How China’s Ninth Bureau counters Mossad operations in Mideast
By Nadia Helmy
Visiting senior researcher at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies
The Ninth Bureau (Bureau 9) of the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) is a high-level intelligence agency focused on counter-espionage. Its role has grown in the Middle East, particularly in Iran and Egypt, to protect China’s economic and strategic interests. The Chinese Bureau of State Security primarily counters Mossad operations by strengthening security coordination with Cairo and Tehran to secure China’s Belt and Road Initiative projects and deploy Chinese defense technology within Egypt and Iran. This aims to reduce the effectiveness of Israeli infiltration of Chinese interests in both countries.
The Ninth Bureau (Bureau 9) is considered one of the most sensitive units within the Chinese Ministry of State Security. Its primary function is to monitor American intelligence and military activities, especially those targeting China and its allies and partners worldwide, particularly in areas of sensitive Chinese influence in the Middle East, such as Egypt and Iran, and to protect Chinese interests in Tel Aviv. Its primary role is to combat foreign espionage and monitor foreign intelligence activities targeting Chinese interests or its strategic partners. Here, the Ninth Bureau of the Chinese Ministry of State Security acts as a technical intelligence shield aimed at fortifying the Egyptian-Chinese partnership against Israeli espionage or sabotage attempts through the Israeli Mossad, with a particular focus on technical and cyber aspects.
The Chinese Ninth Bureau also works to curb Israeli Mossad operations inside Iran by providing close Chinese monitoring of Mossad infiltration into Iran, especially after the Israeli operations against Tehran and its sensitive facilities in 2005. Here, the Chinese Ninth Bureau seeks to support Iranian agencies by exchanging intelligence information and providing advanced technologies to protect defense and nuclear facilities and to prevent the collapse of their security systems that threaten Chinese interests. Following a similar Chinese strategy to counter Israeli intelligence espionage against Chinese interests in Tel Aviv, the Chinese Ninth Bureau works to protect China’s technological and smart investments in Israel, such as the ports of Haifa and Tel Aviv, from Israeli or American counterintelligence penetrations, ensuring the confidentiality of sensitive Chinese technology.
In this context, the Ninth Bureau of the Chinese Ministry of State Security seeks to enhance China’s strategic security in Egypt. The bureau focuses on protecting maritime routes, the Suez Canal, and Chinese logistics projects in Cairo, such as the Suez Canal Economic Zone and TEDA’s projects, primarily by strengthening counter-espionage efforts against Israel in North African countries. Here, the Ninth Bureau specifically targets securing vital Chinese infrastructure through counterintelligence operations to limit any competing Israeli, American, or Western influence that could harm China’s growing influence in the region.
This is the same point raised by the Israeli newspaper “Israel Hayom” in a report published in 2025, citing Israeli security sources who expressed concern about joint meetings between high-ranking Egyptian and Chinese officials. These meetings reportedly addressed advanced Chinese arms deals for Egypt, including warships and advanced Chinese air defense systems. The Israeli newspaper, quoting Israeli military and security officials, expressed apprehension that the Egyptian army might diversify its arms sources, particularly from Beijing, as part of a new Egyptian military policy aimed at reducing its dependence on the United States, the traditional arms supplier to the Egyptian army. This reliance stems from US restrictions on certain military exports to Egypt, imposed to ensure Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region.
Israeli intelligence, as expressed in publicly published reports in Tel Aviv, fears that Egyptian-Chinese talks and deals are not limited to the arms sector alone but also encompass other areas that deeply threaten Israeli national security. These include joint Egyptian-Chinese military training, most notably the “Eagles of Civilization” joint Egyptian-Chinese exercises and maneuvers from April to May 2025, technological cooperation in electronic warfare and surveillance systems, and the transfer of advanced Chinese military technology to Egypt. Consequently, the Chinese Ninth Bureau is monitoring and countering Israeli Mossad operations in Cairo by strengthening security coordination with Egypt to secure Chinese “Belt and Road” projects in Egypt and providing a defense technology system to prevent Mossad intelligence penetrations in Cairo.
The Ninth Bureau of the Chinese Ministry of State Security plays a significant role in monitoring Israeli Mossad activities against Egypt. This role is highlighted in the following points, according to intelligence and analytical data for 2025 and 2026, through tracking Israeli intelligence infiltration of Egypt: The Ninth Bureau monitors Mossad attempts to infiltrate personnel or institutions cooperating with China in Egypt, especially given the recent increase in military and intelligence cooperation between Cairo and Beijing.
The Chinese Ninth Bureau also works on countering technical and cyber espionage of Chinese activities within Egyptian and Iranian territories: The Ninth Bureau contributes to providing the Egyptian side with closed Chinese technologies and systems that are “impenetrable” to Israeli or Western software. This is an approach that China has also begun implementing in other countries, such as Iran, to neutralize Mossad’s technical capabilities. The Ninth Bureau of Intelligence in China is currently focused on protecting Chinese military technology in Egypt, particularly given Egypt’s acquisition of advanced Chinese air defense systems, such as the HQ-9B and J-10C fighter jets.
The Ninth Bureau is tasked with preventing Mossad from accessing the technical details of these weapons or attempting to disable them electronically. This explains Israel’s growing concern regarding this intelligence cooperation between China and Egypt.
The Chinese Ninth Bureau is also working on intelligence sharing with Egypt. Reports indicate a significant shift in the level of coordination between the Chinese Ministry of State Security and the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate in 2025–2026. Information is being exchanged regarding agent movements and suspicious activities that may aim to destabilize the region or harm shared interests. Here, the Ninth Bureau of the Chinese Ministry of State Security is actively monitoring what is known as “gray warfare” or “gray security” and the private intelligence companies that Mossad might use as cover for its activities in Africa and Egypt.
In this context, the Ninth Bureau of the Chinese Ministry of State Security is conducting extensive operations to counter Mossad’s regional operations and infiltrations in Egypt and Iran. The Ninth Bureau of the MSS is waging a silent and comprehensive intelligence war to undermine Mossad operations, particularly in Iran, considering Israeli infiltration a threat to its strategic interests. The Ninth Bureau is working to uncover spy networks and thwart operations launched from neighboring Asian countries against Tehran, all within the framework of protecting Beijing’s regional partnerships. The Chinese Ninth Bureau’s role is focused on countering Mossad within the Middle East, specifically to protect China’s strategic partners, such as Egypt and Iran. Here, the Chinese move, through its Ninth Bureau, aims to support Iran in confronting the deep Israeli penetrations revealed by the 2025 operations. These operations followed Israel’s strikes and targeting of Iranian infrastructure and nuclear reactors due to the increasing Israeli penetration of Tehran. The Ninth Bureau, affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security, monitors and analyzes the activities of the Israeli Mossad and dismantles Israeli spy networks that use neighboring countries as platforms to carry out operations inside Iran.
Beijing views the Mossad’s success in penetrating Iran and its ally Egypt as a direct threat to China’s direct interests. This compels China to intensify its efforts to counter Israeli intelligence, which it refers to in intelligence circles as “countering Pandora’s box of risks”. To this end, the Chinese Ninth Bureau is intensifying its security cooperation with both Egypt and Iran. The Bureau operates within a comprehensive Chinese strategy in Cairo and Tehran to enhance the intelligence security of Chinese partnerships in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt and Iran. In addition to the silent war China is waging against the Israeli Mossad, it aims to contain Israeli intelligence influence and ensure the stability of its economic and political partners in the region.
The full article first appeared on Modern Diplomacy.