‘China is not just a country with intelligence services, but rather an intelligence state. In this wide-ranging book, Faligot traces this trajectory from pre-revolutionary Shanghai to the present and reveals a phenomenon for which the West is ill-prepared.’
Nigel Inkster, former Director of Operations and Intelligence, MI6, and Director of Transnational Threats & Political Risk, IISS
‘ With increasing tensions in the trade war between America and China, concerns about the future of democracy in Hong Kong, and the controversy surrounding Huawei's 5G mobile networks, Chinese Spies is a very timely and important book.’
Andrew Lownie, Wall Street Journal
‘Faligot, an intrepid French researcher, has for 40 years constructed an encyclopaedic private archive of Chinese intelligence … Chinese Spies, is an enjoyable treasure trove of conspiracy theories … spicy enough to keep the general reader awake at night.’
The Times
‘Faligot’s detailed and fascinating account of Chinese espionage over the past century argues that “today the community of Chinese security and intelligence services is the largest in the world” … impressive in its level of detail.’
Rana Mitter, The Sunday Times
‘A French journalist and longtime China watcher, Faligot has an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of China’s spy agencies. In an area where so much of even the distant historical record is strictly off-limits, his extensive research will be useful to academics.’
Geoff Dyer, Financial Times
‘Faligot, an intrepid researcher, has for 40 years constructed an encyclopaedic private archive of Chinese intelligence … The result, Chinese Spies, is an enjoyable treasure trove. Parts of it read like a work of anthropology, an account of the competing spy tribes of communist China, their chieftains and totems. Through this prism … he tells the story of a nation that, while seeking superpower status, is still slave to self-doubt.’
Roger Boyes, Weekend Australian
‘Roger Faligot fuses an encyclopaedic knowledge of this murky world and its characters with anecdotes that are sometimes comical and often colourful.’
Le Point
‘The expert Roger Faligot offers an enthralling, years-long investigation into the Chinese secret services, delving behind the scenes of Beijing’s global strategy.’
Le Parisien
‘Mr Faligot writes evocatively … [Chinese Spies is an] engrossing book.’
The Economist
‘This book could not be more timely … [it] includes fascinating spy stories … and colourful characters.’
Asian Review of Books
‘French journalist Roger Faligot's history of Chinese intelligence from 1921 to the present day is teeming with revelations.’
Intelligence Online
‘Roger Faligot has produced a book stuffed full of scoops on the Chinese secret services.’
Métro
‘A landmark book’
Paris Match
‘This is an intense book. [Chinese Spies] is the result of huge research but also demonstrates the author’s immense knowledge of the politics, attitudes and identities of the political elite of the People’s Republic of China.’
Asian Affairs Journal
‘The unstoppable rise of the Chinese secret service has seen it grow greater in size than all other intelligence services worldwide ... Roger Faligot's study traces in full the history of an organisation that has long been successfully diversifying into technological and economic warfare in a new long-term strategy. As Faligot puts it, 'China's manpower is unrivalled', and its vast diaspora network is unique. [Its agents] play a decisive role in conquering new fossil fuel sources; in saturating foreign markets; and in conquering the global cellphone market. Now is the time urgently to read this absolutely fascinating and highly valuable study.’
Diplomatie Magazine
‘This is a detailed overview of a difficult topic and certainly an important source for those wanting to study China’s agencies in more detail. … Faligot and Lehrer have done an important job in producing an English-language edition of the earlier book, which will act as a starting point for historians and anyone interested in China’s “secret state” in future.’
Diplomacy & Statecraft
