Just weeks after a dramatic removal of China’s top general, the CIA is moving to capitalise on any resulting discord with a new public video targeting potential informants in the Chinese military.
The US spy agency on Thursday rolled out the video depicting a disillusioned mid-level Chinese military officer, in the latest US step in a campaign to ramp up human intelligence gathering on Washington’s strategic rival.
It follows a similar effort last May that focused on fictional figures within China’s ruling Communist Party that provided detailed Chinese-language instructions on how to securely contact US intelligence.
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CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement that the agency’s videos had reached many Chinese citizens and that it would continue offering Chinese government officials an “opportunity to work toward a brighter future together”.
Last month, China’s defence ministry announced that Zhang Youxia, second-in-command under Xi as vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), was under investigation, the highest-profile removal of a senior Chinese military leader in decades.
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What China’s swift ousting of two top military generals means for the PLA
What China’s swift ousting of two top military generals means for the PLA
The short CIA video posted on social media appeared aimed at exploiting domestic political fallout from Beijing’s years-long crackdown on military corruption that has hit the upper echelons of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) beyond Zhang.
