[Perspective] Why Does the CIA Recruit Chinese Spies via the Onion Network?

Viewpoints presented in the article, do not represent the position of “WEB3+”

This month, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States released two videos in Simplified Chinese on YouTube: “Reasons for Choosing Collaboration: Creating a Bright Future” and “Reasons for Choosing Collaboration: Becoming the Master of Fate.” These videos, displayed entirely in Simplified Chinese, appeal to Chinese government officials who are disappointed with the current situation or facing moral struggles to regain control of their lives by becoming intelligence informants for the United States.

However, the most striking aspect is that these two videos display a long string of web addresses ending with “.onion.” This indicates that the CIA is officially encouraging Chinese spy candidates to contact them through the “Tor” network. It is hard not to wonder why the Tor network, often referred to as the dark web and commonly seen as a place for illegal transactions, has become a recruitment channel openly promoted by a US intelligence agency.

What is the Tor Network?

The Tor network (The Onion Router) is an anonymous network technology that protects users’ identities and activities through layers of encryption and numerous volunteer-operated servers worldwide. When users connect, their internet traffic is encrypted layer by layer like an onion before being forwarded to the next node. Each node only knows the location of the previous and next nodes, unable to fully trace the source and destination, effectively hiding users’ IP addresses and browsing content. While Tor is often associated with illegal activities, it is also an essential tool for journalists, human rights activists, and individuals who need to evade state surveillance.

Benefits of Using the Tor Network for the CIA

The CIA uses the Tor network to recruit spies to ensure communication security and protect the personal identities of spy candidates. Through the anonymity provided by the Tor network, spy candidates can effectively disappear and avoid being tracked by the intelligence agencies of the country they are in. Additionally, the Tor network’s secrecy allows the CIA to have more deniability in diplomatic or intelligence conflicts, avoiding direct ties to websites or online actions. By recruiting in this manner, the CIA can further test the target country’s detection and countermeasures against anonymous network technologies and select suitable candidates with true risk recognition abilities.

Therefore, Tor is not only an important recruitment tool for the CIA but also a vital strategy to safeguard global intelligence operations and counter surveillance.

Taiwan and the Tor Network

For Taiwan, the Tor network is equally significant because Taiwan also has a high demand for privacy, similar to journalists and human rights activists who need to avoid surveillance by authoritarian states. For example, in February of this year, the Open Culture Foundation held a technical workshop inviting experts from international organizations such as Tor, Tails, and the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) to teach participants how to anonymously browse the internet, detect network censorship, and protect personal privacy through practical training.

Roger Dingledine, co-founder of Tor, pointed out during the event, “In the current environment of increasing global internet surveillance, Tor is an indispensable tool for defending individual privacy.” This not only reflects the global importance of internet privacy and freedom of speech but also highlights the importance of the Tor network in safeguarding human rights and resisting monitoring by authoritarian regimes. It would be wise for Taiwanese civilians to pay more attention to these privacy protection tools as they may be needed in the future.

The CIA’s public use of the Tor network to recruit spies also reminds us that anonymous internet technologies are not limited to dark purposes but are essential tools for global digital freedom and even used in national-level infiltration operations.