A couple of new Videos of the CIA published Thursday aim to encourage Chinese citizens to spy on the agency, appealing to their frustrations and fears of the Government of Beijing and its corruption.
Mandarin language videos are modeled in a series of videos that the agency made in recent years asking the Russians to spy on the United States, appeals that according to previous CIA leaders helped develop new sources.
The appeal to the Chinese national reflects the priority John Ratcliffe, the director of the CIA, has increased the agency’s intelligence collection in China. In a note for the CIA officers last month, Mr. Ratcliffe said that China was at the top of the agency’s priorities list.
“No adversary in the history of our nation has presented a more formidable challenge or a strategic competitor more capable than the Chinese communist party,” Ratcliffe wrote. “It intends to dominate the economic, military and technological world, and is trying aggressively to overcome the United States in every corner of the world.”
Mr. Ratcliffe has also told the members of Congress that the CIA needs to rebuild their human intelligence collection efforts: case officers that recruit Chinese officials to steal secrets of the Chinese government.
Last year, the CIA published Mandarin instructions on how people in China could use the dark network to contact the agency. The text video only of text was seen 900,000 times. While the Chinese Internet is blocked and censored, US officials believe that the most sophisticated Chinese officials know how to work with those controls.
An American official said the agency would not have made the most recent and highly produced videos if the instructional video had not worked.
In a statement on Thursday, Mr. Ratcliffe said the new videos were destined to “recruit Chinese officials to steal secrets.” “Our agency must continue the continuous response to this threat with urgency, creativity and sand, and thesis videos are just one of the ways in which we are doing this,” said Ratcliffe.
One of the new videos released on Thursday shows a medium -level officer who fights in his daily life while attending a more senior official, who lives a comfortable life of elegant foods, clothes and cars. “The party raised us to believe that our dedication to the path in which they take us would bring us prosperity to all,” says the middle level official. “But the profits of our collective efforts are spoiled by a few, so I must forge my own path.”
The final scene shows the middle -level official using a mobile phone to safely contact the CIA
The other video reproduces on fears that the Chinese government is arresting and expelling the senior officials without explanation.
“I see that my position rises inside the party, since those above me are set aside,” says the narration of videos. “But now I realize that my destiny is equally precarious.”
The video shows the senior official preventing Chinese government agents from approaching him. As he fears for his career, the senior official says he must find ways to protect his family. The video closes again with images of the official contacting the CIA
“My purpose is still the same,” concludes the video. “Only my way has changed. It doesn’t matter what my destiny can bring, my family will know a good life.”
