The CIA released a new Mandarin-language video Thursday appealing to members of China’s military to spy for the United States and work toward “a brighter future,” weeks after Beijing ousted a top general as part of a dramatic purge of top brass.
The video is the latest in a series aimed at recruiting potential informants in China’s regime, a top priority for the U.S. spy agency, which has sometimes struggled to cultivate human sources in a country known for its extensive electronic surveillance apparatus.
The new video posted on social media portrays a fictional disillusioned mid-level officer in China’s military, who laments corrupt party leaders’ enriching themselves while capable men are “deemed a threat and unceremoniously removed.” It then describes how to safely contact the CIA.
The video, titled “Save the Future,” appeared aimed at capitalizing on the tumult inside China’s army.
A yearslong crackdown on military corruption culminated last month when the defense ministry announced that Gen. Zhang Youxia, who as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission was second-in-command of the People’s Liberation Army after Chinese leader Xi Jinping, was under investigation and had been accused of serious “violations of discipline and law.”
Of the seven members who made up the Central Military Commission in 2022, only Xi and one general are left. The others have all been removed because of disciplinary action or investigations.
On Wednesday, Xi made a rare public reference to the purges, telling the Chinese military in a virtual address that in the past year it had grown stronger in its fight against corruption and that the rank and file were “trustworthy.”
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement that similar videos released online last year reached a significant audience.
“We’re going to continue offering Chinese government officials and citizens an opportunity to work toward a brighter future together,” Ratcliffe said.
Former intelligence officers said the CIA has kept up the public campaign because it clearly believes it is working. During the Biden administration, the CIA rolled out Russian-language videos inviting disaffected Russian citizens to reach out to it.
“We want Chinese officials to know that they are not powerless,” a CIA official told NBC News, and that the ruling Communist Party “may not want to hear the truth, but we do.”
“Our past videos reached millions of people and inspired new sources,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak to the media and did not provide details.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When two Chinese-language videos were posted on social media last year, the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry condemned them as violations of international law and said Beijing would “take all measures necessary to resolutely push back infiltration and sabotage activities from overseas.”
The CIA has been scrambling to rebuild its intelligence network in China since Beijing reportedly killed or imprisoned multiple U.S. sources from 2010 to 2012.
U.S. officials say China has made elaborate efforts to recruit current and former federal employees since the Trump administration slashed the federal workforce, sometimes through fictitious consulting firms or corporate headhunters.
