The rift in US-China conflict is deepening even after the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. While surface-level conflicts such as retaliatory tariffs and trade controls have quieted down, the information war between the two countries is growing increasingly fierce and sophisticated. In the United States recently, alarm has been growing as attempts by China to gather information on US officials or military personnel using fake job postings, or to spread negative public opinion using generative artificial intelligence (AI), have come to light one after another.
Fake Recruitment Sites Targeting US Government and Military Personnel
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently seized 13 website domains suspected of being used in intelligence-gathering activities by Chinese intelligence agencies. Investigations found that these sites recruited applicants through false job postings advertising consultant or analyst positions, then operated by demanding work-related reports or non-public information. In particular, officials and US military personnel who held security clearances or had access to classified government information were the main targets. The investigation found that operators dressed up the websites to appear as if they were actual consulting firms, using stolen identity information and photos, as well as AI-generated images.
According to foreign media including Reuters and the AP on Monday, the US Department of Justice believes that individuals linked to Chinese intelligence agencies operated these sites. The FBI is expanding its investigation, believing there may be more websites operated for similar purposes.
This measure came just one week after "Five Eyes," the intelligence-sharing alliance composed of the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, recently issued a joint warning about China's intelligence-gathering activities using online recruitment platforms.
China denied the allegations. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said, "The so-called 'China spy threat' claim is completely fabricated and a malicious smear," adding, "China strongly condemns this."
"Trump Only, Not Xi": Mass Production of Anti-US Cartoons via ChatGPT
There have also been cases of inciting conflict within the United States targeting an unspecified large number of people on social media (SNS). According to Axios on Monday, OpenAI announced that it had detected two operations that used ChatGPT to generate posts, comments and cartoons related to US technology policy.
One of the two was a campaign named "Data Center Bandwagon," which produced comments and cartoons claiming that AI data centers are raising electricity bills for US households. The other was titled "Tech and Tariffs" and created content and political cartoons criticizing Trump's tariff policy and the United States' pursuit of global technological hegemony. They were found to have included in their prompts the command, "The cartoon must feature only US President Donald Trump and not Chinese President Xi Jinping."
OpenAI said that users presumed to be linked to Chinese government contractors selected such material that is sparking heated debate in the United States and requested ChatGPT to produce cartoons, and that the images were distributed through fake accounts on X (formerly Twitter). OpenAI assessed that this case is an early sign of foreign opinion-manipulation forces attempting to mass-produce content surrounding US political issues using AI tools.
Meanwhile, after President Trump, his entourage and reporters concluded their visit to Beijing, China on Nov. 15, a scene of them discarding souvenirs and other items received from the Chinese side before boarding Air Force One, the presidential plane, was captured in photographs and became a topic of discussion. This was out of concern over possible eavesdropping devices or malicious code. While it is not unusual for the US government to dispose of items received abroad for security reasons before re-entering US airspace, it is known to pay especially close attention to security procedures when visiting China.
President Trump, on his way home at the time, was asked, "Did you talk about cyberattacks China carried out in the United States or the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS)?" and replied, "We talked about that. He (President Xi) talked about the attacks we (the United States) carried out in China," adding, "You know, we do the spying activities they do. We do an enormous amount too."
