Two new mission centers, with one focused on the communist Chinese government and the other dedicated to technological threats, are to be created by the CIA according to Director William Burns on Thursday.
These mission centers will become one of fewer than a dozen mission centers operated by the CIA, with weekly director-level meetings intended to drive the agency’s strategy toward China.
The CIA also announced that it would ramp up efforts to recruit Chinese speakers and create another mission center focusing on emerging technologies and global issues such as climate change and global health.
Director Burns emphasized that the threat is from the Chinese communist government, not the Chinese people. “Throughout our history, CIA has stepped up to meet whatever challenges come our way,” Burns said. “And now facing our toughest geopolitical test in a new era of great power rivalry, CIA will be at the forefront of this effort.”
Biden’s administration has addressed what it sees as Chinese aggression on a range of security and economic issues while also seeking common ground on issues like climate change and a nuclear-armed North Korea.
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At the same time, top administration officials have repeatedly signaled a shift of resources toward “great power” competition with China while maintaining a focus on counterterrorism.
A report by the Associated Press says that “Washington has publicly accused Beijing of failing to cooperate with efforts to understand the origins of COVID-19 and abetting criminal hackers targeting critical U.S. infrastructure.
China has in response accused the U.S. of wrongly scapegoating Beijing and pointed to previous U.S. intelligence failures as well as the collapse of the American-backed government in Afghanistan.
But both countries are also the two world’s largest economies and pre-eminent military and political powers. The relationship has been strained by China flying military planes near the self-governed island of Taiwan, which has long had U.S. support and which Beijing considers part of its territory.”
According to a U.S. official, Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to hold a virtual meeting by the end of this year.
