Five Eyes warns China is using LinkedIn to recruit spies

Five Eyes Issues Unprecedented Joint Warning on Chinese LinkedIn Espionage

Intelligence agencies from all five members of the Five Eyes alliance issued a rare joint bulletin on Wednesday warning that Chinese military intelligence services are aggressively using LinkedIn and other professional networking platforms to recruit spies from among government personnel, defense workers, and others with access to classified information.

A Coordinated Alert

The bulletin, titled “Safeguarding Our Secrets,” was issued by domestic security agencies from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. According to Reuters, the warning states that “Chinese military intelligence services aim to obtain privileged military, political, and economic intelligence, which could grant China a strategic and tactical edge over the Five Eyes.”usnews

The agencies described an “aggressive online recruitment strategy” in which targets are approached through professional networking and job recruitment websites. Successful recruits are then pressured into sharing confidential information “for unidentified clients linked to the Chinese government,” with compensation ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per report. Higher payments are offered for increasingly sensitive material.politico

Who Is Being Targeted

The bulletin identified a broad range of potential targets, including individuals with high-level security clearances, military personnel deployed in the Indo-Pacific region, academics, journalists, think tank employees, and independent writers. Those with specializations in defense, foreign relations, and intelligence are considered particularly vulnerable.politico

The Five Eyes agencies outlined a five-phase recruitment strategy involving the commissioning of reports derived from sensitive data concerning China, its defense strategies, and the Indo-Pacific region.politico

A Growing Pattern

The warning marks an escalation in public messaging from Western intelligence agencies about Chinese espionage via professional platforms. In November 2025, MI5 separately warned British lawmakers that China’s Ministry of State Security was using fake LinkedIn recruiter accounts to target members of Parliament and their staff. In 2023, MI5 chief Ken McCallum said more than 20,000 people in the UK had been approached covertly online by suspected Chinese agents through professional networking sites.nytimes

Wednesday’s joint bulletin represents the first time all Five Eyes domestic security agencies have collectively named professional networking platforms as a vector for Chinese military intelligence recruitment, underscoring the alliance’s growing concern over what one U.S. counterintelligence official described in 2018 as “the ultimate playground for intelligence gathering.”reuters