CIA's Burns: U.S. needs to de-risk and diversify away from China

Reuters
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FILE PHOTO: Illustration shows U.S. and Chinese flags

(Reuters) - Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns said on Saturday that decoupling from China would be foolish given the deep economic interdependence so the United States should try to diversify its supply chains.

"China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and increasingly the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do so," Burns said in a lecture in Oxfordshire, England.

"In today's world, no country wants to find itself at the mercy of a 'cartel of one' for critical minerals and technologies," Burns said. "The answer to that is not to decouple from an economy like China's, which would be foolish, but to sensibly de-risk and diversify by securing resilient supply chains, protecting our technological edge and investing in industrial capacity."

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by Louise Heavens)