Trump authorized covert CIA operation in 2019 to spread negative stories on Chinese social media including that Communist Party officials were storing ill-gotten gains overseas

Former President Donald Trump instructed the CIA in 2019 to spread damaging stories about the Chinese Communist Party on Chinese social media to turn public opinion against them, according to former U.S. officials.

Three former officials with direct knowledge of the classified CIA operation told Reuters that a team was established to spread these stories throughout the Chinese social media. 

The small team used fake online identities to push negative narratives about Xi Jinping's government on the highly regulated Chinese internet - which famously censors the publishing and viewing of certain material. 

Members of the CIA team amplified allegations that the country's Belt and Road Initiative - which funds foreign infrastructure projects in developing countries - was wasteful and corrupt. 

The team also peddled stories about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials storing suspicious amounts of money in overseas bank accounts, despite the country's strict laws surrounding international money transfers.

Former President Donald Trump authorized a CIA operation to disparage the CCP on Chinese social media platforms in an effort to sway public opinion against the government, three former U.S. officials said

Some of the stories posted to Chinese social media accused top CCP officials of storing ill-gotten gains in overseas bank accounts 

The program was overseen by the CIA and began in 2019, according to the former officials

The officials did not provide additional detail as to how the operations were conducted but did admit that the negative stories they circulated were based in fact.

The mission was intended to cause paranoia among CCP leadership. 

Another of the mission's objectives was to force the CCP to spend valuable resources investigating how the dissent was distributed on the highly regulated Chinese internet in the first place. 

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

A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said the revelation reveals U.S. officials use the 'public opinion space and media platforms as weapons to spread false information and manipulate international public opinion.'

The clandestine effort came in response to years of China's own aggressive intelligence and global influence operations, according to the officials. 

China’s Foreign Ministry, however, said Beijing follows a 'principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries and does not interfere in the domestic affairs of the United States.' 

The CIA operations targeted public opinion in countries outside of China as well, according to the former officials. 

Missions targeted public sentiment in Southeast Asia, Africa and the South Pacific, where many of China's Belt and Road Initiatives took place. 

The CIA operation attempted to sway public opinion in China and surrounding regions against CCP leadership 

'The feeling was China was coming at us with steel baseball bats and we were fighting back with wooden ones,' a former national security official said. 

Matt Pottinger, who at the time was a senior official on the National Security Council, crafted the authorization behind the operation, three former officials said. 

That authorization cited allegations of CCP intellectual property theft and military expansion as threats to U.S. national security. 

Pottinger, however, did not comment on the 'accuracy or inaccuracy of allegations about U.S. intelligence activities.'