Chuck Grassley wonders if China 'holds something over' Biden amid Taiwan tensions

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley on Tuesday suggested the People's Republic of China may possess incriminating evidence or information on President Joe Biden and that such leverage might explain his relative silence on Beijing's hostile rhetoric surrounding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan.

"I think there are many cases where our president should be condemning China for a lot of things. But I keep going back to some of my investigations about Hunter Biden," he said on Fox News's "America Reports." "Does China hold something over this administration because of the Hunter Biden relationship with a lot of business people in China and what they have to do with the Communist Party and with the Chinese military?"

The president's son has faced intense scrutiny over his business deals, including his ties to China. Evidence of such ties came in part through the contents of his now-infamous laptop.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday morning for a diplomatic visit, following a protracted public controversy surrounded the impact of her trip on Sino-American relations. Both China and the U.S. military warned Pelosi not to go to the island, with some Chinese pundits even suggesting the military shoot down her plane.

Biden, meanwhile, has offered no retort to the Communist dictatorship's efforts to dictate foreign diplomacy to United States officials. Instead, he administration has adamantly insisted that it seeks no change in the status quo regarding Taiwan's status. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters on Monday that Washington does "not support Taiwan independence."

The Republic of China, which governs Taiwan, agrees with its Beijing-based counterpart on the existence of a single Chinese polity, though both regimes claim the mantle of its legitimate government. Taiwan does not formally claim independence.