CIA Director William Burns made secret visit to China, reports say
- The US spy chief met Chinese intelligence officials as part of a Biden administration bid to improve ties, according to Financial Times and Bloomberg
- During the trip, Burns reportedly stressed the importance of maintaining open lines of communication in intelligence channels between Washington and Beijing
William Burns, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, reportedly travelled to Beijing last month to meet with Chinese intelligence officials, another in a series of high-level bilateral engagements that resumed following a freeze in communications earlier this year.
Financial Times and Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar, that Burns had made the trip – his first to Beijing since he became head of the agency in 2021 – as part of efforts to keep open channels between the two countries’ intelligence communities.
On Friday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby referred questions about Burns’ trip to the CIA, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The reports come amid increasing efforts by the Biden administration to resume dialogue with Beijing. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and the director of China’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission, Wang Yi, met in Vienna last month.
And last week, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met first with US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in Washington, then with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai in Detroit, Michigan, on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
While these engagements represent a resumption of cooperation, the two sides remain at a distance regarding defence issues.
On Tuesday, Beijing declined an invitation from Washington to a high-level meeting between Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu in Singapore.
The two are attending the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s main security summit, this weekend, where they appeared together briefly, but without any indication that they will hold substantive talks.
Shangri-La Dialogue puts focus on shifting US-China military balance
Kirby said that Washington is “willing to speak with both Russia and China without preconditions” but “that doesn’t mean without accountability”.
“China has not been transparent; they’ve not been willing to talk, they’ve not been willing to share, they’ve not been willing to join any sort of multilateral arrangement …” he said.
“They’ve not been willing to engage in a meaningful way with arms control, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to continue to make the case that it’s important.”
The report, jointly released by China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre (CVERC) and the cybersecurity company 360, asserted that the CIA was secretly orchestrating “peaceful evolution” and “colour revolutions” around the world by means of superior technology.
Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Washington-based Stimson Centre, said that she had heard, though without confirmation from the government, that Burns was in China “to discuss counterterrorism” issues.
“If that is true, it means the US is reaching out on the functional issue of cooperation with China,” she said. “It would show that the US is trying to demonstrate its sincerity in improving relations with Beijing.
“Director Burns is senior, credible and has carried many important missions with diplomatic significance for the Biden administration.”
