Chen about his research programs in the institute. Chen declined his inquiries and dialed “12339” to report the situation to the national security authorities.
The investigation conducted by the national security agency indicated that Liu tried to buy Chinese scientific research personnel to provide scientific information for his overseas employers. Chen also received a reward.
The Beijing Municipal National Security Bureau said that through education and training, people’s national security awareness and ability to prevent and stop espionage activities have been continuously improving in recent years.