The CIA is hoping to attract Chinese government officials and dissidents willing to assist the United States by sharing information with the agency. On Thursday, it released two slickly produced Mandarin-language videos, which were posted to the CIA’s official YouTube and X accounts.
In a statement provided to Scripps News, CIA Director Ratcliffe said the videos are "aimed at recruiting Chinese officials to steal secrets."
"No adversary in the history of our Nation has presented a more formidable challenge or capable strategic competitor than the Chinese Communist Party," he added. "It is intent on dominating the world economically, militarily, and technologically."
The videos target different demographics, using distinct storytelling approaches.
The first, titled "Why I Contacted CIA: To Take Control of My Fate," depicts a senior Chinese Communist Party official troubled by the unexplained disappearances of other high-ranking figures. According to a CIA spokesperson, the storyline is inspired by real experiences.
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The second video follows a younger, mid-career Chinese government worker who feels trapped in a corrupt system and sees no career advancement while supporting the ambitions of a superior. A CIA spokesperson said this narrative aims to underscore the widening divide between Chinese elites and the broader population — and to suggest that the CIA can offer an alternative path.
The spokesperson added that the videos are not just traditional “spy versus spy” counterintelligence. Instead, they are designed to reach potential Chinese assets across a wide range of fields, including advanced science, the military, cybertechnology, data and foreign policy.
Ned Price, a former CIA official and senior adviser to former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, told Scripps News it may be difficult to measure the effectiveness of these outreach tactics from the outside. Still, he noted, “Even if this type of outreach garners the attention of a single well-connected individual in a country like Russia or China, it will be well worth the expense.” He also pointed out that the cost of producing such videos is minimal compared to other methods the intelligence community uses to identify and recruit assets in so-called “hard target” countries.
This is not the first time the CIA has used foreign languages and creative strategies to reach new audiences. The agency has previously released Russian-language content and, in October 2024, published a video in Mandarin with detailed instructions on how to securely contact the CIA from any location.
However, the Chinese Communist Party heavily censors online content through its “Great Firewall,” restricting access to many foreign websites and social media platforms. That could limit the visibility of these videos inside China. Still, Price noted, “It’s quite possible that, at the very least, reflections of it make waves on communications channels that are available in China — and in cryptic ways that evade censorship.”
When asked about the success of the videos and whether the agency has already had outreach from Chinese dissidents, the CIA official told Scripps News that if the videos weren’t working, they wouldn’t be making more of them.
