[2] With tens of thousands of employees, it is one of the most aggressive and internationally active units of the MSS, conducting long-term global foreign espionage operations and major cyberespionage campaigns which stretch far beyond the Shanghai metropolis.

[5][6][3] The bureau maintains an "immense business empire" of front companies in property development, international shipping and telecommunications,[3] and operates at least 18 subordinate branch offices, one in every administrative division of the city.

[8] In 2016, The New York Times reported on a bureau recruitment flyer distributed to Shanghai universities, which sought majors in English, Japanese, German, French, and Russian and students with knowledge of Tibetan, Uyghur, Kazakh, Mongolian, as well as Hokkien, Hakka and Cantonese, suggesting the bureau is focused on foreign intelligence targets, counterintelligence coverage of foreigners inside China, and domestic intelligence work for monitoring the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s internal enemies.

[8] The SSSB has a bureau in the Pudong New Area, and branch offices in Luwan, Zhabei, Xuhui, Baoshan, Jing'an, Huangpu, Yangpu, Hongkou, Changning, Putuo, Minhang, Jiading, Nanhui, Songjiang, Jinshan, Qingpu, and Fengxian districts of Shanghai.

[3] In recent years it's approached numerous current and retired US government officials, as well as scholars and journalists, successfully recruiting some and paying them to hand over sensitive information.

High-profile American agents of the SSSB caught by US authorities have included Kevin Patrick Mallory, Candace Claiborne, Glenn Duffie Shriver, and Alexander Yuk Ching Ma.

In June 2014, the SSSB released a solicitation for public submissions for a logo for its cover, the Shanghai Secrecy Administration Bureau, choosing the final insignia from among the entrants.