China blasts CIA recruitment ad encouraging treason: "Naked political provocation"

Beijing, China - China on Tuesday condemned recruitment adverts by the CIA asking disillusioned Chinese officials to share state secrets as a "naked political provocation."

China on Tuesday accused the CIA of engaging in "naked political provocation" by publicizing ads soliciting state secrets from potential Chinese defectors.
China on Tuesday accused the CIA of engaging in "naked political provocation" by publicizing ads soliciting state secrets from potential Chinese defectors.  © Collage: REUTERS

"The United States not only maliciously smears and attacks China, but also openly deceives and lures Chinese personnel to surrender, even directly targeting Chinese government officials," foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.

The US intelligence agency last week released a number of videos it said were aimed at "recruiting Chinese officials to help the US."

CIA director John Ratcliffe said the cinematic videos were "just one of many ways that we're adjusting our tradecraft at the CIA."

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Beijing on Tuesday said the United States used "various despicable methods to steal secrets of other countries, interfere in other countries' internal affairs and undermine other countries' political power."

"The videos released by the US Central Intelligence Agency on social media are another self-confession with solid evidence of this," Lin said. "China strongly condemns this."

The US and China have long traded accusations of espionage.

Last month, security officials said they had implicated three US "secret agents" in cyberattacks during February's Asian Winter Games in the northeastern city of Harbin.

And in March, China's ministry of state security said it had sentenced to death a former engineer for leaking state secrets to an unnamed foreign power.

Beijing on Tuesday vowed to take "necessary measures to resolutely crack down on the infiltration and sabotage activities of foreign anti-China forces".

Cover photo: Collage: REUTERS

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