CIA Recruitment Videos Target Chinese Dissidents to Work as Spies for the USA

CIA videos seek to recruit CCP spies as China ramps up espionage crackdown https://t.co/KUWmm5lC5B

— TIME (@TIME) May 2, 2025

A senior Chinese Communist Party official casts a suspicious eye towards an unmarked van lurking outside his building, as he rushes in and shuts the door. Inside his room, he picks up a framed photograph of his wife and their two children clinging to her before turning his gaze to footage of the National People’s Congress playing on TV.

“As I rose the ranks of the party, I watched as those above me were cast aside,” he narrates in Mandarin. “But now, I realize my fate is just as precarious as theirs.”

Above everything, he says, he must find a way to protect his family. He picks up a phone to contact the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

It’s a scene that plays out in one of two Chinese-language videos released to the public by the CIA on May 1 as part of an effort to recruit Chinese informants. In the other video, a junior CCP official is depicted reaching out to the CIA after seeing that his work doesn’t improve his own life, while the senior official he works for lives a cushy life.

“The party teaches us if we dedicate ourselves to the path they’ve designated for us, we will have a bright future,” the junior official says. “But the results of our efforts are enjoyed only by a select few.”

Text that reads “Your fate is in your hands” shows on screen as the first video ends. “Heaven helps those who help themselves,” the second concludes.

❗CIA has released recruitment videos targeting Chinese dissident to work as spies for US.

The videos are in Mandarin.

These videos encourage potential spies to provide intelligence to the U.S. amidst heightened efforts to counter China's espionage activities.

The initiative… pic.twitter.com/REm4Otg69S

— Wolf Brief (@wolfbrief_) May 2, 2025

CIA Director openly promotes video urging Chinese citizens to spy for the US, saying it aims to recruit assets who can steal secrets. He claims it will “no question” bypass China’s internet firewall, sparking debate over U.S. intelligence tactics. pic.twitter.com/yGquDZX3hO

— Geopoliti𝕏 Monitor (@GeopolitixM) May 2, 2025

选择合作的原因：成为命运的主宰者https://t.co/4BsFttl79P pic.twitter.com/mjA3wPJdzT

— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2025

The release of the videos follows the launch of a drive to recruit informants in China, Iran and North Korea last October, which included posting messages on the CIA’s social media accounts in Mandarin, Farsi and Korean with instructions on how to securely contact the CIA. The agency said it saw previous success in a similar campaign to recruit Russian informants following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“We want to make sure individuals in other authoritarian regimes know that we’re open for business,” a spokesperson for the agency said at the time.

… the agency said the videos, which seem aimed at officials disillusioned or dissatisfied with the Chinese government, are effective: “If it weren’t working, we wouldn’t be making more videos,” an official told Reuters.