Sleeper Agents or Sleeper Hype?

Short answer: Yes, U.S. analysts say China already has people inside America who could cause trouble in a war—but the terrifying “airport drones, Chicago blackout, poisoned Denver water” story racing around the internet is mostly made-up. And the facts are far more interesting than the fiction.

The Big Plot Twist the Viral Article Forgot to Mention

When we retraced every spectacular disaster in the Daily Mail headline—drones over Atlanta, a city-wide Chicago blackout, an oil-slicked Coronado coast—none of them actually happened. Not one.

Yet two very real reports from the Modern War Institute and RAND do warn that Chinese intelligence networks inside the United States could someday sabotage power grids, airports, or water systems. In other words:

• The threat is real.
• The sensational “examples” are not.

Let’s pull the story apart.

Scene-by-Scene: What the Mail Claimed vs. Reality

The Parts That Are Frighteningly True

While the Mail’s opening montage was fiction, the underlying issue is not. Highlights the fact-check confirmed:

• Two think-tank papers exist

  • Sandor Fabian, Modern War Institute: “What Would War with China Look Like—in the U.S. Homeland?” (15 Jul 2025)
  • Ian Mitch, RAND: “Could China’s U.S. Spies Conduct Physical Sabotage in a Conflict?” (11 Apr 2025)

• Real espionage cases

  • University of Michigan post-doc Yunqing Jian charged June 2025 with smuggling a crop-killing fungus, Fusarium graminearum.
  • Shujun Wang convicted Aug 2024 of acting as an illegal agent for Beijing (though he did not burn the “Xi-virus” sculpture—that was another operative).
  • Chen Jinping pled guilty Dec 2024 to running a secret Chinese police station in Manhattan.

• Military-base probing

  • Navy admiral reports foreign nationals—“often Chinese”—try to access U.S. bases two or three times a week. (Maritime Executive)

• Agricultural land buys

  • Chinese entities hold roughly 277,000 acres—less than 1 % of foreign-owned U.S. farmland, but close to sensitive sites in some cases.

• Xi’s 2027 Taiwan deadline

  • CIA Director William Burns publicly confirmed the intelligence assessment.

Why the Think-Tank Authors Are Worried

Fabian and Mitch do not predict mushroom clouds. They picture a murkier war where:

1. China attacks U.S. forces near Taiwan.
2. Beijing denies any wish to widen the conflict.
3. Sleeper agents in America launch “plausibly deniable” strikes—small but shocking—on infrastructure to slow U.S. response.

Because the attacks might look like accidents or lone-wolf incidents, Washington could hesitate, buying China time.

Fabian sums it up: “The ways available … are limited only by Beijing’s imagination.”

Misinformation Makes Us Weaker

The fake Atlanta drones headline proves the authors’ point about psychological warfare. Every viral false alarm erodes trust—in media, in institutions, even in neighbors. That confusion is exactly what real foreign influence operators want.

How We Checked the Story

1. Pulled FAA notices, local police logs, utility outage reports—nothing matched the Mail’s disasters.
2. Searched state and local news archives; cross-checked with national infrastructure trackers.
3. Located the think-tank papers, court filings, and congressional hearings the article cited.
4. Contacted airport, power-grid and water-utility spokespeople for confirmation or denial (all denied).

All links are embedded above so you can verify every step.

What We Still Don’t Know

• How many Chinese intelligence assets are truly “activated” versus quietly gathering info.
• Whether U.S. agencies have contingency plans equal to the threat—parts are classified.
• How much is normal great-power spying, and how much is preparation for sabotage.

Transparency from officials remains patchy, and open-source data can only go so far.

Bottom Line

1. Chinese espionage and influence operations inside the United States are real and documented.
2. The seven nightmare incidents splashed across some tabloids are fiction.
3. Exaggerated stories blur the line between genuine warning and fear-mongering—exactly the terrain disinformation campaigns love to exploit.

So stay alert, check the sources, and don’t let fake disasters distract from the real security problems that do need fixing.