US CIA creates a new unit to focus solely on ‘key rival’ China
- In announcing the unit, CIA Director William Burns calls the ‘increasingly adversarial Chinese government’ the United States’ top geopolitical threat
- US President Joe Biden has said he is not seeking a ‘new Cold War’ but has largely maintained hardline China policies
The US Central Intelligence Agency announced the formation of a new “China Mission Centre” on Thursday, the latest sign of a deepening struggle with the country despite Washington’s assertions that it is not seeking a “new Cold War” with Beijing.
CIA Director William Burns said the centre would facilitate a whole-of-agency response to what he considers a “key rival”, according to a statement.
The unit will “further strengthen our collective work on the most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century”, said Burns, a veteran diplomat. That threat, he said, was the “increasingly adversarial Chinese government”.
The initiative follows a string of new executive branch units dedicated to countering Beijing, coming in the wake of a China task force at the Pentagon and reports of a new “China house” at the Department of State.
