In China, even schoolchildren are told to catch spies

CHINA’s government regards spy-catching as a game for everyone. In April the municipal government of Beijing started offering rewards of up to 500,000 yuan ($70,000) for finding one. It called on citizens to be on their guard against agents attempting to “infiltrate, subvert, split or sabotage China”. Also last month, an official publishing house produced new books for primary-school children to mark the country’s second “National Security Education Day”. They included fun games such as “Find the spy”. State media said this was part of an effort to mobilise students of all ages as “a huge counter-spy force”.

It is not known whether this approach has secured important leads. But in recent days official newspapers have been crowing about a reported victory for China’s counter-intelligence efforts. On May 20th the New York Times said that between 2010 and 2012 China had uncovered a network of some 20 agents, planted deep within China’s bureaucracy, who had been feeding information to the CIA. This was said to have been one of the biggest such breaches in recent decades. The newspaper said some of the agents had been killed, including one who was shot in front of his colleagues as a warning.