China’s top espionage official has identified Taiwanese independence, technology theft, subversion and the defence of strategically important sea lanes as top priorities for the next five years.
State Security Minister Chen Yixin identified the issues as his main priorities in an article published in Study Times, the mouthpiece of the Central Party School, which is used for ideological and administrative training.
In his assessment of international affairs, Chen noted the decline of a “unipolar hegemony”, an obvious but indirect reference to the United States.
He linked his assessment to a major policy meeting in October that set out the Communist Party’s latest five-year plan for the economy.
Without naming the United States, he said “unipolar hegemony” was becoming “increasingly unsustainable” as a result of “accelerating democratic transformation, economic decline, and social fragmentation domestically”, and the “collapse of credibility, the decay of hegemony, and the shattering of its legacy internationally”.
But he warned that the external risks faced by China were increasing as “unilateralism and protectionism and the threats of hegemonism and power politics are increasing on the rise”.