Introducing: The Sixth Bureau

The Sixth Bureau investigates the inner workings of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) through the lens of a high-stakes espionage case involving Xu Yanjun. The narrative centers on a 2017 FBI operation that successfully infiltrated the secretive agency, capturing unprecedented evidence of Chinese intelligence operations. By utilizing consensual telephone recordings and several terabytes of data from an MSS officer’s personal life, investigators gained a "unicorn" level of access to the agency's vault of secrets. This investigation highlights how one officer's professional ambition and subsequent mistakes allowed Western intelligence to document the clandestine methods used by the MSS. The account features direct audio from Special Agents Regal and Bradley Hall, documenting the moment federal authorities established contact with their targets, ultimately exposing the structural vulnerabilities within one of the world's most powerful spy organizations.