The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has launched an unprecedented social media campaign targeting Chinese government officials, urging them to share state secrets with the U.S.
The campaign, conducted in Chinese and distributed across platforms including Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter), features dramatized videos that portray fictional Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members growing disillusioned with the regime and secretly reaching out to the CIA.
One video follows the story of a high-ranking CCP official who becomes increasingly fearful for his safety and that of his family amid widespread internal purges. Described as someone “watching officials around him being purged like worn-out shoes,” the character is shown grappling with the decision to contact the CIA in a bid to protect his life’s work.
“Aware that everything he possesses could vanish in an instant, he is driven to make a difficult but crucial decision to safely reach out to the CIA,” a Chinese-language caption on YouTube reads.
The videos also provide detailed instructions on how potential informants can contact the CIA “safely and securely,” including the use of the encrypted Tor browser and other anonymous communication tools.
The campaign underscores escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing and appears aimed at sowing dissent within the Chinese bureaucracy. As of yet, Chinese authorities have not issued a formal response to the CIA’s online outreach.
This marks one of the most overt intelligence recruitment efforts by the U.S. directed at China in the public domain.
