Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) questioned if CIA Director William Burns was unaware that the think-tank he presided over from 2014 to 2021 employed at least 20 members of the Chinese Communist Party at its center in Beijing in 2010, or whether he was aware and deliberately concealed that information.
“China is national security threat #1. The CIA's mission is to protect our Nation from threats. That's why Americans deserve answers on 20 members of the Chinese Communist Party working under CIA Director Burns at a D.C. think tank,” Gooden wrote in a Tweet. “I am demanding CIA Director William Burns address his ties to the CCP while President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation (DC) published a report on Sept. 25 that alleges when current CIA director William Burns served as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the organization employed at least 20 members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). One of those members, Shi Zhiqin, was a Chinese academic who held a "high-ranking" position in the CCP when he was hired by the think tank in May 2010, the DC reports. The Daily Caller states its reporting is based on "a decade-old Chinese-language press release."
The DC article reports the Carnegie-Tsinghua center in Beijing, a partnership with Tsinghua University humanities department, opened in April 2010.
Carnegie released two announcements on the opening of its Beijing headquarters, one in English and one in a Chinese language, the DC reports. Carnegie omitted the academic’s ties to the CCP in the English-language announcement, according to the Daily Caller article. In the Chinese-language release, Shi was described as a “deputy party secretary” of the CCP, whereas the English-language release described Shi as “deputy dean” of Tsinghua University's School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
“It comes as no surprise that differing titles would be chosen for different target audiences, but what would be a surprise, is any suggestion those involved were somehow not in on the joke,” Steve Yates, a former Chinese language analyst at the National Security Agency, told the DC.
“...What is crystal clear is that the most important title to the Chinese reading audience according to Carnegie and its partner organization is ‘deputy party secretary,’ Yates claims, "and it’s hiding in plain sight in the Chinese-language press release.”
“The vast influence the CCP had at Carnegie during your tenure as president and the continued influence they have today — despite claims you made at your confirmation hearing that you had ended the CCP’s influence — presents a significant lapse in judgment and brings into question your ability to identify and mitigate national security risks,” Gooden wrote in his letter to Burns, the Daily Caller also reports. He called on Burns to state whether he believes members of the CCP should be allowed to work on U.S. federal grants, according to the DC.
