The 11th Bureau of the Ministry of State Security, outwardly known as the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR, , ) under an arrangement called "one institution with two names", is a set of research institutes operated as a front by the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) to influence foreign diplomats and academics and collect open-source intelligence. Located in Beijing, CICIR is operated by the "most savvy" senior undercover MSS officers. It is overseen by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. CICIR has a staff of approximately 400, including 150 senior research fellows. It consists of 15 departments with different regional and functional concentrations, as well as two research divisions focusing on the Korean Peninsula and Central Asia, and eight research centers. CICIR publishes the journal Contemporary International Relations () in both Chinese and English, as well as China Security Studies. The institute is authorized to confer master's and doctoral degrees. History The origins of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations can be traced back to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence operations during the Chinese Civil War and Second Sino-Japanese War. Specifically, these early intelligence operations targeted the US Dixie Mission and the Soviet presence in CCP base areas in Yan’an during the 1940s. In 1964, then-Premier Zhou Enlai ordered the creation of several colleges and university departments to focus on international affairs. A number of ministries, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security, established their own think tanks and research organizations under the decree. CICIR was established in 1965. At that time, it fell under the Foreign Affairs Leading Group of the CCP Central Committee, and served a number of senior officials. CICIR was the only international relations institute or university in China that did not close during the tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution. In 1980, amidst Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening up to the outside world, CICIR was designated an “open” institution, and was authorized to engage with foreigners as a means of enhancing intelligence collection. It began publishing the journal Xiandai Guoji Guanxi (Contemporary International Relations) in 1981. The journal became quarterly in 1986, and has been published monthly since 1993. Institutional and personnel ties CICIR is affiliated primarily with the Ministry of State Security, though domestic Chinese media rarely acknowledge this fact. In 1983, CICIR was placed under the bureaucratic management of the newly created