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The Central Intelligence Agency in the U.S. is expanding an online drive to recruit more informants in China, North Korea, and Iran.
That’s according to the South China Morning Post, Ukrinform reports.
“CIA is providing instructions in multiple languages on how to securely contact us,” the agency posted on its official pages on X, YouTube, Instagram, Telegram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Dark Web, with videos in Mandarin, Korean and Farsi.
The Mandarin video assured potential applicants that “your safety and well-being remain our top priority”.
The video also states that “you know your situation best, so we ask you to take the appropriate steps to protect yourself” and asked prospective informants to contact using “a computer or network that can’t be linked to your identity”.
The effort follows a CIA campaign in January seeking Russian spies to work as double agents, which also featured a dramatic video on its social media accounts.
That clip targeted patriotic Russians in intelligence positions who were disaffected by a sense of betrayal because of elite corruption and a lack of military supplies.
At the time, CIA Director William Burns said he viewed the initiative as a “rare opportunity” to connect with Russians disillusioned by Moscow’s foreign policy.
On Wednesday, a CIA spokesperson told Reuters that “our efforts on this front have been successful in Russia, and we want to make sure individuals in other authoritarian regimes know that we’re open for business”.
With the rise in bilateral tensions, China has become a tough target for US intelligence agencies, making it harder for their analysis to stay current on the nation they describe as a “pacing threat” to American military and economic dominance.
The latest videos arrive as the CIA has reportedly struggled to rebuild its spy network in China after at least 20 informants were caught in the country almost a decade ago.
“There are many individuals with access to information who are disillusioned with the Xi regime,” Bloomberg quoted the agency’s deputy director, David Cohen as saying.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, the heads of MI6 and the CIA said Russian intelligence was waging a “reckless” sabotage campaign in Europe, adding the Kremlin cynically exploits technology to spread lies and disinformation to drive a wedge between democracies.
