Mo Jihong: Education on National Security Must Be systematized and Normalized

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On April 10, 2017, the Government of Beijing Municipality promulgated the Measures for Rewarding Citizens Who Report Acts of Espionage, which provide that citizens who report leads that play a major or prominent role in preventing or stopping acts of espionage or in the investigation of a case of espionage shall be given a cash reward between 100,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan. Many believe that this high reward is aimed at encouraging all citizens to participate in the work of protecting national security.

Recently, Professor Mo Jihong, Deputy Director of CASS Law Institute, was interviewed by the newspaper Legal Daily on the publicity of and education on national security in China. In the interview, Professor Mo pointed out that the new National Security Law, adopted on July 1, 2015, contains clear provisions on the national security consciousness of members of society and their obligations in matters of national security. A central idea of these provisions is that protecting national security is the responsibility not only of national security organs, but also of all state organs, social organizations and individual citizens. This idea raises higher demand on the national security consciousness of the general public. In recent years, the government has adopted various measures to intensify the publicity of and education on national security, including using new media to disseminate the knowledge about national security, especially stressing that national security is not only about spies and intelligence, but also about political, economic and social security and it concerns all individuals in all walks of life. Such publicity is conducive to cultivating the consciousness that the protection national security is everyone’s responsibility.

The national security education and publicity work must be implemented in every work unit and department, which have the obligation to organize their staff members to study the knowledge of national security and to learn how to prevent national security risks. In the future, to further enhance the public awareness of national security, it is important to enable the people to truly participate in the national security work. The National Security Law provides that work units shall provide training to their staff members on national security. Leaders of state organs must attach high importance to this work. National security education and publicity must be standardized and normalized and closely linked up with the personal interest of every individual. Responsibility system and reward and punishment system must be established to enable citizens to realize the importance of protecting national security and the tangible benefits it brings to them. Only in this way can the state effectively encourage ordinary citizens to actively participate in the upholding national security and to establish the idea that everyone is responsible for national security. China should truly integrate the national security education into the national educational system, so as to institutionalize and systematize national security education, and ensure its sustainability and effectiveness.