CIA ‘spread corruption claims to undermine Xi’
The CIA tried to undermine Chinese President Xi Jinping’s authority using bogus social media accounts to promote corruption claims involving senior officials in Beijing, it has been claimed.
Donald Trump approved the operation on Chinese social media two years into his presidency, according to reports. In 2019, the agency also spread corruption allegations in an effort to turn public opinion against Xi.
The CIA is said to have leaked stories that communist leaders had siphoned money from lucrative contracts with foreign governments and stashed their fortunes overseas. The operation was intended to breed paranoia among Chinese officials about leaks in their government.
The CIA operation is reported to have been an effort to counter Chinese efforts to expand its global reach, including interfering in American elections. US intelligence says hackers from China and Russia meddled in the 2016 election that brought Trump to power.
Despite voicing his admiration for Xi, Trump took a more aggressive stance on China than his predecessors. In 2018 he granted the CIA greater powers to run online operations abroad, in retaliation for Chinese and Russian cyberattacks on the US. The next year, he allowed spies to begin operations in China and in countries where the US vies for influence with its rival.
Former officials said the offensive was aimed at countries in southeast Asia, Africa and the South Pacific, regions in which China has sought to outmuscle US influence by funding infrastructure projects through Xi’s Belt and Road initiative.
The CIA spread claims and leaked stories to foreign media that the Belt and Road scheme had been exploited by corrupt Chinese officials to hoard illicit wealth. It marked a return to methods deployed during the Cold War, when US intelligence agencies planted stories to undermine Moscow.
It remains unclear how effective the CIA operation was or whether President Joe Biden has continued the programme. The CIA and the National Security Council declined to comment.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have risen again this week after a bill to ban TikTok was passed by the House of Representatives. The legislation must also pass the Senate. Biden has said he will sign the bill if it clears Congress. – The Times