SCMP: CIA Director William Burns made secret visit to China, reports say
William Burns, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, reportedly travelled to Beijing last month to meet with Chinese intelligence officials, another in a series of high-level bilateral engagements that resumed following a freeze in communications earlier this year.
Financial Times and Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar, that Burns had made the trip - his first to Beijing since he became head of the agency in 2021 - as part of efforts to keep open channels between the two countries' intelligence communities.
On Friday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby referred questions about Burns' trip to the CIA, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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WNU Editor: My gut tells me that this visit was a bust. In the past few weeks I have noticed that as bad as U.S. - China relations are, the public discourse between the two sides have been nothing but confrontational.
Update: Another senior US official will be going to Beijing tomorrow .... Senior US official to travel to China for rare visit: govt (AFP).
CIA Director William Burns Made A Secret Visit To China Last Month
CIA Director William Burns met Chinese leaders in Beijing as Washington tries to thaw tensions -- AP
CIA chief Burns visited China in May -- Reuters
CIA Director Bill Burns took a secret trip to China in May -- NBC
CIA Director William Burns secretly met with Chinese counterpart in Beijing last month -- CBS
CIA director visited China last month as US seeks to reset relations -- CNN
CIA Director William Burns secretly visited China in May amid tense relationship with Beijing: report -- FOX News
CIA chief made secret trip to China in May — US official -- DW
CIA chief made secret trip to China amid tensions: US official -- Al Jazeera