The career diplomat U.S. President Joe Biden named to lead the Central Intelligence Agency is creating a high-level unit aimed at sharpening the agency's focus on China, at a time of tense relations between the world's two largest economies.
The China unit was one of several re-shuffles resulting from a broad review the agency launched last spring, the senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Other moves include merging an Iran Mission Center set up by the Trump administration into a broader Middle East unit and merging a unit focusing on Korea with a broader East Asia-Pacific unit, the official said. Burns said the CIA also was creating a position for a Chief Technology Officer as well as a new office called the Transnational and Technology Mission Center. This unit, the senior official said, would enable the agency to focus more tightly on issues such as global health, climate change, humanitarian disasters and disruption caused by new technologies.
The senior official said an "incident cell" set up by the agency was continuing to oversee responses to the mysterious illness known as "Havana Syndrome" which has affected numerous diplomats and CIA employees. House Intelligence Committee chair Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff welcomed the CIA director's moves. "With an autocratic model it is aggressively seeking to export and a rapidly advancing technological capacity, China represents a substantial challenge to the United States and the future of democratic values," Schiff said.Our Standards:Subscribe for our daily curated newsletter to receive the latest exclusive Reuters coverage delivered to your inbox.
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