As part of its campaign this month to raise awareness about “national security,” China’s Ministry of State Security has produced a poster warning Chinese about the supposed intelligence risks that come with getting romantically involved with foreigners.
The poster is drawn in a manga-like comic style, but the themes seem like something from the Cold War. In 16 panels, it depicts a scenario in which a young female Chinese civil servant begins dating a Caucasian foreign spy posing as a visiting scholar. The woman, nicknamed “Xiao Li” or “little Li,” inadvertently aids the spy’s intelligence work by providing him with sensitive documents.
Xiao Li is shown refusing to provide the spy with her workplace’s “internal references” at first, but then accepts when he excuses it as a valuable opportunity for his research. She then receives a visit from the police, who arrest her for aiding the enemy.
April 15—the day the poster appeared—is the date of China’s newly-created “National Security Education Day.” The poster itself is just one of over 100 promotional materials designed for the campaign. According to a notice posted on the official website of a Beijing district, the posters are required to be put on bulletin boards and community leaders will be trained in “knowledge of counter-espionage.”
The poster has some of the trappings of the political climate under chairman Mao Zedong (1949–1976), when the slightest interest in foreign culture or affairs could get one labeled as a spy.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2032011-photos-chinese-propaganda-comic-warns-women-against-romantic-western-spies/
