'Not bad folks': Financial ties link Biden family, political networks to China

Outgoing vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Hyten, said recently that China's military is developing at stunning speed, and that China poses a major threat to the U.S. 

As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden said that the Chinese are "not bad folks, folks" and "they are no competition for us." 

A few years earlier, Joe's son Hunter Biden partnered with the Chinese government to fund nuclear technology.   

With President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping due to "meet virtually" Monday amid Chinese muscle-flexing vis a vis Taiwan and a softening of U.S. policy towards China, the time is ripe for a review of the financial ties linking the Biden family and political networks to the People's Republic of China.

Joe Biden has a long history of currying favor with China. 

In 2000, when he was the lead Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden called for normal trade relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC). Since 2001, when the PRC ascended to the WTO, America has lost 3.7 million jobs to China. Outsourcing manufacturing to the PRC has hollowed out the U.S. manufacturing base and decreased American competitiveness, slowing innovation. Additionally, it has left the U.S. dependent on supply chains which China controls, including supply chains for defense critical materials. 

During the Obama administration, Biden pushed to allow Chinese firms, including state-owned and state-controlled firms, to list on U.S. securities exchanges. Currently, there are 248 Chinese companies listed on the three largest U.S. exchanges — NASDAQ, New York Stock Exchange, and NYSE American — with a total market capitalization of $2.2 trillion. This means that the Chinese Comnist Party that rules China with unchecked power has been able to obtain funding from U.S. citizens, institutional and private investors, as well as U.S. pension funds. 

When, at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump took measures to close U.S. borders to travel from China, Biden attributed it to "xenophobia."

Several of Biden's appointees, as well as his son Hunter, have had significant financial dealings with the Chinese Communist Party.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken cofounded WestExec Advisors, which, as part of its work, connected American corporations and academic institutions with China. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also worked for WestExec. On its website, the company boasted that it had helped American universities obtain funding from China. The company has since removed records of its China work from its website, although it still offers China business connection services. 

One of Biden's first hires was Kurt Michael Campbell, who was appointed White House Asia coordinator, or "Asia Czar." Formerly, he was board vice chairman of the U.S.-China Strong Foundation, which was linked to both the Confucius Institute and the United Front Work Department, the propaganda and influence arm of the CCP, which focuses on foreigners and Chinese outside of the PRC. 

As one of his first acts as president, Biden revoked Trump's executive order banning TikTok and WeChat from operating in the U.S unless sold by their Chinese parent companies. This was in spite of President Trump having found that WeChat "allow[s] the Chinese Communist party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information." Under China's Cybersecurity Law and National Intelligence Law, Chinese companies and people are obligated to turn over all data to the CCP and are required to aid the party in intelligence gathering. Both Tikok and WeChat are known to be used by the CCP to spy on foreign nationals and to train the Chinese government's AI systems.  

Hunter Biden has maintained long-standing business arrangements with China government entities, from which he earned millions. There is also evidence that Joe Biden knew and may have received payment from these entities, as well.  

U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs U.S. Senate Committee on Finance Majority issued a staff report titled "Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns." 

A report compiled by the Republican staff of a joint Senate committee outlines how, while Joe Biden was the vice president of the United States, his son, Hunter, was able to capitalize on his father's position to increase his own wealth by forging close ties to China's state-owned banks.

In 2013, Hunter Biden accompanied his father, then vice president, on an official visit to China. During that trip, at U.S. taxpayer expense, Hunter met with Chinese banker Jonathan Li, his partner in starting a private investment fund. Ten days later, authorities in Shanghai issued the fund a Chinese business license. Hunter was listed as a member of the board of directors, in what the South China Morning Post and the New York Times both described as a state-backed private equity fund, Bohai Harvest RST (BHR Partners). Eighty percent of the shares in Bohai Harvest RST (BHR Partners) were controlled by shareholders in the Chinese government. 

On the firm's website, they claimed to have the support of Chinese state-owned banks, the Bank of China, China Development Bank Capital, and other major Chinese financial institutions. The company was described by The New York Post as a joint venture between Hunter Biden's American firm, Rosemont Seneca, and "the most powerful financial institution in China, the government's Bank of China." The Chinese government was literally funding a business that it co-owned with the son of the U.S. vice president. 

In 2015, a Chinese state-backed real-estate conglomerate purchased a controlling stake in Rosemont Realty, an affiliate of the company where Hunter was an advisor, Rosemont Seneca. Two years later, Hunter Biden's emails revealed that he had been given a 20% stake in a Chinese investment fund at a massive discount, plus an additional 10% "for the big guy." Tony Bobulinski, Hunter's former business partner, later confirmed that "the big guy" was referring to Joe Biden. 

In 2015, Bohai Harvest RST (BHR Partners), together with Chinese state-owned military aviation contractor Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), bought Henniges, an American manufacturer of components with both civilian and military applications. AVIC is a major Chinese military contractor, operating directly under the control of the State Council, producing military aircraft and drones for the People's Liberation Army. 

Bohai Harvest RST (BHR Partners) also invested in Megvii Technology Inc, a maker of facial recognition technology. Megvii Technology was once placed on a trade blacklist by the U.S. government, after Human Rights Watch reported that the company's hardware was being used for surveillance and repression of ethnic Uyghur Muslims in China's Xinjiang region. 

Perhaps the most brazen of BHR's investments was in China General Nuclear Power Company (CGN), a company charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with conspiracy to unlawfully produce and develop nuclear material, without the required authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy. CGN and three of its subsidiaries were also accused of attempting to steal U.S. military technology.  In August, 2019, CGN was added to the U.S. Department of Commerce "entity list," prohibiting American companies from selling products to the company.