US Spy Operations in China “Crippled”

On this episode of China Uncensored,
one of the worst intelligence breaches
in decades!
And it happened in China.
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored,
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
US spy operations in China
have been crippled,
according to this recent report
by the New York Times.
18 to 20 CIA secret agents
and sources operating inside of China
were either killed or imprisoned
between 2010 and 2012.
Sometimes in a rather extravagant fashion.
“One was even, we're told,
shot in a sort of courtyard
of a government building
in front of his colleagues
as a sort of message to—
for those who might be thinking about
spying for the CIA.”
Which does fall in line
with the Chinese idiom,
“killing a chicken to scare the monkeys.”
Because man...
scaring monkeys is great.
Now this story comes to us
courtesy of my two favorite words in journalism.
No, not “lunch provided.”
The other two:
“Anonymous sources.”
The New York Times talked to
10 “current and former American officials”
who describe the intelligence breach as
“one of the worst in decades.”
And the worst part of it is,
no one knows how it happened.
According to the unnamed sources,
no one can figure out whether it was mole,
a hack that uncovered how the CIA
communicated with its operatives,
or even if it was some kind of bizarre
“turf war within the CIA.”
Okay so, shooting informants in a courtyard,
an unknown mole,
a turf war in the CIA...
this is totally going to get made into a
“based on a true story” Hollywood movie,
isn't it?
But to give you an idea
of how bad the breach was,
the CIA and FBI actually worked together
to figure out what happened.
That joint operation was called
Honey Badger,
presumably because...
okay I'm not sure.
But a honey badger can definitely
kill a chicken.
And monkeys.
And anything else that
stumbles across its path.
But this honey badger
did not succeed.
There was one possible mole
they investigated:
a former CIA operative
who now lives in another Asian country.
But there wasn’t enough evidence
to arrest him.
Ok, so the movie is going to be called
Operation Honey Badger,
but they're going to move the action
from China to North Korea,
because studio executives think North Korea
is definitely more dangerous than China
and also they don’t have
a big movie market there.
The CIA and FBI
declined to make any comment.
About the actual true story,
not the potential “based on a true story”
that I’m sure is being optioned in Hollywood
as I speak.
And China is also playing it cool.
"I am unaware of the specific situation
regarding the New York Times report
that you refer to.”
And then there’s my favorite state-run media,
the Global Times.
They wrote,
“We’re not saying we did it,
but if we did do it,
we’re awesome.”
OK, I’m just paraphrasing,
but you get the idea.
Although for some reason,
the Global Times wants to make it really clear
that the part about shooting someone
in a courtyard
was definitely and totally
“purely fabricated.”
The article also compares
the New York Times article
to a Mission: Impossible movie,
saying, and this is an actual quote,
“The journalists who wrote the report
must have been deeply addicted to the franchise.”
OK, so the movie's going to be called
Mission: Impossible--Operation Honey Badger.
And Tom Cruise will be doing his own stunts,
including singlehandledly disarming
the North Korean nuclear weapons program.
Anyway, this story breaks as US China relations
are actually doing...okay-ish?
And with no way to know
who actually leaked the story,
or how long the New York Times
has been working on it,
it’s hard to verify what motives
might be behind it.
It's definitely embarrassing
for the CIA and the US government,
and could strain ties
between the United States and China
during a sensitive period.
And right after President Trump
and Chinese leader Xi Jinping
became such good friends, too.
Anything that could drive a wedge between
Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping
would be a boon to Xi’s political rivals,
that loose faction
under former Chinese leader,
and creator of the world's
most annoying ringtone,
Jiang Zemin.
The New York Times has been utilized
as a tool in this political battle before.
In 2012, just as the dominoes started falling
that would take out these two major players
in the Jiang faction,
the New York Times released
this exposé detailing the massive family fortune
of one of the guys behind bringing them down.
But on the other hand,
this spy thing is an old story.
It happened way before either Trump or Xi
were in power.
So it’s hard to say how much political fallout
this would cause to either leader.
One thing that is pretty interesting about
this story
is that it shows the CIA may have been
losing informants at a critical time
during the Chinese Communist Party’s
internal power struggles.
2012 was the year when Xi Jinping
took over the Communist Party.
And it was eventful.
A corrupt police chief fled to the US consulate
disguised as an old lady
to rat out his boss who was going to kill him.
Said boss and his boss
allegedly tried to pull off a coup
to grab power from Xi Jinping,
failed, and ended up in prison
for murder and corruption.
And that set off Xi's power struggle
against Jiang that's still going on.
And the whole time this was happening,
the US government was possibly even more
in the dark than usual.
It's like you've been watching
your favorite soap opera,
General Hostility, for years,
and the storylines are getting really exciting,
and then the day you're finally going to find out
who's the shadowy figure behind it all,
the cable cuts out.
And by the time you finally get it fixed,
the storylines are completely different
and you have no idea
what's happening anymore.
Anyway, despite the Chinese Communist Party's
apparent success at killing foreign spies
between 2010 and 2012,
they seem to be struggling in recent years.
According to the New York Times article,
the CIA has been rebuilding
its spy network inside China
and agents and informants
have not all been turning up dead.
Which might explain why the Chinese authorities
have lately been relying on tactics like,
creating a hotline people can call
if they think someone is a spy.
Or creating a helpful list for the general public
of “spy characteristics” to keep an eye out for,
with such gems as,
“People who like to throw out
controversial subjects at public gatherings
in order to ignite debate
and then quietly observe,”
and “People who...often throw out reactionary remarks
and exaggerate the merits of foreigners.”
Yes, those are definitely spies.
Or internet trolls.
And then of course there was this
friendly comic put up everywhere
for National Security Education Day
called “Dangerous Love.”
It’s an actual comic
meant to warn hapless Chinese women
about the dangers of dating foreigners
because they’re probably spies
and you’ll end up in jail
for helping them.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say
that these probably aren't the same crack techniques
that they used back in 2010 through 2012.
So what do you think about the deaths
of CIA informants in China?
Leave your comments below.
And don’t worry,
no chickens or monkeys were hurt
in the filming of this episode.
No monkeys, at least.

US Spy Operations in China “Crippled” | China Uncensored

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