American Quisling: LinkedIn is helping China recruit spies overseas

• Chinese spies is using LinkedIn to seek out potential new foreign recruits.
• LinkedIn is ideal for espionage recruitment because it’s a platform where millions of Americans are looking for jobs.

By Yen Nee Lee

Social networking application LinkedIn.

Chinese spies have been using LinkedIn — the only major American social media platform not blocked in China — to seek out potential new foreign recruits, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
LinkedIn is ideal for espionage recruitment because it’s a platform where millions of people are looking for jobs, the report said. 

Typical targets are academics and people outside China who have just left their government jobs, according to the Times, which interviewed former diplomats and intelligence experts.
One way Chinese agents use LinkedIn is by pretending to be corporate headhunters, the Times reported. 

Under that guise, they reach out to potential recruits and offer to pay for a trip to China for speaking or consulting opportunities, adding that relationships are developed from there.
A LinkedIn spokeswoman told CNBC the company declined to comment.
The Times is not the first media organization to report on Chinese agents using LinkedIn for espionage recruitment. 

Reuters last year reported U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials warning about China’s “super aggressive” activities on the platform.