| Guo An Bu, the Chinese intelligence agency. It got the name in 1983 after severe restructuring and several reorganizations. Originally the Central Department of Social Affairs, it was created in the 1930's to inform the new CCP of domestic and international events related to the Bolshevik revolution. It was instrumental in the post World War II Civil War between the CCP and the Kuomintang, providing their guerilla troops with valuable information.
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, through some shrewd manuevering the same organization established itself as an intelligence agency, named (among other pseudonyms) the Central Investigation Department. In the 1950's every Chinese embassy in the world had a bureau office for intelligence purposes.
During the chaos years of the Cultural Revolution, China didn't really need anything other than a dose of sanity, and the intellectual leaders of the organization were all purged, and then either killed or sent to the countryside for "re-education" (read: near-certain death). The bureau was recreated in 1977.
In 1983, the Central Investigation Department was merged with the counter-intelligence agency, the Public Security Ministry. The new Ministry of State Security (eerily Orwellian, if you ask me) was given the responsibility of "the security of the state through effective measures against enemy agents, spies, and counterrevolutionary activities designed to sabotage or overthrow China's socialist system".
After further restructuring in the 1990's, the MSS continues to operate in the United States, Canada, Western Europe and Northern Europe, sometimes using Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, as cover for their agents. | 
