CIA hopes cinematic videos will persuade Chinese to spy for U.S.

The CIA on Thursday released two social media videos inviting disillusioned Chinese officials to spy for the United States, seeking to take advantage of government corruption and repression in China. 

The cinematic, Mandarin-language videos released across multiple platforms resemble recruiting videos the agency has produced in the past few years aimed at encouraging Russians to share secrets with the U.S. Officials say the Russian-language videos have proved successful. 

Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to make China a top priority for the CIA’s intelligence gathering, and he cited the videos as the latest example of that effort.

“Today, the CIA released Mandarin-language videos aimed at recruiting Chinese officials to steal secrets,” Ratcliffe said in a statement.

“No adversary in the history of our Nation has presented a more formidable challenge or capable strategic competitor than the Chinese Communist Party,” he said, adding: “Our Agency must continue responding to this threat with urgency, creativity, and grit, and these videos are just one of the ways we are doing this.”

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday, a national holiday in China. 

Six months ago, the CIA released a text-only video in Mandarin explaining how to safely reach out to the CIA using the “dark web,” a part of the internet accessible only with specialized software. The video was viewed 900,000 times, agency officials said.

Although it is difficult to speak out because of China’s authoritarian government, more Chinese are volunteering to share information via the dark web, a CIA official said.

“If it wasn’t working, we wouldn’t be making more videos,” the official said. “We want Chinese citizens to know we always have an open door to them.”

The CIA official said the agency is interested in a wide variety of information from China beyond traditional espionage, including advanced science, military and cyber technology, as well as data and foreign policy secrets.

Appealing to party officials

In one of the videos, a young man portrayed as a junior Chinese Communist Party official dutifully accompanies a more senior official who is trying on new suits and shopping for an expensive watch. The junior official narrates the video, sharing his frustration with the wealth gap between…