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8 months ago
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THE CIA launched a brazen plot to undermine Chinese despot Xi Jinping by using social media to spread chaos in Beijing, it has been claimed.
Donald Trump endorsed the “ghost-chasing” initiative to sow paranoia among civilians and top officials, hoping to turn public opinion against China.
Reuters
AP
AFPThe special CIA task force is said to have leaked stories about Chinese leaders making money from contracts with foreign governments.
They also spread claims that top Beijing officials were stashing their profits abroad, Reuters reports.
Beginning in 2019, the US spy agency launched the Trump-approved plan in hopes of breeding paranoia within the upper echelons of China’s ranks.
Former US officials with first-hand knowledge spoke to Reuters about the top-secret operation, one said: “We wanted them chasing ghosts”.
And another revealed: “The feeling was China was coming at us with steel baseball bats and we were fighting back with wooden ones”.
Three ex-officials said the CIA crafted a small team of operatives for the initiative, using fake internet identities to spread the negative propaganda about Xi’s government.
They also leaked intelligence to foreign press that painted China in a poor light.
The initiative was reportedly aimed at dulling China’s global influence, including when it came to US elections.
Trump’s presidency ended in 2020 when democratic rival Joe Biden took the White House from him.
But US intelligence agencies believe cyberhackers from global powers including China and Russia meddled in the initial 2016 election that brought him to power.
Despite his 2016 win, and a sometimes close alliance with Xi, Trump clamped down on China harder during his term than many presidents who came before him.
In 2018 he even gave the CIA more power to conduct their own cyber operations abroad.
The idea being that they could act in retaliation to Chinese and Russian hack attacks.
And in 2019 Trump put his stamp of approval on the program that allowed American spies to conduct operations in China and other countries where the US and Beijing compete for influence.
The thinking was aimed at countries mostly in southeast Asia, Africa and the South Pacific – targeting China’s Belt and Road initiative.
China’s Belt and Road project is a global infrastructure plan – increasing Xi’s international influence and boosting his economy.
And over the last ten years especially, China has hugely expanded it’s military pacts, trade deals and business deals.
Some of the claims spread by the CIA on social media suggested this scheme in particular had been exploited by corrupt Chinese officials in order to make money.
Reports of the CIA plan did not reveal how effective it was, or specifics about the officials targeted.
The former US officials did say the information they spread online was based in fact.
A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Reuters the bombshell reports show the US uses public opinion platforms as weapons to spread false information and manipulate international public opinion.
It is unclear whether Biden has continued with the initiative.
Tensions between China and the US are ever-increasing as the world finds itself in a moment of intense conflict.
Just days ago the US’ House of Representatives passed a landmark bill giving Beijing-based firm ByteDance – TikTok’s platform – six months to sell the social media site or see it blocked entirely.
It would require the parent company of the app to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the States.
Concerns surrounding the Chinese social media app escalated last year among Western governments over its pervasive data collection.
One expert even says the UK could follow America’s lead and seek to ban the app for its 25million users here.
The Sun has reached out to the CIA for comment.
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