Complicated situation
This education drive has started partly because China is now faced with a much more complicated State security situation than before, according to Li Jie, a Beijing-based military expert.
"The infiltration of hostile forces like terrorism, separatism and extremism, and the high-tech and covert means spies use to obtain intelligence have all made the security and counter-espionage situation difficult," explained Li.
Since April 10, the National Security Bureau of Beijing has offered a reward of 500,000 yuan ($72,600) to people who provide tip-offs that play a role in countering spies. A vivid cartoon that can be easily understood by kids was also made by the bureau and widely circulated.
As the bureau explained in a press release, since reform and opening-up began, exchanges with foreign countries and the number of people entering and exiting China have both been increasing. The bureau said that overseas intelligence agencies have taken this as a chance to intensify their activities in China.
The reward policy stresses that the government sees ordinary people as key to the fight against espionage.
In a recently exposed case, this January, a fisherman surnamed Zhang found a device covered in foreign writing while catching fish near the Yellow River in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province. Knowing his discovery might relate to national security, Zhang and his friend Wan called the authorities and the device was found to be a tool used by overseas agencies to collect data.
"Counter-espionage has not been mentioned for a long time, and the society is kind of dumb about it, so many big cases appeared in recent years. For a long time we have emphasized the economy, production and foreign relations, and kind of ignored education in this aspect," said Li. "But remember, our enemies are not sleeping."
"Peace does not prevail across the world. Our enemies are not dead. We just cannot relax our vigilance," added Li.
Picking up the young
For today's young people that have grown up in peacetime, worrying about national security may seem strange. But to people who grew up in 1950s and 60s, who were told to be on constant lookout for spies, this round of national security education is nothing new.
Classic Chinese movies often have ordinary people's vigilance toward espionage as a theme, portraying common people as being so cautious and incisive that spies were inevitably foiled. Some middle-aged netizens posted online around National Security Education Day that they used to play "spy-catching" games in their childhood.
"After the founding of the People's Republic and till the late 1960s, anti-spy consciousness was deeply rooted among the people," Li told the Global Times.
"We had education in this aspect at that time, about fighting against special agents and spies. But this education was slackened for people born in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. It is mainly because patriotic education has fallen behind," Wang, who was born in 1957, said based on his personal experience.
In the midst of this education drive, many netizens have expressed their support for education to keep the common people on their toes.
"Take it seriously please. When China and Japan came into conflict [in 2012 over Japan's "nationalization" of the Diaoyu Islands], there were overseas organizations attempting to stir up disturbances in a neighboring university," a netizen named Mengxiangjiaxiaosi wrote on Sina Weibo. She explained to the Global Times that after these events, she realized spies could be around her from then on. She declined to reveal which "overseas organizations" were stirring up trouble.
Still, there are people who do not take the government's warnings about spies seriously. "I'm gonna catch the spy but … give me a gun first," one netizen joked.
News portal huanqiu.com conducted a survey in 2009 about national security, in which 81.4 percent of the nearly 6,000 respondents agreed that the anti-spy situation is more challenging than before, and 95 percent said that Chinese people are bad at keeping secrets.
Lucy Ma, a university student in Beijing, told the Global Times that her peers have little awareness of national security issues. "We generally even don't know what kind of information is related to national security, to say nothing of being sensitive and cautious about it."
"Now many people take and post pictures wherever they like without thinking, and some may involve confidential stuff. It shows a lack of secret-keeping awareness. Overseas spies and hostile forces can easily collect such information," Wang stressed.
"The new generation lacks sufficient education in secret-keeping and patriotism. Every one of us should develop good habits when it comes to keeping secrets," Wang added.
But Ma added that students are likely to be more aware of these issues than other parts of society, since "there is education about national security at college."
"It is true that all of society needs to strengthen its awareness about national security. At least, we have started to work on it on campus," noted Yang, a teacher from a Beijing-based college.
