The CIA released a provocative recruitment video on Thursday targeting Chinese military officers, a move that exposes the underlying tensions threatening a fragile calm in US-China relations ahead of April’s highly anticipated meeting between the two countries’ leaders.
The release of the recruitment video comes on the same day US President Donald Trump boasted about his “very good relationship” with China. It is likely to draw the ire of Beijing in the lead-up to the key diplomatic meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
The Chinese-language video was posted to the US spy agency’s YouTube channel on Thursday as part of a drive to target disillusioned military officers and recruit them as informants.
It features a fictional mid-level officer contacting the CIA through its anonymous messaging system after deciding “the only thing leaders are protecting is their own interests” and that “their power is based on countless lies”.
A Chinese text caption below the video asked for credible individuals “who are knowledgeable and willing to share with us”.
“Do you have information about high-ranking Chinese leaders? Are you a military officer or have dealings with the military? Do you work in intelligence, diplomacy, economics, science, or advanced technology fields, or deal with people working in these fields?” the CIA wrote. “Please contact us. We want to understand the truth.”
Asked for a response to the video on Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Beijing would “take all necessary measures to resolutely combat infiltration and sabotage activities of foreign anti-China forces and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests”.
The schemes of foreign anti-China forces “would never succeed”, Lin added.
The new video is the latest in a string of efforts by Washington to step up human intelligence gathering on China.
In May last year, the CIA rolled out two Chinese-language videos on its social media channels, aimed at luring officials to leak secrets to the US, again showing disillusioned fictional figures choosing to contact the CIA.
This week’s advertisement was released as Trump prepares to visit China, with a possible extension of the trade truce between the two countries reached in Busan and Taiwan among the main topics to discuss.
Trump again boasted about his good relationship with Xi at a White House press event about climate regulations on Thursday, where he was asked to confirm whether his trip would take place in the first week of April.
“I’ll be visiting President Xi in April. Look forward to it. He’s coming here later in the year, and I look very much forward to it,” Trump said, adding that this was “not relevant” to his announcement at the briefing.
“Our relationship with China is very good right now ... My relationship with President Xi is very good,” Trump added.
Lin of the foreign ministry confirmed on Thursday that the two sides were “in communication” about Trump’s April visit, where officials expect discussions to centre on short-term economic gains, including a possible one-year extension of the current trade truce – a step people familiar with the talks described as realistic and achievable.
While Beijing’s top diplomat in Washington said earlier this week that current relations between the two countries had achieved an “overall dynamic stability”, sources said that Beijing had consistently identified Taiwan as a chief potential flashpoint and warned that US arms sales to the island could jeopardise progress.
But the Trump administration has also reportedly moved to rein in government actions that could irk Beijing ahead of the presidents’ meeting.
It had shelved a series of tech restrictions aimed at Chinese firms, such as a ban on China Telecom’s US operations and restrictions on Chinese equipment sales for US data centres, and put on hold proposed domestic sales bans on TP-Link routers, among other measures, according to Reuters.
Trump’s China visit was expected to take place in early April, but the timing remained under discussion, sources said, as Beijing weighed scheduling around the Ching Ming, or tomb-sweeping, festival, which falls on April 5.
Trump would also host Xi for a state visit in the US later in 2026, which the US president revealed in November after a phone call with Xi. The US president told NBC News last week that he would host Xi at the White House “towards the end of the year”. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
