China has issued a strong rebuke to the United States, accusing it of hypocrisy over espionage following recent Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) efforts to recruit Chinese informants.
At Monday’s press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian responded to a question about a recent Wall Street Journal report detailing an “unprecedented scale” of Chinese espionage operations targeting Western nations.
The article underscored the rise of such campaigns under Chinese President Xi Jinping, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s report that Chinese state-linked hackers had compromised over a quarter of a million internet-connected devices last month in several countries, including the U.S., the United Kingdom, and France.
“For some time, very few Western media outlets have been peddling disinformation on so-called espionage activities by China, but they’ve presented no facts or evidence apart from some assumptions and speculations,” Lin said.
He referenced CIA Chinese-language posts on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube earlier this month that provided instructions on how Chinese nationals could safely contact the U.S. agency.
A screenshot from a video the CIA uploaded on YouTube on October 2 to advise Chinese speakers how to safely contact the agency. China’s Foreign Ministry called the guide a violation of its national interests.
Central Intelligence Agency
“I noted that the CIA recently posted on social media instructions in Chinese on how to contact it online in an attempt to lure Chinese personnel to be their informants,” Lin said, calling this a serious infringement on China’s national interests.
The spokesperson continued: “The CIA has long used various despicable methods to steal other countries’ secrets, interfere in their internal affairs, and engage in subversive activities.”
Newsweek reached out to the CIA via email for comment.
Lin criticized what he described as Washington’s hypocrisy: “The U.S., on one hand, blatantly conducts spying activities worldwide, while on the other, it levels unfounded accusations of espionage against other countries.”
He pledged that Beijing would “resolutely crack down on” sabotage and infiltration attempts by “anti-China forces” outside the country.
In an interview with Bloomberg published on October 2, CIA Deputy Director David Cohen acknowledged the agency’s strategy to gather information from people dissatisfied under Xi, now on an unprecedented third term, whose rule has been marked by greater authoritarianism, consolidation of authority, and an economic slowdown.
“You’ve got people inside who see what’s happening, and for lots of different motivations fundamentally do not like the direction that Xi is taking the country and understand that there’s a path to helping their own country by working with us,” he said.
Since last year, China’s top intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, has stepped up efforts to warn everyday Chinese they may become targeted for sensitive information by foreign spies.
The campaigns urge vigilance, with public advisories on social media calling citizens to report suspicious activities to authorities.
