Chinese intelligence and security agencies have detected covert campaigns led by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on social media, aimed at discrediting the Belt and Road Initiative in the Middle East and the Global South. This US intelligence activity targeting China seeks to influence public opinion, sow discord, and undermine Chinese alliances through sophisticated information warfare. Key aspects of the US intelligence campaign against China include attempting to discredit the Belt and Road Initiative by disseminating misinformation, aiming to undermine Chinese projects and crafting narratives that cast doubt on its economic benefits in the Middle East, and employing disinformation tactics, sowing discord, and exerting social influence by targeting public opinion in the Global South through systematic psychological and social campaigns on digital platforms. With US intelligence efforts to achieve a number of strategic objectives in confronting China, these efforts seek to justify certain policies, weaken China’s influence, and destabilize its relations with partner countries within the framework of geopolitical competition with China.
Concerned intelligence, military, defense, and security circles in China have analyzed the CIA’s and other US government agencies’ use of several strategies to distort China’s image in the Middle East. These strategies primarily focus on exploiting religious issues in China, particularly the situation of Muslims in the Xinjiang region, casting doubt on the economic viability of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and spreading disinformation about China through social media. The Egyptian researcher, specializing in Chinese politics and the policies of the ruling Communist Party in China, attempted to find specific examples of these operations, such as the CIA’s launch of health disinformation campaigns and the fight against Chinese vaccines. Chinese investigative reports revealed that the US Department of Defense (Pentagon), under the direction of US intelligence during the Trump administration, conducted a covert campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic targeting countries in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Global South. The aim was to dissuade citizens of the Arab region, and the Middle East in particular, from using the Chinese Sinovac vaccine and other Chinese medical supplies. This was achieved through various US intelligence methods, such as using hundreds of fake accounts on platforms like “X” (formerly Twitter) and Facebook to impersonate local users from the region. The underlying US message was to promote claims that Chinese vaccines contain “pork gelatin” and are therefore “forbidden” according to Islamic law, exploiting the religious sentiments of Muslim populations.
This coincided with the CIA launching a small covert operations team to use fake online identities to spread negative narratives about Chinese investments and cast doubt on China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The aim was to curb China’s growing economic influence in developing countries, including those in the Middle East, by promoting claims that the Belt and Road Initiative is corrupt, wasteful, and a “debt trap” designed to exploit these countries. The team also leaked disinformation to foreign media outlets about corruption within the Chinese Communist Party.
The CIA also relies on a strategy of “manipulating social media and the press against China,” employing modern “information warfare” techniques rooted in the Cold War era. Using methods reminiscent of covert US intelligence operations, the CIA utilizes fake online identities to disseminate negative news and reports targeting audiences in the Middle East and Africa, aiming to undermine confidence in partnerships with China. In addition to recruiting sources, the CIA launched public recruitment campaigns in local languages, such as Mandarin Chinese and Persian, via social media platforms like Telegram and YouTube, aimed at encouraging officials to defect, linking this to narratives about corruption and mismanagement within the Chinese leadership.
With the CIA exploiting human rights and religious issues in China, such as in the Xinjiang region, Chinese circles accuse the United States of using the “Uyghur card” as a tool for political pressure and to tarnish China’s image in the Islamic world. This is done by following a pattern of disseminating and promoting American reports that focus exclusively on the repression of Muslims in Xinjiang, portraying China as an enemy of Islam in the eyes of the people of the Middle East, while ignoring any developmental aspects in the region.
With the CIA employing methods of technological and security incitement against China in the Middle East and the Global South, American intelligence agencies exert pressure on countries in the region, such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, to limit technological cooperation with China. The aim is to portray Chinese technology, such as Huawei’s 5G and G42 networks, as tools of espionage that threaten the national security of these countries. This is achieved through methods such as leaking misleading American intelligence, alleging the existence of secret Chinese military facilities (as happened at Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi), to obstruct major security deals with China.
Currently, the CIA is focusing on targeting Chinese influence in the Middle East through multiple strategies, including recruiting human sources, countering technological expansion, and launching digital influence campaigns. This move is part of a broader “shadow war” aimed at undermining China’s attempts to displace American hegemony in the region. The most prominent targeting methods and activities of the US against China during the period 2024-2026 include the following mechanisms and methods: (Recruiting military and government personnel): In February 2026, the CIA launched an unprecedented public propaganda campaign in Simplified Chinese (Mandarin) on social media platforms, targeting Chinese military officers and government officials. The agency seeks to exploit the “frustration” resulting from recent purges within the Chinese military leadership and corruption scandals to persuade them to cooperate with the US in intelligence operations against China. In addition to the CIA’s use of technological and cyber warfare tactics against China, US intelligence is monitoring and containing Chinese expansion in artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure in the Gulf states. There is intelligence pressure to prevent the transfer of sensitive technologies subject to US export controls to Chinese entities operating in the region.
These (US influence operations) against China, which have been detected by relevant Chinese intelligence, military, defense, and security agencies, the CIA has been authorized to launch covert social media campaigns in Middle Eastern and Global South countries. These campaigns aim to sway public opinion against the Chinese government and disseminate information damaging to the Belt and Road Initiative in developing countries, including those in the Middle East. Within the framework of economic and geopolitical competition with China, Washington, through its intelligence and diplomatic channels, seeks to offer economic and technological alternatives to Chinese projects, particularly in the renewable energy and telecommunications sectors, to ensure that the region’s countries remain within the American “security umbrella.”
The Chinese response in the face of the CIA came in the form of official condemnation, with Beijing describing the recruitment and anti-American campaigns as a “blatant political provocation” and a violation of national interests. Chinese intelligence, military, defense, and security agencies have implemented countermeasures against the activities and provocations of the US Central Intelligence Agency. China has strengthened its anti-espionage laws, intensified digital surveillance of its personnel abroad, and enhanced its cyber capabilities to protect the information networks of the Ministry of State Security from American infiltration.
