Just weeks after a dramatic purge of China's top generals, the CIA has indicated it is seeking to capitalize on any resulting discord with a new public video aimed at potential informants in the Chinese armed forces, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
The US intelligence agency released a video on Monday depicting a frustrated mid-level Chinese military officer, which Reuters said was the latest step in a US campaign to step up intelligence gathering on its strategic rival. Similar videos, with instructions on how Chinese officials could securely contact US intelligence, were also released in May last year.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the agency's videos had reached many Chinese citizens and that it would continue to offer Chinese government officials "the opportunity to work together for a brighter future."
Last month, China's Ministry of Defense announced that Zhang Yuxia, vice chairman of the influential Central Military Commission, was under investigation. He is the highest-ranking Chinese military official to be removed from office in decades.
The short CIA video, posted on its YouTube channel, appears to be aimed at exploiting the domestic political fallout from Beijing's long-running crackdown on corruption in the armed forces, which has affected the top echelons of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
"Anyone with leadership qualities is inevitably suspect and ruthlessly eliminated," the fictional officer says in the Mandarin video. "Their rule is built on a series of lies," he added, referring to the chiefs.
The CIA has expressed confidence that the online campaign is penetrating China's internet restrictions and reaching its target audience.
The CIA has invested heavily in countering China and is trying to rebuild its spy network in the country after Beijing dismantled it by eliminating or imprisoning scores of American informants between 2010 and 2012, according to available reports. American officials say Chinese spy agencies have worked tirelessly to recruit current and former American employees, and in recent years Beijing has published reports about what it says are American spy networks it has uncovered in China.
The high-stakes spy games are part of an escalating military and technological rivalry that many observers see as a new form of the Cold War, Reuters noted.