Establish a "China Mission Center" The US CIA wants to apply the "Soviet Model" to fight against China

　　US President Biden vowed to clarify at the 76th UN General Assembly not long ago that the United States has no intention of inciting a "new cold war."

However, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, recently announced a very "cold war" decision.

Burns announced on October 7 that the CIA will be reorganized. The core is the establishment of the "China Mission Center", a high-level working group on China issues, to "comprehensively respond to the greatest geopolitical threat facing the United States in the 21st century, that is, increasingly confrontational. A strong Chinese government".

　　Burns was born in diplomacy rather than intelligence, and the Middle East and the Soviet Union (and later Russia) were two key areas of his 30-year diplomatic career.

Applying the "Soviet model" to confront China is Burns's line of intelligence work on China revealed to the outside world in July this year. He said that the US intelligence agencies are studying how to use the "methods against the Soviet Union during the Cold War period in the current work on China." superior".

　　Set up a high-standard "China Center" separately for the first time

　　The CIA currently operates more than a dozen mission centers, such as the Counter-Terrorism Mission Center, the South Asia Mission Center, and the Middle East Mission Center. However, the establishment of a single mission center for China is the first time in the history of the CIA.

While establishing the "China Mission Center", the CIA abolished the "North Korea Mission Center" and the "Iran Mission Center", which were merged into the "East Asia Mission Center" and the "Middle East Mission Center", and the "China Mission Center" will become the CIA The only mission center named after the country.

　　Burns revealed in the CIA's internal conversation that the "China Mission Center" is a super-departmental work organization that spans all CIA departments and mission areas. It aims to "provide more resources for research on Chinese issues and better mobilize agencies around the world. "Officials collect information and analyze China's actions" with the goal of "responding to the increasingly powerful Chinese threat", collecting intelligence about China, and combating "Chinese espionage against the United States."

　　In a subsequent statement, Burns called China "the most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century."

In order to meet this challenge, he will follow the mechanism of the Counter-Terrorism Mission Center, hold weekly meetings with experts on China issues at the supervisor level, and report to the top US government after forming a complete strategy.

　　According to a report from The New York Times on October 8, Burns has informed the leaders of the two parties in Congress of the new trend of establishing the "China Mission Center", seeking Congress to devote more resources to China issues, especially the analysis of the Chinese government. superior.

Burns believes that a single "China Mission Center" will make it easier to gain personnel, funding, and high-level attention for China-related activities.

Former CIA agent Philip Girardi speculated that the "China Mission Center" may use a combination of analysts, combat staff, technicians, and representatives of various departments from the secret department, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Ministry of Finance. Mode operation.

　　Prior to this, within the CIA, the intelligence collection for China had always been under the "East Asia-Pacific Mission Center."

At the beginning of this year, when Burns transitioned from diplomacy to the intelligence community, he began to constantly hype the topic of "China Threat", creating momentum for the establishment of a mission center specifically aimed at China.

　　In February of this year, Burns bluntly stated at the CIA Director’s nomination confirmation hearing, “Competing with China will be the key to our national security in the next few decades”, declaring that “China, which is more hostile, is a big deal for us. Geopolitical test".

After officially taking office in March, Burns immediately made "China" the focus of his advancement work, and began to plan organizational restructuring so that more resources could be used to strengthen intelligence work on China.

In April, Burns further hyped when he attended the "Global Threat" hearing in Congress that the competition between the United States and China is increasingly concentrated in the field of science and technology. Almost one-third of the CIA's manpower is already engaged in science and technology and network work.

On July 22, in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), Burns directly disclosed that the US intelligence agency was studying how to apply the “methods of dealing with the Soviet Union during the Cold War period to the current work with China”.

He believes that "for China, some of the work strategies adopted during the Cold War are appropriate, including the deployment of Chinese experts in advance to improve the efficiency of the United States in competing with China."

On August 13th, Bloomberg and many other American media began to report using unnamed CIA officials as their source to report that the CIA might set up an independent "China Intelligence Center" to further understand "the number one US strategic adversary, China."

On October 7, after a lapse of more than a month, Burns announced the establishment of the "China Mission Center".

　　What exactly is Burns going to do next to build such a confrontational new center?

According to a senior CIA official, the new center will recruit spies, investigators, intelligence analysts, technical experts, and other experts in the same department, and will recruit and train more people who are proficient in Chinese and who can speak Chinese. in.

Within the framework of the "China Mission Center", the CIA will deploy global intelligence analysts and technical experts proficient in Chinese affairs in Asia and other regions of the world where "Chinese activities are active" to assist CIA officials in analyzing China's "strategies and tactics." ".

　　It was Burns himself who designed all this.

On July 22 this year, Burns told the media that during the Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, the US State Department and the CIA had focused on the “advance deployment” of relevant experts in the Soviet Union. “I think the current situation (with China) is also the same.”

In an interview with American media on October 7, a senior CIA official also compared this move with the "Soviet Mission Center" established by the CIA during the Cold War.

　　Cater to the political demands of the "hawks" in the United States

　　Although Burns insisted that the establishment of the “China Mission Center” was to strengthen the CIA’s work against “key competitors”, many people, including former CIA agents, questioned that Burns’s move was important for strengthening intelligence. Ability does not have much effect. Catering to the political demands of certain domestic forces, especially the "hawks", is the core of Burns's establishment of this center.

　　Former CIA agent Philip Girardi told the media on October 8 that he was skeptical of the CIA's establishment of a mission center dedicated to combating China.

He said: "They will summarize the'multiple threats from China', just as if there is such a thing."

　　The Washington Post recently quoted a senior CIA official as saying that although Burns hopes to apply the "Soviet model" to fight against China, the situation is very different now and then. Compared with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, "China is a more terrifying and A complicated opponent. The reason is that China's economy is larger and fully integrated with the US economy; China itself has a circle of friends around the world."

　　Burns insisted on replaying the old Cold War tune and establishing a "China Mission Center" following the model of the United States against the Soviet Union. In fact, it was to cater to the political demands of certain forces in the United States and the political agenda of the Biden administration.

In recent years, there have been calls for strengthening work in China in the United States.

From the “Group of Seven” and “Five Eyes Alliance” to the “four-sided mechanism” and “triple partners”, the United States is used to weaving a tight and complex encirclement network of China, covering political, economic, and security issues.

At the moment, Burns, under the banner of ensuring the stability of American leadership on the world stage and the success of the United States, demanded that intelligence work in China be strengthened, but it is only to cooperate with the so-called "national security strategy" of the Biden administration.

　　Since the Biden administration took office, the positioning of China as a "strategic competitor" has caused the Ministry of Defense and the intelligence community to successively shift their focus to China.

　　On February 10 this year, Biden personally announced at the Pentagon that the Ministry of National Defense had established a "China Task Force", composed of 15 civilian and military experts from various departments of the Ministry of National Defense, and the current post of Biden’s assistant for a long time. Led by Ratner, Senior Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for China Affairs.

Biden asked the working group to reassess the U.S. military’s strategic approach to China’s challenges, prioritizing the study of U.S. military deployment, technology, intelligence, allies and partnerships in Asia, and military relations with China, and submit an investigation report four months later. .

He said that this assessment will help "open a strong path forward in Chinese affairs."

　　For the "China Task Force" of the Department of Defense and the "China Mission Center" of the CIA, Ezra Cohen, who served as the Acting Deputy Secretary of Intelligence and Security Affairs of the Department of Defense and is now a researcher at the Hudson Institute, a US conservative think tank Touted.

He said, "This is a good sign. The CIA recognizes that the Chinese threat requires a multi-faceted response and decided to follow the trend led by the Ministry of Defense."

　　Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, who has always held a hard-line stance on China, and Brennan, who served as the director of the CIA under President Obama, also used the CIA’s establishment of the “China Mission Center” to hype “China Threat”. s".

Rubio declared: "Every department of the U.S. government needs to reflect this kind of competition among major powers in information, structure, and action." Brennan said: "If any country deserves a mission center for the CIA. , That’s China.” David Snow, the former acting director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, said: “I believe that CIA Director Burns has realized that in the competition between major powers, China will represent the interests of the United States for many years to come. The biggest threat."

　　The U.S. should stop writing and directing new Cold War scripts

　　For a period of time, some American politicians and officials have repeatedly published outdated concepts full of Cold War thinking and zero-sum games, concocted mechanisms that exaggerated the strategic competition of major powers, advocated containment and suppression of China, and faced severe challenges to the development of Sino-US relations.

　　When asked a few days ago how to treat the CIA’s establishment of the “China Mission Center” and the United States’ view of China as “the most important geopolitical threat in the 21st century”, Qin Gang, the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, said that Cold War scripts like “007” are still left to Make blockbuster movies in Hollywood and make money at the box office.

Some people in the US are always immersively composing and directing themselves, making fake plays, and always saying that they are James Bond. They can't extricate themselves from this kind of "involvement". Are they tired?

Why not "double down" it?

Qin Gang said: "I hope that the important consensus reached by the two heads of state on the call to avoid misunderstandings, misjudgments and conflicts, properly manage differences, and push China-US relations back to the right track of healthy and stable development as soon as possible, can be effectively observed and implemented."

　　Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian also pointed out on October 8 that the establishment of the so-called "China Mission Center" by the United States is a typical expression of Cold War mentality.

Relevant U.S. departments should view China’s development and Sino-U.S. relations in an objective and rational manner, and stop doing things that undermine the mutual trust and cooperation between China and the United States and the development of China’s sovereignty, security, and interests.

　　Our newspaper, Beijing, October 13th

　　China Youth Daily · China Youth Daily reporter Chen Xiaoru Source: China Youth Daily