By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2012

BEIJING — China has arrested an employee of the Ministry of State Security on suspicion of spying for the United States, Hong Kong media reported Friday [....]

The employee is said to be a 38-year-old man who was a secretary to Qiu Jin, the deputy minister of state security. He is alleged to have been recruited and trained by the CIA and was arrested sometime this year [....]

The espionage charges appear to be entangled in the power struggle raging within the Communist Party since the beginning of the year [....]

The alleged spy was not identified in the reports, which named only Qiu, who is believed to be a close ally of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.  In February, Qiu personally handled the politically explosive case of Wang Lijun, a police official from Chongqing who had sought asylum in a U.S. Consulate in western China [....]