[ruggeri]

These aren’t agents sent into China, but assets in China who were arrested/killed. 18 to 20 between 2010-2012

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/world/asia/china-cia-spie...

[jonwachob91]

CIA Agents and CIA Assets are 2 completely different thing. A CIA Agent (or spy) goes into a region and recruits Assets. Assets are just normal people with no extra training, but happen to be in a position that informs them on things the CIA (or any spy agency) wants to know. An Asset could literally be the Janitor at some place that has some happenings that the CIA wants to know more about, such as a Research Lab or a local Newspaper.

Assets have no special training and routinely put their lives on the line anywhere in the world they live and are recruited.

[ChrisKnott]

Confusingly the word "agent" is used for both the recruiter and recruitee.

In USA it tends to be Agent/Asset whereas the rest of the Anglosphere tends to use Officer/Agent.

[RandomBacon]

Within the CIA, they call themselves "Officers". It's everyone else in the US that calls them "agents".

[ahmedalsudani]

Yup. Agents usually have diplomatic cover. Unless they commit an egregious crime, they’re usually just kicked out of the country.

That’s not to say their identity is always kept secret, however. They are often discovered and only expelled at a later date when a message needs to be sent.