China warns against fake spy claims after jealous public servant frames rival

A Chinese state employee who falsely accused a colleague of spying for Beijing after losing out on a coveted overseas posting has been penalised by the Ministry of State Security (MSS).

The country’s top intelligence agency made the rare decision to shed light on the case using its social media account on Tuesday in a bid to highlight the consequences of making false accusations.

The perpetrator, identified only by his surname, Liu, earned a master’s degree from a prestigious university in 2018 and was regarded as a rising star at the public institution where he worked, the post said.

The drama began in 2024 when the institution began to recruit for an overseas position. Convinced of his own superior qualifications and competence, Liu was confident he would clinch the assignment.

But Liu’s dream was shattered when his employer ultimately selected another colleague, surnamed Li. Overwhelmed by anger, Liu fabricated claims that Li was a Chinese spy and sent an anonymous report directly to an “overseas entity” in an attempt to take revenge, according to the report.

The MSS said while its investigation showed Liu acted “solely to vent personal grievances without the intent to endanger the state”, his false report had nonetheless produced an “adverse impact” on China’s national security.

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Liu was handed an administrative warning under China’s counter-espionage regulations, it said.

Expressing remorse following his punishment, Liu said he had acted out of “impulse and ignorance” and that he should not have allowed “jealousy to blind my eyes, leading to behaviour that harmed others and compromised national security”.

The MSS report did not provide the identities of Liu’s employer or the foreign organisation to which he sent the false report, the smear’s impact on Li’s overseas posting or how the agency was made aware of the case.

It cautioned that the public should not “treat national security matters as child’s play”, warning that fabricating evidence or using the security apparatus to settle personal grudges breached statutory boundaries and invited legal sanctions.

The MSS opened a WeChat account in August 2023, a few months after the country passed its revised Counter-Espionage Law, and has since issued multiple warnings to the public, cautioning that foreign spy agencies have been leveraging everyday activities to penetrate company security measures and steal secrets, or even turn Chinese citizens against their government.

In October that year, it warned that foreign powers had armed themselves with bioweapons designed to target the Chinese population. The existence of such weapons has long been dismissed by the mainstream scientific community as a conspiracy theory.