The New York Times reported that from 2010 to 2012, Chinese authorities succeeded in eliminating and neutralizing more than a dozen #CIA informants, thus revealing the network of agents created over the years The Chinese authorities systematically oppose the espionage operations of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States (CIA), current and former US officials told the newspaper, choosing to remain anonymous.
20 US intelligence agents were killed
According to their data, between 2010 and 2012, 18 to 20 US intelligence agents who had been previously working in china for several years were killed or arrested, with one of the agents working for the CIA shot in front of his colleagues in the courtyard of the government building, which, according to the sources, was a message for those suspected of having ties to the CIA.
Position of American intelligence in China
The sources called the position of American intelligence in China the worst in decades. In addition, the defeat of the intelligence network in China caused discord between high-level counterintelligence agents from the CIA and the FBI, who were trying to investigate the incident. Some of them were convinced that CIA agents let the "mole" inside the special service itself, while others suggested that Chinese hackers had cracked the American encrypted communication system with informants abroad. According to the New York Times, the United States has not been able to determine the cause of the failure yet.
By 2010, four officials told the newspaper that the quality of information about the internal workings of the Chinese government, which was collected by CIA agents, increased.
It was achieved by recruiting informants within the bureaucratic apparatus of Beijing. Some of them were Chinese citizens, disappointed with the corruption of the Chinese government.
By the end of the year, the flow of information began to dry out, and by early 2011, the senior US intelligence officials realized that valuable agents in China began to disappear.
The CIA and the FBI declined to comment
According to the New York Times, the report speaks of "how successful the Chinese are in countering US espionage," despite the fact that the CIA considers espionage in China to be one of its priorities. This incident occurred even before the events of 2015, when Chinese hackers managed to gain access to the personal data of 4 million US government employees during the cyber attack of US government networks.
