The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released a new video on on Feb. 13, 2026 seeking to capitalize on upheaval at the top of China’s armed forces to recruit potential spies. The 95-second Mandarin-language video shows an officer walking through a military installation musing about ruthless power struggles at the top of the armed forces. “What the leaders are truly protecting is only their own selfish interests,” the narrator states. “Their power is built on countless lies. But now, these walls of lies are crumbling, leaving us only to clean up the mess.” The highly produced video was released less than a month after Chinese leader Xi Jinping purged two top generals, including his highest-ranking deputy in the military, Gen. Zhang Youxia…

“Anyone with leadership ability will inevitably be feared and ruthlessly eliminated,” the narrator says. “I cannot allow these madmen to shape my daughter’s future world.”

Xi has removed more than 60 top officers and defense-industry executives since 2023…The turmoil has left the Central Military Commission, the top body that controls the military, with just two members: Xi himself and the head of the military’s body for internal investigations.

The video concludes with the officer opening a laptop while parked in an isolated spot and calling up a page that says “Contact the CIA” in Chinese. The closing credits display a CIA address on Tor, an anonymizing network.

The CIA posted the videos on YouTube, which is blocked in China, as are many other Western social-media and news sites. Those sites can be accessed using VPNs, and the CIA’s advertisements occasionally run in Hong Kong, where YouTube isn’t blocked.

CIA’s efforts in China were devastated between 2010 and 2012 when nearly 20 spies working for the CIA were executed or imprisoned, leaving the agency struggling to rebuild its human espionage capabilities in China.

Excerpt from CIA Seeks to Recruit Spies Out of China’s Military Turmoil, WSJ, Feb. 13, 2026