By Bill Gertz
From The Washington Times
December 6, 2020
Photo credit: The Washington Times
The Washington Times is reporting that a senior Chinese academic has disclosed that China has a network of agents in high places within the US administration:
China influenced American policies for decades through a covert network of “old friends” — sympathizers and agents — who had penetrated the highest levels of the U.S. government and financial institutions before the Trump administration, according to an academic linked to the Chinese government.
Di Dongsheng, a professor and associate dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, also suggested in a Nov. 28 speech that China’s Communist Party helped Hunter Biden, a son of presumptive President-elect Joseph R. Biden, obtain Chinese business deals.
On influencing the United States, Mr. Di said, he could not provide further details about the work of Chinese agents without compromising their identities. However, he said President Trump’s trade war with China upset decades of close ties between Washington and Beijing that the agent network facilitated.
Disputes such as the Navy’s EP-3 midair collision with a Chinese jet in the western Pacific in 2001 and the mistaken U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Serbia in 1999 were resolved within months because of the influence operations.
“Now, I’m going to drop a bomb: Because we had people up there inside America’s core circle of power, we had our old friends,” said Mr. Di, adding that he needed to speak carefully because “I can’t sell out these people.”
A video of the remarks was posted on Mr. Di’s Weibo social media account but was quickly removed. Copies of the video, however, survived and went viral.
Watch the full video here (Core information found in the first 9 minutes)