The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is stepping up efforts to recruit Chinese spies with the release of a new video in Mandarin on Thursday that appeals directly to the country’s military officers who may be disillusioned with corruption in their current government and the extensive firings of high-ranking generals promoted by President Xi Jinping.
The video depicts a fictional mid-level military officer “making the difficult decision to stay true to his values and forge a better path for his family by contacting the CIA,” an agency official told CNN.
“Anyone with leadership capabilities will inevitably be feared and eliminated without mercy,” says the video’s narrator. “I can’t allow these crazy people to shape my daughter’s future.”
The new video seeks to continue a recruitment campaign launched by the agency last year that helped cultivate new sources within China crucial to gathering human intelligence information, the CIA official said, suggesting that the agency has had some recent success in trying to reach a government that has historically had difficulty infiltrating.
“We will continue to offer Chinese government officials and citizens the opportunity to work together for a better future,” said agency director John Ratcliffe in a statement to CNN.
During his confirmation hearing, Ratcliffe emphasized that China would be one of the agency’s top priorities, and American officials indicated that the CIA had made progress in reestablishing its network of sources within the country, which was believed to be lost just a few years ago.
“China will take all necessary measures to firmly combat the infiltration and sabotage activities of anti-China forces abroad and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a regular press briefing on Friday (13), when asked about the video.
“The plans of the anti-China forces will not succeed.”
Starting in 2010, the US lost a series of spies in China as part of a two-year counterintelligence campaign that The New York Times described as “crippling intelligence gathering.” Rebuilding that network has been a years-long campaign for intelligence chiefs.
A CIA officer told CNN that the videos successfully led to the recruitment of new intelligence sources within the country.
“The videos are working, and the protective barrier is not perfect,” the official said, referring to the perception that Xi Jinping’s government has largely shielded itself from the prying eyes of American intelligence agencies.
The CIA believes it has the opportunity to increase its visibility within Xi Jinping’s government — in part — by exploiting the intensified repression of Chinese military leadership.
Since taking power in 2012, Xi Jinping has consistently sought to keep China’s military hierarchy in check through periodic exposés of senior leaders, which are part of a broader anti-corruption campaign that has punished more than 200,000 officers.
In recent years, Xi’s work has hollowed out the military’s top brass, with more than 20 senior military officers under investigation or removed since 2023.
And now, American officials believe the Chinese president may be seeking to further consolidate power — pointing to the removal of China’s highest-ranking general earlier this year in an unprecedented shake-up that analysts say was likely aimed at further ensuring the loyalty of officers within the military ranks.
