A new action movie by acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou has the distinction of being produced with the backing of the Ministry of State Security. “Scare Out,” which was released at the start of the Lunar New Year, comes as the intelligence agency has spent more than two years trying to get attention to some of its activities on social media. While a spy thriller about a mole inside an intelligence service is not new in many countries, it is in China, where the authorities — especially those involved with security — are more used to keeping strict control over the truth and what it shares.
