Chinese Intelligence Posing as Think Tanks to Lure Fired USG Employees

Here is more from the New York Times:

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned on Tuesday that China’s intelligence services were using deceptive efforts to recruit current and former U.S. government employees.

The center, along with the F.B.I. and the Pentagon’s counterintelligence service, said in an advisory that foreign intelligence agencies were posing as consulting firms, corporate think tanks and other organizations to recruit former U.S. officials.

The American government has long said that China uses social networks to secretly recruit people. But former U.S. officials say China now sees an opportunity as the Trump administration shuts down agencies, fires probationary employees and pushes out people who had worked on diversity issues.

The warning advised former officials who have security clearances of their “legal obligation to protect classified data” even after they leave the government. It added that China and other foreign countries were targeting a variety of former officials.

 

Reuters has previously reported on this.

 

 

Heritage Foundation Goes After Prince Harry

Here is more from Newsweek:

Prince Harry's visa papers have been the subject of a now two-year court battle about his past use of drugs—but in reality there may be more private information than that at stake in the case.

New documents released this week referenced the fact a disclosure of the Duke of Sussex's visa status could expose him to harassment or manipulation.

The case, brought by the Heritage Foundation, has always been about whether he lied on his application form about taking drugs or alternatively told the truth and was given favorable treatment.

 

Dr. Nile Gardiner, Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom and Bernard and Barbara Lomas Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, has been working to "unlock the truth" about Harry's visa.

Kamala Harris to Start a Think Tank?

Here is more from the New York Times:

Yet some of [Kamala Harris's] closest allies say she is leaning against another White House run in 2028 and, instead, toward a campaign for governor of California in 2026. Her political choice is binary, she has told people: She can run for governor or president, but not both.

Ms. Harris, who jokes to friends that she is unemployed for the first time, has explored options beyond pursuing electoral office, too. She hired the Creative Artists Agency to gauge interest in speaking engagements and a potential book. An aide has held preliminary talks with universities about establishing a policy institute, though some warned that could complicate her political aspirations.

 

Harris is being mocked on social media for her interest in creating a think tank.  Some names those people have suggested for her think tank: The Coconut Tree Institute, The Kamala D. Harris Institute for Examining the Importance of Understanding What Needs to Be Done, and The Kamala Harris Center for the Unburdening of What Has Been.

Think Tank Quickies (#514)

• The Bonn-based IZA Institute of Labour Economics is set to close at the end of December after its main financial backer, Deutsche Post Foundation, a non-profit institution set up by logistics operator DHL Group, announced that it will "discontinue" the IZA's "operations."
• Daniel Davis, a commentator with a record of controversial comments about Israel and a senior fellow at the Koch-backed think tank Defense Priorities, will be the deputy director of national intelligence under Tulsi Gabbard.
  
• Karim Haggag, a professor at the school of global affairs and pubic policy at the American University in Cairo, has been appointed the new director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
• Former Republican Rep. Garrett Graves (LA) and former independent Sen. Joe Manchin (WV) have joined the Bipartisan Policy Center's Energy Advisory Council.
  
• AFL-CIO, together with affiliated unions and the think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI), file emergency lawsuit against DOGE to protect privacy of worker data.
• Onion (satire): Think tank called 'The Himmler Institute' assures nation this is legal. 
• The Economic Security Project is adding Mike Konczal and Adriane Brown, both from the Biden White House.
• As a child, Microsoft founder Bill Gates visited a local think tank owned by Batelle.
  
• Korean policy think tank launches national budget simulation game. 
• Why think tank experts matter less and less for Trump.

Top China Think Tank Shuts Down Research Center After Questions of Party Loyalty

Here is more from the South China Morning Post:

China's top think tank has shut down its public policy research centre amid a new round of ideological reinforcement, with any activities carried out in its name declared "illegal," with immediate effect.

In a statement on Sunday, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said the centre was closed in accordance with an internal regulation and its research projects transferred to the Institute of Economics.

Part-time researchers affiliated with other departments were returning to their original institutions while the remainder had been dismissed, according to the statement on the CASS website.  The centre's social media accounts and website have also been shut down.

The now-defunct centre was once headed by economist Zhu Hengpeng, who was also deputy director of the Institute of Economics.  He was last seen in public at the end of April 2024.

Sources familiar with the matter said that Zhu had been investigated and removed from his post in May for criticizing China's economic policies in a group discussion on WeChat.

 

The report notes that CASS, once home to many liberal academics who were vocal in their criticism of the authorities, is undergoing a major shift towards greater loyalty to the ruling Communist Party.

Hot New Trend at Think Tanks: Trade War Simulations

Here is more from the New York Times:

Last month, two dozen trade experts from the United States and other countries gathered at a Washington think tank to try to simulate what could happen if Mr. Trump moves ahead with his plan to impose punishing tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners.

Teams representing China, Europe, the United States and other governments spent a day running between conference rooms, offering proposals to remove the tariffs and make trade deals to forestall economic collapse.

The game, which took place at the Center for a New American Security, a bipartisan think tank focused on security issues, included think tank experts and former officials in the Trump and Biden administrations. The exercise was not aimed at predicting the future. Instead, by acting out what might happen, the participants were trying to reveal some of the dynamics that might be at play as Mr. Trump pursues an aggressive trade approach against allies and adversaries alike.

 

Think tanks are well known for holding war game simulations, but this is the first time Think Tank Watch is aware of trade war simulations.

DOGE Works to Shut Down Wilson Center

Here is more from the New York Times:

The head of the Wilson Center, a storied foreign policy think tank, resigned on Tuesday, a day after employees from Elon Musk’s government-overhauling team arrived at the group’s Washington headquarters to dismantle it, according to people familiar with the actions at the center.

The resignation of the president, Mark Green, a Republican, and the visit from Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team, indicated that the Trump administration was carrying out an executive order President Trump signed last month directing that the organization, a nonpartisan policy group, be largely dismantled.

After DOGE team members visited the center on Monday and Tuesday, some of the leadership staff and senior government employees were ousted, including Mr. Green, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution by political appointees in the Trump administration. The center’s dozens of federal employees, about a third of its work force, were also set to be placed on administrative leave.

 

Ms. Natasha Jacome, a senior adviser to Mr. Green, is the center’s new president. 

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post on Trump's signing of an executive order to dismantle the Wilson Center.