Yidongyuan

Building in Beijing, China From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yidongyuan (Chinese: 颐东苑社区; pinyin: Yídōngyuàn shèqū; lit. 'East Summer Palace Garden') is a government compound in Beijing, China which serves as the headquarters of the Ministry of State Security (MSS). The facility consists of an office complex and residential community occupying a full city block in the Xiyuan area of Beijing's Haidian District. Closed to the public, and separated by a perimeter wall, the secretive nondescript facility is believed to be staffed by approximately 10,000 intelligence officers and support staff.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

LocationNo. 100, Xiyuan, Qinglongqiao, Haidian District, Beijing, China^[1]

Coordinates39.9920929°N 116.2782940°E

CurrenttenantsMinistry of State Security

YearbuiltUnknown

Quick facts General information, Location ...

Yidongyuan
颐东苑社区
Buildings within Yidongyuan rise above the perimeter wall at left. The camera is faced north, positioned just past the main entrance.
Location within Beijing
General information
Location	No. 100, Xiyuan, Qinglongqiao, Haidian District, Beijing, China^[1]
Coordinates	39.9920929°N 116.2782940°E / 39.9920929; 116.2782940
Current tenants	Ministry of State Security
Year built	Unknown
Renovated	c. 1983
Owner	Government of China
Other information
Public transit	Train: 4 16 Xiyuan Bus: 129, 303, 346, 432, 476, 610, 636, 671
Administrative division code: 110108013012

Unlike foreign counterparts such as the American CIA's George Bush Center for Intelligence, the SIS Building housing the British MI6, or the Lubyanka Building of Soviet KGB and Russian FSB, Yidongyuan is distinct in housing employees and their families in apartments on site.^{[clarification needed]}

History

Prior to the establishment of the MSS, Yidongyuan served as the headquarters of its predecessor agency. It was referred to in public settings obliquely as the "Organ in the Western Garden" (中直西苑机关; Zhōngzhí xīyuàn jīguān), a reference to its location in northwestern Beijing near the Western Garden (Xiyuan). Under secure circumstances, its name in plain language was 调查部; Diàochá bù or 中调部; Zhōngtiáo bù, meaning "Central Investigation Department" (CID).^[7] By the time the MSS was stood up in 1983, the complex of former CID buildings had been extended and modernized in preparation to accommodate the new agency.^[4]

Facilities

The office of the minister of state security is on the seventh floor of a drab administrative building on the compound described as having architecture reminiscent of 1950s communist design.^[8]

Within the compound there is a residential apartment block called Qián mén (前门), where many of the MSS staff and their families live.^[3] The facility's administrative division code is 110108013012.

According to a notice from the State Taxation Administration, the facility contains an auto repair shop.^[9]

Transportation

A study of unusual pedestrian origin-destination flows in the International Journal of Geographical Information Science examined the Haidian district, noting an abnormally large unexplained flow toward a destination in the Yidongyuan area, confirming that the facility does have a large workforce, but stopping short of naming the facility or the nature of the work carried out in it.^[10]

By car the facility can be reached by the 4th or 5th ring road, as it is situated between the two. For individuals utilizing public transit, the facility can be accessed via line 4 or line 16 of the Beijing Subway to Xiyuan station, as well as by a plethora of bus routes operated by Beijing Bus from the Xiyuan Bus Hub [zh] attached to the train station.

References

[1]
"国家税务总局关于国务院各部门机关后勤体制改革有关税收政策具体问题的通知" [Notice of the State Administration of Taxation on Specific Issues Concerning Taxation Policies Related to the Reform of the Logistics System of Departments and Organs of the State Council]. State Administration of Taxation. August 30, 2000. Archived from the original on 2024-09-02. 中央国家机关后勤改革享受税收政策汽车修理厂: １．铁道部汽车修理厂（大兴县西红门）；２．新华社新华汽车维修中心（海淀区四季青板井）；３．国管局汽车修理厂（丰台区西五里店１７８号）；４．外交部汽车修理厂（东城区外交部街丙31号）；５．国家安全部行管局汽车修理厂（海淀区西苑１００号）；６．国家安全部迅捷汽车修理厂（海淀区西苑甲１号对面）； [Central government agencies’ logistics institutions that benefit from tax policies in the category of auto shops: 1. Railway Ministry auto repair shop (Daxing County Xihongmen); 2. Xinhua News Agency Xinhua Auto Repair Center (Haidian District Sijiqing Banjing); 3. State Administration Bureau auto repair shop (Fengtai District Xiwulidian No. 178); 4. Ministry of Foreign Affairs auto repair shop (Dongcheng District Foreign Affairs Street C No. 31); 5. State Security Bureau Administration auto repair shop (Haidian District Xiyuan No. 100);]
[2]
Joske, Alex (2022). Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World. Melbourne: Hardie Grant. ISBN 9781743797990. OCLC 1347020692. The Xiyuan or West Garden compound occupies an entire block just east of the Summer Palace, an opulent imperial resort that was looted by foreign armies during the Boxer Rebellion. Street imagery from Chinese internet giant Baidu shows its guarded entrance decorated for the Spring Festival and large golden letters giving another name for the compound: Yidongyuan, the East Summer Palace Garden. Few tourists wandering past its modest walls would know that it houses the headquarters of the MSS, China's peak espionage agency.
[3]
Smith, I.C.; West, Nigel (2021). Historical Dictionary of Chinese Intelligence (2nd ed.). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 256. ISBN 9781538130193. The Ministry of State Security, Guojia Anquanbu, is the People's Republic of China's (PRC) government's intelligence arm, headed since 2016 by Chen Wenqing and responsible for foreign intelligence collection and counterintelligence. It is located in Beijing in a large compound in Xiyuan on Eastern Chang'an Avenue, close to Tiananmen Square. Within the security perimeter is an apartment block, Qian Men, where many of the MSS staff and their families live.
[4]
Faligot, Roger (2019). Chinese Spies: From Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping. Translated by Lehrer, Natasha (2nd ed.). London: C. Hurst & Co. pp. 118, 125. ISBN 9781787380967. Beijing's Western Park (Xiyuan), one stop after the zoo on the 332 bus and one before the Summer Palace, is an extensive royal park within the Imperial City. It housed the former Diaochabu buildings, now extended and modernized to accommodate the Guoanbu. Satellite photos today show the full extent of this secret ministry. At the beginning of the 1980s, it brought together a dozen large departments." "The consequences of this affair would be great. It triggered an earthquake not only at CIA headquarters in Langley, and in Washington, but also at Xiyuan, the Guoanbu headquarters in Beijing.
[5]
Guo, Xuezhi (2012). China’s Security State: Philosophy, Evolution, and Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139150897.010. ISBN 978-1-107-02323-9. The MSS headquarters was located where the previous CID was, at No. 100 Xiyuan, a location with tight security in the western suburbs of Beijing, twenty-five kilometers west of Tiananmen Square.
[6]
Wise, David (2011). Tiger Trap: America's Secret Spy War with China. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-547-55310-8. The secret headquarters of the Ministry of State Security is located in Xiyuan, the West Garden section of Beijing, near the Summer Palace. Unsuspecting crowds of foreign and Chinese tourists visit the palace daily, not realizing that they are passing China's spy headquarters.
[7]
Mattis, Peter; Brazil, Matthew (2019). Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781682473030. Those in the know referred obliquely to the "Organ in the Western Garden" (中直西苑机关, Zhongzhi Xiyuan jiguan), referring to its location in northwestern Beijing. Under secure circumstances, its name in plain language was Diaocha bu or Zhongdiao bu (调查部,中调部)
[8]
Faligot, Roger (2019). Chinese Spies: From Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping. Translated by Lehrer, Natasha (2nd ed.). London: C. Hurst & Co. pp. 118, 125. ISBN 9781787380967. Every morning, as the sun tried to pierce the dusty pollution haze, Comrade Geng Huichang would leave for work in north-west Beijing, going from Zhongnanhai, the village of rulers that backs onto the Forbidden City, towards the Beijing Zoo. His destination was a large, drab building recalling the communist architecture of the 1950s. Over the lintel of the monumental gateway, an eloquent symbol is carved into the stone: the sword and shield of the CCP, overlaid by the hammer and sickle, hanging above the image of an imperial palace. This is the Western Garden district, headquarters of the Ministry of State Security, otherwise known as the Guoanbu. Geng would head up to the seventh floor, perhaps adjusting his customary blue tie—polka-dot or striped depending on the day—before entering his office, where he would greet the heads of various departments: espionage, counterintelligence, cybersecurity, and so on.
[9]
"国家税务总局关于国务院各部门机关后勤体制改革有关税收政策具体问题的通知" [Notice of the State Administration of Taxation on Specific Issues Concerning Taxation Policies Related to the Reform of the Logistics System of Departments and Organs of the State Council]. State Administration of Taxation. August 30, 2000. Archived from the original on 2024-09-02. 中央国家机关后勤改革享受税收政策汽车修理厂: １．铁道部汽车修理厂（大兴县西红门）；２．新华社新华汽车维修中心（海淀区四季青板井）；３．国管局汽车修理厂（丰台区西五里店１７８号）；４．外交部汽车修理厂（东城区外交部街丙31号）；５．国家安全部行管局汽车修理厂（海淀区西苑１００号）；６．国家安全部迅捷汽车修理厂（海淀区西苑甲１号对面）； [Central government agencies’ logistics institutions that benefit from tax policies in the category of auto shops: 1. Railway Ministry auto repair shop (Daxing County Xihongmen); 2. Xinhua News Agency Xinhua Auto Repair Center (Haidian District Sijiqing Banjing); 3. State Administration Bureau auto repair shop (Fengtai District Xiwulidian No. 178); 4. Ministry of Foreign Affairs auto repair shop (Dongcheng District Foreign Affairs Street C No. 31); 5. State Security Bureau Administration auto repair shop (Haidian District Xiyuan No. 100);]
[10]
Song, Ci; Pei, Tao; Ma, Ting; Du, Yunyan; Shu, Hua; Guo, Sihui; Fan, Zide (2019-01-02). "Detecting arbitrarily shaped clusters in origin-destination flows using ant colony optimization". International Journal of Geographical Information Science. 33 (1): 134–154. doi:10.1080/13658816.2018.1516287. ISSN 1365-8816. Figure 9 shows the OD flow clusters of shortdistance trips identified by AntScan_flow and SaTScan_flow. The common OD flow clusters include nine clusters with OD centers observed between...Yidongyuan and the Wanquanhe Bridge (SC3 and AC7)...Although short-distance trips have diverse purposes, most of these OD flow clusters depart from a residential area and arrive at a workplace or business center. From this perspective, the results of AntScan_flow illustrate more homogenous areas in origin/destination regions. For instance, the AntScan_flow algorithm identified many residential areas in origin regions that SaTScan_flow did not identify...NOTE 1: For SC3 and AC7, both clusters include flows between Yidongyuan and the Wanquanhe Bridge. For destination areas differing from Suzhou St. (identified by SaTScan_flow), AntScan_flow has identified Peking University instead. Although Suzhou St. is a famous business area and workplace, more flows of people occur from Yidongyuan to Peking University (561 during the morning and 2217 during the day to Peking University versus 238 during the morning and 1060 during the day to Suzhou St.). These trips are mainly attributed to the students of Peking University who live in Yidongyuan.

Yidongyuan

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