Did Iran’s Strike Trigger Xi Jinping’s Spy Hunt?

Hi, everyone. Welcome. Welcome to today's real talk. All right. With your help, with my fans help, I'm able to set up this new camera and get get it focused. So how do I look good? You like my new camera? Now, unfortunately, this camera is trying to outsmart me. It moves as I move. So sometimes I make head movement. And then this camera I empowered tries to capture my movement. So it moves with me. I need to find out how to stop it. But anyways, I'm here. I hope you like my new camera. All right. What impact have the latest developments in the Middle East had on Xi Jinping's thinking? And inside the red walls of Zhongnanhai, what kind of political response might that shock be triggering? Today, let's talk about something more complicated than weapons and in many ways more dangerous. Let's talk about fear and the fear of spies and defectors. So in this program, we'll explore how global shocks and internal suspicion may be fueling a spy hunt inside the CCP's highest ranks. We just entered March. Beijing in early March is always tense. But this year, the atmosphere feels much even worse. Well, March is the month or early March is when the CCP's annual two sessions open. And this year, it will open on March the 4th. And security across the capital tightened immediately. Soldiers appeared on every pedestrian overpass. And the familiar red armband patrol volunteers were back on the streets en masse. Now, this year is still different. Delegates were placed under unusually strict control. Some were even separated from members of their own delegations and confined to specific hotels. So why such extraordinary precautions? In past months, some of Xi Jinping's foreign friends have run into serious trouble. One was arrested and another was killed in a precision strike. From leaders who rule through control and loyalty, for them, events like these raise a deeply unsettling question. What if the real threat isn't outside the system but inside it? So this year in Beijing, the most important word is defectors. Who are the defectors? And let's find them. Iran's supreme leader, Khamenei, was reportedly eliminated within minutes. And Venezuela's leader, Maduro, was captured swiftly. And operations like these really happen without help from the inside. So operations of this position always raise a question. Who inside the system provided the information? That question is also on the mind of the one sitting in Zhongnanhai. And everyone else is asking, could something like that happen in China? Now, interestingly, the CIA has recently made a very public effort to recruit sources inside China. And in 2024, the agency released three videos in Mandarin, encouraging Chinese officials to contact them. And this year, they released one more. Now, when you take a look at the view counts of these videos online, they're shocking. So, well, they're probably too small. You can't really see. But that's their channel. But these two, let me show you these two. These two were released. Well, actually, if you go back, I mean, they're just really tiny. If you look at other videos posted in the CIA channel, normally videos would have between a couple of thousand to like 130,000 views. And the videos most watched are in the Chinese language. So, for example, these two that were released 10 months ago in April last year. The first one is called Reasons to Choose Cooperation, Become the Master of Your Destiny. And the target audience is CCP senior officials. The views, 20 million. And the second one is Reasons to Choose Cooperation, Create a Bright Future. Target audience, assistance to senior officials. Total views, 15 million. Now, the above two were released 10 months ago. Take a look at the third video that the CIA released one month ago. It's called CIA's Secure Contact Guide. And the target audience is anyone who wants to contact the CIA. I mean, any Chinese-speaking individuals. Total views, 64 million. Remember, this was released only one month ago. And then the number four, which is the video title is called Reasons to Step Forward to Save the Future. Target audience, CCP military officers. Total views, 16 million, released three weeks ago. So that is a total of 115 million views within 10 months. And if you, here we go. Let me just come back. And if you really look at, of the 115 million, the bulk of it, or I would say, what, 80 million? Yeah, 85 million, 80 million of the 115 million occurred in the last month. So in reality, so what does that mean? That could easily translate into 10 to million actual viewers, if not more. So 115 million views can translate into 10 to 20 million actual viewers. Let's put that into perspective. China's government system employs roughly 44 to 54 million people. And that includes everyone, government officials, SOE employees, people working for the education systems, the healthcare systems, and also the military. So this means if we had 10 to 20 million viewers in the past 10 months, that could mean roughly one out of every three people inside the government system may have watched at least one of the four CIA videos. Keep in mind, well, these are not just random people who were browsing the internet and accidentally came upon the CIA video. No, because of the censorship, these people have had to make an effort to bypass the firewall before they could watch the video. Now, of course, a view count doesn't necessarily mean someone inside the system is ready to defect, but the scale alone is significant. And it brings us back to the central question, how loyal are the people around the top leaders in Zhongnanhai? So for someone like Xi Jinping, that question may be one of the most unsettling of all, because in systems built on fear, the greatest threat rarely comes from outside. It comes from someone on the inside who has decided the system no longer protects them. So to understand the mood in Beijing right now, let's first spend some time to examine one question. How did Ali Khamenei die or how Khamenei died? How did he die? Now, he ruled Iran for more than 30 years. He understood very well how many enemies he had. His personal security was among the most sophisticated in the world. His underground bunkers were built deep underground, protected by thick reinforced concrete, and the blast doors were designed to withstand extremely powerful shock waves. The Chinese allegedly built three underground hideout places for him. His daily movements were treated as top state secrets. Even senior members of the Revolutionary Guard didn't always know his whereabouts. Yet when the strike came, American and Israeli bombs seemed to arrive at exactly the right place, at exactly the right moment. And that points to a simple but uncomfortable reality for any dictator. The people closest to you are often the ones most capable of betraying you. At a critical moment, someone may have passed along a set of coordinates. Now imagine what it looked like when this intelligence or when this assessment reached Xi Jinping's desk. For somebody like him, the greatest vulnerability is really the enemy's hardware or military hardware. It's always the uncertainty about the loyalty of the people around him. Let's step back. For Xi Jinping, he has carried out multiple rounds of political purges. He has purged large parts of the military. He has tightened control over the political legal system and the police. He has also filled key positions in the Politburo with people from his own political networks. So from his perspective, the system he built was meant to create a structure of power that was tightly controlled and politically reliable. But the lesson from Iran may be deeply unsettling. And it's difficult to imagine a question quietly forming in the back of his mind. Who can he still trust? When he looks around, the only member of the CMC left, Zhang Shimin or senior officials like Cai Qi or Li Qiang, he may no longer see them as his trusted colleagues. He may see potential vulnerabilities. So surely enough, while US forces are still advancing or are still bombing Iran, a cold political storm is reportedly sweeping through Beijing. Now, according to a report posted on social media by a commentator on March 2nd, a very high level and extremely unusual political arrest took place in Beijing recently. What it says is that the office director or you could say the chief of staff of a vice state level Chinese leader was suddenly taken away in secret. Now, vice state level in Chinese is Fu Guo Ji refers to people like vice premier, vice chairman of this MPC or CPPCC. Basically, they are vice state level refers to Holy Bureau member level. Okay, so people at that level. So his chief of staff was suddenly taken away. Here's the critical detail. The arrest was not carried out by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party's anti-corruption watchdog. Instead, it was conducted by the Ministry of State Security, the agency responsible for counter espionage and political security. If this report is accurate, it suggests one thing. This is not a corruption case. It's a spy case. And more strikingly, the vice state level official himself has reportedly been quietly placed under control in an internal guest house under the label of, quote, assisting with the investigation. And the charge against the office director, it sounds almost absurd, but it's deeply unsettling. He's accused of being a double agent for both the United States and Russia. Now, let's pause for a moment and think about that. A double agent for the US and Russia? How could one person working simultaneously for two political rivals against China? Is this man some kind of a real life James Bond, smoothly navigating between the CIA and then the KGB? But in reality, whether the accusation makes sense may no longer be the most important point. What it really reveals is Xi Jinping's state of mind or his paranoia. Right now, he's not just guarding against the US. He may also be guarding against Putin. For years, the CCP has described Russia as its strategic partner against the West. And Xi calls Putin his best friend, and the two spoke of cooperation without limits. But now Putin appears willing to abandon even his closest Middle Eastern ally and potentially pivot toward Washington. And suddenly, that strange accusation that the aide was a Russia-US double agent begins to look less like a criminal charge and more like a political signal. It's a dangerous political signal. So Xi Jinping may be using this case to conduct an extreme loyalty test inside the leadership. He may suspect that not only the US but Russia as well could have planted eyes and ears inside the Politburo or even the Central Military Commission. He may suspect that some officials are secretly communicating with Moscow, perhaps even using Russian channels as cover to quietly pass information to the Americans. Inside the red walls of Zhongnanhai, hunting American spies is routine. But accusing a top leader's aide of being a Russian spy at the same time, that suggests something far more serious. The so-called China-Russia brotherhood may already be cracking under the thunder of American bombs. So Xi Jinping now looks like someone walking alone on thin ice. And all around him, he hears the faint cracking sounds of fractures spreading. He doesn't trust the West, and now perhaps he can't trust his Russian partner either. And let's talk about the official that he trusts the most, Cai Qi, his most trusted political aide and his chief of staff in political affairs. Where is he? Oh, here we go, Cai Qi. According to insiders, the general office of the Central Committee, Party Central Committee, controlled by Cai Qi, has issued a strict new order. All core staff in the leadership, or all core staff or staff, I should say all staff members in Zhongnanhai, along with central government officials, must now resubmit detailed reports on their overseas connections, covering three generations of their family members. And the scrutiny focuses especially on one question. Who has relatives in the U.S. or Israel? It doesn't matter if your cousin's cousin is washing dishes in New York. You must report him. Every detail matters. So what kind of atmosphere does that create? It's very chilling. It feels like a return to the Cultural Revolution, when officials were investigated for foreign ties and hunted as hidden spies. Now, let's be honest. Inside China's elite political circles, almost every family has children or grandchildren studying overseas, studying or working overseas. Many families own properties abroad. Almost all of them have quietly moved assets into Western financial systems. So for years, this was an open secret, an unspoken rule among officials. But now that, I mean, it was a kind of escape hatch, a safety route in case the political winds shifted. But now that escape hatch has turned into a potential death sentence. So once Cai Qi lit this fire, fear spread quickly through the upper levels of the party, and everyone is on edge. Officials barely dare to speak freely with one another because who knows, maybe your grandson studying at an American university could suddenly become the reason state security officials invite you in for a talk. Now, if investigating overseas ties for three generations is already enough to intimidate mid-level officials, if you think that's bad enough, the next piece of information reveals something even more serious. Xi Jinping's deep mistrust of the very top leadership circle is very real. In the past few days, political insiders in Beijing have been quietly discussing one particular incident. This man, who is widely known as the party's ideological czar, or he's called the ideological architect, who has served three CCP leaders, who is currently the chairman of the CPPCC, has reportedly seen his family placed under unusual protection. Wang Huning's daughter and her family had been living comfortably in Shanghai, Wang's hometown, but suddenly they were ordered by the party's general office, essentially Xi Jinping's own office, managed by Cai Qi, to pack their belongings overnight and move to Beijing immediately. Why? Well, the official explanation was, quote, protecting the safety of senior leaders' families. Maybe the excuse they say is, look, it's not safe for you to live in Shanghai. You need to be with where your dad is. We need to be all together in case something happens. But think about that for a moment. Is that really about protection? I don't think so. It looks much more like a hostage-taking. So let's talk about who this guy is. Who is Wang Huning? He is arguably the most important ideological strategist in the Chinese political system. Some people call him the political makeup artist of CCP leaders. He helped design the ideological frameworks for three generations of leadership. So from Jiang Zemin's Three Represents, to Hu Jintao's scientific development concept, to the heavily promoted Xi Jinping thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics, all of these doctrines were crafted by Wang Huning. So in many ways, his job has been to make each leader look politically legit. And some people even argue that Wang Huning played a key role in guiding Xi Jinping back toward a more hardline leftist path. And because of that, one Western commentator, I believe his name is Hugh Hewitt, wrote a piece in Washington Post and called him, Wang Huning, the most dangerous man in the world. You could say that Wang functions like a processor inside Xi Jinping's political brain, the part responsible for shaping and managing the political narratives for the entire country. And now his daughter's family has effectively lost their freedom and must live under the watchful eye of the state. So here's the question, has Wang Huning lost Xi Jinping's trust? And why? Well, perhaps Xi Jinping cannot forget that label, the most dangerous man in the world. Or perhaps because Wang Huning is simply too intelligent or too smart. I want to use the word smart as opposed to intelligent. He's too smart and too politically sophisticated. Now, a man who can serve three different leaders who don't see eye to eye across three decades, more than three decades, or four decades now, and remain standing still, such political survivorship inside the CCP often means one thing, extreme adaptability. And adaptability can easily make him an opportunist. And that's exactly what Xi Jinping fears. Now, when the regime begins to shake, the first person to jump ship, the first person to quietly send signals to Washington, might very well be someone as smart as Wang Huning, someone who understands power better than almost anyone in the system. So by forcing Wang Huning's daughter and her family to relocate to Beijing and keeping them under close watch, Xi Jinping may be sending a very clear message to Wang Huning. You'd better stay loyal. Don't entertain any unusual ideas because your weakest point is now firmly in my hands. And in many ways, that reflects the reality inside Zhongnanhai today. The leadership of a major country is not focused on resolving an economic crisis. Instead, it's absorbed in a dark political game. So that's a game of mutual suspicion and quite hostage-taking. Now, at the same time, according to information circulating among some overseas sources, Xi Jinping now suspects that someone inside the public security system may have been secretly communicating with the United States. And suddenly, this man has become under scrutiny. He is the minister of public security. I mentioned him in my program last week. I said he's one of the indicators to watch to understand the political dynamics. Well, he's reportedly being treated as a potential high-level insider that Xi Jinping must guard against. There are reports that he has been placed under monitoring and effectively sidelined. Now, he may be in trouble for a number of reasons. First of all, he got himself into trouble as early as 2024. During the third plenum of the 20th Central Party Committee in July of 2024, Xi Jinping suffered a medical episode and collapsed during the meeting, and Wang Xiaohong was present. Under pressure from the majority of those in the room, Wang Xiaohong allegedly supported Zhang Youxia temporarily taking control of the military. He also cooperated with Zhang Youxia to lift certain restrictions imposed by the CCP's internal security service on party elders, allowing them to attend the latter portion of the plenum. As a result, Beijing's leadership returned to something resembling collective leadership, and a new central decision-making and coordination mechanism was therefore established. But after Xi Jinping recovered, the political balance shifted again, and Wang Xiaohong soon appeared to be marginalized. One example, last year, when FBI Director Kash Patel visited China to discuss, I believe, a number of issues, Wang Xiaohong, the direct counterpart, did not attend the meeting. Instead, one of his deputy ministers attended, met with Kash Patel. Yet earlier, during the Biden administration, Wang Xiaohong had personally met with the FBI director. Now, the sidelined minister may have strong incentives to prove his loyalty, and some speculate that he played an important role in the arrest of Zhang Youxia earlier this year, perhaps as a way to regain Xi Jinping's trust. But is that enough? Xi Jinping may ultimately choose to sacrifice Wang Xiaohong and hold him accountable for Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli affair. At the very least, he could be forced to accept part of the blame. So, Xi Jinping needs a scapegoat. And the narrative being circulated suggests that Wang Xiaohong acted too aggressively in handling the Zhang Youxia situation, and could therefore face disciplinary consequences, possibly to calm tensions within the military. And according to CCTV footage from the February 14th Lula New Year reception at the Great Hall of the People, he appeared unusually subdued, looking serious and preoccupied. So whether or not Wang Xiaohong is actually an American spy is impossible to know at this point. But after what happened in Iran, Xi Jinping has every reason to become deeply suspicious. Let me move on. Let me move to the next point. Now, in 2024, former Iranian president, Mohammad, I'm not trying to pronounce his last name, but this is the man, he reviewed an astonishing intelligence or piece of information during an interview with CNN Turk. Iran's intelligence service had created a 21-member counter-espionage unit tasked specifically with identifying Israeli agents operating inside Iran. Their mission was simple, find Israeli spies. But later, Iranian authorities discovered that the leader of the counter-espionage unit himself had been recruited by Mossad, and the other 20 members of the unit were also double agents. And it was around 2021, and those individuals later fled Iran and are now rumored to be living in Israel. So when this story resurfaced recently, one point stood out clearly. Sometimes the biggest spy inside the system is the person responsible for catching spies. It's impossible that this story didn't have a lasting impact on someone as suspicious as Xi Jinping. So who are Xi Jinping's top spy chief? That's this man, his security, his minister of state security, Chen Yixing. Now, Chen Yixing heads up state security, which is a spy agency. The state security is the counterpart of CIA, whereas the public security is the counterpart of FBI. So Xi Jinping's two top spy chiefs are Chen Yixing and Wang Xiaohong, the minister of public security. So anti-Xi factions have reportedly been using this story, this Iranian story, to cast suspicion on Xi Jinping's inner circle. Rumors have been going around suggesting that the head of China's intelligence system might be compromised. And the message behind those rumors is simple. What happened in Iran could happen in China. And that means minister Chen Yixing may also face enormous pressure. Xi's political opponents, I mean, it could be a purely fabricated rumor, political rumor, to gain leverage. So it looks like, I don't know if it's true or not, but it looks like Xi Jinping's political opponents will likely do everything they can to undermine the trust between him, between Xi, and his inner circles. So there's something circulating about Chen Yixing, the head of state security. Now, there's also another sensitive issue. Xi Jinping's own family members, his sister Qi Chaochao and his brother Xi Yuanping, have reportedly been involved in state security matters. His sister was said to be overseeing China's spy network, the state security apparatus, secretly. But after it got leaked, it really paranoid the party elders who protested because she holds no official position. And so it was said that she passed it on to Xi Jinping's brother to supervise. So it's still in his family members' hands. It could be that Xi Jinping has no one to trust but his own family. But here's his problem. His family, his sister and brother, have extensive connections overseas. So if Cai Qi now requires officials to all disclose foreign ties, the same rule could easily come back like a boomerang and hit the Xi family. And the anti-Xi forces are not going to let this one go away. So Wang Xiaohong and Chen Yixing are closely watched by both sides. But they're not the only ones under scrutiny. Another figure is being quietly discussed as possibly being compromised. And who that is, that's this woman, China's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, who previously served as Foreign Ministry's spokesperson. Now, her daughter and other members of her family is said to be living in the US. Now, despite her fierce wolf warrior diplomacy, some observers believe she has privately shown a surprising degree of flexibility and leniency toward the United States. In today's atmosphere inside Zhongnanhai, something like that can easily become grounds for suspicion. And that may be the most revealing sign of all. So, are there CIA spies inside Zhongnanhai? Maybe, maybe not. But after Iran, this question is forever haunting Xi Jinping. And that alone changes everything. When a dictator begins to fear insiders more than foreign enemies, the system enters a spiral of suspicion. And when that spiral begins, it really ends. It really ends well. So, what do you think? That's what I have for you. I want to mention that I released a video tonight in Lei's Looking Glass. It's the second part of this scam park. I promise you that I'm going to follow up with another program to talk about the Prince Group and how these scam operations are tied to people at the very top. And that's what that video is about. So, Nicole, if you can share the link with people here, I'd appreciate it. All right. Let's see. Let me see. How do people like my new camera? Not bad. I see it froze a little bit. Did it freeze? Yes, it did, right? So, then that's the internet. It's not the camera. Because this one is hardwired to my computer. Someone said, Okay, I'm glad. All right. Richard Bonomo, I discovered your channel relatively recently. If Xi wins up stepping down or gets deposed, is there a much chance that the maniacal interference of churches by the CCP would decline? If Xi Jinping goes down, so will the regime. That's my opinion. And that's the opinion of many people. Because he has tied his political longevity to the future of the regime. And that's one of his political shield against his opponents. So he argued, if you want to take me down, so goes the regime. So if you want to protect the regime, you need to keep me in power. That's precisely. So it's very difficult for his political enemies to preserve the regime while taking down Xi Jinping. So that's why Xi Jinping has made it a fact, a stated fact that when he goes, so goes the regime. Someone said, Hi Lei, I fear what has happened to the leaders in Iran will lead to more serious and widespread suppression by Xi. In theory, that is true. But when nobody in the system, when people have been passively following his instructions, other than a handful of people, most of the officials have been very passive when it comes to fulfilling Xi Jinping's orders. Take a look at the lack of follow up for the arrests of the two generals. People are doing nothing. They're not saying yes. They're not saying no. They're just passively resisting. And that's the most effective defiance, form of defiance to Xi Jinping. I'm just doing nothing. Because actually out of self-protection, that's the best approach. Because the officials fear that if they do little, if they do nothing, I mean, if they do a lot, then there are a lot of chances for them to make mistakes and annoy the leader. If they do little, then there's little chance for them to suffer consequences. When they do nothing, then there's no chance for them to make any mistakes. So people choose to do nothing. And that has effectively paralyzed the regime. Because the government, the political apparatus, the governance has stopped functioning. It's almost like all the politicians, all the officials are on strike. They're on a soft strike. Authentic Austin run. Hi, Lei. Thank you for looking last. It's an important episode. You are looking great. Thank you. All right. Good. You like my camera? All right. Yeah. I figured out a lighting this afternoon that's even better. But when I turned everything on tonight, it disappeared. It went back to this default setting. But at least I got the focus on. Speaking of Lei's tech skills, it's non-existent. All right. Okay. All right. Let me see questions. Okay. Someone said, Lei, what's happening in Canada? Oh, what's happening in Canada? Oh, so sad. The most infiltrated country in North America is Canada. The most infiltrated country in Europe is Spain. The CCP has tight control over Spain's energy grid. And then the most infiltrated country in East Asia is South Korea. But if you look at all three countries, Spain, Canada, and South Korea, in the past couple of weeks, or since 2026 began, they have all shown a level of defiance to the United States or to the Trump administration. And you wonder why. To me, it's very simple. It's because of CCP's infiltration. South Korea in East Asia, Spain in Europe, and Canada in North America. Of course, there are only two countries in North America, but Canada is definitely worse than the US. Maybe one day I'll talk about that. Yeah, I do worry about South Korea. The situation is not very good. So is Spain and Canada. The three are in the same league. All right. JJ Hamza, in light of all the Chinese equipment failure, I'm betting Taiwan is off the table for now. Yeah, the PLA has stopped their aerial harassment for four days in a row now. Remember, they have this daily aerial harassment by crossing over Taiwan's air defense zone. And they've been doing that for the past year, almost a year and a half. And they have stopped for the past four days after the Iranian strike. So maybe that's a good thing. That's a good sign. Okay. Oh, here's a question. Someone said, this is from Frank Na, NA, 4100, late. Do you sense there's pressure on Beijing to attack Taiwan now that the US is occupied in the Middle East? Great earring, by the way. Oh, I don't think so. I think with the latest, with what's happening the last week or so, I think they're scared. I think if Xi Jinping is crazy enough to start a war, I think people could be against him. People may not carry out the order. And plus, the PLA is not ready. So I do not think so. Okay. All right. Okay, here's a question forwarded by Nicole from Seek the Truth. Do you have any news updates? Where did it go? On the CCP March meeting held, China now appeared and wants to play mediator. Trump will ignore their efforts. Trump-Xi meeting will be interesting. Yeah, that meeting will be very interesting. That meeting one began on the 4th, and one began today on 5th. People say that the number of delegates from the standing committee, well, actually, there are over 100 some delegates missing from the list. And it's the second highest level of absence in the past years. The highest one was the year 2022, the COVID year. So a lot of people are deliberately missing the meeting because they don't feel safe going to Beijing. Other than that, there's not a whole lot. I think that meeting is not going to produce any meaningful policies or anything. It's just a meeting to show off Xi power. But we'll see. It's not done yet. It's going to continue for another, what, four to five days. So I'll tell you about them. All right. Someone said, Robert Short, I watched the Looking Glass video on the scam parks. It was very good. Thank you for your excellent work. Oh, good. I'm happy. I was pulling my hair off when I worked on the scam parks, because there's just so much information. I'm trying to make sense to figure out who is tied to who. But I'm glad that I finished the work. Okay. I'm happy that they're done. Question? Let's see. Thank you, Ms. Lei and Ms. Nicole, for hosting the live. All right. From Mori man. Well, thank you. Okay. That seems to be all. Well, let's finish. Let's end it early tonight. I thank you very much for joining me. And enjoy the rest of the day or night. And I see you over the weekend. Bye.