Eyes and Ears: Secret Agent Work in Cold War China

This essential primary-source reader brings together documents collected over decades of research into security agency tradecraft and Chinese Cold War-era human intelligence. Michael Schoenhals' expert translation of the texts teases out meanings from memoranda, decodes marginal notes from senior officers, and unpacks the hastily scribbled communications of covert human assets. Together, these sources trace the resilience of covert human intelligence as an institution, even when faced with revelations of major misconduct and calls for its reform. With editorial introductions providing valuable context, this collection offers an informed interpretation of the domestic recruitment and running of agents that sheds critical new light on Chinese security agencies' intelligence gathering operations and capacity building during the Cold War.

Michael Schoenhals is Professor Emeritus of Chinese at the Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University. He is author of Doing Things with Words in Chinese Politics (1992), Mao's Last Revolution (with Roderick MacFarquhar) (2006), and Spying for the People: Mao's Secret Agents, 1949–1967 (2013).