US Ambassador to China Draws Criticism Over CCP-Linked Forum Appearance

On 14 Novem­ber 2024, Fox News report­ed that U.S. Ambas­sador Nicholas Burns faces mount­ing crit­i­cism over his planned keynote speech at a forum host­ed by an orga­ni­za­tion with alleged deep ties to the Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Par­ty, rais­ing con­cerns about Bei­jing’s influ­ence oper­a­tions. The arti­cle begins:

The Biden admin­is­tra­tion is fac­ing back­lash after it was revealed on social media that a top offi­cial would be par­tic­i­pat­ing in a two-day forum host­ed by a group with deep ties to the Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Par­ty (CCP). U.S. Ambas­sador to Chi­na Nicholas Burns will be a keynote speak­er at the 5th US-Chi­na Hong Kong Forum start­ing Fri­day, which is being host­ed by the Chi­na-Unit­ed States Exchange Foun­da­tion (CUSEF), accord­ing to the group’s web­site. Burns’ deci­sion to speak there has sparked crit­i­cism from Chi­na experts, includ­ing one expert who told Fox News Dig­i­tal that Burns is “legit­imiz­ing Beijing’s malign influ­ence.” “Both Mao Zedong and Xi Jin­ping have called the unit­ed front a ‘mag­ic weapon.’ It’s high­ly decep­tive because it allows the Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Par­ty to advance its inter­ests in Amer­i­ca with Amer­i­can voic­es,” said Michael Sobo­lik, author of “Coun­ter­ing China’s Great Game: A Strat­e­gy for Amer­i­can Dom­i­nance.” “If you want to under­stand Beijing’s long game, look no fur­ther. They cul­ti­vate rela­tion­ships with strate­gi­cal­ly placed Amer­i­cans to par­rot CCP pro­pa­gan­da under the guise of free speech,” Sobo­lik, a Senior Fel­low in Indo-Pacif­ic Stud­ies at the Amer­i­can For­eign Pol­i­cy Coun­cil, added.

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Key Points:

1. CUSEF has doc­u­ment­ed con­nec­tions to Chi­nese gov­ern­ment organizations
2. Crit­ics say Burns’ par­tic­i­pa­tion legit­imizes Bei­jing’s influ­ence operations
3. Sev­er­al for­mer U.S. offi­cials also sched­uled to par­tic­i­pate in forum
4. Foun­da­tion’s part­ners include Chi­nese Min­istry of For­eign Affairs and major U.S. universities