Can Bill Burns‘ CIA Get the CCP Threat Right?

It’s good news that the Central Intelligence Agency is establishing a new Mission Center focused on the massive and growing threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party. Such a heightened priority is long overdue, especially in light of the PRC’s past successes in discovering and neutralizing U.S. spy networks there.

The bad news is that the man ultimately responsible for the CIA’s China portfolio is its Director, William Burns. In his previous post as president of the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, Mr. Burns presided over that think tank’s extensive collaborations with Chinese influence operations successfully used by the CCP to obscure the true magnitude of the existential danger it poses to America.

The question occurs: Can the CIA accurately assess and help counter the China threat if its efforts are overseen by a man who has himself gotten it seriously wrong?

This is Frank Gaffney.