China slams CIA recruitment ads as ‘naked political provocation’

China has publicly accused the CIA of “naked political provocation” after it distributed a video to Chinese officials encouraging them to switch sides and spill their secrets.

China on Tuesday condemned recruitment adverts by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asking disillusioned Chinese officials to share state secrets as a “naked political provocation”.

“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 spokesman 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”.

China on Tuesday condemned recruitment adverts by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asking disillusioned Chinese officials to share state secrets as a “naked political provocation”.

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”.

Retaliatory videos aimed at the US political system have also popped up online in response.

“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,” he added.

The United States 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.

Retaliatory videos aimed at the US political system have popped up in response.

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”.

China will “firmly safeguard national sovereignty, development and security interests”, Lin said.

Originally published as China slams CIA recruitment ads as ‘naked political provocation’