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MOSCOW, March 14 In 2019, the administration of former US President Donald Trump instructed the CIA to launch a secret campaign on Chinese social networks to incite public opinion against leadership of the PRC, Reuters reports, citing three former officials and intelligence sources.
“Two years after taking office as president, Donald Trump authorized the CIA to launch a covert Chinese social media campaign aimed at turning public opinion in China against his government,” the agency writes.
Sources said the CIA team was spreading allegations that members of the ruling Communist Party were hiding ill-gotten money abroad and calling China's Belt and Road Initiative corrupt and wasteful. The effort was aimed at «stirring up paranoia among the country's top leaders» by forcing them to spend resources fighting online.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said news of the CIA initiative shows that the US government is using «public opinion space and media platforms as a weapon to spread false information and manipulate international public opinion.»
The agency emphasizes that it could not determine whether the administration of current President Joe Biden is continuing this program. However, two intelligence sources said that when the White House grants covert action powers to the CIA through presidential orders, they often remain in effect across administrations.