The analogue of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, or the GRU, is the Second Directorate of the Joint Staff of the Central Military Station of the CPC (formerly the General Staff of the PLA). Functions:
intelligence activities in the border regions and abroad;
strategic intelligence gathering and analysis;
intelligence intelligence collection of operational level.
Special attention is paid to the political and military doctrines of the United States, NATO countries, Asian states, as well as information about missile weapons and missile defense systems.
In addition, there are two institutes in the structure of the Second Directorate: there are no international strategic studies (information on specific functions is publicly available) and PRC international relations. These "scientific" organizations hold open events inviting foreign analysts on various aspects of geopolitics and regional security. It is reliably known that at the second institute language and moral-psychological training of officers is carried out before starting work outside the PRC.
The officers of the Second Directorate carry out intelligence activities, most often under cover (military attaches and other embassy staff, representatives of commercial organizations).
The Third Directorate of the Secondary Central Standard Station of the KPK carries out technical - electronic and Internet intelligence by regions, individual states and the lines of activity of their armed forces. Both strategic and tactical information are collected. The third department consists of twelve departments, which in turn include up to ten offices. Departments are located in major cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Wuhan, Kunming). Branches are dispersed throughout the country, which makes it difficult to identify them. In addition, in combat commands, depending on the importance and complexity of the tasks, one or two technical intelligence departments of the SV, similar to those of the Air Force, Navy and Rocket Forces (RS), were created.
Scientific and technical support of the work of the Third Department is carried out by three research institutes:
56 (known as the Jiangnan Computer Science Research Institute, Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province). High-performance computing systems and progressive software allow decrypting intercepted messages and files, processing large data arrays;
57 (Southwestern Institute of Electrical and Telecommunications, Chengdu). Carries out the development of systems for intercepting satellite signals and processing radio signals of any frequency;
58 (Southwest Automation Institute, Mianyang, Sichuan Province). The main activity is cryptography and information security.
Celestial Chain
The Chinese military widely use reconnaissance spacecraft (CARs). The PLA has the second largest group of CARs in the world. It includes Yaogan / Sensor (radar and optical reconnaissance), Gaofen / High definition (high definition optical wide-spectrum reconnaissance), Shijian / Praktika (infrared observation), Ziyuan / Resource (wide-range electromagnetic survey). .At present, Yaogan third and fourth generation CARs are operating in different orbits, developed by the specialists of the Satellites Krasny Vostok aerospace company, which is part of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. Depending on the generation and model, Yaogani is equipped with radar stations with synthetic aperture of L- or X-band.
Developed by CGWX specialists, the Gaofen KAR series are equipped with powerful optical and laser observation systems, fly at altitudes up to 650 kilometers and allow photographing infrastructure objects with a resolution of images up to 0,5 meters.
The Shijian and Ziyuan CARs detect submarines at various depths, as well as underground fortified objects built using reinforced concrete and provided with power.
For data transmission from the CAR and control they use communication satellites of the Heavenly Chain series. Naturally, the CARs of the above series also perform tasks in the interests of civilian ministries and departments. Satellite launches are carried out by the “Long-2” and “Great-4С” launch vehicles from the Jiuquan and Taiyuan spaceports.
It should be noted that Chinese military designers seek to reduce the size of satellites and form a new network of 2030 devices from the Jilin series by 138, which will allow updating the database on the situation on the planet every ten minutes. It is known that the first four vehicles of this series were already launched into orbits last year. During the current grouping will increase by another 12 units. This will update the information every three to four hours. By 2020, 60 satellites will already be in active operation, which will make it possible to obtain data super-efficiently - every 30 minutes.
All to one
The electronic reconnaissance aircraft "Yun-8 GX7" use two standard techniques.
The first is “Two to One.” A pair of aircraft takes off from an airfield in Shandong or Liaoning and heads in the direction of the Japanese archipelago with a minimum distance between the sides so that air defense controllers of Japan’s self-defense forces record only one air target. After raising the F-15J to intercept one of the low-speed reconnaissance, sharply reduced or deployed in order to divide the group of fighters. At this time, the operators of combat posts record the actions of the Japanese pilots, and the officers of the centers of electronic reconnaissance collect data on radio exchanges between pilots, bases and air defense stations.
The second tactical method is given the designation “God of War”. For collecting intelligence, strategic bombers "Hun-6K" and DRLO "Kunjing-500" airplanes are used, synchronously heading to areas of the Philippines, New Zealand and Australia. Here the bait is the bomber, and the information is collected by the “flying radar”.
"Antonov" with an accent
Chinese experts admit that the turboprop and slow "Yun-8 GX7", "Kunjing-500" do not allow to fully realize the potential of electronic intelligence systems. In fact, the modernization resource of the main platform, the Yun-8 military transport aircraft (Soviet An-12), has been completely exhausted and the PLA Air Force needs a new aircraft with turbojet engines, which will provide both speed at 800 – 900 kilometers per hour and 6000 range –7000 kilometers without refueling. The reference points in this question are the American DRLOI E-3 Sentry aircraft, as well as the Poseidon Р-8А anti-submarine patrol in the perspective Minotaur version. The latter, as planned, will replace the obsolete RC-135S Cobra Ball and the RC-135V / W Rivet Joint, which today perform regular flights along the borders of the PRC and the Russian Federation.
By the way, the Chinese comrades prepared all the conditions for the transfer of the line of aircraft Antonov Design Bureau from Ukraine to the PRC. In the open press, there was information that in one of the settlements of the province of Shaanxi, not far from Xian, several quarters were being built to accommodate specialists, workshops were being erected at local airlines. The aerodrome infrastructure of this region does not require modernization and allows flight tests of both light and combat aircraft, as well as extra heavy transport workers.
Interceptors in vests
The basis of the PLA Navy intelligence is the ships of the 815 and 815G projects. With a displacement of six thousand tons, the length of 130 meters and the width of 16,4 meters, they allow to carry out long-distance ocean trips from naval bases in southern China towards the Hawaiian Islands, to Guam, and also make voyages to the Indian Ocean, where their main target is the American naval base Diego Garcia. The equipment of the ships is designed to intercept radio messages on all known frequency bands, including microwave, satellite and cellular channels. Crews in the absence of sophisticated weapons systems are small, but the number of officer-operators of the combat posts of radio and cipher-interception centers reaches 150 people. The duty is conducted around the clock. The selection of such crews is quite strict, fluency in one or two foreign languages is the main condition for the competition for the vacant position. At present, China is upgrading the newest hydrographic survey vessel Ruili-10, which will allow the PLA Navy reconnaissance to collect more information about the activities of the US Navy submarines and non-nuclear submarines of the Japanese naval forces.
Hackers in uniform
In the direct subordination of the OC TsVS CPC there are three regiments of the Internet war, which were formed in 2004 year and permanently stationed in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu. The “military hackers” units include four battalions that are focused on the following areas: telecommunications lines, Internet sabotage and virus attacks, misinformation, and blocking the activities of foreign Internet intelligence.
In 2006, relevant Internet virus creation activities, worms, and Trojan programs attracted the attention of US national intelligence. The American company Mandiant in a report published in 2013-m, highlighted the activities of the unit housed in Shanghai, and named the number and direction of attacks that originated from the servers of the Chinese "military hackers."
All is heard
A broad network of radio and electronic intelligence centers has been deployed on the territory of the Celestial Empire, which allow the interception of voice and text messages in almost any frequency range. These centers are located in large cities. In the interests of the RV and the SV of the PLA, there is a network of over-the-horizon radars that provide complete cover for the state border line.
Laser Satellite Satellite
According to the US intelligence services, a network of powerful laser counter centers with foreign CARs has been created on the territory of the PRC, which can blind or completely disable virtually any foreign spacecraft in the event of an armed conflict. Since these centers are located deep in the territory of China, their destruction is possible only with the use of ICBMs, which are designed to withstand the echeloned intelligence system and air defense of the PRC. In addition, the SC-19 type anti-satellite missiles have been adopted by the PLAA Air Force, which make it possible to destroy the spacecraft of the GPS system, as well as low-altitude aircraft of the US Armed Forces.
The enterprises of the Chinese defense industry are paying a lot of attention to the creation of reliable equipment for military intelligence. This can be judged at least by the stands of the leading armory concerns at the exhibitions of radio-electronic PVN regularly held in the PRC.
It is known that the approach to extracting from the information about the likely adversary all sorts of benefits emerged in the Middle Kingdom many centuries ago, as soon as the first contacts of Chinese civilization with the outside world began. Today, the emphasis is, of course, placed on technical methods of obtaining information, which are complemented by measures of the intelligence network deployed abroad and acting in the interests of the PLA and the Ministry of State Security.