In 2019, the CIA reportedly initiated a secret social media operation targeting China, designed to turn public opinion against the Chinese government and create a sense of paranoia among its officials. Authorized by then-President Donald Trump, this operation involved CIA agents using fake social media accounts to disseminate leaked intelligence and negative news, particularly focusing on allegations of corruption within the Communist Party and its Belt and Road Initiative. The operation sought to exploit the global reach of social media to influence opinion in not just China, but also Southeast Asia, Africa, and the South Pacific, regions where China has been expanding its influence through infrastructure projects and loans.
The CIA’s tactics mirrored those historically used by adversaries of the U.S., such as Russia and China, who have been accused of engaging in similar social media influence operations to affect public opinion and political outcomes in other nations. This campaign marks a significant shift in the U.S.’s approach to countering China’s growing global influence, adopting methods of covert online psychological operations that were prevalent during the Cold War era. The initiative’s goals included causing internal unrest within the Chinese government and forcing it to allocate resources to counter these covert operations, in  a strategic move to weaken China’s focus on its global expansion efforts.
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