The Central Intelligence Agency posted instructional videos Wednesday on several social media platforms seeking to recruit informants in China, North Korea and Iran.
“CIA is providing instructions in multiple languages on how to securely contact us,” the agency posted on its official pages on X, YouTube, Instagram, Telegram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Dark Web, with videos in Mandarin, Korean and Farsi.
The Mandarin video, more than two minutes long, offered only written instruction, assuring potential applicants that “your safety and well-being remain our top priority”.
The video also states that “you know your situation best, so we ask you to take the appropriate steps to protect yourself” and asked prospective informants to contact using “a computer or network that can’t be linked to your identity”.
In an emailed statement, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, warned that “any attempts to drive a wedge between the Chinese people and the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] or to weaken their close bond, will inevitably fail”.
The Chinese people, he noted, had overcome “numerous challenges with resilience and perseverance” to emerge as the world’s second-largest economy.
The recruiting effort follows a CIA campaign in January seeking Russian spies to work as double agents, which also featured a dramatic video on its social media accounts.
That three-minute clip targeted what it suggested were patriotic Russians in intelligence positions who were disaffected by a sense of betrayal because of elite corruption and a lack of military supplies.
At the time, CIA Director William Burns said he viewed the initiative as a “rare opportunity” to connect with Russians disillusioned by Moscow’s foreign policy. In response, the Kremlin dismissed the video, reminding the CIA that X, formerly known as Twitter, has been banned in Russia since 2022 – the same year Moscow invaded Ukraine.
On Wednesday, a CIA spokesperson told Reuters that “our efforts on this front have been successful in Russia, and we want to make sure individuals in other authoritarian regimes know that we’re open for business”.
With the rise in bilateral tensions, China has become a tough target for US intelligence agencies, making it harder for their analysis to stay current on the nation they describe as a “pacing threat” to American military and economic dominance.
The latest videos arrive as the CIA has reportedly struggled to rebuild its spy network in China after at least 2o informants were caught in the country almost a decade ago.
But the agency’s deputy director, David Cohen, suggested that given China’s economic slowdown and President Xi Jinping’s consolidation of power, it was an opportune moment to seek fresh informants.
“There are many individuals with access to information who are disillusioned with the Xi regime,” Bloomberg quoted him as saying on Wednesday. – South China Morning Post
Source Agencies
