Chinese authorities published a set of caricatures on National Security Education Day on Sunday to warn workers in defense-related industries to be alert for foreign spies, especially activities which incite the public.
The set of caricatures entitled "A 'friend' with a mask" tells the story of a foreign man who claims to be from a foreign non-governmental organization, manages to find a Chinese representative to promote "the value of workers in the West" in China. He bribed the Chinese representative to organize seminars, telling Chinese workers to defend their rights, to organize a union or express their needs through protests.
The caricatures, produced jointly by the Ministry of State Security, State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and China Aerospace Science and Industry Cooperation (CASIC), were released to the public by CASIC on Sunday.
Sunday marks China's third National Security Education Day after the State Security Law designated April 15 as National Security Education Day.
This caricatures are meant to teach workers how to detect and report foreign spies and espionage activities, and raise their awareness of State security, CASIC said on Sunday.
CASIC also warned workers to be cautious about people who catch up with them in public, and asked them to report suspicious people.
Aside from the caricatures, CASIC also provided information on spies, including the groups spies target and how to get rid of spies' interference when studying overseas.
The caricatures have been disseminated to all national defense technology related industries, said CASIC.
Last year's National Security Education Day was celebrated with street banners, community publicity events, videos and graphs shared online that tried to convince the public of the importance of national security. Students were specifically targeted by this publicity drive to mobilize them as a huge counter-spy force.
Li Daguang, a professor at the National Defense University of the People's Liberation Army, told the Global Times that the public may only be able to notice "low-level" spies, "but these well-trained and professional spies may not be that easy to spot.
He added that educating the masses to help identify spies is of great importance, because it is tough for the government alone to detect spies.
