Informer Source Protection / 告密者来源保护

Informer source protection / 告密者来源保护 is the political intelligence failure Hanji 141 draws from 项羽 casually naming 曹无伤 during 鸿门宴. Cao Wushang’s secret report had given Xiang Yu the immediate reason to fear 刘邦’s claim on 关中, but Xiang Yu exposes him to Liu Bang almost as an aside.

The concept names a trust discipline rather than a generic secrecy preference. Informants take personal risk because they expect the receiver to protect both the information and the channel. When a commander reveals a source under emotional pressure or conversational looseness, the damage is not limited to that one source; future insiders learn that reporting upward may make them disposable.

This differs from 战场信息控制, where the main issue is shaping what the enemy sees during operations. Here the problem is preserving the credibility of one’s own intelligence network inside a political coalition that is already turning into rivalry.

Hanji 142 supplies the immediate consequence. After Liu Bang escapes 鸿门宴 and returns to 霸上, he has Cao Wushang killed. The concept therefore now has both sides of the failure: disclosure in the room and source elimination once the exposed target is safe.

Key Claims

• Intelligence sources are assets whose safety affects future information flow.
• A leader can waste correct information by revealing the source while trying to answer a separate diplomatic or emotional moment.
• Source exposure changes incentives: future informants may withhold reports if the receiver cannot keep names protected.
• The failure can be especially damaging in coalition politics because today’s ally, rival, and informant may still share overlapping networks.
• Hanji 142 adds that source exposure can create a short path from useful intelligence to the informant’s death once the target survives.

Connections

• 项羽, 曹无伤, 刘邦, and 鸿门宴 - source scene and exposed channel.
• Hanji 142 and 霸上 - execution payoff after Liu Bang returns from Hongmen.
• 关中 and 道德化战争借口 - content of the report and the missing public justification problem.
• 战场信息控制, 危机信息封锁, and Organizational Secrecy As Control - adjacent information-control concepts with different trust stakes.