It was produced by Rocket Media Group,[1] in association with the Counter-Intelligence Unit of the FBI and released online in April 2014.
Daniel Golden, author of Spy Schools: How the CIA, FBI, and Foreign Intelligence Secretly Exploit America's Universities, described it as "partly propaganda".
"[6] Rauhala concluded that since the film had a "stereotypical view of China" it meant that "the people behind it, like Shriver, seem well-intentioned but unforgivably naive.
[7] The administration of East China Normal University, where Shriver studied abroad, criticized the inclusion of the institution in the film due to potential negative publicity; the film does not mention the institution Shriver matriculated from, Grand Valley State University.
[9] Peimin Ni (Chinese: 倪培民; pinyin: Ní Péimín) and Geling Shang (商戈令; Shāng Gēlìng), professors at Grand Valley State involved in the university's China study abroad program, disliked how the film showed Shriver as being still a student when he was first contacted by the MSS.