bought four books of military secrets under $1<\/a> at a neighborhood recycling station. <\/p>\nIt has also published comics, short videos, and mini movies.<\/p>\n
State security present during filming<\/p>\n
\u201cScare Out,\u201d which stars acclaimed actors Jackson Yee and Zhu Yilong, tells the story of the hunt for a mole within China’s intelligence service who is leaking classified secrets information about a new fighter jet. <\/p>\n
\u201cSpies are just there around you,\u201d Zhang, the director, said in a trailer released by the MSS. <\/p>\n
For some security experts, MSS seems to be looking to make its work not only visible, but also to promote people’s participation in reporting what they see as suspicious. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt wants to build public and popular support to encourage people to share information,\u201d said Sheena Greitens, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin.<\/p>\n
\u201c(It\u2019s) a very sophisticated effort to mobilize Chinese citizens and make national security entertaining and fun to support,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Zhang, writing in an op-ed for the People\u2019s Daily \u2014 the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s flagship newspaper and the country’s biggest national newspaper \u2014 said: \u201cState security officers accompanied us throughout the whole filming process to make sure the film is close to reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The director is known for his films \u201cJu Dou,\u201d \u201cRaise The Red Lantern,\u201d and \u201cHero,\u201d all of which secured Oscar nominations.<\/p>\n
Rumors on social media claim the film’s plot is based on a real case about a researcher who allegedly leaked information about China\u2019s J-35 fighter abroad. <\/p>\n
MSS did not respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Since its release, the movie has been playing in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Its box office has reached 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) in two weeks.<\/p>\n
Alice Jin, a 28-year-old who works in e-commerce in Washington, said she saw the movie with the hope of \u201cnot falling asleep.\u201d But she said it was \u201cbetter than I expected,\u201d adding: \u201cI had no idea what it (MSS) was before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wang Lehang, a 25-year-old student, said: \u201cI love watching movies, so a movie on patriotism education definitely works better on me.\u201d It was, he added, \u201cbetter than a lecture.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘We want to understand the truth’<\/p>\n
For decades, other countries have had spy movies. The first James Bond movie was released over six decades ago.<\/p>\n
The CIA, which has also been portrayed in movies and TV shows, such as the Jason Bourne franchise, is known to work with Hollywood to shape the entertainment industry\u2019s portrayal of the agency.<\/p>\n
Western movies are more about \u201chere\u2019s where the trouble is coming from,\u201d but China is also \u201chighlighting to people internally that they don\u2019t side with the West,\u201d said Liam McLoughlin, senior lecturer in politics at Edge Hill University in northwest England.<\/p>\n
The release of \u201cScare Out\u201d comes as the CIA has been sharing recruitment videos on social media targeting Chinese officials to turn into spies for the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you have information about China\u2019s top leaders? Are you a military officer, or do you work with the military?\u201d a recent video says in Mandarin. \u201cPlease contact us. We want to understand the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
China\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has criticized the attempt to recruit potentials spies, saying it will take all necessary measures to avoid any infiltration.<\/p>\n
____<\/p>\n
Castillo reported from Beijing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.wsls.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2013 Dodging glass-walled skyscrapers, a drone joined a high-octane chase as a spy tried to evade the agents in pursuit. In moments, the unmanned aircraft knocks him down. The drama happened in China’s southern city of Shenzhen and has been seen by millions of people domestically and abroad, including in the United States. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2328738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[451293,21741,451292,451297,451294,22814,451295,451296],"class_list":["post-2328737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-alice-jin","tag-entertainment","tag-jackson-yee","tag-sheena-greitens","tag-wang-lehang","tag-world-news","tag-zhang-yimou","tag-zhu-yilong"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Counterespionage-thriller-is-first-Chinese-movie-to-get-backing-of.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2328737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2328739,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328737\/revisions\/2328739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2328738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2328737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2328737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2328737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}