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| EFE |
Three former officials told Reuters that the CIA created a small team of operatives who used false identities on the internet to spread negative narratives about Xi Jinping's government, while leaking derogatory intelligence information to foreign news media. The effort, which began in 2019, had not been previously reported.
Over the past decade, China has rapidly expanded its global footprint, forging military pacts, trade agreements, and business partnerships with developing nations.
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The CIA team promoted allegations that members of the ruling Communist Party were hiding ill-gotten money abroad, and also branded China's Belt and Road Initiative, which provides funding for infrastructure projects in the developing world, as corrupt and wasteful, sources told Reuters.
Although U.S. officials declined to provide specific details of these operations, they said the derogatory narratives were based on facts despite having been secretly published by intelligence operatives under a false cover.
The efforts within China were intended to foster paranoia among the country's top leaders, forcing their government to spend resources chasing intrusions on the heavily controlled internet, two former officials said.
"We wanted them to chase ghosts," one of them pointed out.
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Chelsea Robinson, a CIA spokesperson, declined to comment on the existence of the influence program, its objectives, or its repercussions.
A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the news of the CIA initiative shows that the U.S. government uses "public opinion space and media platforms as weapons to spread false information and manipulate international public opinion."
The CIA operation came in response to years of aggressive covert efforts by China aimed at increasing its global influence, sources said. During his presidency, Trump pushed for a tougher response to China than his predecessors. The CIA campaign signaled a return to the methods that marked Washington's struggle with the former Soviet Union. "The Cold War is back," said Tim Weiner, author of a book on the history of political warfare.
Reuters was unable to determine the impact of the secret operations or whether President Joe Biden's administration has maintained the CIA program.
Kate Waters, a spokesperson for the government's National Security Council, declined to comment on the existence of the program or whether it remains active.
