The way China wiped the CIA's network was one of the funniest events of the last decade
65Tell me more
41China routed a network of over a hundred CIA spies/informants in the course of about two years, between 2010 and 2012. A dozen of them got killed or went missing, something like 20 of them are still in jail. The rest got kicked out or fled.
It's really funny how quickly and efficiently China did it too. Fuck the CIA.
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I remember reading somewhere that one of those lost CIA agents was shot point blank in the head in full view of their colleagues by some kind of Chinese security officer. In broad daylight in the courtyard of a government building. China killed around a dozen CIA staff between 2010 and 2012.
All know to say is thanks China. Hope you eighty-six more CIA rats.
58China doing some serious praxis. You love to see it
31Important to note these people technically are not CIA agents (they wouldn't get a star on Langley's wall after death) they're ASSETS. Basically Chinese who have betrayed their own people, are not formal employees of the CIA but may be paid money (including very large sums) or given/promised favors, blackmailed, or recruited to pass secrets on the basis of ideological (anti-communist) or more often personal grudge grounds (a belief they've been unfairly passed over for promotion, a belief their talents aren't recognized enough by what they see as incompetent people above them).
Still good they were shot in full view as an example but these were just recruited traitors, they received some training most likely but assuming there are no issues with supply of greedy/resentful people and no counter-espionage problems, they are the type who could be fully replaced by anyone else in their position to have access to classified or sensitive info within months instead of the years it takes for agents who are far more valuable.
Some of them may have been handlers for others and even fairly important as jumping-off points for networks of people they drew info from but I doubt they put any stars on their wall over this. (Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong but the CIA tends to use native peoples as disposable and doesn't consider them worth mourning as anything but an annoyance to having to replace their cog function in the machinery)
Rooting them out like that is good on China, as or more important is making sure replacements cannot be recruited. Unfortunately the US uses very powerful technical means of surveillance (electronic espionage, bugs, tempest attack type stuff, plus of course their vast global communications intercept net, hardware implants put into strategic network and computer devices, and advanced malware and hacking campaigns to lurk and spy) so they likely still have some great deal of insight and I personally believe they're intentionally over-hyping the damage lack of human-int sources in China has had on intelligence gathering.. Sure it's probably had an impact, it probably limits their ability to spy on Xi and other top officials and know their movements, inner thoughts, best classified plans, etc, but I'm sure there are still plenty of holes as though Xi's anti-corruption drive has been tough and thorough I doubt it's gotten all the rats.
What they may be really upset about is their ability to have chances to color revolution/coup China by using insiders they control has greatly diminished. And that was always the highest threat of these types. CIA maneuvering to get liberal counter-revolutionaries into high party positions and to steer the country to letting go of the commanding heights, to allowing more liberalization, to letting western propaganda in, to making missteps, etc which over time would rot at the foundations and lead to a crisis that could be exploited as happened with Yeltsin.
24Oh yeah, that should be clear. CIA networks aren't all professional spies or agents, the networks are often built up of traitors or local capitalists who have influence. The CIA is also not above fermenting sectarianism within enemy countries.
I'm gonna guess a lot of people don't even know they're informants. The feds probably use aliases and shell companies to contact people through labyrinths of fake identities. I hear a lot of spies are also just normal diplomats and have official identification as a diplomat at an embassy.
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I imagine that a requirement to be able to infiltrate the CPC is having a good understanding of marxism, which probably makes spies realize a lot of things.
48how does the US even spy on China tbh
It's obvious they don't trust any of the Chinese Americans so do they just send in a bunch of blondes and go "ni hao wo jiao uhhh...albino. Ni jiao she me ming zu?"44It's obvious they don't trust any of the Chinese Americans
That's why they can't spy on China anymore.
The golden rule of espionage is that your enemy is gonna spy on you as well. So it's incumbent on you to go on the offensive and spy even harder.
The kind of person who can spy on China or, say, the Soviet Union speaks the local language, and has economic and political ties with local assets. Both the spy and the assets are gonna play a double game if for no other reason than the fact that they can make more money that way.
The US played that game well all throught the Cold War. And it chose to lose the capability to do so after the Aldritch Ames Incident. The americans have gone on the defensive, and are more focused on ensuring the enemy can't spy on them at all. As a result the espionage officers can't be perfect for the job - hiring a well connected person is too much of a risk - and the espionage assets aren't hired in the first place. What CIA agents the US had abroad were legacy agents from a more daring time. And all those guys were purged when the Iranians found a security breach in the american intelligence networks, got the informants' names and sent the list to Russia and China.
38Aldritch Ames Incident
Holy shit even spying is hereditary in US XD
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Seen those whiteboys videos "American guy surprises local restaurant owner in guanzhou with perfect mandarin"?
All feds
26Bribing business men and corrupt politicians who are mad that the government keeps clamping down on corruption I would guess.
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CIA can't spy in the sUrVeiLlAnCe stAte anymore
39CIA lost network of agents a decade ago and has struggled to rebuild in the surveillance state America calls its top security priority
Ironic…
34You heard it libs, China is new and formidable according to WSJ, looks like they are tankies too
33I’d offer Xi to be a double agent, but I’ve already blown my cover with my fat mouth on the internet.
27the hilarious thing was how they lost so many of their agents in not only China but in Russia and Iran too. IIRC Iran was the country that discovered the CIAs weakly encrypted network where once you got in you had access to all the chatter all the time without any sort of authorization checks and all 3 countries monitored that shit for months before rolling up the CIA agent networks
21I hope this isn't misdirection but why would they publish it otherwise?
20More funding please as always
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There's something about that subtitle that my brain can't parse. I've read it like ten times and I swear it's just gibberish.
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