Two years into his presidency, Donald Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to commence a covert campaign on Chinese social media platforms, as revealed by former U.S. officials familiar with the operation. This highly classified endeavor aimed to sway public opinion in China against its government.
According to three former officials who spoke to Reuters, the CIA assembled a small team of operatives tasked with disseminating negative narratives about Xi Jinping's administration using fictitious online personas. Additionally, these operatives leaked disparaging intelligence to foreign news outlets. This effort, which commenced in 2019, had not been disclosed prior to these reports.
The CIA team promoted allegations suggesting that members of the ruling Communist Party were concealing ill-gotten funds abroad. They also criticized China's Belt and Road Initiative, portraying it as corrupt and inefficient. This initiative provides financing for infrastructure projects in the developing world. These details were shared with Reuters by the sources familiar with the operation.
While U.S. officials refrained from disclosing specific details of these operations, they emphasized that the negative narratives were grounded in factual information, despite being disseminated covertly by intelligence operatives using false identities. The objectives of these efforts within China included fostering paranoia among top leaders, compelling the government to allocate resources to counter intrusions into its tightly controlled internet. As one former official explained, “We wanted them chasing ghosts.”
The CIA's operation was a response to years of aggressive covert initiatives by China aimed at expanding its global influence, according to the sources. During his presidency, Trump pursued a tougher approach towards China compared to his predecessors. The CIA's campaign marked a return to methods reminiscent of Washington's tactics during the Cold War era with the former Soviet Union.
Reuters could not determine the impact of the covert operations or whether the Biden administration has continued the CIA program. Kate Waters, a spokesperson for the Biden administration's National Security Council, declined to comment on the program's existence or its current status. According to two intelligence historians interviewed by Reuters, when the White House authorizes CIA covert actions through a presidential finding, it typically persists across administrations.
Loch Johnson, a political scientist at the University of Georgia who specializes in the study of covert tactics, explains that covert messaging enables the United States to introduce ideas into countries where censorship might otherwise suppress such information. Additionally, it can reach audiences who might not readily accept statements directly attributed to the U.S. government.
