Secretive Chinese network tries to lure fired US federal workers, research shows

A network of companies operated by a secretive Chinese tech firm has been trying to recruit recently laid-off U.S. government workers, according to job ads and a researcher who uncovered the campaign, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Max Lesser, a senior analyst on emerging threats with the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said some companies placing recruitment ads were “part of a broader network of fake consulting and headhunting firms targeting former government employees and AI researchers.”

Little information is publicly available on the four consultancies and recruitment companies allegedly involved in the network, which in some cases shared overlapping websites, were hosted on the same server, or had other digital links, according to Reuters’ reporting and Lesser’s research.

The four companies’ websites are hosted at the same IP address alongside Smiao Intelligence, an internet services company whose website became unavailable during Reuters’ reporting. 

Reuters could not determine the nature of the relationship between Smiao Intelligence and the four companies.

The news agency’s attempts to track down the four companies and Smiao Intelligence ran into numerous dead-ends including unanswered phone calls, phone numbers that no longer work, fake addresses, addresses that lead to empty fields, unanswered emails and deleted job listings from LinkedIn.

Lesser, who uncovered the network and shared his research with Reuters ahead of publication, said the campaign follows “well-established” techniques used by previous Chinese intelligence operations.

“What makes this activity significant,” he said, “is that the network seeks to exploit the financial vulnerabilities of former federal workers affected by recent mass layoffs.”

Reuters could not determine if the companies are linked to the Chinese government or whether any former federal workers were recruited.

Asked about the research, three intelligence analysts told Reuters the network appeared to be a prime example of how foreign-linked entities are trying to gather intelligence from staff fired or forced into retirement by President Donald Trump and billionaire tech tycoon Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington told Reuters in an email that China was unaware of any of the entities allegedly involved in the campaign and Beijing respects data privacy and security.

A White House spokesperson said China was constantly trying to exploit the United States’ “free and open system” through espionage and coercion.

“Both active and former government employees must recognize the danger these governments pose and the importance of safeguarding government information,” the spokesperson said.

One of the companies in the network, RiverMerge Strategies, bills itself on its website as a “professional geopolitical risk consulting company” and posted two since-deleted job listings on its since-removed LinkedIn page in mid-February.

One ad that sought a “Geopolitical Consulting Advisor” with experience with government agencies, international organizations, or multinational corporations, displayed that it had more than 200 applications, according to a screenshot of the LinkedIn post.

The other sought a human resources specialist who could “utilize a deep understanding of the Washington talent pool to identify candidates with policy or consulting experience,” and “leverage connections to local professional networks, think tanks, and academic institutions.”