Trump launched CIA covert influence ops against China in 2019

Former US officials Say operatives spread negative narratives online about Xi govt

WASHINGTON Two years into office, then President Donald Trump authorised the Central Intelligence Agency CIA) to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government, according to former US officials with direct knowledge of the highly classified operation.

Three former officials told Reuters that the CIA created a small team of operatives who used bogus Internet identities to spread negative narratives about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government while leaking disparaging intelligence to overseas news outlets.

The effort, which began in 2019, has not been previously reported.

During the past decade, China has rapidly expanded its global footprint, forging military pacts, trade deals and business partnerships with developing nations.

The CIA team promoted allegations that members of the Communist Party were hiding ill-gotten money overseas and slammed as corrupt and wasteful China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which provides financing for infrastructure projects in the developing world, the sources told Reuters.

Although the US officials declined to provide specific details of these operations, they said the disparaging narratives were based in fact despite being secretly released by intelligence operatives under false cover.

The efforts within China were intended to foment paranoia among top leaders there, forcing its government to expend resources chasing intrusions into Beijing’s tightly controlled Internet, two former officials said.

“We wanted them ghosts,” one of them said.

Ms Chelsea Robinson, a CIA spokeswoman, declined to comment on the existence of the influence programme, its goals or impacts.