The appointment of William Burns as the new Director of the CIA has raised questions about his close links to the Chinese administration, intelligence and military. William Burns serves as the President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace which is a tool for influencing pro-Chinese American policies.
The Carnegie Endowment is also associated with Beijing-based Carnegie-Tsinghua Center, a hot-bed for Chinese scholar-spies of the Thousand Talents Plan established to steal American technology. Funded by Chinese military, the Tsinghua University created an Artificial Intelligence program for human-machine combat teaming for the Chinese military using American technology. The University also launched cyberattacks against the US Government.
William Burns serves as the President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace seen by experts as a tool for influencing pro-Chinese American policies.
As the President Burns oversaw the think tank’s involvement with the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) since 2014.
CUSEF is funded by the Chinese Overseas United Front Work Department (UFWD) – the agency responsible for coordinating influence operations. China uses UFWD to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
According to a report on the UFWD by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission:
To carry out its influence activities abroad, the UFWD directs “overseas Chinese work,” which seeks to co-opt ethnic Chinese individuals and communities living outside China, while a number of other key affiliated organizations guided by China’s broader United Front strategy conduct influence operations targeting foreign actors and states.
The CUSEF, which is an arm of the UFWD funds the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to “infiltrate some of the most prestigious policy research institutes in the US with the aim of changing public opinion and promoting China-friendly views.”
The South China Morning Post in one of its columns even boasts about UFWD’s influence operations indicating that the foundation “is only doing what the US has been doing here for years.”
Money from the foundation has also gone to funding influential American think tanks such as the Brookings Institution, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the Atlantic Council, the Centre for American Progress, the EastWest Institute, the Carter Centre, including the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The Carnegie Endowment is also associated with Beijing-based Carnegie-Tsinghua Center, a hot-bed for Chinese scholar-spies of the Thousand Talents Plan established to steal American technology.
GreatGameIndia reported earlier on Tsinghua University’s ties to the Chinese Military.
Tsinghua University received more than 100 million yuan ($14.53 million) from the Science and Technology Committee of China’s Central Military Commission—a Party organ that oversees the military—to work on an AI project for the military.
The work of the university’s military AI lab, called “Military Intelligent High-End Lab” and established in 2018, would be “guided by military needs” and would help build China into an advanced AI country.
The university also established another military AI lab in spring 2017 called “High-end Military Intelligence lab.”
The person who led the efforts to build China AI operations is none other than the Chinese spy Fei-Fei Li who was appointed to the Board of Directors of Twitter in May last year.
However, the university’s activities are not just limited to influence operations. Tsinghua University also launched cyberattacks against the US Government.
Hackers at Tsinghua University probed American companies and government departments for espionage opportunities following a U.S. trade delegation visit to China.
Cybersecurity firm Recorded Future said the group used computers at China’s Tsinghua University to target U.S. energy and communications companies, as well as the Alaskan state government, in the weeks before and after Alaska’s trade mission to China.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was the conduit for these influence operations which was overseen by the new CIA director William Burns in his capacity as the President. Why were these activities not kept in check and on the contrary encouraged by Burns?
Which begs the obvious question, is the new CIA Director William Burns a Chinese agent?
Send in your tips and submissions by filling out this form or write to us directly at the email provided. Join us on WhatsApp for more intel and updates.
GreatGameIndia is a journal on Geopolitics and International Relations. Get to know the Geopolitical threats India is facing in our exclusive book India in Cognitive Dissonance.
Support GreatGameIndia
