The Third Department of the People's Liberation Army's General Staff Department -- also known as 3PLA, China's equivalent to the U.S. National Security Administration -- is crucial to the country's military strategy, responsible for monitoring much of the world's communications for threats and commercial opportunities. Using Chinese government websites, academic databases and foreign security expertise, The Wall Street Journal's Paul Mozur and James T. Areddy assembled an overview of its secret operations:

The organization maintains what active and former U.S. officials say are facilities around Shanghai specialized in watching the U.S.—one of them located close to the main transoceanic communications cables linking China to the U.S. Those activities were highlighted in May, when the Justice Department indicted five officers of 3PLA on charges they stole U.S. corporate secrets.

As Beijing modernizes its high-tech defensive arsenal, the Journal backed up on-the-ground views of 3PLA facilities with an examination of the organizational structure of the NSA-like military department, which increasingly rattles governments and corporations around the world while remaining obscure outside security circles.

Its operational units are spread out widely throughout China. Recruited from elite specialist universities, 3PLA's estimated 100,000-plus hackers, linguists, analysts and officers populate a dozen military intelligence bureaus, according to the foreign experts. Its multiple sub-operations divvy up responsibility according to geography and task, they say.

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See also:

Who is UglyGorilla? On the Trail of China's Alleged Cyber-Thieves

Birds Above, Data Below: Where the U.S. Internet Meets China's