On May 1, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released Chinese-language videos on Youtube and other social media platforms, openly recruiting Chinese nationals to engage in espionage.
Beijing did not respond to the videos until June 25.
China’s Ministry of State Security said “the two meticulously produced ‘recruitment ads’ are filled with awkward rhetoric and slander,” claiming that they “fully exposed the CIA’s absurd logic in recruiting agents and its hysterical desperation.”
“In recent years, under the strong crackdown by China’s national security agencies and with the active cooperation of the public, the CIA’s intelligence network in China has suffered devastating blows. The Trump administration repeatedly planned to downsize federal agencies, and the CIA was not spared. Facing severe losses of intelligence personnel and a crippled organizational structure, the CIA’s public recruitment efforts are seen as both a desperate publicity stunt and a reckless gamble aimed at covering up its failures and avoiding being discarded in the next round of political reshuffling.”
The article said that the CIA is facing a shrinking budget and “has increasingly leaned on hyping the so-called ‘China threat’ as a lifeline to assert its relevance, vigorously deceiving the U.S. Congress and taxpayers in hopes of securing a larger share of budget allocations.”
The article also stated that “those who are recruited as ‘traitors’ or ‘insiders’ through such public recruitment campaigns will never escape the sharp eyes of China’s national security agencies or the justice of Chinese law. The CIA, likewise, will only sink deeper into its swamp of failure.”
Source: China Daily, June 25, 2025
https://china.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202506/25/WS685b6478a31009d21e5be6e1.html