Like an overzealous recruiter on LinkedIn, the CIA wants to know if any Chinese nationals are #opentowork as a spy.
What happened: The CIA released a spy recruitment video this week targeting members of the Chinese government and military, part of its push to rebuild its intelligence sources within the country. The video was shared on YouTube, X and, of course, LinkedIn.
The ad follows a fictional Chinese military officer who has grown tired of Chinese Communist Party members lining their own pockets and wants to “save the future.”
The agency has released similar videos over the past year, some of which have gotten over 60 million views. In terms of their ability to recruit spies, a CIA official told the Financial Times that “if they didn’t work, we wouldn’t release more of them.”
Catch-up: About 15 years ago, China’s main intelligence agency uncovered a network of Chinese nationals who they believed were spying on behalf of the CIA. Dozens of them were imprisoned or executed, and the U.S. largely lost its intelligence foothold in the country.
Why it matters: Espionage between China and Western nations, including Canada, has become increasingly brazen — so much so that the CIA is now openly advertising its spy recruitment efforts.
Canada has dealt with its share of Chinese espionage, particularly with intelligence agents attempting to interfere in elections. In 2023, a retired RCMP officer was charged with foreign interference for allegedly spying for the Chinese government.
More recently, a former researcher with Hydro-Québec was charged with economic espionage for allegedly stealing battery technology research on behalf of China.
Bottom line: The spying is certainly not one-sided, but China’s efforts dwarf those of other countries. China’s intelligence-gathering operation is made up of ~600,000 people, while its hacking program alone is larger than every other major nation’s combined.—LA