Joe Biden’s CIA Pick Allegedly Heads A Think Tank With Links To China
A Monday report from The Daily Caller noted that President Joe Biden’s nominee for Central Intelligence Agency director, William J. Burns, heads a think tank with “close ties” to China.
The piece noted that the Burns’ institute — Carnegie Endowment for International Peace — has received as much as $2 million from Zhang Yichen, a Carnegie board member and prominent donor who is the CEO of China-based investment firm CITIC Consulting. Notably, the donor is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which The Daily Caller said works with the country’s Communist Party on policy issues.
Burns addressed the hiring of the businessman in a statement released in October 2016.
“We are very fortunate to have Zhang Yichen on our board. I look forward to working with him to make Carnegie an even finer institution.”
In addition, Burns also organized a 2019 junket in China that included meetings with the leader of a prominent China front group and a professor who works for the CPP. The event was attended by a group of U.S. congressional staffers who were invited by Burns.
As noted by The Daily Caller, Carnegie’s website and 2020 annual report shined a light on the funding that Yichen provided Burns’ think tank. Notably, he donated between $500,000 and $999,999 from July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018, and between $250,000 and $549,999 in the 2020 fiscal year.
A spokesperson for Carnegie claimed that the donor’s funding does not support “research projects” or American work. Instead, the official said that the funds are funneled to operations at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center.
“The Carnegie-Tsinghua Center has partnered with the Center for China and Globalization to host forums regarding U.S.-China relations,” the report claimed.
The publication also claimed that Carnegia is supportive of working with China and has received funding from the China-United States Exchange Foundation.
“Carnegie is largely supportive of closer diplomatic ties between Beijing and Washington, a far cry from the more aggressive approach to China that has grown popular in recent years.”
As The Inquisitr reported, another Biden CIA appointee, Michael O’Hanlon, worked with a Chinese propaganda organization — the China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC) — run by the CPP in 2012. O’Hanlon previously worked in Barack Obama’s administration.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson previously accused Biden of being compromised by China. In particular, he pointed to Di Dongsheng, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing, China, who suggested that Biden’s election is favorable for the East Asian country. He also said that the nation has people at high levels of American government.
