CIA releases Mandarin-language videos to encourage Chinese officials to spill secrets
May 2, 2025, 12:33 PM
CIA Director John Ratcliffe departs after a television interview at the White House, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in President Xi Jinping’s government: Come work with us.
America’s premier spy agency released two on social media Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted to YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day.
The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost both the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted U.S. officials with its own espionage operations.
The videos are 鈥渁imed at recruiting Chinese officials to steal secrets,鈥� Ratcliffe said in a statement to The Associated Press. He said China 鈥渋s intent on dominating the world economically, militarily, and technologically.鈥�
鈥淥ur 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,鈥� Ratcliffe said.
The more than 2-minute-long videos are of cinematic quality and feature scenes of Communist Party insiders, luxury automobiles and glittering skyscrapers as narrators share their growing disillusionment with the system they have served.
In one video, a man described as an honest party member speaks of his unease about the power struggles among his peers, and what it might mean for his family’s safety. As the pace of the music picks up, he says, 鈥淚鈥檝e done nothing wrong, I can鈥檛 go on living in fear!鈥�
The man is then seen using his smartphone to contact the CIA, and the video ends with the agency’s seal.
Links below the video offer instructions on contacting the agency securely, along with a warning cautioning potential informants about fake accounts that might impersonate the CIA.
The videos are the agency’s latest attempt to make it easier and safer for potential informants to share information.
Last fall, the CIA posted online instructions in Korean, Mandarin and Farsi detailing steps that potential informants can take to contact U.S. intelligence officials without putting themselves in danger.
The similar instructions in Russian three years ago.
A spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment about the videos.
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Associated Press writer Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.
