Cia Releases Mandarin-language Videos To Encourage Chinese Officials To Spill Secrets

The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in President Xi Jinping's government: Come work with us.

America's premier spy agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted to YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day.

The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost both the agency's use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China , which has recently targeted U.S. officials with its own espionage operations .

The videos are "aimed at recruiting Chinese officials to steal secrets," Ratcliffe said in a statement to The Associated Press. He said China "is intent on dominating the world economically, militarily, and technologically."

"Our agency must continue responding to this threat with urgency, creativity, and grit, and these videos are just one of the ways we are doing this," Ratcliffe said.