EXCLUSIVE: Republicans Call On Pentagon, State Dept To Stop Funding Elite DC Think Tank Over China Ties

• Republican congressmen are calling on the Pentagon to defund and investigate the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which was formerly headed by current Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns, for employing undisclosed Chinese Communist Party members.
• Carnegie accepted millions in the form of grants, contracts and donations from the U.S. government during Burns’ tenure as the group’s president, according to government records and Carnegie’s annual reports.
• “I call on the Department of Defense to suspend all contracts and projects with [Carnegie],” said Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers.

Republican congressmen are calling on the Pentagon and other agencies to cease funding and investigate an influential D.C. think tank formerly headed by current Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns concerning its employment of undisclosed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace employed at least 20 undisclosed CCP members and multiple individuals tied to the Chinese government during Burns’ presidency from February 2015 to November 2021, the Daily Caller News Foundation recently revealed. During that time, the U.S. government gave Carnegie millions in the form of grants, contracts and donations, according to government records and the think tank’s annual reports. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Biden’s CIA Director Employed Undisclosed Chinese Communist Party Members While Heading Elite DC Think Tank)

“The reported hiring of Chinese Communist Party members by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) raises serious policy and counterintelligence concerns that need to be immediately addressed,” Alabama Republican Mike Rogers, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, told the DCNF.

“I call on the Department of Defense to suspend all contracts and projects with CEIP until the circumstances surrounding the hiring of these individuals can be thoroughly investigated,” Rogers said.

Texas Republican Rep. Lance Gooden not only called on the U.S. government to cut off Carnegie’s taxpayer funding, but also to target their tax-exempt status.

“These organizations must exercise due diligence in exchange for their tax-exempt status, especially if they are pushing a narrative or public policy agenda,” Gooden said. “If the organization has tax-exempt status, it should be immediately revoked. They should also be barred from receiving government funds in the future.”

The DCNF discovered Carnegie was employing CCP members and individuals tied to the Chinese government after analyzing hundreds of Chinese-language, Communist Party branch records and personnel profiles from more than a dozen CCP-linked organizations. Expert profiles on Carnegie’s website do not disclose these individuals’ ties to the CCP or Chinese government.

These experts have worked at both Carnegie’s Washington, D.C., headquarters and Carnegie-Tsinghua — the Beijing center Burns’ predecessor, Jessica Mathews, launched in 2010 in cooperation with Tsinghua University. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: US-Based Activist Claims A Chinese Agent ‘Weaponized’ The Justice System To Get Him Arrested On Terrorism Charges)

The Department of Defense (DOD) and other branches of the military were the largest federal donors to Carnegie during Burns’ presidency, giving the think tank as much as $7.75 million, annual reports show. The State Department and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) both gave Carnegie as much as $2 million each during Burns’ tenure.

Carnegie was also awarded over a million dollars in federal grants and contracts during Burns’ tenure, government records reveal.

Yet, just how Carnegie spent all these funds remains unclear because its annual reports didn’t earmark donations until Burns’ second-to-last-year as president.

Burns himself could not be reached for comment at the CIA, while the agency referred the DCNF to his 2021 confirmation hearing and Carnegie.

Carnegie did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Chinese Embassy, DOD, State Department and DIA did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

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