China Uses LinkedIn to Lure Spy Recruits in West, U.S. and Allies Warn

The Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, which also includes Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, alleged that Chinese military intelligence operatives were posing as employees of private consultancies, think tanks and human-resources firms looking to hire foreign-policy or defense analysts.

Potential targets who respond to the online job advertisements—including holders of security clearances and military personnel with knowledge of the Indo-Pacific—are interviewed and asked to write a “trial report,” according to the threat bulletin issued by agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation. More sensitive information is requested in subsequent reports, for which recruits receive as much as several thousand dollars each.

In many cases, according to the warning, the Chinese intelligence agents pose as representatives for legitimate-looking “cover” companies purporting to be outside of China.

China’s use of social-media sites to recruit spies goes back at least a decade, according to U.S. federal indictments and officials, prompting repeated warnings in recent years from Washington and its allies.

The latest alert shows that Western officials don’t believe the threat has subsided despite efforts to bring the issue to light. The timing of the warning is notable, coming just weeks after President Trump traveled to Beijing for a state visit during which he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to build a more constructive relationship than in the past.

The British domestic security service, MI5, said that more than 20,000 people in the U.K. alone were approached by Chinese agents on LinkedIn in recent years to get them to provide sensitive information.

LinkedIn said in a statement that misrepresenting one’s identity violates its terms of service. “We remain focused on detecting state-sponsored abuse, and will continue to enforce our policies against fake accounts,” the company said.

In one U.S. example, former Central Intelligence Agency officer Kevin Mallory, a military veteran who spoke Mandarin Chinese, was convicted in 2018 of selling U.S. government secrets to China.

Mallory was approached on LinkedIn by a Chinese recruiter about possible consulting work in China. He later traveled to China and was given a secure phone through which he transmitted several documents containing classified information, according to trial testimony.

Last year, the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank identified what it said was a likely Chinese intelligence operation targeting laid-off U.S. government employees.

One measure the think tank said the U.S. could take in response was to create “sock puppet” accounts that fit the profiles of former government officials or holders of security clearances to lure the Chinese operatives out of the shadows.

Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, called the latest allegations ironic, describing the Five Eyes partnership as the world’s largest intelligence network.

Beijing has long argued that it is a victim of U.S. spying and influence operations, including ones that target employees at state-owned companies, many of whom have had their ability to travel abroad curtailed by the Chinese government as the U.S.-China rivalry has intensified.

Write to Brian Spegele at [email protected]