China is trying to recruit current and former feds, intelligence document warns

Chinese intelligence entities are deploying online efforts to recruit unwitting current and former federal employees, according to a document from the National Counterintelligence and Security Center released Tuesday amid sweeping layoffs that have impacted much of the federal workforce.

China and other groups are “targeting current and former U.S. government (USG) employees for recruitment by posing as consulting firms, corporate headhunters, think tanks, and other entities on social and professional networking sites,” said the document, which also contains seals from the Justice Department and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. 

“Their deceptive online job offers, and other virtual approaches, have become more sophisticated in targeting unwitting individuals with USG backgrounds seeking new employment,” it said, adding that workers with security clearances must remember their obligation to protect classified information, even after leaving government service.

Efforts to shrink the size of the government, fueled by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, have targeted agencies across the federal enterprise, including the Defense Department and core intelligence offices like the CIA and the National Security Agency. The CIA has been given the legal go-ahead to terminate some staff outright.

On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced a sweeping DOGE-like efficiency effort to cut out “wasteful spending, inefficiencies, and bloated bureaucracy” from the U.S. intelligence nexus. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which would be a target for these changes, houses the counterintelligence unit that issued the Chinese recruitment warning.

Warning signs that a recruitment effort is a sham meant to sway government workers include flattery, urgent requests to respond and the promise of an expedited timeline to a job offer, the intelligence paper said.

The document notably included a “Case Study” on a former Navy officer, Thomas Zhao, who was sentenced to prison last January for sending sensitive military data to a Chinese intelligence officer, including radar blueprints and operational orders. Their online relationship began with talk of the stock market.

A researcher uncovered a recruitment campaign in which a network of companies linked to a Chinese tech firm has sought to hire recently laid-off U.S. government employees, Reuters recently reported.

Last month, CNN reported that foreign adversaries, including China and Russia, have accelerated efforts to recruit disgruntled federal workers in national security roles, citing people familiar with U.S. intelligence on the matter.