Central Social Affairs Department

Central Social Affairs Department

中央社会部
Emblem of the Chinese Communist Party
Agency overview
Formed	February 18th 1939
Dissolved	May 2nd 1961
Superseding agencies	Central Investigation Department (1955-1983) Ministry of State Security (1983-Present)
Type	Constituent Department of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party
Jurisdiction	Mainland China
Agency executives	Kang Sheng, Director Kong Yuan, Deputy Director Pan Hannian, Deputy Director Li Kenong, Deputy Director Chen Gang, Deputy Director Tang Zheng, Deputy Director Liu Shaowen, Deputy Director

The Central Social Affairs Department (SAD) (simplified Chinese: 中央社会部; traditional Chinese: 中央社會部; pinyin: Zhōngyāng shèhuì bù) was the intelligence & counter-intelligence organ of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership prior to established in 1936 and is considered the predecessor of the contemporary Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), the nation's largest and most powerful intelligence body.

The SAD, known at times as the Zhongshebu, Shehuibu, or Zhongqingbu, was composed of a Special Branch, the Political Security Bureau, and the Guard Office.

History

The creation of the Central Social Affairs Department (SAD) followed a decision taken by the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party on 18 February 1939. The decision assigned to the department some five major tasks, including those of overseeing CCP counter-intelligence work and intelligence. An alternative designation of the department at this early stage was the "Central Commission for Enemy Area Operations."

The first director of the SAD was Kang Sheng. By the time the Chinese Civil War flared up again after World War II, Kang had been replaced by his senior deputy Li Kenong as acting director. Li was officially department director in August 1949, when the SAD was dissolved and its tasks parceled out to other agencies. After the founding of the PRC, domestic counter-intelligence work was at the central level managed by the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China, while the task of collecting political and military intelligence overseas was assigned to the Intelligence Department of the Central Military Commission. In 1955, the task of political intelligence work was transferred to a newly created Communist party body, the CCP Central Investigation Department (CID) with Li Kenong as its first director. Today, China's Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China (which succeeded the CID in 1983) both trace their institutional origins to the SAD.

Worth noting in an institutional history context is the fact that some of the SAD's sub-national counterparts (e.g., the Department of Social Affairs of the CCP Committee of province X) continued to exist as party bodies for quite some time after the founding of the PRC. In the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Department of Social Affairs of the regional CCP Committee (orig. Work Committee) was not abolished until 2 May 1961.

Leadership

Directors: Kang Sheng (October 1939 – 1948?), Li Kenong (acting dir. May 1948-?; - May 1951?)

Deputy directors: Kong Yuan (October 1939-), Pan Hannian (October 1939-), Li Kenong (March 1941-), Chen Gang (November 1945-August 1949), Tan Zhengwen (June 1948-November 1949), Liu Shaowen (May 1948-)

References

Sources

• Wang Jianying (ed.), "中国共产党组织史资料汇编" (Collected Material on the Organizational History of the Chinese Communist Party), revised and expanded edition. Beijing: Zhonggong Zhongyang Dangxiao Chubanshe, 1995.
• "中国人民公安史稿" (Draft History of China People's Public Security). Beijing: Jingguan Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 1997.