CIA seeks informants in China, North Korea and Iran, recruiting online
The US spy agency posts instructions for interested applicants in Mandarin, Farsi and Korean on several social media platforms
The Central Intelligence Agency posted instructional videos Wednesday on several social media platforms seeking to recruit informants in China, North Korea and Iran.
“CIA is providing instructions in multiple languages on how to securely contact us,” the agency posted on its official pages on X, YouTube, Instagram, Telegram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Dark Web, with videos in Mandarin, Korean and Farsi.
The Mandarin video, more than two minutes long, offered only written instruction, assuring potential applicants that “your safety and well-being remain our top priority”.
The video also states that “you know your situation best, so we ask you to take the appropriate steps to protect yourself” and asked prospective informants to contact using “a computer or network that can’t be linked to your identity”.
In an emailed statement, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, warned that “any attempts to drive a wedge between the Chinese people and the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] or to weaken their close bond, will inevitably fail”.
The Chinese people, he noted, had overcome “numerous challenges with resilience and perseverance” to emerge as the world’s second-largest economy.
