The Ninth Bureau of China’s Ministry of State Security is a high-tech intelligence unit that specializes in counterintelligence, keeping Chinese personnel safe abroad, and shutting down any foreign meddling. When it comes to Vatican-Taiwan operations, the Bureau works within Beijing’s strategic playbook: safeguarding national interests and pushing back on any outside political or religious influence that could pose a threat to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The Ninth Bureau systematically keeps tabs on Vatican-affiliated educational, charitable, and missionary setups, seeing them as potential hubs of foreign influence directed against China. It pays special attention to parts of Africa and neighboring countries. There’s reason to believe that Chinese state security bodies have had a hand in cyberattacks targeting Catholic networks run by the Vatican and Hong Kong. The goal is to get the upper hand in negotiations over bishop appointments and to make sure China’s Catholic clergy toe the doctrinal line set by Beijing in their liturgical practices – cutting out Vatican influence where it counts.
Meanwhile, the Holy See’s intelligence apparatus – historically known as the Sodalitium Pianum, or the Holy Alliance – is recognized as one of the oldest, most tight-lipped, and most powerful intelligence networks in the world. Its modern setup draws on a worldwide diplomatic web of apostolic nuncios, clergy, monastic orders, and the Order of Malta. Information is gathered and analyzed both through technical means and human intelligence (HUMINT). Its sources pull from the sacrament of confession, bishops’ reports from conflict zones, and direct channels of papal diplomacy. The Vatican’s main focus is on political, social, and religious intelligence – the kind needed to back up the Pope’s diplomatic efforts and track global trends that might have an impact on the Church.