“We didn’t fully know what they know about us.” Subsequently, “dozens of postings” for CIA officers scheduled for assignments in China were cancelled ….
So on the one hand, what we already know – people who are only brave against enemies with vastly inferior tech and lower levels of economic development, but will hide under the covers and tuck their toes in if they can’t just waltz around in enemy territory doing what they please under the safety of air support or hidden behind well-funded paramilitaries.
And on the other hand, possibly an attempt to lull China into a false sense of security. If the US did pull some agents, they almost certainly had others lined up, and China will still be looking for or keeping an eye on the alternative agents.
Another factor, notwithstanding the sheer outrage over China stealing data (in an article about how the US thinks it’s entitled not just to data but to corrupt high level governmental and military positions – satire and irony are not dead, they just write themselves) is that much of this is probably CIA officers posting about their upcoming deployments on Facebook and Twitter. Like those soldiers at the start of the Ukraine war who posted pictures online without deleting the meta data. As if you can expect enemies to politely look away when you reveal security secrets like when you get changed at the beach.
US getting stroppy that it’s spies are getting caught and then criticising Xi for ‘purg[ing] and creating a personality cult’, as if Xi should have casually let the US continue about is espionage.
he only wants to be surrounded by loyal people, they scream in protest. what a monster
Found it.
Part one: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/21/china-stolen-us-data-exposed-cia-operatives-spy-networks/
The detail I referred to above is in part two, but I may have embellished some of the details. Edit: part two: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/22/china-us-data-intelligence-cybersecurity-xi-jinping/
So on the one hand, what we already know – people who are only brave against enemies with vastly inferior tech and lower levels of economic development, but will hide under the covers and tuck their toes in if they can’t just waltz around in enemy territory doing what they please under the safety of air support or hidden behind well-funded paramilitaries.
And on the other hand, possibly an attempt to lull China into a false sense of security. If the US did pull some agents, they almost certainly had others lined up, and China will still be looking for or keeping an eye on the alternative agents.
Another factor, notwithstanding the sheer outrage over China stealing data (in an article about how the US thinks it’s entitled not just to data but to corrupt high level governmental and military positions – satire and irony are not dead, they just write themselves) is that much of this is probably CIA officers posting about their upcoming deployments on Facebook and Twitter. Like those soldiers at the start of the Ukraine war who posted pictures online without deleting the meta data. As if you can expect enemies to politely look away when you reveal security secrets like when you get changed at the beach.
US getting stroppy that it’s spies are getting caught and then criticising Xi for ‘purg[ing] and creating a personality cult’, as if Xi should have casually let the US continue about is espionage.
he only wants to be surrounded by loyal people, they scream in protest. what a monster