WASHINGTON: In a bid to improve communication between Beijing and Washington, William Burns, the director of the CIA, visited China last month for talks with his Chinese counterparts, said a US official.
Burns’s visit in May was first reported by The Financial Times. It comes as the US tries to cool tensions with China and restore lines of communication amid fears that a miscommunication between the two world powers could accidentally spiral into conflict.
News of the visit comes as United States President Joe Biden’s administration pressed to restore communication and schedule meetings between top officials in the two countries. A United States official said, “The previous month, Director Burns travelled to Beijing where he met with Chinese counterparts and emphasised the significance of maintaining open lines of communication in intelligence channels.”
Burns met with Chinese intelligence officials and not any of China’s political and foreign policy leadership, according to a second person familiar with the visit who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
The CIA, which doesn’t regularly announce such visits, refused to comment on reports of Burns’s reported visit to China.
Relations between Washington and Beijing have been under severe strain in recent months over problems ranging from Taiwan and China’s human rights record to China’s growing army activity in the South China Sea and close ties with Russia.
The United States has accused China of considering supplying army aid to Russia to support its invasion of Ukraine. China has rejected those claims.
A few Biden administration critics have questioned the value of Washington’s overtures to Beijing, arguing that decades of engagement have failed to change China’s approach to various problems, including trade, security and human rights.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a planned trip to China in February amid the diplomatic storm after the shooting down of an alleged Chinese spy balloon that flew across United States airspace and over sensitive army sites.
Also on Friday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin shook hands with Chinese Minister Li Shangfu on the sidelines of a security summit in Singapore. Still, the two didn’t have a “substantive exchange”, the Pentagon said.
Beijing earlier refused a formal meeting between Li and Austin, who are under United States sanctions, during the Shangri-La security summit scheduled for the next few days.
