A report of the Shanghai Academy of Sciences (SAAS) reveals that Thomas Zimmerman, appointed by President-elect Joe Biden as a Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel and as Deputy Lead for National Security Personnel on the Biden-Harris Transition team, has prior experience working in China as a visiting scholar at the Department of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS). As examples it mentioned that on February 10, 2015, Zimmerman delivered a speech at the SASS International Relations Institute on the future of the U.S. policy in Afghanistan; on March 12, 2015, Zimmerman spoke at a forum titled, “U.S. Anti-Terrorism Policy and the Asian-African Counter-Terrorism Posture” jointly organised by the Shanghai Institute of American Studies and the Center for West Asian and North African Studies of the SASS where he said "in resolving the Afghanistan issue, the United States is also pinning its hopes on China, hoping that China can play an active role in it. The United States and China share common interests and goals on the issue of Afghanistan. China is advocating the construction of the ‘One Belt, One Road’ strategy, but due to the continued civil war in Afghanistan, the potential for economic cooperation in Afghanistan is difficult to evaluate. Western countries led by the United States have been making strategic retreats from this region and China’s role in resolving the Afghanistan issue has become increasingly apparent”; and the visit in June 2016, by Zimmerman to the Shanghai Institute of American Studies for internal discussions with persons from SASS and the Shanghai Institute of American about the “One Belt and One Road,” terrorism issues, and the Sino-US anti-terrorism cooperation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

(Comment: SASS was established in 1958 and is primarily funded by the Chinese government. According to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against Keven Mallory in June 2017, since 2014, the FBI has assessed that the Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB), a sub-component of China’s Ministry of State Security, has had a close relationship with SASS and uses SASS employees as spotters and assessors. The FBI has further assessed that SSSB intelligence officers have also used SASS affiliation as cover identities.)