Two years into office, President Donald Trump authorized the CIA to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media to try to turn public opinion in China against the government, according to former US officials.
Three former officials told Reuters that the CIA created a small team of operatives who used bogus internet identities to spread negative narratives about Xi Jinping’s government while leaking disparaging intelligence to overseas news outlets.
The effort, which began in 2019, has not been previously reported.
During the past decade, China has rapidly expanded its global footprint, forging military pacts, trade deals, and business partnerships with developing nations.
The CIA team promoted allegations that members of the ruling Communist Party were hiding ill-gotten money overseas and slammed as corrupt and wasteful China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which provides financing for infrastructure projects in the developing world, the sources told Reuters.
The efforts within China were intended to foment paranoia among top leaders there, forcing its government to expend resources chasing intrusions into Beijing’s tightly controlled internet, two former officials said.
“We wanted them chasing ghosts,” one of these former officials said.
.Here are the top political news stories for today.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
If the roles were reversed, how would you react to learning a foreign government was secretly trying to change public opinion in your country through social media?
@9KVVWNS2yrs2Y
i would have economic sanctions placed on that counry
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
Join in on more popular conversations.
