CIA director accuses China of intending to change the world order

China is the only country that is willing and able to change the international order, said William Burns, director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Contents of his Oxfordshire lecture leads newspaper The Washington Post.

“Russian aggression is a serious test. But China is the only country that is determined to change the international order and has the growing economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do so,” Burns said.

The head of the CIA drew attention to several factors that accompany the “rise” of China. In particular, Burns pointed out that Chinese President Xi Jinping “enters his third term with more power than any Chinese leader since Mao.”

“And rather than using that power to strengthen, revitalize and renew the international system that has helped transform China, Xi is seeking to rewrite it,” Burns said.

According to him, it is impossible to ignore China’s “limitless” partnership with the Russian authorities and “threats to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.” US-China economic ties have “served the two countries very well,” but they have also created “strategic dependencies, critical vulnerabilities, and serious risks to our security and prosperity,” the CIA chief said.

China, Burns points out, is the United States’ biggest geopolitical and intelligence rival and its most important long-term priority. Washington is stepping up efforts around the world to compete with China, from Latin America to Africa and the Indo-Pacific region, he stressed.

Burns secretly paid a working visit to Beijing in May, AP reported, citing an unnamed US official. The trip of the head of the American intelligence, as noted, was the first visit of such a high level to China after the incident with the Chinese balloon shot down in February 2023 over the territory of the United States, and was aimed at reducing tensions in relations between the two countries.