The National Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (Military Commission), (NBIS or BIS) (), commonly known as Juntong (), was the military intelligence agency of the Republic of China before 1946. It was devoted to intelligence gathering and covert spying operation for purposes of national security and defense. It was originally headed by Dai Li, and after 1946 he was succeeded by Mao Renfeng. This bureau was largely superseded by the Military Intelligence Bureau under Ministry of National Defense in Taiwan today.
The NBIS had a great influence amongst the Nationalist Government's military, police, administration, and transportation agencies, as well as embassies and consulates abroad during the Political Tutelage period (1928-1946) of Republic of China. It was often criticized by the political dissidents as a "secret police" involved in covert and espionage operation, including surveillance, kidnapping, assassinations, elimination and house-arrest against Chinese communists, Japanese spies as well as political dissidents.
During the Sino-Japanese War, the NBIS was involved in a number of counter-intelligence and covert espionage warfare against the Japanese invaders. There were NBIS agents who defected to the Japanese, and many of the secret police in Wang Jingwei's Japanese-occupied areas were former NBIS agents.
From a historical perspective, NBIS played an important role in Second Sino-Japanese War. Under the leadership of Dai Li, the Nationalist Government had a body of 100,000 active spies involving in espionage warfare against Japanese, as well as against the Wang Jingwei-led puppet Nationalist Government of the Japanese-occupied areas.
History
Early stages
The NBIS was founded in 1932 as the "Military Commission of Clandestine Investigation Section of the National Revolutionary Army" () with the "Special Works Department"() set up in 1932. When the "Investigation and Statistics Bureau" was established under the Military Commission, the "Special Works Department" was incorporated into the Bureau and renamed the "Second Division", and is responsible for intelligence collection and personnel training. All of the bureau's affairs were under the direct command of Chiang Kai-shek. Dai sought to make the Juntong into an extended family with himself as the stern paternal figure, stressing traditional Chinese Confucian values of filial piety, loyalty, benevolence, and righteousness. The Juntong operated as a traditional sworn brotherhood with all of the senior officers taking an oath making themselves into "brothers". The inspiration for the Juntong were the secret sworn brotherhoods portrayed in the classics of Chinese literature like Water Margin and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Dai presented himself as a stern Confucian father figure to the men and women of the Juntong and liked to quote from book The Dynastic History of the Han is "Is personal happiness possible before the extermination of the Xiongnu?" Reflecting this mentality, the men and women serving in the Juntong were forbidden to marry and expected to be celibate as their only love was to be China. The rules about celibacy were not always followed as Liu Gequing, the Juntong ace assassin fell in love with and had a relationship with a fellow agent, Lu Ti, during his time in Shanghai. Likewise, Juntong agents were expected to forsake smoking, gambling and playing mahjong as Dai wanted them to work hard and dedicate their lives totally to China. Reflecting this ethos of absolute dedication to the cause, many of the assassination missions that Juntong agents were sent on against the Chinese Communists and later on during the war with Japan were known to be suicide missions as the expectation was that Juntong agents were to value China more than their own lives. Dai often said that the Juntong were to serve Chiang "like dogs and horses serving their masters without a mind of their own" as Dai presented Chiang as "the Leader" to whom all Chinese had to obey unconditionally. As the world of espionage was a secretive one, Juntong agents were advised that they were to be "anonymous heroes" whose deeds would not be remembered by historians.
