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The CIA has stepped up public efforts to recruit Chinese spies by releasing a Chinese-language video to appeal to People’s Liberation Army officers who are disillusioned with corruption and extensive purges of top generals.
The US intelligence agency on Thursday released a video titled “Save the Future” on YouTube and other social media, nine months after it published Chinese-language videos to help recruitment for the first time.
“Last year, CIA’s Mandarin video campaign reached many Chinese citizens, and we know there are many more searching for a way to improve their lives and change their country for the better,” said John Ratcliffe, the CIA director. “We’re going to continue offering Chinese government officials and citizens an opportunity to work toward a brighter future together.”
In the video, the narrator is a fictional disheartened mid-level military officer who laments that it has become very clear that “the only thing our party leaders are interested in defending is their own pockets”.
“They built their careers on a foundation of lies. But those walls are slowly crumbling away, and we are left to clean up their mess,” he adds. “Any man qualified to lead us is deemed a threat and unceremoniously removed.”
The video was published on Thursday, two weeks after China revealed that President Xi Jinping had purged General Zhang Youxia, the top uniformed officer who served as his number two on the powerful Central Military Commission, along with General Liu Zhenli, another top CMC member.
The removal of Zhang, which followed dozens of similar moves against top PLA generals in recent years, was the most serious purge at the top of the Chinese military since the era of Mao Zedong.
The US intelligence agency did not directly link the release of the video to the recent purges, but a CIA official said: “The question to ask is, is this art imitating life or life imitating art.”
The two videos the CIA released last May were designed to appeal to Chinese Communist Party officials and provided instructions for how to contact the agency. The videos have received between 15mn and 20mn views on YouTube. In January, it released a third video with updated information about contacting the agency that has already been watched 62mn times.
The CIA official said the videos released last year had “inspired millions” and were successful in helping to recruit Chinese spies. “If they didn’t work, we wouldn’t release more of them,” the official added.
The official said the new video was aimed at military officers who may be feeling powerless and worried about the impact on their families. In the video, the fictional officer explains his frustration by saying: “I could not let their madness be a part of my daughter’s future.”
While China blocks its citizens from accessing YouTube and other western social media platforms, people can access the sites and watch the videos by using tools such as VPNs (virtual private networks) to circumvent the censorship-driven internet restrictions.
The videos are part of an effort by the CIA to rebuild its network of spies in China after it was decimated roughly 15 years ago. At that time, China’s Ministry of State Security, its main intelligence agency, imprisoned or executed dozens of Chinese nationals who it believed were spying for the CIA. The MSS uncovered their identities after discovering the covert system the CIA was using to communicate with intelligence assets in China.
In recent years, China has intensified efforts to warn citizens to be alert to espionage. Two years ago, the MSS launched a campaign to urge people to report suspicious activity to detect foreign intelligence operatives.
The video will also be published on X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
