The CIA on Thursday rolled out two Chinese-language videos aimed at enticing officials in China to leak secrets to the US, the latest public effort by the intelligence agency to ramp up human intelligence gathering on Washington’s strategic rival.
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The move comes after the CIA in October launched a drive to recruit new informants in China, Iran and North Korea by posting instructions online on how to securely contact the agency, following what it said was successful efforts to enlist Russians.
The CIA is confident that the videos are penetrating China’s “Great Firewall” internet restrictions and reaching the intended audience.
“If it weren’t working, we wouldn’t be making more videos,” a CIA official said, adding that China was the agency’s foremost intelligence priority in a “truly generational competition” between the US and China.
The two videos posted to the CIA’s social media accounts depict fictional scenes in which a senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official and a more junior government worker with access to classified information become disillusioned with China’s system and approach the CIA.
The videos appear aimed at tapping into possible discontent in the Chinese government and senior echelons of the CCP, as President Xi Jinping has purged top officials and military leaders, some considered close allies of Xi himself.
