In 2010, the Chinese government began to dismantle U.S. espionage operations conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency that had taken years to build, resulting in the death or imprisonment of 18 to 20 sources, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Causes behind how the Chinese were able to identify the agents continues to be up for debate, but the result is not. An intelligence gathering network of the scope the CIA had developed in China takes years to build, and the program has been negatively impacted for some time to come, the article stated.
The Chinese operations, a priority of the CIA, began to see assets dry up in 2010. This came at a time when the agency was performing at its best with the network they had developed within China. By 2011, the CIA realized there was a problem and the investigation into what was happening gained a heightened sense of urgency as more and more people began to disappear.
By 2013, investigations by the CIA and FBI determined that the Chinese efforts had been diminished, though they did not explain how. Both the CIA and FBI declined comment on the issue.
Causes for how the Chinese were able to target so many CIA operatives includes the possibility of a mole, sloppy work by people in the field at a time when the Chinese grew more proficient at monitoring espionage activities or a turf war within the CIA.
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