Name: William Burns

Position for Which Nominated: Director of the Central Intelligence Agency

Connections to China and/or Extreme Leftist Organizations:

William Burns is the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In this role he will head an organization confronting an increasingly active and aggressive Chinese spy apparatus. Unfortunately, Burns, like so many other Biden appointees, is also quite possibly compromised by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

One wonders where American counterintelligence is. Nominees, like Burns, who should it would appear have difficulty getting routine security clearances are being approved by the Senate and placed into positions of immense sensitivity without a word being uttered against them.

Burns comes to CIA from his position as head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The name appears intended to give the impression that that the institute functions as some sort of advocate for world peace. In fact, it appears to be part of the United Front, a worldwide Chinese effort to co-opt foreign elites and influence them to adopt pro-CCP policies.

The Carnegie Endowment funds the Beijing-based Carnegie-Tsinghua Center, which works closely with one of China’s top technological universities, Tsinghua University. Tsinghua University is part of China’s Thousand Talents Program, via which the CCP recruits American scientists and steals American technology. Tsinghua University is funded by the Chinese military and has launched cyber-attacks on the US Government and on groups deemed hostile to the Communist regime in Beijing.^[i]

As President of the Carnegie Endowment Burns directed the think tank’s involvement with the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF). CUSEF is funded by the Chinese Overseas United Front Work Department (UFWD). This is the agency responsible for coordinating United Front influence operations worldwide. ^[ii]^[iii]

As head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Burns invited close to a dozen congressional staffers on trips to China to meet with communist party operatives and leaders of Chinese front groups. Burns also welcomed Chinese businessman Zhang Yichen, CEO of CITIC Consulting, to join the think tank’s board of trustees. Zhang is linked to two organizations with Chinese Communist Party ties, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the Center for China and Globalization. The CPPCC is the party group that directs the United Front Work Department.^[iv]

Zhang’s firm gave Carnegie a donation of between $500,000 and $999,000 between 2017 and 2018. In the 2020 fiscal year, the firm made donations to the think tank between $250,000 and $549,999.

Carnegie also received donations between $100,000 and $249,999 from the China-United States Exchange Foundation, an organization the Washington, D.C.,-based Jamestown Foundation described as “a major player in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s organizational apparatus for conducting united front work in the United States.” According to a Jamestown Foundation report, the China-United States Exchange Foundation engages in lobbying efforts that “allows it to play a valuable role in Beijing’s efforts to sway public opinion and build influence in America.”^[v]^[vi]^[vii]

Burns, unfortunately, appears to be part of a pattern on behalf of the Biden administration. A recent Republican Study Committee report characterized the situation this way.

“The Biden Administration’s foreign policy team is overwhelmingly made up of a number of individuals who either have had links to the CCP or have a record of weak statements and actions on confronting it. These officials have promoted the radical idea that the U.S. should view China, a state that is committing genocide against its own people, as a partner of the U.S. As the saying goes, personnel is policy.

This RSC Backgrounder explains the actions already taken by the Biden administration pivoting to a weak posture toward China and outlines the concerning aspects of many of his foreign policy picks.”^[viii]

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace run by Burns is notorious for its leftist and globalist affiliations and has ties to the Committee of 100.^[ix]

The Committee of 100 is a major Chinese Communist Party influence operation working in Taiwan the PRC and the US.^[x] Prominent members include Stanford University history professor emeritus Gordon H. Chang,^[xi] a former leader of the League of Revolutionary Struggle.^[xii] (not to be confused with anti CCP commentator Gordon Chang).

The Washington DC based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace maintains foreign offices in Beijing, Beirut, Brussels, Moscow and New Delhi.^[xiii]

Dan Baer Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace serves on the board of the Council for a Livable World.^[xiv]The Council for a Livable World was founded by reported Soviet intelligence agent and Manhattan Project scientist Leo Szilard to work for US nuclear disarmament to the advantage of Moscow.^[xv]

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace president Morton Abramowitz co-founded the famous International Crisis Group.^[xvi] For a time Carnegie Endowment president Jessica Tuchman Mathews served on the ICG board. ^[xvii]

The current International Crisis Group board boasts an eclectic bunch of international figures including:^[xviii]

Co-chair Frank Guistra is a Canadian businessman A close associate of the Clinton family and a major donor to the Clinton Foundation.^[xix]
Hu Shuli is a former reporter for the Communist Party of China’s People’s Daily. She is now adjunct professor of the School of Journalism and Communication at Renmin University of China.^[xx]
Cheryl Carolus is a former South African High Commissioner to the UK, Secretary General of the African national Congress and a leading member of the South African Communist Party.^[xxi]
Andrey Kortunov is Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council.^[xxii]
Wadah Khanfar is former Director General of the Al Jazeera Network.^[xxiii]
Nasser al-Kidwa is a nephew of the late Palestinian terrorist Arafat. He is also a former president of the Soviet affiliated General Union of Palestinian Students in 1974 and a central-committee member of Fatah.^[xxiv]
William H. McRaven is a retired U.S. Navy Admiral who served as 9th Commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command.^[xxv]
George Soros is the founder of the Open Society Foundations.^[xxvi]
Alexander Soros is Deputy Chair of the Global Board, Open Society Foundations.^[xxvii]
Lawrence H. Summers is former director of the US National Economic Council and Secretary of the U.S. Treasury.^[xxviii]
Wang Jisi serves on the Foreign Policy Advisory Committee of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and is President of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies, Peking University.^[xxix]

In March 2019, after China arrested Michael Kovrig, a Canadian national working for the International Crisis Group several leading US foreign policy specialists issued a “Joint Statement Calling for the Immediate Release of Michael Kovrig.”

Antony Blinken, Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and Ambassador William J. Burns, former Deputy Secretary of State both signed the plea.^[xxx]

Robert Malley signed on for the International Crisis Group. Malley was the National Security Council SC Senior Director for Iran, Iraq, Syria and the Gulf States under President Obama.^[xxxi] He is also the son of radical journalist and co-founder of the Egyptian Communist Party Simon Malley.^[xxxii]

In sum, what we see with Burns is what we see with so many of the Biden appointees to senior positions. He has deep ties to Beijing and pro-Beijing organizations. The Chinese have dedicated decades to penetrating American society, and it appears their work is finally paying off.