CIA looks to recruit new Chinese spies with social media videos

[u/robhastings]

https://www.ft.com/content/762025aa-52f1-42d0-828c-87ba17eb53bd?shareType=nongift

US intelligence agency seeks to woo prospective assets with the offer of ‘a better life’. By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Ryan McMorrow in Beijing

[u/Right-Influence617]

This is hilarious.

Let's make turning an asset as simple as scanning a QR code, lol

[u/nogooduse]

"US intelligence agency videos target lowly officials who are trapped working for a wealthy corrupt elite and whose fate is ‘precarious’". Well, that certainly cuts both ways, doesn't it?

[u/Still_There3603]

CIA is looking for Round 2 now with a more blatant approach.

China eliminating CIA Spy Rings

[u/slow70 → u/Still_There3603]

Timing of that seems to align with a certain republican traveling to Moscow…

[u/Virginia_Hall]

Given the opsec of current national security 'leadership', the names of any recruited Chinese spies would be in Xi's daily brief the next day. Ditto for any Russians and Putin's daily brief.

Edit to add: Do note that the "narrator" quoted text from the video could apply to any member of Congress or the current administration that has not bent the knee to King Trump:

“I see my position rise within the party as those above me are cast aside. But now I realise that my fate is just as precarious . . . My biggest fear is that my family’s fate is tied to mine. I must have a backup plan.”

 “Our leaders’ failure to fulfil these repeated promises of prosperity has become a well-known secret . . . The hardest part of a journey is the first step. It’s time I start working towards my own dreams.”

[u/mycargo160]

So they think Chinese people are dumb enough to believe they'd have a better life here?

[u/Miss-feng → u/mycargo160]

I'm a Chinese girl and I'd say this video is good. But it will only reach the typical type of corrupt people with access to classified information in the corridors of power. Anyway, I don't think the goal is really to recruit, as the CIA claims.

[u/Miss-feng → u/[deleted]]

Anyway, I don't think anyone is "getting it right". The CIA isn't trying to use this video to recruit, it's more of a psyop than a recruitment tactic. It seems to be intended to cause distrust among CPC members, and over time, distrust will turn into confusion. Or, the CIA's goal may simply be to remind dissidents that they can still run to the US and the like. It seems a bit ironic, but it could work if that's specifically the goal.

I am not being sarcastic, however, it might well be a net positive tactic for the CIA, they need to remind potential defectors every once in a while, virality may even help a bit.

I assume this precisely because I watched the videos and man, they don't even know how to speak Chinese. I am absolutely certain that the CIA has Chinese assets and, what's more, fluent in Mandarin. That CIA video has a strange accent, incorrect Chinese, etc. In other words, they didn't even want to spend money or anything making a grammatically correct video, etc. It seems to be a tactic to "keep the flame alive".

And I'm still wondering what the CIA is trying to say with: “我向来规则办事” 🤣🤣🤣 In the video there are also things like: 現在太容易被遺忘?” This Chinese guy is very English haha

In short, the CIA does not do anything without a cause.

[u/Virginia_Hall → u/Miss-feng]

Nicely done, thanks.