Actions came ahead of Kerry’s failed climate meeting
By 
By Nick Pope
Daily Caller News Foundation
Hackers linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) breached the email accounts of Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Daniel Kritenbrink in hacks disclosed last week, according to a Thursday report by The Wall Street Journal.
The hacks of the two high-level diplomats preceded Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s four-day visit to Beijing to discuss green policy with CCP officials, according to anonymous sources cited by the WSJ. Though the extent of the hacks are currently unknown, it is believed that the hackers may have gained access to hundreds of thousands of U.S. government emails.
Burns and Kritenbrink are thought to be the two highest-ranking State Department officials targeted by the hackers, according to anonymous sources cited by the WSJ. The email accounts of the two diplomats are not believed to contain highly-classified information and documents.
Kritenbrink visited China a month ago alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Kritenbrink, Burns and Blinken all met with Chinese officials and the CCP’s leader, Xi Jinping, according to the WSJ. The hackers are not believed to have compromised the email accounts of Blinken or his closest advisers.