CIA operations show U.S. harmful interference in China's internal affairs "plainly evident": scholar

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Renowned U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs told Xinhua Thursday that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been trying to undermine China's stability for years.

He made the remarks commenting on the latest report that the CIA had launched a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government.

During the Trump administration, the CIA created a small team of operatives who used bogus Internet identities to spread negative narratives about the Chinese government and slammed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which provides financing for infrastructure projects in the developing world, as corrupt and wasteful, Reuters quoted former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the highly classified operation as saying.

"The fact that the CIA was spreading negative propaganda about the BRI is notable for me, because I have been saying for years that the U.S. badmouthing of the BRI is simply propaganda, not reality. Now we see that point explicitly acknowledged," said Sachs, an economics professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University.

"The fact that the CIA was trying to undermine China's stability is not really news, as American harmful interference in China's internal affairs is plainly evident," he said.

Sachs, also a senior United Nations advisor, noted that at the core of the UN Charter is the doctrine of non-interference, which requires that UN member states are not to interfere in the internal affairs of other UN member states.

"Unfortunately, the U.S. government interferes pervasively in the internal affairs of other states, in part through covert CIA operations such as those described in today's new story. Such illegal actions should stop," Sachs said.

The economist said such operations directly violate international law, fail to achieve their purposes, and "create pervasive international distrust that sometimes boils over into open conflict, as in Ukraine."

"All UN member states, and notably the U.S., should recommit to the international law of non-interference," he added.