The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has apparently hit a snag while trying to rebuild its spy network in China, which was previously devastated by Beijing’s counterintelligence operations.
About a decade ago, the CIA network of agents in China was reportedly wiped out by Chinese spy catchers, effectively leaving the folk at Langley with no means to gain insights into Beijing’s plans and intentions, The Wall Street Journal reported this week citing unnamed US intelligence officials.
Commenting on this development, journalist and geopolitical analyst KJ Noh told Sputnik that the people “in intelligence” with whom he talked offered a “wide range of opinions on the matter.”
“Some of them said that it's just a pity ploy, that the CIA has been incompetent and they're trying to show the public and Congress that they're trying so hard," he said.
Another theory is that it is mere "shaking the tin cup. They want more money,” Noh said.
“But on the other hand, we understand that intelligence agencies are about two things. One of them is about intelligence, that is to gather information. And the other is to deceive. And so if we think of it as the second, that is, as Bill Casey said, we'll know our work is complete when everything the US people believe is a lie. Then we have to wonder, what's the deception here? I mean, if they rebuilt the network, they wouldn't say so. And if they didn't rebuild it, they wouldn't say so either,” he added.
According to him, the CIA wants to “kind of send mixed messages, a little bit of mystification and smoke and mirrors” as the agency tries “very, very hard to reconstitute their human intelligence networks.”
He speculated that the CIA might find it problematic to recruit human assets in China as Chinese people would be unlikely to “give up” their loyalty to their country “for no other reason than for the material standards of living.”
Noh also argued that “anybody who's been to China and has been in the United States knows the quality of life in China is much, much better for the vast majority of people,” so the CIA may even be unable to come up with a “material incentive” good enough to sway the loyalty of Chinese citizens.