Trump authorized the CIA to smear the Chinese government with fake social-media accounts: Reuters

• When he was president, Donald Trump authorized a CIA influence campaign on China, Reuters reported.
• Former officials told Reuters the CIA used fake social-media accounts to smear the Chinese government.

Donald Trump authorized a CIA operation to discredit the Chinese government on social media while he was in office, Reuters reported Thursday.

The CIA began the operation in 2019, creating fake Chinese social-media accounts to push narratives that would discredit the Chinese government, Reuters reported, citing three former officials it spoke with.

The narratives included that there was corruption among Chinese Communist Party members and that the landmark Belt and Road Initiative led by China's leader, Xi Jinping, was decadent, the ex-officials told Reuters.

Two of them said the campaign was meant to stir up Chinese leadership's paranoia over a possible infiltration of the Chinese internet.

"We wanted them chasing ghosts," one of the officials said.

Representatives for the CIA and Trump declined to comment to Reuters on the program.

A representative for the Chinese foreign ministry told Reuters the report showed how "public opinion space and media platforms" had been used by the US government "as weapons to spread false information and manipulate international public opinion."

The US has previously accused countries such as Russia and China of mounting influence operations against it.

On Monday, the US intelligence community publicly released its annual threat assessment, which said China could try to influence the 2024 elections.

The 40-page report said China's propaganda arm had "increased their capabilities to conduct covert influence operations and disseminate information." It said Chinese propaganda actors had used TikTok accounts to target candidates from the Republican and Democratic parties during the 2022 midterm elections.

"Even if Beijing sets limits on these activities, individuals not under its direct supervision may attempt election influence activities they perceive are in line with Beijing's goals," the report said.

Representatives for Trump, the CIA, and the Chinese foreign ministry didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.