In 2024, Forward Defense Nonresident Senior Fellow Nicholas Eftimiades was interviewed for an award-winning documentary by France Télévisions on Chinese espionage and transnational repression efforts. The documentary outlines recent cases of international spying by China’s Ministry of State Security (Guoanbu), as well as examples of the arrest and repatriation of Chinese nationals under the Chinese government’s Operation Fox Hunt. Eftimiades was interviewed and quoted extensively throughout the film, saying that “The Ministry of State Security has about a hundred thousand people, which is five times [the size of] the largest intelligence services out there. We’ve never seen anything like this in history before. Even the old days of the Soviet Trust in the 1930s had nowhere near this much reach and power.”
Forward Defense leads the Atlantic Council’s US and global defense programming, developing actionable recommendations for the United States and its allies and partners to compete, innovate, and navigate the rapidly evolving character of warfare. Through its work on US defense policy and force design, the military applications of advanced technology, space security, strategic deterrence, and defense industrial revitalization, it informs the strategies, policies, and capabilities that the United States will need to deter, and, if necessary, prevail in major-power conflict.
