A friendly reminder that China is everywhere…
According to an exclusive report from The Daily Caller, CIA Director William Burns’ former think tank, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, hired more than a dozen employees with ties to Chinese spy agencies and the CCP, including the Ministry of State Security (MSS) and the intel arm of the People’s Liberation Army.
Many of the employees were pulling double duty, working both in Washington D.C. and Beijing, focusing on policies that relate to international relations, American politics, and nuclear policy. More alarming, Carnegie still employs individuals working for Chinese intelligence fronts.
The new book Spies and Lies by Alex Joske details Chinese intelligence agents’ efforts to infiltrate and influence Western institutions.
“[The MSS] went after people’s best intentions towards China,” Joske told the Caller. “There were plenty of people who believed in this vision of a more democratic and more open China and thought it was something that could be realized, even under the Chinese Communist Party.”
“In February 2000, Zheng Bijian — an undercover asset working for the MSS, according to Joske — became chairman of a Chinese think tank, the China Reform Forum (CRF). Spies and Lies details how four years later CRF had persuaded Carnegie to launch a joint China program,” the Caller reports.
“The MSS — clearly through the China Reform Forum in particular — homed in on think tanks as a weak point in our system and as a real way to get in and influence U.S. policy,” Joske says.
Steve Yates, former deputy national security adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney, says American non-profits shouldn’t employ people associated with Chinese think tanks.
“China policy experts for decades have spoken of the intelligence, military or diplomatic ties of various PRC ‘think tanks’ as a potential means to understand and influence their top leadership. In other words, these counter-intelligence realities were an open secret among government and non-government experts,” Yates says. “During periods of perceived benign U.S.-China engagement one might argue on behalf of the value of collaboration or dialogue with these well-connected experts, but not for employing them.”
“Anyone with a current or past security clearance would know this and any organization serving as home to former and future high-ranking U.S. appointees should guard against it,” Yates tells the Caller.
“Failure or refusal to do so should be disqualifying for future service in a leadership position.”
U.S. lawmakers are calling for answers from CIA Director Burns.
“The director must explain why he allowed our top adversary to infiltrate his organization, the extent of his interactions with potential Chinese spies, and most importantly, why he lied to the American people during his confirmation hearing,” Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) tells the Caller.
