State security ministry denounces CIA's recruitment of 'Chinese spies'

The Ministry of State Security on Wednesday blasted the CIA's attempts to recruit Chinese spies, calling them "farcical" and a sign of the United States spy agency's "baffling incompetence".

The CIA launched a drive to recruit informants in China, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in October 2024.This included posting messages on the CIA's social media accounts in Mandarin, Farsi and Korean with instructions on how to securely contact the agency. They also released Chinese-language videos aimed at recruiting Chinese citizens in May this year.

In a strongly-worded statement published on its official WeChat account on Wednesday, the ministry said the CIA's public recruitment drive was "a desperate gambit born of exhausted tricks" and a "childish maneuver" aimed at disguising intelligence failures. It warned that any attempt to infiltrate China or incite defections among its citizens is "doomed to fail".