Parent book: Red-Handed · Domain: China
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Red-handed - how American — Peter Schweizer.pdf (file not included in this release)
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Dedication
To W—
“… a brother is born for adversity.”
—Proverbs 17:17
Epigraph
The welfare of the people … has always been the alibi of tyrants …
giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.
—Albert Camus
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
1: The Rope
2: The Bidens
3: Capitol Hill
4: Silicon Valley
5: Wall Street
6: Diplomats
7: The Bush and Trudeau Dynasties
8: Higher Education
9: Fighting Back
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About the Author
Also by Peter Schweizer
Copyright
About the Publisher
1
The Rope
The world is undergoing great changes unseen in a century, but time and
momentum are on our side. This is where our force and vigor reside, and it
is also where our determination and confidence reside.1
—President Xi Jinping, January 2021
“The capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them.”
There is little evidence that Vladimir Lenin uttered those exact
words. What he did say, however, was more precise, if less catchy:
“They [capitalists] will furnish credits which will serve us for the
support of the Communist Party in their countries and, by supplying
us materials and technical equipment which we lack, will restore our
military industry necessary for our future attacks against our
suppliers. To put it in other words, they will work on the preparation
of their own suicide.”2
On another occasion, a Soviet source reports him having written:
“The whole world’s capitalists and their governments, as they pant to
win the Soviet market, will close their eyes to the above-mentioned
reality and will thus transform themselves into men who are deaf,
dumb and blind. They will give us credits … they will toil to prepare
their own suicide.”3
While Lenin’s Soviet Union receded into the pages of history, the
Leninist mentality is still a current event. And today on Wall Street, in
Silicon Valley, and in Washington, too many play “deaf, dumb, and
blind” while selling rope. And the buyer is Beijing.
Throughout this book, I will refer to the challenges we face from
Beijing. By “Beijing,” I mean the dictatorial regime of the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP), which controls the People’s Republic of
China. The threat we face is from political Beijing, not the Chinese
people. Indeed, it would be accurate to say that the Chinese people
are the biggest victims of the CCP.
By “rope,” I am talking very specifically about technology, money,
intelligence, or even political support given to the communist regime.
This rope enhances the military or strategic capabilities of Beijing,
anything that advances their position in competition with the United
States. I am not talking simply about general commerce with China.
For decades, the proverbial wisdom has been that China was
going to liberalize. We were told by political figures and members of
the business class that China would become more open. China was
not a threat; it was a Western wannabe. Give them free trade,
access to technology, and American capital, and they would become
more like us. This attitude has proliferated into a new establishment
consensus, one that conveniently enriches many American elites.
Beijing is happy to encourage this false assumption to advance their
own very different political agenda.
Of course, China has not liberalized. It has become more
aggressive and repressive. Yet those elites who advised us on such
a course of action got fabulously wealthy along the way.
Should we let lobbyists represent Chinese companies in the
corridors of American power? Should we be investing our 401(k)s in
Chinese companies? Should we keep thinking—against all evidence
—that we can “engage” with China and make it a positive force on
the planet?
Twenty-five years ago, it might have been reasonable for
America’s elite to believe they could make Beijing more America-
friendly by cultivating relationships with certain Chinese officials, but
the exact opposite has happened. Beijing forged ties and gave
money and deals to certain American elites, who became more
friendly to the Beijing regime.
The culpability of those elites in what we are experiencing today—
an increasingly powerful and aggressive China—cannot be
overestimated.
Members of this special class either seek or are approached with
lucrative deals, market access, and accolades. In return, naïvely or
not, strategic and economic benefits flow to the Beijing regime. This
has been a vital approach pursued by the communist government, a
strategy first proposed by Mao in 1956: yang wei Zhong yong, or
“make the foreign serve China.” More than sixty years later, the
strategy has only become more aggressive. Beijing offers deals,
inducements, praise, and access to seduce foreign elites into serving
their interests.4 As Professor Anne-Marie Brady, a premier specialist
in Chinese influence operations, puts it, “Beijing forges close
partnerships of mutual advantage with highly prominent foreign
figures who can bring commercial or political advantages to China.”5
In the world of espionage, practitioners use the term “elite capture”
to describe successful efforts to essentially buy off members of a
country’s leadership. Opportunities to get wealthy are a key
motivator. Beijing hopes that at a minimum this approach will
neutralize members of the elite by making them less critical or
resistant to their policies, or at a maximum turn them into actual
advocates for Beijing’s position. But for some, there are other
motives beyond just money.
As we will see, too many of America’s political, tech, and finance
elites share an infatuation with dictatorship. They seem quite content
with—indeed, even endorse—the notion that we should trust people
to pick their breakfast cereal but not their government leaders. They
believe the Beijing dictatorship is more efficient—even a better
system overall—than representative democracy. Their endorsements
are often quoted by Chinese government media. In short, American
elites are granting legitimacy to the Chinese government and are
rewarded with large financial deals.
Some prominent figures will point to a negative statement they
have made about the Beijing regime as evidence that they are tough
on China. But this is largely a diversion. To be clear, Beijing does not
require American collaborators to toe the party line. Beijing
pragmatically accepts some level of public criticism from the elites
with whom it is working. The idea is known as “big help with a little
badmouth.” Tolerating some dissent and criticism from its foreign
partners is wise because it maintains their partners’ cloak of
credibility in the eyes of the American public.6 As long as these elites
deliver on key policies and actions that benefit the regime, some
criticism is acceptable.
So, who exactly are these American elites who, in deed if not in
word, wittingly or unwittingly, promote the dictatorial Beijing regime?
Some of the most prominent names in Big Tech, Wall Street, and
American politics figure into this story.
This book will bring into focus what many of us have known,
anecdotally, for decades: leading Americans have collaborated
extensively with a brutal regime for personal gain.
We will continue to consider the case, with new evidence, of
arguably the most powerful man in the world making excuses for
Beijing while his family secured multiple deals with Beijing worth tens
of millions of dollars. This, through the courtesy of individuals with
direct ties to Chinese intelligence.
We will bring to light another presidential family that has benefited
through two generations from deals with Beijing—a family whose
members now appear on Chinese state television touting the
regime’s accomplishments.
We will turn to Capitol Hill and draw the curtain back on the U.S.
Speaker of the House, whose family has enjoyed profitable,
decades-long dealings with Beijing, allowing it to influence their
positions on the most important issues of the day.
We will meet a powerful U.S. senator, chair of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, who has excused Beijing’s actions while her
family secured a string of deals with China.
We will be introduced to former U.S. senators and members of
Congress who are now on the payroll of Beijing and military-linked
firms, lobbying on their behalf in the corridors of Washington.
We will be introduced to several former U.S. ambassadors to
China who are now getting rich working for Chinese entities in the
United States.
We will learn about a former U.S. senator and U.S. secretary of
defense now helping Chinese state-owned enterprises compete
against U.S. companies.
We will expose the former high-ranking U.S. intelligence and
security officials now helping Beijing more easily acquire U.S.
technologies.
From Silicon Valley, we will meet some of the richest tech
entrepreneurs in the world and their troubling bonds with Beijing, as
well as their defense of its virtues in government media outlets.
We will show how the head of the largest financial firm on Wall
Street praises the regime and even helped the Communist Party
solidify its hold over foreign corporations. We will also reveal how
and why one of the most powerful men on Wall Street invested $100
million into a Chinese Communist Party propaganda project.
Too many of America’s rich and powerful turn a blind eye to the
nature of their business partners. This is not exactly a win-win
scenario.
We do not have to go into a full history of the Chinese Communist
Party regime to see Beijing’s true colors—and ultimate motives.
They are currently on display in Nanjing province, where they are
violently repressing millions. President Xi Jinping’s regime has set up
reeducation camps, or “free hospital treatment for the masses with
sick thinking,” as Beijing calls them.7 The CCP justified the camps
because of a series of violent attacks by extremists in the region. Xi
ordered his security apparatus to carry out a “smashing, obliterating
offensive,” according to leaked documents. “Round up everyone who
should be rounded up… . Even grandparents and family members
who seemed too old to carry out violence could not be spared.”8 The
result is “the largest mass incarceration of an ethnic-religious
minority since the second world war.”9
Beijing also sanctions the forceable harvesting of the body organs
of detained political and religious prisoners. An international tribunal
in London, headed by Sir Geoffrey Nice, who led the prosecution of
war criminal Slobodan Milošević, has laid out volumes of evidence,
including the testimony of doctors who have been forced to perform
these procedures.10
Beijing’s suppression of COVID-19 warnings has impacted human
lives and economies worldwide. On December 30, 2019, a Chinese
medical doctor named Li Wenliang commented to colleagues about
a new and aggressive virus. When he did so on a chat app, he was
detained by the Public Security Bureau, who charged that he had
“severely disturbed the social order.”11
By the end of January 2020, after becoming increasingly ill from
the virus, he posted the letter he had been forced to sign on Weibo,
a massive Chinese public messaging website. This is how his nation
and the world learned about the true danger of the COVID virus.12
Other brave Chinese doctors and journalists who tried to alert the
world about the virus disappeared at the hands of the Beijing regime,
which was more concerned about its political viability than the health
of its people—or for that matter, the health of people around the
world.
Beijing continues to take a position of non-cooperation in global
efforts to find out the true origins of the virus.
You can add to this list the practice of crimes against Christians,
the Falun Gong, citizens of Hong Kong, the people of Tibet, and
others. By now, the Chinese military is openly talking about using
new kinds of biological warfare, including “specific ethnic genetic
attacks,” which should come as no surprise.13
Constant surveillance and censorship, detention without trial,
torture and forced confessions, other forms of physical and
psychological abuse, and excessive use of the death penalty are all
a standard part of life for the mainland Chinese people under the
CCP.
As Maya Angelou once said, “When someone shows you who
they are, believe them the first time.”14
This is the regime with whom the American elites addressed in this
book are in bed.
The brutal nature of the regime is only the beginning of the
problem. Beijing aspires to replace the United States as the most
powerful nation on the globe. Do not take my word for it: the Chinese
leadership itself speaks openly about that ambition. China’s state
news agency, Xinhua, boosts the party line, “By 2050, two centuries
after the Opium Wars, which plunged the ‘Middle Kingdom’ into a
period of hurt and shame, China is set to regain its might and re-
ascend to the top of the world.” China’s President Xi has a specific
2049 plan to accomplish that goal.15
Xinhua elsewhere declares the superiority of the communist
dictatorship over the representative democracy of the United States.
“After several hundred years, the Western model is showing its age.
It is high time for profound reflection on the ills of a doddering
democracy which has precipitated so many of the world’s ills and
solved so few.”16
President Xi commonly uses the expression that he is seeking for
China a “strong nation dream.” The phrase comes from a 2009 book
published in China called The China Dream. The author, Colonel Liu
Mingfu of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is quite explicit about
what that means. “China’s grand goal in the 21st century is to
become the world’s No. 1 power,” he says bluntly. “The competition
between China and the United States will not be like a ‘shooting
duel’ or a ‘boxing match’ but more like a ‘track and field’ competition.
It will be a protracted ‘Marathon.’”17
But this “China dream,” as expressed by President Xi, is a
nightmare for the rest of the world. The American elites featured in
this book are in various ways feeding the beast that would make this
nightmare a reality. And they get paid well doing it.
Throughout American history, there have been concerns about
powerful American leaders aligning themselves with our foreign
adversaries. Nothing comes close in magnitude to the problem of the
buying off of these elites. It represents the most dire national security
threat our country faces today. As Professor Walter Russell Mead
wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “America’s greatest risk isn’t the
vulnerability of its voting machines to foreign hackers or the
susceptibility of party apparatchiks to phishing scams. It is the
erosion of ethical standards in the American political and business
establishments that most exposes the U.S. to the kind of foreign
interference against which [George] Washington warned.”18
2
The Bidens
“You all heard that Trump said Biden’s son has securities
companies all over the world,” the speaker said in a smooth, elegant
Mandarin voice. “But who helped Biden’s son build his global
companies?”1
The question came from a slender Chinese academic named Di
Dongsheng as he stood in front of a large audience in Shanghai. It
was November 28, 2020, just weeks after the U.S. presidential
election. Beyond the hundreds who had gathered in the auditorium,
many more watched the streamed version online, courtesy of Guan
Video, an influential Chinese nationalist website.2 Di is more than a
random academic: as an associate dean at Renmin University, an
elite institute in Beijing that boasts prominent alumni high in the
Communist Party and government, including politburo members and
ambassadors, he sits near the center of power. Di has also worked
with the Chinese government’s official propaganda organs to spread
pro-Beijing material in the United States, including Washington,
D.C.3
The speech was part of a prestigious forum that featured talks by
Chinese luminaries such as the former directors general of the Asian
Development Bank and of the International Department of China’s
Central Bank.4
Di’s remarks struck a nerve. The crowd, no doubt including high-
ranking Communist Party officials, was actively engaged. They
smiled, laughed, and applauded as he discussed the global stage
and China’s influence in the United States. Di noted that Beijing had
“old friends … inside America’s core circle of power,” mentioning
Wall Street in particular as a strong ally. He reassured the audience
that Beijing could settle issues with “people at the top” in the United
States. When he asked that question—rhetorically—about Biden’s
son’s deals, the audience laughed knowingly. “There are indeed buy-
and-sell transactions involved in here,” Di added. “So I think at this
particular time, it is of strategic and tactical value for us to show good
will.”5 Di’s comments about Chinese influence among elites in the
United States were unusually candid for a Chinese official in public—
direct and on the nose. The fact that he referenced Chinese
commercial dealings with the Biden family—which I was the first to
expose in 2018—was particularly surprising. Apparently, they
surprised Beijing too, which promptly removed the speech from the
country’s social media platforms after it started to go viral.6
The answer to Di’s question is that financiers with close ties to the
highest levels of Chinese intelligence helped Hunter Biden build or
join several global companies. There are important reasons for
Beijing to want their commercial ties with the Biden family to remain
obscured.
The greater puzzle is, why would the Biden family want
commercial ties to China? Could Hunter Biden not trade on his last
name to open doors in less authoritarian countries?
Chinese officials have cultivated these commercial ties for more
than a decade. Other Biden family members have happily pursued
financial relationships, too, eager to cash in with lucrative deals.
Since I first broke the story about these ties in 2018, I have gained
access to an abundance of new documentary evidence.
In short, the new evidence makes clear that the Biden family
received some $31 million from Chinese businessmen with very
close ties to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence during and
after Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president. Indeed, as of this writing,
some of those financial relationships remain intact. One is struck by
the extraordinary concentration of intelligence ties by the
businesspeople making these deals with the Bidens. These ties
reach the highest levels of Chinese intelligence, including the former
head of the Ministry of State Security, the head of foreign intelligence
recruitment for Chinese intelligence, and a cluster of United Front
organizations used for intelligence operations in the West. (We will
later learn of the significance of these United Front organizations—
something Xi and other communist officials consider a “magic
weapon” in their struggle against the West.)7
The new sources of information also provide even more evidence
that this is a story about not just Hunter Biden, but Joe Biden
himself. To some degree, for the period our research covers, Hunter
Biden and Joe Biden had intertwined finances. Hunter Biden
privately complained to family members about paying his father’s
bills. “I love all of you,” he wrote to his daughter Naomi on January 3,
2019. “But I don’t receive any respect and thats fine I guess -works
for you apparently. I Hope you all can do what I did and pay for
everything for this entire family Fro 30 years. It’s really hard. But
don’t worry unlike Pop I won’t make you give me half your salary.”8
Other correspondence confirms that the vice president of the
United States, signified by the initials “JRB” for Joseph Robinette
Biden, was mentioned in emails discussing payments or financial
opportunities.9
The idea that his father might be participating in Hunter Biden’s
dealings was potentially realized when Hunter Biden or his business
partner, Eric Schwerin, arranged for private phone lines for the vice
president, at a cost ranging from $190 to several hundred dollars a
month.10 This would allow for a non-official channel of
communication. It is neither legal for the vice president of the United
States to accept gifts from a company, nor clear why the vice
president of the United States needs an undisclosed means of
communication.11 According to Hunter, he (or Rosemont Seneca
Partners) had been paying for multiple phone lines for his father for
eleven years—all while he was in office as a senator or vice
president. Using the lowest number of payments for “JRB,” we found
that for the cost of Joe’s phone line(s) ($190), that amounts to over
$25,000. Interestingly, in February 2017, Hunter moved to put at
least one phone number back under Joe Biden’s name after he left
office because, “he wants to start paying it.”12
There are myriad other examples of communications between
Hunter Biden and his partners at Rosemont about paying the bills of
then vice president Joe Biden. These included paying for contractors
making renovations on Joe Biden’s Delaware home. Schwerin wrote
to Hunter in June 2010, asking him which ones “should get paid out
of ‘my’ account and which should be put on hold or paid out of the
‘Wilmington Trust Social Security Check Account.’” In addition,
Schwerin explains, “There is about $2,000 extra in ‘my’ account
beyond what is used for monthly expenses.” In a follow-up email on
June 8, Schwerin told Hunter that “Mike Christopher,” one of the
contractors who worked on Joe Biden’s Delaware home, “is
hassling” him. He said that he was “paying a couple of the smaller
things since I haven’t heard from your Dad.” In yet another instance,
Hunter made reimbursements to Joe Biden for a Ford Raptor truck,
in an email marked “payment to JRB from RHB - autopay owasco
acct.”13
The new sources of information presented here include:
The Hunter Biden Secret Service Travel Logs
The Secret Service keeps travel logs on the family members
of the president and vice president when they travel with them.
Hunter Biden’s Secret Service travel logs, covering the years
from 2009 to 2014, were obtained through the Freedom of
Information Act and by the U.S. Senate Oversight Committee.
The Bevan Cooney emails
This collection of more than twenty-five thousand emails
contains the correspondence of Hunter Biden business
associate Bevan Cooney between 2010 and 2016. Cooney’s
emails show communication to and from Hunter Biden and
include an abundance of attachments and documents. Cooney
granted us access to his complete email collection.
The United States Senate Oversight Committee Report
Issued in September 2020, the U.S. Senate committee
report on Hunter Biden’s activities included dozens of U.S.
Treasury Department Suspicious Activity Reports (SARS),
which detailed some financial transactions of Hunter Biden and
his firms. (Note: a supplement to the report was released in
November 2020.)
The Tony Bobulinski emails and messages
Bobulinski, a successful financier and businessman, was
brought into the Biden orbit in 2017 to help put together and
run an investment fund that the Chinese would finance.
Bobulinski shared those records with the U.S. Senate
Oversight Committee.
Jason Galanis materials
We were given access to materials involving Hunter Biden
business partner Jason Galanis.
The Hunter Biden emails from his laptop
These emails number close to twenty-five thousand and
include emails and messages sent to colleagues, partners, and
family members. Hunter Biden has never denied that the
emails are genuine, even admitting that they could be his.
Were the emails false, we could assume that he would
vigorously challenge their authenticity. He has not.14
As we first reported in Secret Empires, in 2009, Hunter Biden
joined forces with his close friends and fellow Yale students Devon
Archer and Christopher Heinz to set up a series of businesses. They
first established Rosemont Capital and, soon after, Rosemont
Seneca Partners. They also set up Rosemont Realty and Rosemont
Seneca Technology Partners. Rather than locate the shop in
Manhattan, the world’s financial capital, Rosemont Seneca leased
space in Washington, D.C. “They occupied an all-brick building on
Wisconsin Avenue … just two miles from both Joe Biden’s office in
the White House and his residence at the Naval Observatory.”15
Hunter Biden and his partners constructed a remarkable
constellation of limited liability companies, many of which served as
pass-throughs, to manage the flow of foreign money. These included
Oldaker, Biden, and Belair, LLP; Seneca Global Advisors; Rosemont
Seneca Advisors; RSP Investments; Eudora; RSTP I; RSTP II Alpha
and Bravo, Owasco, and Skaneateles. Numerous emails—including
corporate documents—between the two clearly indicate that the
management of those LLCs and Hunter Biden’s finances were
handled by his colleague Eric Schwerin, a former Clinton
administration official.16
Hunter Biden’s defenders present a wholly benign narrative: he
had a small role in medium-sized deals with profit-driven Chinese
investors drawn in only by his business acumen. The facts add up to
something else entirely.
As you have seen, there are indications that Hunter and Joe
Biden’s financial fortunes have been fused. Barely a year and a half
into the Obama administration, Hunter Biden and his business
partners in Rosemont Seneca began drawing up a memo called
“JRB Future Memo” about commercial opportunities for Joe Biden
after he left the Obama administration. “Mike has a pretty good draft
of this done,” Schwerin wrote to Hunter Biden. “Does it make sense
to see if your Dad has some time in the next couple of weeks while
you are in DC to talk about it? Your Dad just called me (about his
mortgage) and mentioned he’d be out a lot soon and not really back
until Labor Day so it dawned on me it might be a good time (also he
could use some news about his future earnings potential!).”17
What “future earnings” the vice president would be discussing with
Schwerin, the manager of Hunter Biden’s LLCs, is unclear, as is why
the vice president would be talking about his mortgage with the
same manager.
The Bidens—father and son together—apparently followed a
business model offering access to the highest levels of power in
Washington in exchange for big-money international deals.
Locating Rosemont Seneca Partners in Washington, D.C., fits with
this model, because access to the White House, particularly for
foreign elites, represented a central selling point in securing private
deals.
This setup is what Hunter clearly had in mind when dealing with
foreign elites, and is best demonstrated by an email Hunter sent to a
prospective partner in Mexico, Miguel Aleman. In a February 2016
email, Hunter, who was arriving in Mexico City aboard Air Force Two
with his father, was furious because he had granted Aleman access
to the highest reaches in Washington, but the deals he wanted in
return had yet to materialize.
We are arriving late tonight on Air Force 2 to MX City. We will be there
for Thursday - I’m attending meeting w/ President N [of Mexico] w/ Dad.
Jeff is with me on [p]lane and [he] will be with us all day. Would love to
see [you] but you never respond. I am really upset by it. You respond
when it’s something you need. You are the most generous person I
know but WTF. We have so many great things to do together and I want
you at the plane when the VP lands with your Mom and Dad and you
completely ignore me. I’ve looked at what your family has done and
want to follow in that tradition and you always say you will help but I
haven’t heard from you since I got you a mtg for Carlos and your Dad.
We have been talking about business deals and partnerships for 7
years. And I really appreciate you letting me stay at your resort villa …
but I have brought every single person you have ever asked me to bring
to the F’ing WHite House and the Vice President’s house and the
inauguration and then you go completely silent - I don’t hear from you
for months. I don’t know what it is that I did but I’d like to know why I’ve
delivered on every single thing you’ve ever asked - and you make me
feel like I’ve done something to offend you.18 (Emphasis added)
In the case of the Aleman family, access to the White House did
not land Hunter a profitable accord. China, however, was a
completely different story.
Hunter’s Rosemont Seneca quickly set its sights on “Zhongguo—
the Middle Kingdom.”19 As we will see, a number of Chinese officials,
several with intelligence connections, were all too happy to go into
business with the son of the vice president. It is likely this is because
they have different goals than just making money.
Doing business in China often entails having the right political
contacts and relationships; having a powerful family name can be of
enormous benefit.
In one case, to do business in China, as I first reported in Secret
Empires, Hunter Biden and his partners at Rosemont joined forces
with another politically connected consultancy called the Thornton
Group. James Bulger, the nephew of the infamous mob hit man
James “Whitey” Bulger, heads the Massachusetts-based firm.
Whitey was the doyen of the Winter Hill Gang of the South Boston
mafia. On the hook for nineteen murders, he took off. He was later
found, arrested, tried, and convicted. Whitey’s younger brother Billy
Bulger is James Bulger’s father, and Billy served on the Thornton
Group board of directors. He was formerly a leader in the
Massachusetts State Senate.20 Bulger’s partners in the venture
included Michael Lin (also known as Lin Junliang), a cofounder of
the group. He had considerable connections in Beijing. Originally
from Taiwan, Lin moved to Beijing in 2005 and worked as the head
of investments for Peking University Founder, a powerful investment
vehicle that “has strong connections among the top leaders of the
Chinese Communist Party.” (As we will see, Founder also has deep
commercial ties with Chinese intelligence.) Lin helped give Hunter
Biden entrée into the highest levels of Chinese leadership.21
Fewer than twelve months after opening Rosemont Seneca,
Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were in China with access to those
of great financial (and political) influence. The Thornton Group’s
account of the encounter on their Chinese-language website at the
time was revealing: Chinese executives “extended their warm
welcome” to the “Thornton Group, with its U.S. partner Rosemont
Seneca chairman Hunter Biden (second son of the now Vice
President Joe Biden).” The meeting’s purpose was to “explore the
possibility of commercial cooperation and opportunity.”22
The meetings were with the largest and most powerful
government-backed financial institutions in the country. In April 2010,
they met with high-ranking senior Chinese officials, including the
head of private equity for the Chinese government’s China
Investment Corporation.23
The timing is important. Hunter’s meeting in China occurred just
before Vice President Biden met with Chinese President Hu Jintao
during the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.24
Joe Biden would emerge as the point person on Obama
administration policy on China, so he would be a clear focus of
Chinese attention.25
Hunter Biden was a centerpiece of these initial meetings—not
necessarily for what he brought to the meeting but simply for his
participation. The first trip in April was a success. James Bulger
wrote to Hunter after, “your presence was a huge boon to us all.”26
In January 2011, Devon Archer met again with Chinese officials at
the highest levels and apparently planned to underscore the
partners’ exclusive access to the vice president by bringing signed
copies of Joe Biden’s book, presumably Promises to Keep (2007), to
hand out. “Any chance I can get 3 Biden books to leave with cic
[China Investment Corporation], citic [China International Trust and
Investment Corporation] and chairman zong of wahaha [one of
China’s richest men]?” Devon Archer wrote to Hunter and Eric
Schwerin before the trip.27
For Beijing, a commercial relationship with the Bidens would offer
an opportunity for “elite capture.” Joe Biden had already painted a
relatively favorable view of the Beijing regime in public statements.28
Hunter Biden and his team did get meetings with these dominant
financial institutions. CITIC reports directly to the PRC State Council,
the most powerful governing body in the country, and the China
Investment Corporation is one of the government’s sovereign wealth
funds.29
In April 2011, Hunter Biden and his partners returned to Asia,
visiting both Taiwan and mainland China. According to internal
Rosemont emails, Hunter does not appear to have had a heavy lift in
any Rosemont business. “What is the first meeting I HAVE to
attend?” he asked Devon Archer in an email.30 His figurehead
presence relative to Rosemont seemed to be enough.
When they returned to Washington, D.C., Hunter’s associates
emphasized the importance of the vice president’s son sending
personal notes to Chinese officials. His partners ensured that there
should be “a thank you email from Hunter to every meeting contact
we met.”31
And when it came to motivating Chinese nationals to work with
Rosemont, Bulger knew to pull the Biden card. “I have [Michael] lin
[one of the Chinese partners] all over this he knows he cannot
disappoint HB [Hunter Biden].”32
On this trip, Hunter and his partners met with someone they
dubbed “The Super Chairman,” who would play a central role in
securing a large deal. The Super Chairman is Che Feng, a Chinese
tycoon with close ties to Chinese intelligence. The son of a PLA
soldier, Che was a successful businessman and controlled
numerous companies.33 He would become a major player in the
relationship between Hunter and Beijing. Described in the Western
press as a “shadowy and discreet investor,” Che perhaps needed to
remain in the shadows and demonstrate extreme discretion because
of his very powerful friends and family members.34 His father-in-law
was the governor of the People’s Bank of China and was the
president of the National Council for Social Security Fund, the
government retirement fund in China. The National Council later
became an investor in Hunter’s private equity deal. But even more
important, Che had other disturbing ties: he was business partners
with Ma Jian, the vice minister of State Security, essentially China’s
KGB, at the time.35 (Ma Jian also had financial ties with Peking
Founder, where Michael Lin had worked.) Reportedly, Ma was the
director of the ministry’s No. 8 Bureau, which targeted foreigners
with its counterintelligence apparatus—“Mainly diplomats,
businessmen and reporters.”36 French intelligence scholar Roger
Faligot said that Ma Jian “oversaw operations in North America.”37
Ma was a very busy man. Beyond his intelligence work, he
reportedly had six mistresses.38
The hazard of a Chinese businessman with close ties to the top
ranks of Beijing’s spy agency conducting financial transactions with
the son of the U.S. vice president cannot be overstated. How this did
not set off national security or ethics alarm bells in Washington is a
wonder in itself.
According to email correspondence, Hunter Biden’s relationship
with the Super Chairman was warm, and in October 2011, Hunter
and his partners returned to Hong Kong as Che’s guests. The Super
Chairman put them up at the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel in Hong
Kong for more discussions about business opportunities.39
Hunter Biden was traveling with Secret Service protection, so for
the meeting, a Chinese partner instructed Hunter to send the Secret
Service detail to him to check things out. “When secret service wish
to call to check things as they always do, pls make them call
Jonathan or me.”40
The plan was to fuse Chinese financial might to those with access
to the highest levels of power in the Western world. Together, they
formed an entity called Bohai Harvest RST (BHR) to create a
pecuniary powerhouse funded by China’s biggest government-
backed financial institutions. Biden and his partners were
enthusiastic about what the Super Chairman was bringing them: an
opportunity to work with the largest state-owned financial
conglomerates, “or that kind of high power companies.” One of
Hunter’s Chinese partners wrote him in September 2011, “Imagine
we will be sitting on the same board with CIC or the other Chinese
HUGE investment or fund house(s)!!!”41
One of those big “fund houses” was Harvest Fund Management,
which was headed by another key figure in the Biden family’s deals
in China. Zhao Xuejun (aka Henry Zhao) was the chairman of
Harvest, and also the company’s Chinese Communist Party general
secretary. “The mission of our Party is to bring happiness to people,”
he proclaimed, “and to revive the nation for people.”42
Zhao, another figure who would steer money to Hunter Biden, also
had ties to the very top of Chinese intelligence.
One of Zhao’s companies, Harvest Global Investments, was
cofounded by Jia Liqing, the daughter of Jia Chunwang, who was a
member of the Politburo Standing Committee at the time. Her father
is the former minister of state security, which meant he was in
“charge of secret service, espionage, and domestic and overseas
intelligence work.”43 There is no one more powerful in the world of
Chinese intelligence. Beginning in 1985, he ran the foreign
espionage section for the Ministry of State Security. He eventually
ran the entire intelligence service until 1998, when he became head
of public security, which put him in charge of other intelligence
operations, the national police, and even the Chinese gulag.44 He
was, in short, the man who ran China’s spy apparatus for thirteen
years. Jia helped develop China’s “deep water fish” (Chendi yü)
strategy of developing thousands of special agents “hidden in the
deepest strata of society … of the enemy” to work with the
intelligence services.45
Jia Liqing’s in-laws were also deeply connected to the Communist
Party: her father-in-law, Liu Yunshan, was the head of the Chinese
Communist Party’s Propaganda Department during early
negotiations and up until a year before Harvest secured its deal with
Hunter.46
The seductive and lucrative deal that Hunter was now putting into
place, creating BHR, involved two financiers with ties to the highest
levels of Chinese intelligence, a billion-dollar private equity deal that
we first exposed in Secret Empires.47 What we now know are the
roles played by the spy-connected “Super Chairman” and Zhao.
The deal was negotiated quietly and Hunter’s partners wanted to
keep his involvement in the agreement private at least until the deal
was sealed. “Please remember that I have not informed anyone in
my office about the reason for my trip to Hong Kong last week,” Jim
Bulger wrote to Hunter Biden and others after he returned from Asia.
“So no one knows that Hunter was with me last week… . I want to
keep this effort quiet until we have a contract in place.”
“What happens in Hong Kong stays in Hong Kong,” replied Eric
Schwerin.48
According to Michael Lin, another Chinese partner, Hunter’s role in
the venture was pretty straightforward: “Open as many doors as
possible in the western world for this very famous Bohai professional
team.” There was also the expectation that Hunter and his partners
would “join some of the meetings in HK and China they arrange”
when communicating with possible financial partners.49
Although he would later claim publicly that this private equity deal
was not really that lucrative, Hunter’s private correspondence shows
otherwise.50 Regarding the “super chairman fund,” he wrote in an
email in September 2011, “Things are moving rapidly and the
percentage he is offering me is much larger than I at first thought.”
Archer thought the deal made sense—“Not only on it’s own merits
from an economics standpoint but from the leverage in access it
provides with the big boys here in the west who all need China.”51
Hunter saw dollar signs. “I don’t believe in lottery tickets anymore,”
he wrote to Archer, “but I do believe in the super chairman … I think
the sky’s the limit.”52
The Bohai negotiations continued over several months. The email
correspondence suggests that the Chinese partners did not expect
Hunter Biden and the other Americans to be actively involved in the
fund; they would do most of the heavy lifting. As Bulger explained to
Hunter and Archer, “if all Jonathan needs from us is to sit on the
investment committee then it might not be a bad deal… . If our
involvement is simply to sit on the sidelines and be the ‘white face’
then I’m personally close to [a] 15% [stake].”53
By spring 2013, the Bohai deal was in the final negotiation stage.
In June, the principals met in Beijing to go over the terms. Although
Biden lawyers have claimed that Hunter was not involved in these
final discussions, according to Secret Service travel records, Hunter
was in Beijing between June 13 and June 15.54
In December 2013, Hunter returned to Beijing, this time arriving on
Air Force Two with his father. Vice President Biden was grappling
with a multitude of issues between the United States and China. He
held high-level meetings with Chinese officials. What Hunter spent
his time doing is less clear.55 However, Hunter later admitted that he
had introduced his dad to his business partner Jonathan Li in the
lobby of their hotel.56
Ten days later, the BHR company was registered in Beijing. Hunter
was later offered a 10 percent equity stake in the business and a
board seat. The equity stake required him to put in capital, but he
apparently did not have enough. Chinese executives gave him a
loan, guaranteeing him a stake in the billion-dollar-plus investment
firm.57
In January 2014, just one month after the finalized BHR deal,
Hunter and Devon made plans to meet with the Chinese
ambassador in Washington.58 The purpose of the meeting is unclear.
BHR released a prospectus for investors, noting that Hunter Biden
served on the board. They never mentioned Joe Biden per se, but
Hunter was listed as “Honorary Co-Chair of the 2009 Presidential
Inaugural Committee of the United States.” BHR noted that
Rosemont brought “extensive political and business networks in
America and Europe.”59
Hunter Biden figured prominently in BHR materials sent to
Chinese investors. BHR, in their 2016 annual report, had a graphic
titled “Global Network,” which included a world map and a photo of
Hunter Biden and other BHR partners with an arrow pointing to New
York City.60
The Super Chairman would fade from the deal after both he and
Ma were arrested and charged with money laundering and bribery,
respectively. But the partnership between Hunter and Chinese
officials was off and running.61 And Zhao would arrange other deals
with Hunter Biden.
Bohai Harvest was not simply an investment fund engaged in
ordinary commercial arrangements. Given the intelligence and
political ties of those involved in setting up BHR, it should not come
as a surprise that Hunter’s fund began buying or investing in
strategically important companies in China and the United States.
One of their early investments was in China General Nuclear Power
Corporation (CGN), where Hunter’s firm was an “anchor investor.”
The FBI would later expose that firm as a conduit for nuclear
espionage in the West. In April 2016, CGN and a CGN engineer
named Allen Ho were charged by the Obama Justice Department
with stealing nuclear secrets from the United States—actions
prosecutors said could cause “significant damage to our national
security.”62
Hunter’s BHR was also contributing to the undermining of our
national defense—buying companies in the United States that had
clear military application that would benefit Beijing in its strategic
competition with the United States. BHR bought an American
company called Henniges Automotive, a firm known for anti-vibration
technologies with military and civilian applications. The Chinese
military interest in the company was obvious, especially given that
BHR partnered with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China
(AVIC) to close the deal. AVIC is one of China’s largest military
contractors. U.S. officials have identified AVIC as a major culprit in
the theft of U.S. defense technologies.63
How much has, and will, Hunter Biden ultimately make on just this
one China deal? It is impossible to say. Team Biden has absurdly
claimed that his stake in the firm is only $420,000.64 But recall
Hunter Biden’s enthusiastic email comparing the deal to winning the
lottery. Professor Steven Kaplan from the University of Chicago’s
Booth School of Business said, “It is difficult to imagine, if not
incomprehensible, that a 10% stake in those economics is worth only
$420K.” Using other similar investment funds as a guide, he
estimates Hunter’s take on the BHR deal would be closer to $20
million.65
The mystery surrounding Hunter Biden’s financial ties with
Chinese intelligence–connected businessmen is only compounded
by a decision he made shortly after those ties began. In July 2014,
Hunter Biden took the unusual step of declining Secret Service travel
on his future overseas trips. The Secret Service communicated this
fact to the Senate Homeland Security and Governance Affairs
Committee, but gave no explanation as to why Biden made this
move. In 2015, he reportedly requested Secret Service protection on
a trip to Europe, but not on any related to China.66
How much did the Chinese participants make on these deals? Most
likely, they do not care. Chinese elites and Communist Party officials
who were prospective partners or clients of Hunter were granted off-
the-books meetings with Vice President Joe Biden.
On November 5, 2011, Devon Archer forwarded an email from one
of his business contacts hinting at a chance to gain “potentially
outstanding new clients” by helping to arrange White House
meetings for a group of Chinese executives and government
officials. The group was the China Entrepreneur Club (CEC) and
included Chinese billionaires, Chinese Communist Party loyalists,
and at least one “respected diplomat” from Beijing.67 Despite its
seemingly harmless name, CEC has been referred to as “a second
foreign ministry” for the People’s Republic of China—a communist
regime that tightly controls the people and businesses in its
country.68 CEC was founded in 2006 by several Chinese
businessmen and diplomats.69
“This is China Inc.,” the forwarded email claimed, referring to the
delegation.70 This is not only a powerful and prestigious group; it is
also fused to the Chinese government. The CEC has been described
in U.S. congressional testimony as “the most significant and elite,
China government led, cyber-economic command and control
entity.”71 CEC’s membership includes some senior members of the
Chinese Communist Party, including Wang Zhongyu (“vice chairman
of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political
Consultative Conference and the deputy secretary of the Party
Leadership Group”), Ma Weihua (director of several Chinese
Communist Party offices), Jiang Xipei (member of the 16th National
Congress), and others.72
“I know it is political season and people are hesitant but a group
like this does not come along every day,” the email stated. “A tour of
the white house and a meeting with a member of the chief of staff’s
office and John Kerry would be great.” There was a caveat: “Not
sure if one has to be registered to [do] this.” The reference here was
to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires
registration with the Justice Department when interacting with the
federal government on behalf of a foreign entity. No one responded
to the query, and no one bothered to register with the Justice
Department.73
Securing some important meetings in Washington promised Biden
and his partners “good access to [the Chinese] for any deal in the
future.” The email emphasized that the “biggest priority for the CEC
group is to see the White House, and have a senior U.S. politician,
or senior member of Obama’s administration, give them a tour.”74
Almost a week later, Archer got a follow-up email inquiring how the
meeting went with the CEC representatives. It finished, “Do me a
favor and ask Hunter [Biden] to call me—I’ve tried reaching him a
couple of times.” Archer replied, “Hunter is traveling in the UAE for
the week with royalty so probably next week before he will be back in
pocket… . The meeting with [CEC representative] was good.
Seems like there is a lot to do together down the line.”75
A minute later, Archer followed up after deleting Hunter from his
reply, “Couldn’t confirm this with Hunter on the line but we got him
his meeting at the WH Monday for the Chinese folks.”76 One
wonders if Archer was being careful to cloak Hunter’s role in
acquiring that “WH” access.
Meeting archives from the Obama-Biden administration show that
on November 14, 2011, this Chinese delegation visited the White
House, and was afforded high-level access. According to White
House visitor logs, there were approximately thirty members in the
delegation.77
Curiously, the White House visitor logs do not mention what would
have been the prize ring for the Chinese delegation: meeting Vice
President Joe Biden. But the vice president may well have had such
an off-the-books meeting, as one of the core founders of the Chinese
group has revealed. In a listing of the CEC members’ biographies,
CEC secretary-general Maggie Cheng claims that she arranged the
CEC delegation meetings in Washington in 2011 and brags of the
Washington elites with which the CEC met. The showcase name
was Vice President Joe Biden.78
Hunter Biden would also personally signal to Chinese officials that
a deal he wanted was important to his father when he became
involved in another financial venture called Burnham Asset
Management. The venture included his friend Devon Archer and a
businessman named Jason Galanis. They were in active
communication with Henry Zhao, who had helped launch BHR. Zhao
was eager to use his company, Harvest Global, in which he was
partners with the daughter of the former head of Chinese
intelligence, to strike more deals with Hunter.
“Henry we believe, is still interested in doing the JV deal if a fair
evaluation of Burnham can be agreed to and if YOU as a deal maker
are inside Burnham,” wrote James Bulger to Hunter and Schwerin in
October 2014. He added, “Henry holds you in very high regard.”79
But even outside of the Burnham deal, Zhao seemed eager to cut
deals with the son of the vice president. “Henry remains committed
to also making something work with myself and Hunter outside of
this Burnham matter as mentioned before,” Bulger later wrote to
them. “He has a few interesting ideas.”80
On a previous occasion, Zhao apparently suggested ways to
structure a deal “thereby putting money directly into our pockets.”81
“I look forward to seeing you soon—in Beijing or in U.S.,” Zhao
wrote to Hunter. “And thank you very much for the picture frame you
sent over! I will put our photo in it.”82
Hunter Biden was all in, happy to be working with Harvest. “I know
that we all look forward to participating in the building of Harvest’s
global platform,” he wrote Zhao in April 2016. “Burnham can have no
greater partner than Harvest and I am honored that you chose to
partner with us on this.”83
It does appear clear that Hunter solicited a $15 million investment
from Zhao, saying as an inducement that the investment was
“important to his family,” a likely reference to his father.84
It is not possible to know the full extent of Hunter Biden’s financial
ties to Harvest, but court documents indicate that Zhao’s firm sent $5
million to Burnham.85 “Harvest finance has instructed bank to wire
the fund to you today,” a Harvest executive wrote to Hunter in early
2016. “You should receive it in a day or two.”86 As we will see,
several other partners corroborate Hunter’s paternal name-dropping
in other arrangements involving Chinese firms.
Between these two deals, Hunter had received some $25 million
from Chinese businessmen who were tied to the highest levels of
Chinese intelligence. There would be more.
Joe Biden regularly met with his son’s foreign clients, particularly
those from China and Ukraine. Several of these meetings were held
“off the books,” meaning they do not show up on White House visitor
logs. Beyond the gathering in 2011 with Chinese executives in the
White House, the email record suggests that Joe Biden also met with
Burisma “fixer” Vadym Pozharskyi. (Burisma was paying Hunter $1
million a year at the time.87) “Dear Hunter,” he wrote to Biden in April
2015, “thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to
meet your father and spent some time together. It’s realty an honor
and pleasure.”88 Biden’s spokespeople have not denied that Biden
may have met Pozharskyi, instead claiming that any such meeting
would have been “informal” and “cursory.”89
Hunter Biden’s business associates spoke candidly in emails
about Hunter Biden’s unique role in the business, tied to his high-
level access to the White House. This was particularly the case
when it came to Chinese deals. In an email on November 4, 2014,
Jason Galanis discussed a draft pitch he was preparing for possible
investors. “I wanted to focus on the ‘other currency’ we are bringing
to the table… . direct [Obama] administration pipeline.”90
One important part of that political network was Max Baucus, who
served as U.S. ambassador to China. Baucus, as you recall, served
in the U.S. Senate alongside Joe Biden for many years. We will learn
more about Ambassador Baucus and his financial arrangements with
Beijing in chapter 6. As Hunter wrote to his business partners, “On
Baucus- we have a very very good relationship and I can ask
anything we need.”91
Hunter’s new connections at the highest levels of power in Beijing
became a calling card for prospective clients and investors for his
firm. John DeLoche, who ran the Hunter-linked firm Rosemont
Seneca Technology Partners, wrote the following in a May 2014
email to a prospective client, copying Hunter. “We have deep
relationships in China and could introduce you to a number of
potential partners including China Investment Corporation (CIC), a
$400bn sovereign wealth fund as well as several other potential
investors/partners. Hunter and Devon spend a lot of time in the
region and will come back to us with a full list of potential intros for
your thoughts next week.”92
Stateside, Chinese state-owned conglomerates were soon coming
to Hunter’s small firm looking for help. Another Chinese sovereign
wealth fund (CITIC) approached Rosemont and asked Hunter Biden
for introductions to U.S. companies, some involving strategic
industries where Beijing was looking to expand. In one instance,
Chinese investors wanted to get into the aviation business. “She [the
CITIC executive] kept emphasizing how much money they have and
are willing to commit to these ventures,” Schwerin wrote to Hunter in
May 2014.93
Vice President Joe Biden continued to emphasize in his
discussions that China was not a rival or a threat to the United
States and that a rising China was good for America. As he said in
May 2011, “a rising China is a positive, positive development, not
only for China but for America and the world writ large.”94
Meanwhile, Hunter was becoming involved in an increasing
number of Chinese deals that served the national goals of Beijing in
its competition with the United States. One deal involved a plan to
buy the Greek national railway (TrainOSE), which was being
privatized. Hunter Biden and his business partners were planning to
do so with Chinese money. Beijing would finance the deal, and he
and his partners would make it happen.95 It would be a strategically
important move for the Chinese government, and the involvement of
Hunter’s firm would probably make the deal more palatable for
Western governments who were increasingly concerned about the
growing influence of Beijing in Europe.
Who was Hunter’s Chinese partner? It was the China Ocean
Shipping Corporation (COSCO), a state-controlled firm with deep
ties to the Chinese military. Some military strategists call the
company the “fifth arm of the Chinese Navy.”96
China’s President Xi was particularly proud of the role COSCO
was playing in Europe. “COSCO is the dragon’s head for China in
Greece,” he proclaimed.97
COSCO already owned most of a Greek port in Piraeus, and part
of their geostrategic plan was to invest in infrastructure projects from
the western Balkans leading to the port. The United States had
major concerns that Chinese state-linked firms were making inroads
in central Europe in a way that would provide Beijing with a strategic
advantage. (Harvard’s Philippe Le Corre testified before the U.S.
Congress that the COSCO-owned port in Greece is a regional “hub”
of China’s New Silk Road.98) Analysts also note that China’s “string
of pearls” strategy was designed to use ports across the region to
“mount a challenge” to the U.S. Navy.99
Buying the Greek railroad system would help Beijing even further.
The “new route of Chinese products via Piraeus port is 8 days faster
than any other route to central Europe,” assured Paris Kokorotsikos
in an email to Hunter and his business partners.100 The arrangement
was simple: COSCO would pay for everything and finance 100
percent of the purchase price of the rail passenger business.101 As a
result, Hunter Biden and his partners would be able to “make money
without any investment.”102 COSCO did not object.103
Hunter’s Greek partner was an old family friend: Michael
Karloutsos, the son of Father Alex Karloutsos, a senior official in the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. The Karloutsoses and the
Bidens had a strong friendship going back decades. They first met in
1980. Father Alex’s wife serves on the board of directors of the Beau
Biden Foundation. When Biden was elected president in 2020,
Father Alex had to dispel rumors that he would join the incoming
administration.104
The deal with COSCO to buy the Greek railroad fell through. The
Italian National Railway outbid the Chinese–Hunter Biden partners
for the assets.105 But Hunter’s willingness to participate in deals that
would benefit Beijing geostrategically was becoming a pattern. And
there were other deals with COSCO that would be secured.
Hunter cofounded a real estate company with Devon Archer and
other partners called Rosemont Realty.106 They held commercial real
estate properties throughout the United States. Hunter had tried to
find investors on his 2011 trip to China and Taiwan, explaining that
“some of the United State’s wealthiest families have entrusted
Rosemont Realty to manage real estate investments for years.”107
But he apparently got little or no interest.
In 2014, as the deals with Beijing were beginning to bear fruit,
Hunter and his partners received an “unsolicited offer” from a Hong
Kong–based firm called Gemini Investments to buy the real estate
business. According to internal emails, “It’s a unique conduit for
Chinese investors as well looking to deploy capital in the U.S. in real
estate.”108
Gemini’s pedigree was similar to the other companies Hunter was
dealing with: they had deep intelligence or military connections. In
the case of Gemini, the parent company was then called Sino-Ocean
Land (now Sino-Ocean Group), and was “one of the largest real
estate companies in Beijing.”109 The chairman of Sino-Ocean Land
was also the chairman of COSCO.110 It is a state-owned entity.
According to several governments, including Japan, “Chinese
intelligence services are closely linked” to COSCO.111 This would be
yet another large deal that Hunter and his partners secured with
Chinese espionage-linked firms.
How much the Chinese firm paid for Rosemont is hard to know.
Gemini bought a 75 percent stake in the company. The terms
included a $3 billion commitment from the Chinese to inject capital
into the company.112 According to Hunter Biden’s emails, he retained
his stake in Rosemont even with the new Chinese ownership. It is
not clear how much money he made in the deal.113
In 2015, Hunter Biden received a $188,616.56 payment from
Rosemont Realty. It is not known what other monies might have
come his way or whether he still holds a stake in the company.114
In December 2015, Hunter Biden was approached by Vuk Jeremic,
who served as Serbian foreign minister and had worked with Vice
President Joe Biden.115 Jeremic later became head of the UN
General Assembly.116 He wanted to set up a private meeting with one
of China’s wealthiest and most connected businessmen. “On
Sunday, December 6, I will have a private dinner in DC with an old
friend from China - Ye Jiemaing [Jianming] - one of the 10 wealthiest
Chinese businessmen. He is the Chairman and majority owner of
CEFC China Energy, a second-largest privately owned company on
Shanghai stock exchange,” Jeremic wrote to Eric Schwerin. “He’s
very young and dynamic (39), with the top-level connections in his
country.” This was not the only attempt to connect Ye and Hunter.117
Schwerin responded: “It is interesting that you raised the CEFC
Chairman. We actually were approached by an acquaintance of
Hunter’s about setting up a meeting for Hunter with the same
gentleman for next week as well. We weren’t sure if it was
worthwhile but the fact that he is friend’s with you makes us feel
better about this.”118
Ye is thin, handsome, and is usually found in a well-tailored suit.
Even in Chinese circles, he is an enigma, where there are wild
speculations about how he became one of China’s biggest financial
players at such a young age. As we will see, his “top-level
connections” include the Chinese intelligence service and the
military.
Hunter Biden developed a close working relationship with Ye on a
number of fronts. As Hunter explained to his business partner Tony
Bobulinski in text messages, he spoke with Ye on a “regular basis”
because “we have a standing once a week call as I am also his
personal counsel (we signed an attorney client engagement letter) in
the U.S.” Hunter also said he was advising Ye “on a number of his
personal issues (staff visas and some more sensitive things).”119
Hunter also worked with Ye and his associates with the hopes of
developing CEFC into a global energy company with vast energy
holdings in countries like Oman, Romania, Colombia, and
Luxembourg. Hunter was central to this effort and was responsible
for “writing to all parties and organizing meetings to continue CEFC
promote [sic], as well as approving step-by-step strategic and
operational elements.”120
Like Che Feng, Henry Zhao, and companies like COSCO, Ye’s
strong ties to Chinese intelligence are worth noting.
CEFC was housed in a complex in Shanghai’s French Concession
section, an area “primarily controlled by China’s military.”121 One of
Ye’s early business partners was the granddaughter of “one of the
founders of China’s military,” Marshal Ye Jianying.122
The corporate logo of the company Hunter Biden was now
advising, and which would pay him millions, features a star.
According to company records on its English website, it represents
“civil rights.” However, on the company’s Chinese-language site, the
star signifies that “this organization will play a strong and powerful
role for the interests of the Chinese state and nation.”123
Ye built his business by acquiring assets from Lai Changxing, a
former PLA officer closely linked with Chinese military intelligence.
Lai reportedly drove a bulletproof Mercedes around Beijing with a
license plate adorned with a distinctive Chinese character in red—an
indication that his car was owned by the PLA General Staff.124
Ye has other connections to the Chinese government’s military,
intelligence, and political apparatus. He was the deputy secretary-
general of either the China Association for International Friendly
Contact (CAIFC) or CAIFC’s Shanghai branch from 2003 to 2005.
CAIFC is funded by Chinese PLA intelligence. Finally, there are
Chinese military officers affiliated with Ye’s company who are also
tied to the PLA National Defense University.125 Beyond the military
and intelligence ties, CEFC has also cosponsored events with neo-
Maoist and hard-line nationalists in China who want to radically
expand Beijing’s global reach.126 The CEFC funded a related
nonprofit think tank called the China Energy Fund Committee.127
While the Fund Committee sponsored events and research
advocating China’s territorial claims, another subsidiary, the China
Institute of Culture, pledged support for Taiwan’s reunification with
mainland China.128 One China Energy Fund Committee analyst,
Long Tao, wrote a piece for the government-linked Global Times in
2011 titled “The present is a golden opportunity to use force in the
South China Sea.” The piece was blunt and is worth quoting at
length:
One should not be afraid of small-scale wars, for they are a good way to
release fighting potential. By fighting several small wars one can avoid
a large war… . The South China Sea region has more than 1,000 oil
and gas wells, but none of them belong to China. There are four
airports in the Spratly Islands, but Mainland China does not have one.
China has no other important economic installations. Leaving aside the
issue of winning and losing, as soon as war commences the South
China Sea will inevitably become a sea of fire. When those towering oil
drilling platforms become flaming torches, who will be hurt the most? As
soon as the fighting begins, all those Western oil and gas companies
will inevitably withdraw, so who will lose the most? … As far as China
is concerned, this is the best battleground.129
In brief, Hunter Biden was now the U.S. representative for an
intelligence- and military-linked Chinese company that was
supporting voices calling for an aggressive military posture against
the United States and its allies.
The red flashing lights blink on.
Ye’s companies and affiliates have conducted several joint
programs with the People’s Liberation Army General Political
Department Liaison Department advancing Beijing’s political
interests around the globe.130
Ye was at the center of Beijing’s economic strategy. His firm,
CEFC, saw itself as playing an important and central role in
advancing China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which was designed to
expand Chinese economic and political influence worldwide.131
Accordingly, CEFC was also an oil supplier to the People’s Liberation
Army.132
According to CEFC corporate documents sent to Tony Bobulinski
and referenced by the office of Senator Charles Grassley in a letter
to the Department of Justice, CEFC’s corporate mission was to
“expand cooperation in the international energy economy and
contribute to the national development.” Those same documents
allow that CEFC is “dedicating itself to serving China’s national
energy strategy,” “developing national strategic reserves [for oil],”
and “partnering with centrally-administered and state-owned
enterprises.” The records leave no doubt that CEFC was part and
parcel of the communist Chinese government.133
CEFC had large ambitions in the United States and around the
world. One plan was to invest in U.S. infrastructure. Two entities,
Hudson West IV and SinoHawk, were set up where Ye could invest
money to make it happen. Hunter Biden was involved in running
those efforts, but because he lacked any expertise, an experienced
financial manager was brought in to run the infrastructure fund. Tony
Bobulinski, who had managed money for some of the wealthiest
people in the world, had plenty of experience managing international
deals. He spent time with Hunter Biden and his uncle, James Biden,
who was also involved. He even met with Joe Biden.134
Bobulinski quickly learned from one associate that the subject of
Joe Biden’s involvement with these ventures was always a sensitive
issue. “Don’t mention Joe being involved,” James Gilliar wrote to
Bobulinski in one message, laying out the ground rules. He
continued, “it’s only when you are face to face, I know u know but
they are paranoid.”135
Bobulinski soon started clashing with Hunter Biden, who was
unhappy with the payment package he was going to receive from the
venture. The $850,000 salary and a 20 percent equity stake were not
enough. Hunter was to hold another 10 percent of the equity for “the
Big Guy” [Joe Biden], according to the correspondence. Hunter
wanted more money and pulled the Biden card on Bobulinski. He
wrote in blunt, stark terms that Ye and his company are “both coming
to be MY partner and to be partners with the Bidens.”136
Bobulinski could see that Hunter brought little practical experience
to the table and that the deal would draw alarm bells from Biden
family friends and lawyers. “If you are so worried about your family,”
Bobulinski wrote him back, “you wouldn’t be doing this because as u
said, all of your dad’s lawyers and any lawyer would advise you and
Jim not to touch this with a 100 foot pole.”137
Touch it they did.
Indeed, Hunter Biden had big plans for his friends at CEFC and
his family and sought to simplify matters by fusing CEFC with his
family. In 2017, he made plans to house his businesses, the Biden
Foundation, one of his father’s offices, and CEFC together in an
office space in Washington. In an email for signage, Hunter said he
had “new office mates: Joe Biden Jill Biden Jim Biden Gongwen
Dong (Chairman Ye CEFC emissary),” and that, “I would like the
office sign to reflect the following The Biden Foundation Hudson
West (CEFC U.S.). The lease will remain under my company’s name
Rosemont Seneca.”138
Who exactly is Gongwen Dong, the office mate and business
partner of the Bidens, including former Vice President Joe Biden? In
addition to being the “emissary” for Chairman Ye of CEFC, he had
other notable ties to those embedded in Chinese intelligence and
foreign influence operations. At the time he was also the chief
financial officer at the Beijing-based Radiance Property Holdings.139
The firm, now Radiance Holdings, is controlled and run by Lam Ting
Keung, a businessman with deep connections to “united front”
groups linked to Chinese intelligence. Lam is also a member of the
Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a high-ranking
Communist Party advisory body that is also a central component of
the Chinese government’s united front efforts.140 According to a U.S.
federal government commission, united front organizations often
serve as covers for Chinese intelligence operations.141
It appears that the Bidens and Dong were destined to be office
and business partners. Why none of this set off red flags with the
Bidens or those in their camp is a complete mystery. Did they not
even bother to look because it would prevent them from cashing in?
Or did they know and not care?
The money began to flow. Over about a year, CEFC sent Hunter
close to $6 million.142 By July 2017, CEFC began making interest-
free, forgivable loans to the Biden family. CEFC executive Zhao
Runlong wrote that the $5 million was intended as money “lent to the
BD family,” not just Hunter.
“This $5 million loan to the BD [Biden] family is interest free,” Zhao
wrote. “But if the 5M is used up, should CEFC keep lending more to
the family?”143 Interest-free loans provide tremendous leverage
because the lender can demand its money back if it is displeased by
any action.
In August 2017, CEFC Infrastructure Investment LLC sent
Hunter’s law firm, Owasco, $100,000. Four days later, the firm wired
$5 million to another entity controlled by Ye. That firm then started
sending regular payments to Owasco. According to the U.S. Senate
report, Hunter then transferred close to $1.4 million of that money to
a firm called Lion Hall Group, which was controlled by his uncle
James Biden and his wife, Sara Biden.
On September 8, 2017, Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong, Ye’s
U.S. operative, applied for a line of credit. Hunter, his uncle James,
and his aunt Sara became authorized users for the credit cards on
the account. They bought $100,000 in luxury items.144
But then suddenly, the FBI intervened—unintentionally—in
Hunter’s plans.
Patrick Ho was one of Ye’s “top lieutenants” and a senior
executive with CEFC (Fund). Ho, who had once been the home
affairs secretary in Hong Kong, had a chubby face, wore wire-
rimmed glasses, and carried a broad smile. In November 2017, the
FBI arrested him in New York City on bribery charges. He had
reportedly offered money to African officials as part of a “bold
operation” involving “channelling illicit payments to UN diplomats—
via a network of middlemen, millionaires and suspected spies.” While
working in New York, he also was a “tireless advocate” for President
Xi’s “signature venture” at the United Nations.145
One of the first phone calls he placed from behind bars was to
James Biden; he was searching for Hunter.146 Despite a lack of a
background in criminal defense law, CEFC hired Hunter to provide
legal representation in the case. A $1 million retainer was paid to his
LLC, Owasco.147 Hunter Biden would refer to the cherubic-faced
Patrick Ho as “the f**king spy chief of China,” more intrigued than
anxious about that affiliation.148
Ho pleaded guilty and went to jail. Hunter Biden later told the New
Yorker he did not believe that Ye was “a shady character at all” and
said the event was only “bad luck.”149
Before Ho went to jail, Hunter was provided an assistant named
JiaQi Bao. Bao received her master’s degree from China’s Tsinghua
University, where her studies were financed by a government
scholarship. After graduating, she worked as a research assistant at
the Chinese government’s National Development and Reform
Commission, which is responsible for the management of the
country’s economy. That employer is under the control of the State
Council, the government’s ruling body. Next, she moved to OneGate
Capital, a Shanghai-based investment firm with ventures funded by
Chinese government entities.150 One of OneGate Capital’s partners
is Leon Lin (Lin Xuchu), who is closely tied to the CCP.151
Bao offered Hunter advice on everything from energy deals to his
father’s presidential campaign.152 She also handled a “monthly wire
instruction” concerning the transfer of financial payments.153 When
the CEFC infrastructure fund, known as Hudson West, folded, she
offered him some curious advice: “Whatever money from Hudson
West, please take them, take as much as possible or figure out a
way to spend them for your own benefit … just take it and keep as
much as possible.”154
In February 2017, the University of Pennsylvania announced that
former vice president Joe Biden was appointed to a professorship,
and the Biden Center was being launched, to promote the former
vice president’s vision for global affairs. On the website of the Biden
Center, they tout the fact that Biden “has fought to secure American
global leadership by defending and advancing a liberal international
order.”155 They note the challenge posed by Russia. “In particular,
under President Putin, Russia seeks to return to an era when the
use of force prevails and the world is carved into spheres of
influence.” Also mentioned is “climate change,” as well as epidemics,
terrorism, and cyber attacks.156
But there is not a single mention of Beijing as posing any sort of
challenge or threat. Instead, in a section called “Advancing the
Dialogue of Globalism,” there is a featured photo of Vice President
Joe Biden with then vice president Xi.157
When Joe Biden hit the campaign trail for the presidency, after his
family had received that $31 million from Chinese intelligence–linked
businessmen, he continued to dismiss the challenges posed by
China. “China’s going to eat our lunch? C’mon, man,” he told a
campaign rally in Iowa. He added, “They are not bad folks, folks. But
guess what? They are not [unintelligible] competition for us.”158
From the beginning, the Biden Center was populated with close
aides and allies of the former vice president who would go on to
serve in his presidency. This, of course, is not unusual. Steve
Ricchetti, a longtime aide, served as the managing director of the
Penn Biden Center for a time. Tony Blinken, another close aide, also
served as the center’s managing director before heading off to work
on the presidential campaign in 2019.
When Joe Biden was elected president, Ricchetti became White
House counselor, Blinken the U.S. secretary of state.159
Tony Blinken, when he served as an advisor to Vice President
Biden, reportedly played a central role in denying asylum to a high-
ranking Chinese Communist Party official who was hoping to defect.
Wang Lijun was the “highest ranking Chinese official to ever offer to
defect to the United States.” In early February 2012, after being
recently fired from his senior post in the Public Security Bureau,
Wang snuck into the U.S. consulate in Chengdu dressed in women’s
clothing. For thirty hours, Wang met with U.S. officials and offered to
share everything that he knew—a clear intelligence boon. But
Blinken reportedly halted the defection on fears that it would
embarrass China on the eve of meetings with the Obama
administration. Wang was forced to leave the consulate and face his
fate with Beijing authorities—a fifteen-year sentence in prison.
Blinken has claimed that he had no involvement in the Wang case.160
To run an organization like the Biden Center takes millions of
dollars a year, and that money needs to be raised. In this case, there
is a lot of mystery about where the funding originates. Under
Ricchetti and Blinken, and to this day, the Biden Center does not
seem to publish financials separate from the university regarding
donations—whether foreign or domestic. In short, there is no obvious
disclosure record of who funds the Biden Center.
Yet, the flow of money to the University of Pennsylvania should
raise some eyebrows and offer clues as to who is financing the
Biden Center’s operations.
One trend is unmistakable: after the Biden Center’s
announcement that it was opening at the University of Pennsylvania,
donations from the Chinese mainland to Penn almost tripled. In the
three years before the announcement, the university received
around $15 million. In the three years after, the total was close to
$40 million. The latter number is $60 million from China if you
include contracts.161
Much of the Chinese money that flowed to UPenn after the
opening of the Biden Center is anonymous. What we do know about
some of the donors raises important questions. On April 19, 2018,
just weeks after the Biden Center opened, China Merchants Bank
sent a $950,000 contribution to Penn. The bank is a state-owned
enterprise under the direct supervision of the State Council.162
On August 2, 2019, a mysterious Chinese firm called Cathay
Fortune sent $1 million. The founder and head of the firm is Yu Yong,
described by the Australian Financial Review as a “secretive
Chinese billionaire, who appears to have strong links with the
Communist Party.”163 Cathay itself is the controlling shareholder of a
Chinese company called China Molybdenum.164 Molybdenum is a
critical mineral for military construction: it helps make steel more
solid. China Molybdenum also happened to be involved in a joint
venture with Hunter Biden’s BHR investment fund, investing in an
African copper mine together.165
Secretary of State Blinken, while he was running the Biden Center,
also had a private consultancy called WestExec. One of that firm’s
roles: helping “U.S. research universities” navigate problems arising
from receiving research grants from the U.S. Department of Defense
while also taking foreign money from China. WestExec listed this as
one of their services on their website—until shortly before Joe Biden
accepted the nomination for the presidency at the Democratic
National Convention in August 2020.
Then they mysteriously deleted it.166
During his first nine months as president, Joe Biden toughened his
rhetoric toward Beijing. But in keeping with the dictum “big help with
a little badmouth,” Beijing should certainly be happy with the overall
posture of the Biden administration. The talk is tougher, but the main
tenets of the foreign policy that Beijing wants Washington to pursue
are secure: no radical reduction in the transfer of technology or
capital from America to Beijing, no fundamental challenges to the
Chinese regime, and mild criticisms over human rights accompanied
by excuses for their conduct.
While the administration acknowledges that China is out to replace
the United States as the world’s convening power, they also insist, in
the words of Tony Blinken, that “our purpose is not to contain
China.”167 While President Biden criticizes China on human rights, he
also makes excuses. He explained on CNN, for example, that
human rights abuses were about President Xi trying to “unify” the
country.
“If you know anything about Chinese history, it has always been,
the time when China has been victimized by the outer world is when
they haven’t been unified at home,” President Biden began. “So the
central—it’s vastly overstated—the central principle of Xi Jinping is
that there must be a united, tightly controlled China, and he uses his
rationale for the things he does based on that.”168
He continued: “And so the idea I’m not going to speak out against
what he’s doing in Hong Kong, what he’s doing with the Uighurs in
the western mountains of China … Culturally there are different
norms in each country, and their leaders are expected to follow.”169
America’s First Family has enjoyed deep financial dealings
involving tens of millions of dollars with Chinese entities and
businessmen with direct ties to Chinese intelligence. Indeed, every
deal the Bidens secured in China involved individuals deeply
connected to the CCP spy apparatus. The beneficiaries of these
deals include Hunter Biden and James Biden, the son and brother of
President Biden. Rosemont Seneca appears to have set up separate
phone lines to reach Joe Biden, and paid for that monthly bill, which
is not legal. And as we have seen, Hunter Biden and Joe Biden
blurred their funds and according to Hunter, he contributed
considerably to his dad’s financial well-being.
Will the Bidens answer questions about their troubling financial
ties to Chinese intelligence-linked officials? Will they explain how
and why he was accepting financial support from his son? History
shows they have been evasive and changed their story numerous
times, and too many members of the media show a lack of curiosity.
When Secret Empires was released in March 2018, it soared to
number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and yet, much of
the media ignored it. However, we now know that the FBI formally
launched an investigation into Hunter Biden’s commercial deals in
China later that year. As of this writing, the investigation is still under
way.170
The initial response from the Biden camp concerning the details in
the book was essentially no response. They explained to the Wall
Street Journal, “We aren’t going to engage on a politically motivated
hit piece.” Attacking the messenger, not the evidence, is a tried-and-
true approach in Washington to avoid talking about the facts. The
response from Senator Mitch McConnell, who was also featured in
the book, was largely the same.171 But as the story began to get
more attention, Team Biden was forced to engage. Their position
became simply that Joe Biden did not know about his family’s foreign
deals, including Hunter’s. “I have never discussed with my son or my
brother or anyone else anything having to do with their businesses.
Period,” then-candidate Joe Biden told reporters at a South Carolina
campaign stop in August 2019.172 It was a position he would repeat
for months.173
Then, as evidence emerged that he had indeed discussed
business with his son, and that he had actually met some of Hunter’s
business partners, the Biden position shifted. The story now became
that the Biden family might have talked about business, and Joe
Biden might have even met some of Hunter’s business partners, but
he never directly benefited from his son’s business deals, and he
certainly did not help him. “I have not taken a penny from any foreign
source, ever, in my life,” Biden said at the October 22, 2020,
presidential debate.174
While technically true, Hunter Biden has declared that he was
paying at least some of his father’s bills. With that, Hunter’s “half
[his] salary” complaint, other curious, financial correspondence
mentioning “JRB,” “the Big Guy,” and Joe Biden’s mortgage, it is
hard to make sense of Hunter’s foreign financial arrangements as
being completely exempt from Joe’s influence—or his benefit.
Clearly, there were deep divisions within the Biden camp and
family about how to handle our early revelations regarding their
financial deals in China. In one text tirade to a family member,
Hunter linked to both a New York Post article I cowrote and the
Amazon landing page for my book, Secret Empires. “[Y]ou see
anyone defend me? You don’t. You see one word of denial from dad
or his staff [?]”175
In sum, each deal the Bidens secured in China was via a
businessman with deep ties at the highest levels of Chinese
intelligence. And in each case there appears to be little discernible
business or professional service that was rendered in return for the
money.
With their cultivation of a close financial relationship with the Biden
family, Beijing has climbed the mountaintop of influence in American
politics. Being financially bonded to the First Family provides
enormous opportunities for leverage. But Beijing’s effort at elite
capture is not a one-family problem. Beijing has quietly walked their
way through other powerful institutions in Washington, D.C., Wall
Street, and Silicon Valley. Let us take a look at who else among the
political elite have forged financial ties with Beijing.
3
Capitol Hill
They call it a SCIF—pronounced “skiff.”
A Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) is among
the most exclusive real estate in Washington. Vault-like hardened
rooms, they come with heavy steel doors, secured communication
lines, protected ventilation systems, and walls lined with a special
acoustic material to prevent eavesdropping.1
It is here where the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
convenes when discussing America’s deepest national security
secrets. With oversight of America’s eighteen civilian and military
intelligence agencies, the committee has eyes and ears on much of
the intelligence America collects overseas.2 California senator
Dianne Feinstein, without a doubt, has spent plenty of time inside a
SCIF. She first joined that committee in 2001 and served as
chairman starting in 2009.3
A SCIF can prevent a foreign government from listening in on
sensitive conversations involving America’s top decision makers.
What all that steel and acoustic material cannot do is halt a foreign
government from tempting those meeting inside with financial
inducements and persuading them to take favorable actions on that
government’s behalf.
Since the early 1990s, Senator Feinstein has been extremely
influential in American politics; an often-overlooked political force. As
a U.S. senator from the largest and arguably most powerful state in
the country, she has significant duties and a voice at the most
important tables in Washington. She also has deep ties to
California’s political class. Feinstein conducted Governor Jerry
Brown’s wedding and hosted a wedding shower for Governor Gavin
Newsom in her Pacific Heights home.4
Senator Feinstein and others in senior positions on Capitol Hill
have profited greatly from the financial largesse of Beijing. Along the
way, they have pursued policies beneficial to the regime and verbally
supported some of its most brutal actions. Some have even
advocated on behalf of Chinese military-linked companies for the
right price. As we will see, it is a stunning galaxy of powerful figures
on both sides of the political aisle.
China must have begun this campaign with seemingly impossible
hopes. Could they get major U.S. politicians to excuse China’s
crimes as no different than America’s? Could they get them to say,
“China has a different culture,” and that is all there is to it? Could
they get them to switch positions or do them favors? That must have
seemed too much to wish for.
In Washington, D.C., Senator Feinstein has been at the center of
U.S. foreign policy for decades, serving first as a member of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee before joining the intelligence
committee.5
Beijing speaks favorably of Feinstein. Chinese official media often
quotes Feinstein’s statements, and they even praise her fashion
sense. “Member Dianne Feinstein also caught my attention,”
Chinese fashion designer Ma Yanli was quoted by a Chinese news
network after an official Washington event. “Her crimson coat and lip
color perfectly showed her personality and left an impression of
stability and trust.”6
Feinstein admits to having a soft spot for China. “I sometimes say
that in my last life maybe I was Chinese.”7 To be more specific, she
has a soft spot for the Chinese communist regime. She has claimed
that in some respects, China is more democratic than the United
States. “Chinese society continues to open up with looser ideological
controls, freer access to outside sources of information and
increased media reporting. More people in China vote for their
leadership on the local level than do Americans.”8 Never mind the
Communist Party monopoly on power.
Feinstein’s relationship with Chinese officials runs deep.
Appointed mayor of San Francisco in 1978, she moved quickly to
cultivate a closer relationship with China. In 1979, the United States
normalized relations with China. In 1980, she married Richard Blum,
an investor with an interest in doing deals in China.9 With its diverse
population and geographic location, the City by the Bay was a logical
place to forge early ties with China as it was emerging from the
brutal Maoist era. Feinstein developed a “sister city” relationship
between San Francisco and Shanghai. That initiative proved
particularly fruitful because the mayor of Shanghai then was Jiang
Zemin. He would later be elevated to general secretary of the
Chinese Communist Party and president of the People’s Republic of
China. In 1982, she visited Shanghai with her husband. Mayor
Feinstein waltzed with Mayor Jiang as he sang, “One Day When We
Were Young.”10
Feinstein made it clear early that her sense of China was a
political one more than an ethnic one. She was interested in closer
ties with the Chinese mainland—not with the island nation of Taiwan.
She even went so far as to press organizers of the city’s popular
“Chinese New Year Parade” to stop displaying the Taiwanese flag—
lest they offend Beijing. “She wanted to encourage trade with
China.”11
Her husband, Richard Blum, had established a merchant banking
and money management firm called Richard C. Blum & Associates
back around 1975. Publicly, he prided himself on not investing in
companies that are “politically or sociologically incorrect, such as
those with interests in South Africa, tobacco or gambling.”12 China,
despite its massive human rights problems, was apparently not on
his list of the morally repugnant. Blum would establish a myriad of
firms and partnerships that would do enormous amounts of business
with China.
As his wife moved San Francisco to embrace the Chinese regime,
Blum began to reap the benefits of the relationship forged with Jiang
Zemin. He became one of the earliest American investors in China.
In the 1980s, he was vice chairman and director of a company called
Shanghai Pacific Partners. That firm created a joint venture with a
Chinese government bank called Shanghai Investment and Trust
Company. Together they constructed a $30 million complex in that
bustling city. The horror of Tiananmen Square came in 1989, and
Blum claims that he suspended doing business with Shanghai
Investment and Trust. Nevertheless, he remained the Chinese
government bank’s “foreign advisor,” according to corporate
records.13 He also apparently never severed ties to the group’s vice
president, W. K. Zhang, who ended up joining Blum’s Shanghai
Pacific Partners also as vice president. Zhang was instrumental in
maintaining the fateful sister-city relationship that Feinstein and
Jiang fostered, as it was his job to coordinate Jiang’s trips to San
Francisco.14
In 1992, Feinstein ran for the U.S. Senate and won.15 Her husband
had raised substantial amounts of money for the campaign.16
Feinstein moved to Washington, and Blum mostly stayed in the Bay
Area. His deals with China multiplied.17
In 1994, he launched a firm called Newbridge Capital with his
friend David Bonderman. Zhang joined the firm. An affiliate,
Newbridge Asia, set up an office in Shanghai. The fund invested in
several state-owned and government-linked firms.18
The deals were unusual and groundbreaking. Around 2004,
Newbridge bought an 18 percent stake in Shenzhen Development
Bank, a Chinese government-controlled lender. It was the first time
that a foreign company could buy an equity stake in a bank. The
Wall Street Journal called it a “landmark deal.”19
“Newbridge has been a pioneer in turning around and building
companies in Asia,” Blum later bragged.20 Chief among the Asian
countries was China, where political ties and connections are key.
As the Los Angeles Times put it, “Feinstein’s longtime friendship
with former Chinese political leader Jiang Zemin, dating to the days
when they were sister-city mayors in San Francisco and Shanghai,
gave Blum, who has investments in China, access to the normally
impenetrable Beijing political system.”21
There were numerous other deals as well.
Blum’s firm invested in a Chinese soybean milk company and
received $10 million in help from the International Finance
Corporation, which is part of the World Bank. According to Rashad
Kaldany, who was once head of the IFC’s capital market investments
in Asia, part of the reason the IFC went along was that “Mr. Blum
had some contacts with the Chinese.”22
While Feinstein’s political star was rising, her old friend Jiang
Zemin rose to general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. A
few years later, after Feinstein was elected to the Senate, Jiang
became president of China. He quickly extended an invitation for
Feinstein and Blum to visit Beijing and meet with the party
leadership.23
Feinstein continued to embrace the regime. In 1994, while the
U.S. Senate was considering rescinding most-favored-nation (MFN)
trade status with China because of human rights violations in the
wake of Tiananmen Square, she argued vigorously against it. Doing
so, she said, would only “inflame Beijing’s insecurities.” As she made
those comments, her husband was raising tens of millions of dollars
for the Newbridge Asia fund. That fund would later invest in several
Chinese companies, including buying nearly one-quarter of the state-
linked North Dragon Iron & Steel Works.24
The trips that Senator Feinstein and her husband made to Beijing
increased in tempo. There were three trips between 1995 and 1997,
where they met with top Communist Party officials, including
President Jiang Zemin. Once, the couple had the unique opportunity
to dine in the Communist Party’s inner sanctum, Zhongnanhai, which
is part of the old imperial gardens. Mao and his revolutionaries
selected it as their seat of government after the revolution. It is
generally “forbidden to outsiders.”25
“We had dinner in Zhongnanhai in Mao Tse-tung’s old residence in
the room where he died,” Feinstein later recalled. “We were told that
we were the first foreigners to see his bedroom and swimming pool.
It was a very historic moment to see some of these things.”26
In 1996, President Jiang held a private dinner for three U.S.
senators—Feinstein, Senator John Glenn, and Senator Sam Nunn.
U.S. intelligence officials believed it was part of Chinese efforts to
increase their influence operations in American politics. At the dinner
party, Jiang played the piano for Feinstein and talked with Glenn and
Nunn. They got the “royal treatment” from Jiang. National Security
Agency eavesdroppers later reported overhearing “brave talk about
buying access.”27
Less than a year later, Feinstein undertook a “secret weekend
mission” to visit Beijing for a private talk with President Jiang. “I know
Jiang well and my purpose was to enable him to see the U.S.
position clearly,” she said.28
Feinstein retained a soft spot for the Chinese leader, overlooking
the brutal role he had played in running the Beijing regime. As
mayor, Jiang Zemin played a central role in the Tiananmen Square
massacre. In the tumult leading up to that event, some in the security
services had proposed letting him take over for a leader soft on the
agitators. “Comrade Jiang Zemin, the mayor of Shanghai, would
make an excellent candidate,” said former Shanghai secret service
member Chen Yun. “He’s a modest man and very respectful of party
discipline.”29 While Jiang was supportive of the regime’s hard line,
Feinstein always spoke fondly of her friend, who, among other
things, opened doors for her husband’s business ventures. In the
1990s, when the Clinton White House was reluctant to honor him
with a state dinner because of his role in Tiananmen Square,
Feinstein warmly described Jiang as “the right person to lead China
to a very significant destiny.”30
In later interviews, she made excuses about what happened on
that day in June 1989. She explained that the problem was not
brutality but a lack of resources. “China had no local police,”
Feinstein said that Jiang told her. (That would be news to the Beijing
municipal public security bureau, who serve as police.) “It was just
the PLA. And no local police that had crowd control. So, hence the
tanks … But that’s the past. One learns from the past. You don’t
repeat it. I think China has learned a lesson.”31
In November 1995, Jiang Zemin convened a secret meeting of
senior officials to create what he called the “Central Working Group
to Study the U.S. Congress.” They targeted members of Congress
with junket trips to China, paid for by the government or government-
linked groups.32
The Chinese government has focused on recruiting friends—or at
least dulling its critics in Congress over the last several decades. In
1995, according to a CIA report declassified in 2006, “Chinese
Leaders created the Central Leading Group for U.S. Congressional
Affairs to oversee the task of increasing support for Chinese
objectives.” They recognized the power of Congress and their ability
to advance their objectives by working to curry favor on Capitol Hill.
One lobbyist explained: “China lobbying has become much more
sophisticated; they have a better understanding of how to use our
political system. They used to get frustrated when a presidential
administration wasn’t able to get things done with a snap of their
fingers, but now they understand the role of Congress and the
President.”33
Central to their interests in Congress was seeing the passage of
most-favored-nation trading status with the United States. He Xin, a
foreign policy advisor to two Chinese premiers in the 1990s, allowed
at the time, “The question of MFN status between China and the
United States is a central issue that will determine the rotation of
world history.”34
On June 9, 1996, Senator Dianne Feinstein and her husband held a
swanky fundraiser at their Presidio Terrace home. Newsweek
described it as “a remarkable gathering of the tribes.” Ernest Gallo,
the famous wine baron, donated the libations from his private stock.
The top dogs of the Bay Area’s largest corporations showed up,
including Oracle’s Larry Ellison and the head of Bank of America.
Also present was Xiaoming Dai, described as “chairman and CEO of
Asia Securities International, a company involved in real estate
development on both sides of the Pacific Rim.” That description
alone did not do him justice. In fact, he was an executive closely tied
to the Chinese government. Apparently, Dai did not yet know
Feinstein or her husband. He was at their home because one of the
fundraisers for the Feinstein event was John Huang, who was later
charged for funneling illegal campaign contributions to American
politicians—a controversy known as Chinagate—including Bill
Clinton and Dianne Feinstein. (After the 1996 election, the DNC
returned $1.6 million of illegal or “murky” donations to Huang.) Less
than a week before the dinner, FBI agents had warned the White
House about stepped-up efforts by Beijing to sway members of
Congress. They were looking at using even “illegal means” to direct
campaign cash to politicians. Beijing had even drawn up a list of
members that they were targeting for influence operations. One of
the names on the list was Dianne Feinstein, in part because her
husband had “major investments on the mainland.”35
The FBI warned Feinstein to be on the lookout, too. However, she
dismissed the FBI briefing as unhelpful. “Was I briefed?” Feinstein
later said in an exchange with reporters. “Yes. Was it a specific
briefing? No. It was a classified briefing. The substance of it was that
there were some credible sources that presented the FBI with the
view that the Chinese may try and funnel contributions to various
candidates. That was it. There were no specifics. How would this
happen? When would it be done? Where would it be done?” She
added that there was no reason to believe that the Chinese
government was trying to fund her campaign. “None whatsoever.”
Feinstein ended up returning campaign contributions from
employees at the Lippo Group, an Indonesian firm associated with
Dai and the Chinese that was involved in Chinagate. She dismissed
the idea that there was anything wrong with taking the money,
returning the contributions “only because they became
controversial,” she told the New York Times.36
In 2001, a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. Navy surveillance plane
collided over the Pacific, and the American aircraft made an
emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan. Chinese
officials held the crew of twenty-four for eleven days.37 Senator
Feinstein, who was on the Senate Intelligence Committee at the
time, declared that she was “deeply sorry” for what America had
done and apologized to Beijing, even though the American plane
was in international airspace.38
During Senate hearings over China’s human rights abuses, she
euphemistically referred to the regime’s abuses as Beijing’s “human
rights posture.” She went on to explain that Americans criticizing the
regime’s “posture” would have no effect because they will not
respond when “they’re preached to by others [that is, Americans]
who don’t always practice it themselves.”39 Of course, Feinstein has
criticized many foreign regimes other than China for their human
rights practices, apparently not applying the same standards to
China.40
The apologetics go on.
Feinstein minimizes the role of the CCP, explaining that the regime
is merely “socialist.” “There was originally this kind of anti-communist
view of China,” she explained in 2012. “That’s changing … China is
a socialist country but one that is increasingly becoming
capitalistic.”41
During a Senate hearing, Feinstein compared the Tiananmen
Square massacre—which reportedly killed more than ten thousand
civilians—to the standoff between federal officials and David Koresh
in Waco, Texas. “I was appalled as anyone by the tanks at
[Tiananmen] Square, but three tanks of this government went into
Waco, (Tex.) and killed 29 children. They weren’t criminals. Most of
the people in Waco had no criminal record. Now those are not
analogous; they are different situations. It was wrong of our
government, and it was wrong of the Chinese government.”42
In another instance, she argued that a human rights panel should
be created with both Chinese and American officials impaneled to
discuss “the evolution of human rights in both the United States and
China,” thereby comparing the level of rights abuse in the United
States to that of China. She believed the committee should look at
“the success and failures [of] both Tiananmen Square and Kent
State.”43
Critics pointed out that Feinstein is not naïve when she announces
these proposals. “No one believes Feinstein is sincere in calling for
such an inquiry,” wrote Ken Silverstein at the time. “Her suggestion,
the object of great scorn in Congress, is simply a smokescreen to
prevent a serious look at China’s awful record.”44
She has worked hard to protect China’s communist leadership
from embarrassment. When members of Congress introduced
legislation to name a street in front of the Chinese embassy in
Washington for Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident writer who died in
state custody, she blocked it.45
Perhaps most important, as we will see, she has been a constant
booster of commercial ties to Beijing. She made the same promises
as many others: greater commercial interaction would make China
more liberal and lead to the fading away of the Communist Party. It
would also benefit the United States economically. These predictions
proved wrong. Her wager on China has arguably ended up hurting
the United States. However, her bargain with Beijing did substantially
benefit her and her family.
For decades, Senator Feinstein has played a central role in
promoting commercial ties with China. Beyond her fond words for
Beijing—or excuses for the regime’s behavior—she was an
aggressive supporter of most-favored-nation trade status for China
with the United States and of China’s entry into the World Trade
Organization (WTO). Her argument was familiar: trade deals would
make the Chinese regime more like us, and would greatly benefit the
U.S. economy. All the while, her husband was a heavy investor in
China, working with Chinese state-backed companies—and
becoming enormously wealthy.
A Feinstein spokesman denied there was a connection between
the two. “He’s a businessman and he has a right to do business and
he’s never done anything wrong,” said Kam Kuwata.46
Blum is incredulous about the idea that the Chinese government
has benefited his businesses. “I can’t think of one single reason why
the Chinese leadership would be wanting to help us with investment
opportunities,” Blum claimed.47
For her part, Feinstein insists that there was no connection
between her political position and her husband’s deals in Beijing. “He
is in San Francisco running his business, I am in Washington being a
United States senator, and they are two separate things,” Feinstein
told reporters at one point. “I don’t know how I can prove it to people
like you. Maybe I get divorced. Maybe that is what you want.”48 Of
course, she never discussed the fact that her husband had
accompanied her during many of her official trips to Beijing.
With controversy swirling, both Feinstein and her husband claimed
that he divested himself of his mainland Chinese investments. But
her financial disclosures show that was not true.49
Blum used another one of his firms, BLUM Capital Partners and its
affiliates, to invest in high-tech, aviation, and consumer products. His
firm is involved in dozens of partnerships, including many deals with
mainland China.50
One of Richard Blum’s most significant holdings is the commercial
real estate company CB Richard Ellis. The real estate firm began its
rapid expansion into China in the 2000s, investing in Shanghai
commercial real estate with its Chinese partners. Purchasing
commercial real estate in China as a foreign investor requires the
right political connections. By 2007, CB Richard Ellis had more than
ten offices on China’s mainland.51
Blum invested in Francisco Partners, a limited partnership.
Francisco Partners acquired a company called Aeroflex in 2007.52
The company was a supplier of radiation-hardened electronics for
space and defense applications.53 That same year, Aeroflex
partnered with a Chinese aircraft maintenance and engineering
company called Ameco Beijing.54 Aeroflex is a company that has a
troubled history with China. The company later admitted that
between 2003 and 2009, it illegally sent 14,500 rad-chips to China.55
The company had failed to obtain export licenses for the chip sales,
and the advanced chips found their way onto Chinese satellites. The
Obama-era State Department wrote a letter to Aeroflex’s CEO
accusing the company of 158 Arms Export Control Act and ITAR
violations “in connection with unauthorized exports and retransfers,
and re-exports of defense articles, to include technical data, to
various countries, including proscribed destinations.” The letter said
the company’s actions “caused harm to national security by
providing the People’s Republic of China a more reliable satellite
capability.”56
According to disclosures, Blum Family Partners LP had some
stake in, and shared an address with, AEOW 2000 LP. AEOW was
invested in tech firm Agere Systems. Agere was an early and
aggressive partner with China’s ZTE Corporation and created a joint
lab.57 ZTE is a Chinese government-controlled technology company
spun off from the government’s Ministry of Aerospace Industry.58
The intersection of Feinstein’s political position and Blum’s ties to
Beijing also may have been central in getting him in on a substantial
deal involving a Chinese computer company.
Legend was a Chinese company formed by a group of
researchers from the government- and military-linked Chinese
Academy of Sciences (CAS). They eventually changed the name to
Lenovo.59 In 2005, Lenovo acquired IBM’s personal computer
business. This was a monumental moment for the company. The
acquisition would thrust Lenovo into a major role in the global
market.60 There were, of course, significant security concerns in the
United States and other countries. There were vulnerabilities
involving backdoor malware reportedly found in some Lenovo
devices. In response, government agencies from the United States,
Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia issued bans on
using Lenovo devices for tasks involving sensitive information.61
Lenovo’s plans triggered a federal government review of the
transaction. (Recall that Feinstein sat on the Senate Intelligence
Committee at the time.) By March 2005, the government approved
the deal, and within days, Lenovo announced that it had received a
$350 million investment from three U.S. private equity firms,
including Blum’s Newbridge Capital.62 In a 2009 interview, Richard
Blum claimed that IBM had approached his firm because they
wanted an American partner to be part of the new ownership
group.63
Lenovo, with Senator Feinstein’s husband a major owner, would a
few years later be accused by U.S. officials of placing spyware on
computers sold to the United States military. In 2010, Lee Chieffalo,
who managed computer operations centers for the U.S. Marines in
Iraq, testified in court: “A large amount of Lenovo laptops were sold
to the US military that had a chip encrypted on the motherboard that
would record all the data that was being inputted into that laptop and
send it back to China… . That was a huge security breach. We don’t
have any idea how much data they got, but we had to take all those
systems off the network.”64
Blum sold his stake in Lenovo in 2011.
A few months after the Lenovo deal, Feinstein and Blum again
traveled to Shanghai, along with San Francisco’s then mayor Gavin
Newsom, whom she introduced to Jiang.65
Feinstein’s problematic entanglements with Beijing go beyond her
personal relationships with Chinese leaders and her husband’s deep
commercial ties. With Feinstein as a member of the powerful Senate
Intelligence Committee, an alleged Chinese spy emerged on her
staff. While some news reports claimed that Russell Lowe was
Feinstein’s driver, he was considerably more important than that. He
worked for the senator for twenty years, and was listed as an “office
director,” serving as a liaison with the Asian American community in
California. Lowe attended several events at the Chinese consulate in
San Francisco. He was reportedly recruited by China’s Ministry of
State Security. Feinstein has attempted to minimize the story. “Five
years ago the FBI informed me it had concerns that an
administrative member of my California staff was potentially being
sought out by the Chinese government to provide information,” she
explained in a 2019 statement. “He was not a mole or a spy, but
someone who a foreign intelligence service thought it could
recruit.”66
California politicians seem to be a particular target of Beijing.
Intelligence officials note that the interest in California is so great that
reportedly China’s main foreign intelligence agency, the Ministry of
State Security, has a dedicated unit focused exclusively on
California, hoping to extract secrets and run political influence
operations.67 Eric Swalwell was a local council member in Dublin
City, California, when he first came into contact with a young
Chinese woman named Christine Fang (aka Fang Fang). She
worked on his campaign, raised money for his elections, and even
recruited interns for his office. In 2012, Swalwell was elected to
Congress and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi later tapped him
to join the House Intelligence Committee. In 2014, when he ran for
reelection, Fang was a bundler for his campaign.68 The exact nature
of Swalwell’s relationship with Fang is not known, but when asked if
he had a romantic relationship with her, Swalwell has refused to
answer. Swalwell cut ties with her after the FBI raised concerns
about her involvement with Beijing. She fled the country shortly
thereafter.69
Swalwell’s tenure on the House Intelligence Committee has led
him to issue numerous statements about the challenges and threats
posed by Russian intelligence. But critics point out that he has been
far softer on the intelligence threat posed by Beijing.70
Dianne Feinstein has often made excuses for Chinese misdeeds.
Generally, the same could not be said for her congressional
colleague Nancy Pelosi. The longtime member of Congress and
Speaker of the House was, early in her career, a particularly harsh
critic of China’s human rights practices. She continues to be vocal
about some issues, but her positions have softened as her family
has sought and received lucrative commercial opportunities in
mainland China.
In 1991, as a junior member of Congress, Pelosi found herself in
Tiananmen Square. She was part of a congressional delegation
visiting Beijing barely two years after the horrific events had
unfolded. Pelosi had been in meetings with Chinese officials, but
with a couple of colleagues, she covertly carried a banner into the
middle of the square and unfurled it in front of a small crowd and the
media. “To those who died for Democracy in China,” it read. The
Chinese police were furious. They pushed through the crowd to
seize the banner. “I started running,” Pelosi recalled. “And my
colleagues, some of them, got a little roughed up. The press got
treated worse because they had cameras, and they were detained.”
The Foreign Ministry denounced the event as a “premeditated
farce.”71
During her early years in Congress, Pelosi was a vocal critic of
China. Unlike Senator Feinstein, she actually fought against most-
favored-nation trade status and bringing Beijing into the World Trade
Organization. Pelosi expressed skepticism that China would become
more democratic.72 In 2005, she went on the House floor to support
an amendment to block the Chinese government-backed Chinese
National Overseas Oil Company (CNOOC) from buying the
California oil company Unocal.73
But her views began to moderate. She was no apologist for the
regime, and continued to be critical. “Yet people close to Pelosi see
a subtle shift,” reported Politico in 2009. “She won’t back down on
her core commitment to democratization in the country, they say, but
she’s also not looking to pick new fights with China’s leaders—or
with the Obama Administration as it seeks to strengthen U.S.-China
relations.”74 Pelosi explained that the shift was a result, in part, of
issues like climate change that the two countries needed to tackle
together. “I think this climate crisis is game changing for the U.S.-
China relationship,” she said at the time. “It is an opportunity we
cannot miss.”75
But there were perhaps other factors at work. Her husband and
son started seeking and securing deals on mainland China. Husband
Paul became a partner investor in Matthews International Capital
Management, a pioneer in the Chinese investment market. Matthews
was run by a longtime Pelosi friend and political supporter, William
Hambrecht. (Hambrecht has donated millions to Democratic
causes.)76 Hambrecht launched his first China growth fund back in
1995.77 He was optimistic that investments and technological change
would alter China. “The Internet is going to be very difficult to contain
within borders,” he declared in 1999. “It has a viral effect to it. It
spreads whether you like it or not.”78
Matthews’s best-known investment fund is the China Fund. “Under
normal market conditions, the Matthews China Fund seeks to
achieve its investment objective by investing at least 80% of its net
assets, which include borrowings for investment purposes, in the
common and preferred stocks of companies located in China,” reads
the fund’s fact sheet.79
In addition to Paul serving on the board, the Pelosis had a big
chunk of money invested in Matthews. In 2010, the Pelosis held
between $5 million and $25 million in a Matthews fund “specializing
in Asian investment.” Paul Pelosi received partnership income
between $100,000 and $1 million.80
The Pelosis had previously become involved in other China
ventures as well. Paul Pelosi’s classmate from Georgetown, Vincent
Wolfington, set up a limousine service called Global Ambassador
Concierge, which catered to ultra-high net-worth individuals traveling
around the world.81 One big market for Global: the Beijing 2008
Summer Olympics. In Congress, Pelosi had initially been critical of
China hosting the games, arguing that its human rights record
should prevent it from such an honor.82 The year after her husband
bought shares in Global Ambassador Concierge, she reversed
course and opposed a boycott of Beijing’s hosting of the games.83
The Pelosis also bought a stake in another limousine service, City
Car Services (CCS), which Wolfington’s son apparently ran. SEC
documents show Paul Pelosi as a member of the board of directors
of CCS.84
Nancy Pelosi’s son, Paul Pelosi Jr., was also looking for
commercial opportunities on the mainland, and he embarked on a
series of ventures that involved Chinese investors and clients. In
June 2010, he became the chair of the Universal Energy and
Services Group Advisory Board for a company called Tree Top
Industries. Upon announcing his appointment, the company declared
that Paul Jr. and the company chairman “plan to travel to Vietnam
and China to meet potential investors and are attempting to arrange
meetings in Washington DC with appropriate federal agencies.”85
Tree Top eventually changed its name to Global Tech Industries
Group, and Paul Pelosi Jr. remains a shareholder in the company.86
The firm has long sought partnerships in China.87
Paul Pelosi Jr. joined the board of another company, International
Media Acquisition Corp., with ambitious plans in China. “We believe
India and other emerging economics markets, as well as China,
represent excellent markets in which to find strong candidates for our
initial business combination because of their relatively high growth
rates,” stated the firm when it filed.88
Beginning in 2020 and extending for more than a year, U.S.
Speaker of the House Pelosi blocked efforts by Congress to
investigate the origins of the COVID-19 virus. With much of the
evidence pointing to the possibility of a lab leak of the virus in
Wuhan, Pelosi ordered the Democrats in Congress not to cooperate
with any efforts to investigate the matter.89
In 1993, months after Senator Mitch McConnell and his wife, Elaine
Chao, were married, the senator from Kentucky found himself in
Beijing. But this was no typical honeymoon. He was traveling with his
wife and new father-in-law, James Chao, and they had a series of
private meetings with senior Chinese officials, including Chinese
president Jiang Zemin. Jiang and James Chao had been classmates
in China decades earlier.
The meetings were a major publicity coup for Beijing. Tiananmen
Square had happened years earlier and few American political
figures were visiting the country. McConnell was only the second
Republican U.S. senator to do so.90
The meetings had a commercial component, too. According to the
Chinese government media, McConnell and the Chao family “arrived
in Beijing at the invitation of the Chinese State Shipbuilding
Corporation.”91 That massive government-owned entity would play a
central role in the rise of the McConnell-Chao family’s fortunes.
For the next several decades, Foremost Maritime, the Chao family
shipping empire, would see its fleet expand and its customers in
mainland China grow.
Senator McConnell has been at the pinnacle of American power
for decades. He has served as the Senate majority leader and leads
the Republicans in that august body. Add the fact that McConnell’s
wife, Elaine Chao, has served in the cabinets of two U.S. presidents
—George W. Bush and Donald Trump—and you have Washington’s
consummate power couple.
While Senator Feinstein has been remarkably pro-Beijing in her
public statements about China, Senator McConnell has been more
balanced. But let there be no doubt: the senator from Kentucky and
his wife enjoy some of the deepest and most abiding ties to Beijing-
linked entities of anyone in Washington, D.C.
“Big help with a little badmouth” seems to be alive and well.
As I recounted in my earlier book Secret Empires, McConnell and
Chao can count a gift they received from Elaine’s father, James
Chao, as the single largest contributor to their personal wealth. He
built his fortune in the shipping business, and a key ingredient to the
success of his company has been good relations with the Beijing
government and Chinese state-linked shipping companies.92
Chinese human rights activists in the United States have long
worried about those ties and how they might be influencing
McConnell and Chao’s views toward China. “I worry about Elaine
Chao’s business relationship with communist China,” said the late
Harry Wu, a scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.93
The ties with the Beijing regime are well known in the small world
of international shipping. As the shipping industry publication
Tradewinds states, “Industry players describe Foremost Maritime as
a low-profile shipping company with strong ties to China. They also
say it has links with both the U.S. and Chinese governments.”94
Indeed, the fusion between Foremost, Beijing, and Senator
McConnell is perhaps best illustrated with a peek inside the sitting
room at the company’s headquarters in midtown Manhattan. On the
sofa there is a pillow—it features the seal of the United States
Senate.95
The Chao family first started ordering ships from China in 1990.
After that 1993 visit with Senator McConnell, their partnership
blossomed. From 2001 to 2011, Foremost received ten mammoth
ships from Chinese state-controlled shipbuilders.96
When Elaine Chao became transportation secretary in the Trump
administration in 2017, the relationship grew even more. As of July
2018, the Foremost Group signed a series of contracts with the
China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) to build ten more
ships, including six of the massive 208,000-ton variety.97 The
financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but similar
transactions with other entities buying these large vessels put the
price tag over $50 million each. That puts the total deal in the
hundreds of millions of dollars.98
In addition to building these ships, the CSSC was financing the
construction. Furthermore, their vessels’ crews are almost
exclusively Chinese. They transport large amounts of raw materials
in and out of Chinese ports. Foremost clients include Western
companies like Cargill, but they are often moving goods for Chinese
government-owned entities like Wuhan Iron and Steel (Wisco) and
Rizhao Steel.99
In short, the Chinese government is building the Chaos’ ships,
financing their construction, and providing crews and customers for
the family.
Who exactly is CSSC, which plays such a central role in the
financial fortunes of the McConnell-Chao family?
CSSC is a state-owned defense conglomerate, and also one of
“the world’s most prolific builders of large surface combatants and
submarines.” The Chaos’ family business is interested in civilian not
military shipping. But in China, the two are deeply intertwined. Daniel
Alderman of Defense Group Inc. and Rush Doshi of Harvard
University wrote of China’s shipbuilding industry generally and CSSC
specifically that the Chinese government “views civilian shipbuilding
as essential to and intertwined with military shipbuilding.” They say,
“China’s promotion and protection of advanced civilian facilities are
likely related to its military purposes.”100
Beyond the commercial fortunes of the Chao family business, the
relationship goes deeper. Beijing openly credits James Chao with
helping grow the Chinese shipbuilding industry. Indeed, Chinese
president Hu Jintao praised him “for his years of support to the
Chinese shipbuilding industry and his contribution to the shipbuilding
industry.”101
CSSC describes their relationship to Chao as “a business partner
and friend of years.” Foremost is regarded as “a good client of China
State Shipbuilding Corporation,” say industry insiders.102
How close is the business relationship between the Chinese
government and the Chao family? When CSSC was creating a
financial offshoot called CSSC Holdings, they actually placed James
Chao and Elaine’s sister on the board of directors.103
When Elaine Chao was secretary of transportation, there was a
blurring of the lines between her family’s business and her official
duties, particularly regarding China. When she visited China in 2017,
she included her father and her sister, Angela Chao, as part of the
official delegation. Her father and sister attended official bilateral
functions between U.S. and Chinese officials. Government ethics
officials worried that “if the Secretary were to engage in events … at
locations closely connected with the Foremost Group, it would
provide an inappropriate advantage, in the form of publicity, to
Secretary Chao’s family’s business interests.” Some of the events on
the trip were canceled because of ethics concerns raised by
Department of Transportation (DOT) lawyers.104
Secretary Chao also had DOT officials edit chapters of the
English-language version of her father’s book and create a media
strategy for its promotion. She even had DOT officials edit his
Wikipedia page.105
The McConnell-Chao families’ connections to Beijing includes
Angela sitting on the board of directors of the government-controlled
Bank of China.106 Angela’s husband, Jim Breyer, is a major investor
in a host of companies in China, including firms with ties to the
Chinese military-industrial complex. Breyer is the cochairman of IDG
Capital, which is headquartered in Beijing, and has offices in Hong
Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou.107 Breyer has done
very well in China and enjoys close relations with the political elite in
Beijing. Testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security
Review Commission, which is organized by the U.S. Congress,
reveals that “IDG’s investment track record in China is legendary.” It
includes stakes in companies such as Qihoo 360, which the U.S.
Department of Commerce dinged for “activities contrary to the
national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”108
Breyer’s firm was also an early stakeholder in SenseTime, which
works closely with China’s Ministry of State Security to monitor the
population, especially the Uighurs.109
Senator McConnell has spoken out about Beijing’s military
expansion and human rights, but has been leery of legislation that
would restrict commerce with China. He has long supported the view
that free trade would mean a freer China.110 But there can be little
doubt that the McConnell-Chao family business fortunes could be
disrupted overnight if Beijing looked with too much disfavor at the
policy positions he takes toward China.
Leaving Congress and cashing in as a lobbyist or advisor for special
interests has a long and sordid history in Washington. However,
those special interests increasingly are not American, but rather the
Chinese government and government-linked entities looking to
advance their interests in Washington. The Beijing regime and its
satellite entities have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to
building a roster of former American politicians and officials now on
their payroll as lobbyists or advisors.
Indeed, as we shall see, at least twenty former U.S. senators or
members of Congress have worked in recent years representing
Chinese firms with ties to the military or to intelligence services.
During his tenure as Speaker of the House, John Boehner took
positions and actions that were highly beneficial to Beijing. In one
particular case, he played the key role in preventing a vote on
legislation that would have been catastrophic for the regime.
In 2011, Congress was deliberating over a currency manipulation
bill to hold China to account for keeping its currency artificially low.
(By doing so, Beijing was making their products cheaper in the
United States by some 30 percent and boosting their exports.)111
Beijing saw the bill as a serious threat—and rightfully so. They
mobilized a twelve-member “Congressional Liaison Team” inside the
Chinese embassy in Washington and paid the firm Patton Boggs
$35,000 a month to help. The firm, one of the most powerful in the
United States, has deep and abiding ties to the Chinese government.
Back in 1980, the firm became one of the first in the world to be
granted a license to set up an office in Beijing. And for decades now,
Patton Boggs (later Squire Patton Boggs) has registered with the
U.S. Justice Department as a foreign agent of the Chinese embassy
in Washington, D.C.112
The currency manipulation bill passed through the U.S. Senate
63–35 with strong bipartisan support from Republicans and
Democrats. Now attention turned to the House of Representatives,
where John Boehner was Speaker. And there it ran smack into a
wall.
Boehner would not even allow a vote in the House. Period.113
“The only thing standing between business-as-usual and a real
shot across the bow to Beijing is House Speaker John Boehner,”
complained Scott Paul, the executive director of the Alliance for
American Manufacturing, on CNBC. “Half of his caucus supports the
bill, along with an overwhelming number of Democrats.”114
Boehner called the bill dangerous. “It’s a pretty dangerous thing to
be moving legislation through the U.S. Congress forcing someone to
deal with the value of a currency,” he said, arguing that passing the
bill would lead to a trade war.115 A careful observer might see that his
statement compared favorably with statements that Chinese officials
were making to the media.116
Perhaps it should be no surprise that when Boehner retired from
public office in 2015, he signed on as “a strategic advisor to clients in
the U.S. and abroad” at Squire Patton Boggs (SPB).117 The firm
continues to advise and help the Beijing government navigate issues
that will threaten their interests. According to SPB’s 2021 filing with
the Justice Department, this has included offering guidance on
everything from the U.S. defense budget as well as “the 2020
general elections; actions and potential actions regarding U.S. policy
concerning Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Tibet; and matters
pertaining to human rights, immigration, trade, and sanctions
legislation.”118
Beyond representing the Chinese government, Boehner’s firm also
has a wide array of Chinese government-linked corporate clients that
it lobbies for in Washington. These include ChemChina, China
Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, Huawei, and Wanhua Chemical
Group.119
The firm where Boehner now collects large fees has powerful
friends—not just in Washington, but in Beijing as well.
In China, SPB has deep ties to the ruling regime. Nick Chan, a
senior partner in China, is also a member of the ruling National
People’s Congress (NPC). “The NPC is the highest organ of state
power in People’s Republic of China,” explained SPB in a recent
announcement.120
SPB is not just a lobbying shop—it is also a law firm. And here,
too, the firm works extensively on projects that benefit the Chinese
government. The firm brags that it is “well positioned to support
clients on major infrastructure transactions and projects in
connection with the ‘Belt and Road Initiative.’”121 Both the Obama
and Trump administrations saw Belt and Road as designed to
supplant American influence around the globe and push countries
into China’s sphere.122 The massive initiative is also plagued with
reports that its projects feature “forced labor.”123
At the same time, SPB attorneys are regularly quoted in the
Chinese state-owned media, criticizing trade and technology
restrictions placed on Chinese firms in the United States, while also
praising Beijing officials for their welcoming attitude to American
companies.124
Boehner is not the only former elected official now drawing a
paycheck from a firm doing the bidding of Beijing and related
companies.
Former U.S. senator Tim Hutchinson of Arkansas, once a member
of the Senate Armed Services Committee, lobbies for Alibaba, the
Chinese behemoth closely aligned with the Beijing government.
Alibaba paid his firm, Greenberg Traurig, $200,000 in 2020, for a
team that also included two other former politicians, Congressmen
Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey and Albert Wynn of
Maryland.125
Tencent Holdings is another massive Chinese company. It is
closely fused with the Ministry of Public Security and the People’s
Liberation Army and develops technologies with military application
as well as products that monitor and help control the population.126 In
Washington, D.C., the company enjoys the lobbying services of
former congressman Ed Royce of California. The Republican was
once the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Tencent
paid his firm $330,000 in 2020 alone.127
Another well-known Chinese company in the West is ByteDance,
which runs TikTok, the social media platform with over one hundred
million users in the United States alone.128 While it pretends to
operate like any other company, ByteDance’s CEO has been
outspoken about the need for the company to follow the guidance of
the Communist Party in its business operations. There are Party
cells within the corporate structure, and the company admits that it
censors political content. Former employees complain that the
“content moderation process [is] strongly influenced by Beijing” and
that it is used to “downplay subjects Beijing finds sensitive.”129 In
Washington, it has two former U.S. senators on the payroll,
Democrat John Breaux of Louisiana and Republican Trent Lott of
Mississippi. (Breaux once famously said that his vote in the Senate
was not for sale, “but it is available for rent.”)130
Also on the ByteDance payroll are former congressmen Jeff
Denham and Bart Gordon, whose firm pocketed $160,000 from the
company in 2020.131
The military-linked Chinese telecom firm, ZTE Corporation, enjoys
the services of former senators Norman Coleman and Joe
Lieberman, as well as former congressmen Jon Christensen and
Connie Mack IV. Coleman’s firm alone raked in a whopping $2.94
million in 2019 representing the company.132
Huawei, another Chinese telecom with close ties to the Chinese
military, hired Congressmen Don Bonker and Cliff Stearns after their
time in office.133 Back in 2013, the Joint Intelligence Committee,
which oversees British intelligence, explained that with a cyber
attack, “it would be very difficult to detect or prevent and could
enable the Chinese to intercept covertly or disrupt traffic passing
through Huawei-supplied networks.”134 Stearns, a conservative
Republican from Florida, and Bonker, a liberal Democrat from
Washington State, both work at the lobbying firm APCO Worldwide.
They have also tag-teamed on a lobbying contract with the
aforementioned, PLA navy business buddy COSCO.135 Who says
bipartisanship is dead in our nation’s capital?
In 2021, former congressman Lee Terry, from Nebraska, signed up
to work for Huawei.136 Huawei, beyond concerns about its ties to
Chinese intelligence, is headed by a colorful and aggressive founder
named Ren Zhengfei. A former PLA engineer, he told employees in
2018 to “wage war” on the West and he charged them to “surge
forward, killing as you go, to blaze us a trail of blood.”137
Former congressman Jack Kingston, of Georgia, has lobbied for
ChemChina, the state-owned chemical company.138
Hikvision is a surveillance company in China, largely owned by a
government-controlled defense conglomerate called the China
Electronics Technology Group.139 Hikvision has a particularly odious
reputation because its surveillance cameras have been installed by
the Chinese government to monitor Uighurs being held in prison
camps.140 But that has not deterred several former politicians from
signing up to lobby on their behalf. Hikvision has enjoyed the
services of former U.S. senator David Vitter of Louisiana and former
congressman Toby Moffett, whose firm they paid $70,000 a month,
and former congressman Rick Boucher of Virginia, whose firm
pocketed $1.75 million in 2019 for lobbying services.141 Former
California senator Barbara Boxer also signed on to advise the
company, registering as a foreign agent with the Department of
Justice. She has—no surprise—claimed her motives were altruistic.
“When I am asked to provide strategic advice to help a company
operate in a more responsible and humane manner consistent with
U.S. law in spirit and letter, it is an opportunity to make things better
while helping protect and create American jobs.” But she later
withdrew from the arrangement following a public outcry.142
Influencing the highest spheres of government can come via current
members of Congress who enjoy commercial ties as well as ex-
politicians who become hired-gun lobbyists. Sometimes Beijing’s
influence is directed by shadowy nonprofit organizations that work
their way through our institutions in Washington, D.C., guided by
Americans willing to help—for a fee.
One of the most effective organizations cultivating Chinese
interests on Capitol Hill is called the China–United States Exchange
Foundation (CUSEF). The nonprofit organization was founded in
2008 by Tung Chee-hwa, a Chinese billionaire with close ties to the
party. Tung constructed a massive shipping empire in Hong Kong
and was hand-picked by the Communist Party to take over control of
the territory in 1997 when it reverted from British rule to Beijing. Tung
is vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC), “one of the united front’s most important
entities.”143 Tung is a party member and attended the Chinese
Communist Party’s 19th Congress in October 2017.144
Tung takes a hard line when it comes to human rights. During the
2019 protests in Hong Kong, Tung accused Washington of
“orchestrating” the events, and defended the actions of the police. In
December 2019, he was named by Hong Kong democracy
advocates as one of the “top tier perpetrators of human rights and
democracy abuse.”145
He also toes the party line on the matter at hand. “Where
democracy is concerned, the West often criticizes China for not
practicing a more Western style democracy,” says Tung, who is also
chairman of CUSEF. “However, history has demonstrated time and
again that a country cannot adopt another country’s governance
system and become successful.”146 Of course, this is precisely what
happened in China—the Communist Party seized power and
adopted the Soviet Union’s model of governance.
Given those views, it is perhaps not surprising that CUSEF has
ties to the CCP through the Chinese United Front. The role of the
United Front, according to the U.S. Congress’s China Security
Commission, is to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential
opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese
Communist Party.”147 Both “the number of mainland-based
members” of CUSEF’s official advisors, and the “easy connections
with Chinese government organs” demonstrate how closely tied are
CUSEF and the CCP, according to a Stanford University study.148
The U.S. congressional commission concurs. CUSEF has
involvement “in influence operations” and has spent millions of
dollars lobbying in the United States.149
In addition, CUSEF works closely with other front organizations,
including the PLA-linked group known as the China Association for
International Friendly Contact.150
Yet, despite these ties, CUSEF enjoys powerful reach and top-
shelf friends in Washington. The longtime honorary advisors to this
Chinese front organization, listed at the top of the organization’s
annual report masthead, are former secretary of state Henry
Kissinger and Robert Rubin, the former Clinton Treasury
secretary.151
Both of whom, of course, have a history of considerable
commercial interests in China over the years.
Other well-connected individuals are also happy to partner with
CUSEF.
In September 2009, the first delegation from the Center for
American Progress (CAP) arrived in Beijing for talks with Chinese
officials about “issues at the forefront of U.S.-China relations,
including climate change.”152 These dialogues between American
organizations and Chinese officials were funded by CUSEF and ran
through 2016.153 CAP president John Podesta both facilitated and
participated in these dialogues. In 2013, the White House called, and
Podesta was appointed counselor to President Barack Obama. His
responsibilities “included overseeing climate change and energy
policy.” Another CAP official, senior fellow Tod Stern, also joined the
Obama administration as a lead climate negotiator on the Paris
Accords.154
While John Podesta and his deputy were helping craft the Paris
Climate Accords, his brother, lobbyist Tony Podesta, was working for
a Chinese-bankrolled entity called the Coalition for Affordable Solar
Energy. In Congress, there were moves afoot to consider legislation
to counteract efforts by Chinese solar companies to “dump” panels in
the United States at low prices to drive American firms out of
business. The coalition was funded by Chinese solar companies
Suntech Power Holding, Trina Solar, and Yingli Green Energy
Holding. Podesta headed “Team China.”155
The resulting Paris Climate Accords called for the United States to
dramatically reduce its carbon emissions. China, however, had no
such requirement. The deal was seen by some as far too favorable
for Beijing.156
John Podesta has praised China for its commitment to reducing
emissions while at the same time going after countries like Australia,
claiming that country’s approach “is just not going to cut it.”157 This is
a bizarre position, given that “in 2020 alone, China brought 38
gigawatts of new coal power online, exceeding Australia’s entire
remaining capacity of 25 gigawatts (down from 66 gigawatts in
2017).”158
Concerns about climate change have become a powerful tool for
Beijing to divert attention from human rights and other issues. In
September 2021, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi delivered a
speech at Cambridge University in which she acknowledged China’s
“genocide” of the Uighurs, while proclaiming that partnering with
China on climate change was the “overriding issue.”159 John Kerry,
the former U.S. senator and secretary of state, now climate czar for
the Biden administration, has said the same.160 This gives Beijing
enormous leverage by granting it a powerful tool with which to
silence their critics: talk too harshly about genocide, and we will no
longer cooperate with you on climate change policies.
Under the Paris Climate Accords, Beijing, which is the world’s
largest carbon producer, can continue to grow its carbon emissions
up until 2030 (at which point, they are supposed to begin reducing
them).161 The accords also assume that China will honor its
commitments—and offer no penalties if they fail to do so. In 2015,
President Xi stood with President Barack Obama at the Rose
Garden in the White House and promised that he would not militarize
islands in the South China Sea. He “lied through his teeth,” in the
words of the Economist, because by 2018, Beijing had military bases
there.162
China was a big winner in another way, too.
The United States will honor its commitments under the Paris
Climate Accords largely by buying solar panels and other green
technologies manufactured in China. (Eight out of the ten largest
solar companies in the world are Chinese.) “One of the biggest
mistakes the West has done on green policies to cut CO2 emissions
and trying to reduce dependence on oil- and gas-producing nations
is that the transition to renewable energy puts the West at the mercy
of China,” says energy industry consultant David Zaikin, founder of
London-based Key Elements Group. Eighty percent of the solar
panels installed in the United States are made in China. Beijing is
positioned to be the “green OPEC.”163 Shortly after the climate deal
was concluded, CUSEF hired John Podesta’s brother Tony as a
lobbyist, paying his firm, the Podesta Group, $880,000 between
2015 and 2017 to lobby on behalf of U.S.-China relations.164
CUSEF was not Tony Podesta’s only Chinese client. In early 2016,
his firm was also hired by ZTE, a Chinese telecom company
convicted of selling illegal shipments of telecom equipment to Iran.165
In 2016 and 2017, ZTE paid Podesta Group over $750,000.166 The
Podesta Group organized specialists to help ZTE in its case against
federal agencies. As the British newspaper the Guardian reported,
ZTE “refused to provide any documents on its activities in Iran, but
did provide a list of 19 individuals who serve on the Chinese
Communist Party committee within the company.”167 The U.S.
Department of Justice did report that “ZTE’s most senior managers
constructed an elaborate scheme to evade detection by U.S.
authorities.”168
Tony Podesta more recently signed up as a “consultant” for
Huawei, at an annualized rate of $2 million.169 A posting on Huawei’s
own corporate message board noted that the hiring was part of an
“expanded U.S. influence operation,” adding that Podesta had
powerful connections in the Biden administration. Huawei employees
greeted the news with “thumbs-up” and stars on the message
board.170
Beyond Podesta, CUSEF has hired an army of lobbyists over the
years to push its message. Among them is former Republican
congressman Charles Boustany of Louisiana. Boustany, a surgeon
by training, served twelve years in Congress and went on to cochair
the U.S.-China working group, a bipartisan caucus for members of
Congress interested in China matters. As he was leaving office in
2016, he made a play to be a trade representative for the incoming
Trump administration.171 When that did not happen, he went to work
at Capitol Counsel, a D.C. lobbying shop. The lobbying firm
registered as a foreign agent with the U.S. Department of Justice to
represent CUSEF. In its contract with CUSEF, Capitol Counsel’s
activities included “political intelligence gathering” as well as
“substantive advice on China-related legislation,” including
“arranging meetings” on Capitol Hill.172
In 2019, Boustany led a delegation of former members of
Congress to China, a trip sponsored by CUSEF.173
At the same time, Boustany became a spokesman for an
organization called Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, which argued that
imposing tariffs on Beijing was damaging to Americans.174
Capitol Counsel was also hired by something called the U.S.-
China Transpacific Foundation (UCTPF) to lobby on their behalf. The
UCTPF, according to filings with the Justice Department, is funded
by the Chinese government with the purpose of sponsoring trips by
politicians and their staffs to visit mainland China.175
CUSEF also signed the firm founded by Haley Barbour, the former
Mississippi governor and former chairman of the Republican
National Committee. In 2019, CUSEF paid the firm $370,000, for
which Lester Munson, a former Senate Republican staffer and
deputy assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International
Development during the George W. Bush administration, pushed
their interests.176
One long-term CUSEF lobbyist is Claude Fontheim, a fixture in
Washington lobbying circles for decades. Fontheim set up his
business, Fontheim International, LLC, in 1990. The current location
is on Seventeenth Street, just a block from the White House.177 In
2009, Fontheim started lobbying for CUSEF and registered as a
foreign agent with the Department of Justice. Fontheim also did
something else. He provided the seed capital for the creation of a
consulting firm called Beacon Global Strategies.178
It is hard to find a firm in Washington with more insiders than
Beacon Global Strategies.
Founded in 2013 by alumni from the Clinton and Bush
administrations, Beacon boasts one of the more impressive rosters
of ex-military and intelligence officials you could imagine.
Cofounders include Philippe Reines, the longtime Hillary Clinton
foreign policy advisor, and Mike Allen, a former George W. Bush
aide.179 A list of partners and advisors runs the gamut from former
Obama secretary of defense Leon Panetta to former deputy director
of the CIA Mike Morell.180
“Drawing on our decades of service in the international security
arena, we develop strategies that enable companies to achieve their
business objectives,” the firm says on its website.181
Beacon cuts a wide path in official Washington. In 2015, no fewer
than three presidential candidates received campaign advice from
someone connected to Beacon—Hillary Clinton, who was seeking
the Democratic nomination, and GOP senators Marco Rubio and Ted
Cruz.182
Beacon does much more than simply give advice to political
figures. They also use their background and their government
experience to help corporate clients navigate the regulatory waters in
Washington. This includes companies that are eager to do deals with
China. Mike Allen, the firm’s managing director, “advises clients on
the intersection of business and national security and helps them
develop targeted Washington strategies.” He also helps clients
understand “U.S.-China dynamics, foreign direct investment and
CFIUS, national security critical technologies such as AI, as well as
trade and challenges arising from geopolitical instability.”183
When deals involving corporate America and Beijing raise red
flags, Beacon jumps in and provides approaches to get around them.
At times, Beacon has done this in a manner that ultimately benefits
Beijing.
In 2016, the U.S. company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
announced a new joint venture in China to produce microchips. The
venture would utilize the company’s own proprietary technology,
specifically the X86 processor, the advanced chip produced only by
AMD and one other American firm, Intel.184
AMD’s agreement with Beijing would allow for the direct transfer of
technology to a Chinese firm called Sugon Information Industry
Company. Sugon, which produced computers for civilian use, also
noted on its website that “making contributions to China’s national
defense and security is a fundamental mission of Sugon.” The deal
was a clear attempt by Beijing to create technological independence
from the United States.185
For these reasons and more, AMD’s joint venture in China raised
troubling issues in national security circles. “Semiconductors are a
space where the U.S. still leads China and the rest of the world,”
said William Evanina, the U.S. government’s paramount
counterintelligence official, to the Wall Street Journal.
“It’s the keys to the kingdom,” warned retired Air Force brigadier
general Robert Spalding. “Everything today is built on x86.”186
Pentagon officials also believed that the deal was being structured
to possibly “sidestep U.S. regulations” designed to restrict the flow of
advanced technologies to China. Defense officials requested that
AMD submit the agreement to the federal government’s Committee
on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review it.
(CFIUS is made up of representatives from the Departments of
Defense, Treasury, State, and others to review commercial actions
involving foreign nations and their implications for national security.)
But AMD said it did not require CFIUS review and that the committee
did not have jurisdiction. In early 2017, the U.S. Department of
Defense unilaterally submitted the proposed deal to CFIUS.187
In response, AMD hired Beacon Global Strategies to make the
case that the deal would not help China. Beacon, with its roster of
former Department of Defense, CIA, and other national security
officials, told the Pentagon that the deal presented no national
security problems. Never mind that Sun Ninghui, a Chinese official
who worked closely with Sugon, actually said that the deal would be
beneficial to China and allow the country to get on a better
technological footing vis-à-vis the United States. “This gradually
advances our ability to comprehend their core technologies,” Sun
told a Chinese government-affiliated newspaper. “That way, we no
longer can be pulled around by our noses.”188
We do not know how Beacon’s advocacy might have swayed the
Department of Defense, because in 2019, one of AMD’s Chinese
partners was put on a restricted list. Sugon was “acting contrary to
the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”
That meant the deal was halted.189
Beacon played a similar role of running interference on another
technology transfer case that would benefit Beijing.190 When
Singapore-based Broadcom announced plans to acquire the
American tech firm Qualcomm, some concerns were raised.
Broadcom has a close working relationship with China’s Huawei.
Qualcomm is an advanced technology company very active in the
5G technology sphere, which provides high-speed cellular
capabilities. The acquisition of Qualcomm would provide Beijing with
a boost in its competition with the United States over 5G
technologies.191
The fear at the Pentagon was that if the merger went through,
China would end up dominating 5G and that within ten years “there
would essentially be a dominant player in all of these technologies
and that’s essentially Huawei.”192
Broadcom hired Beacon Global Strategies to help fight those
concerns.193
The Trump administration ultimately blocked the deal on national
security grounds.194
The intense competition over technology dominance is central to
the race between China and the United States. Some of the titans of
Silicon Valley have found that coziness with Beijing has its benefits.
4
Silicon Valley
In 2015, the CEOs of America’s largest tech companies gathered at
Microsoft’s glass and steel headquarters just outside of Seattle. The
leaders from Amazon, Airbnb, Apple, and Facebook were all present
to welcome a very special guest. For President Xi, the visit to Seattle
was a stopover; he was en route to meetings with President Barack
Obama in Washington, D.C. The purpose of visiting Seattle first was
to cultivate Beijing’s relationship with America’s tech titans. The
Technorati waited patiently for his arrival. When he entered the room,
the titans of Silicon Valley were thunderstruck.
“Did you feel the room shake?” asked Apple CEO Tim Cook.1
Days later, some who met privately with Xi had another
opportunity to see him in person. This time the venue was an official
State Dinner at the White House. The East Room was decorated in
peach and pink roses and other flowers. The crowd included two
hundred elite guests from the world of government and business. At
least a couple of those same tech titans who had met Xi in Seattle
were there again, too. Among them was Mark Zuckerberg, the
young-looking cofounder of Facebook, and his wife, Priscilla, who is
ethnically Chinese. She also happened to be seven months
pregnant. When Zuckerberg finally got his chance to see the guest of
honor face-to-face again, he made an unusual request: would the
communist dictator give his child his Chinese name?
Xi, understandably surprised by the request, declined, saying it
was “too great a responsibility.”2
Silicon Valley’s tech giants seem enamored with the Chinese
dictatorship’s ability to get things done. They are also partly blinded
by their technological ambition and are therefore prepared to
collaborate with the notorious regime to accomplish their silicon
dreams. While they are well known for their wealth and the hubris
that comes with it, they often appear to have a euphoric attitude—
even giddiness—when dealing with Chinese officials. Yes, they will
genuflect for access to the Chinese market. But there is also a sense
of personal awe there—and it is not just for President Xi.
Almost a year before this visit, in late 2014, a high-ranking
Chinese official named Lu Wei made a trip to Silicon Valley.3 Lu was
a Communist Party hack, the former deputy head of the Propaganda
Department of the Communist Party of China. President Xi had
recently appointed him to head the “Central Leading Group for
Internet Security and Information.”4 In short, Lu was China’s internet
czar, with the Orwellian job of restricting access to certain ideas and
monitoring the flow of information. The Chinese government had
given him plenty of tools to do his job. In 2013, they created a law
making it a crime to spread rumors online; if a post deemed untrue
received more than five hundred reposts, the original poster could be
sentenced to up to three years in prison.5
“Mr. Lu is basically an old school propagandist,” says Paul Mozur,
who reports on China for the New York Times.6
But when Lu visited Facebook’s California headquarters in Menlo
Park, Zuckerberg treated him like a VIP. The Facebook head gave
him a tour of the new Frank Gehry–designed campus, which boasted
the “largest open floor plan in the world.” Later, the two retreated to
Zuckerberg’s private office. Lu sat in the CEO’s chair, took a few
pictures, and then spotted a familiar book sitting on Zuckerberg’s
desk. The Governance of China is a 515-page tome containing the
speeches and comments of President Xi. Lu presumably knew the
book intimately: it was assembled in part by the Party Literature
Research Office of the CPC Central Committee.7 Why was such a
book sitting on a capitalist’s desk? Zuckerberg explained to his guest
that he bought the book for both himself and his staff as a guide. “I
want to make them understand socialism with Chinese
characteristics,” he said.8
During the same visit, Lu stopped by Apple headquarters to meet
with Tim Cook. The Chinese media released images of the meeting,
which included Cook greeting Lu like “an old friend, beaming while
Lu wags a joking finger at him.”9
Asking the Chinese leader to name your kid or joking around with
a censorious propagandist may seem odd or even slightly creepy.
But Silicon Valley’s hat-tipping to Beijing has an even darker side.
For decades, many of the biggest names in tech have made their
fortunes thanks to the norms and values of the American system. All
the while, they have actively collaborated with the Chinese regime,
helping them better control their population. They have even
assisted China’s attempt to surpass the United States in military
capabilities.
Tech executives tend to be optimistic about how engineering
progress will lead to societal progress. Perhaps they have such faith
in information and the internet that they feel sure technology will
bring down a repressive regime. Or, perhaps, they are bowing to
their inevitable overlords. It is worth sorting through their actions to
figure out which thesis is the better fit.
China, with help from these Silicon Valley elites, hopes to become
the world’s number one power.
What Chinese leaders seek is “technological supremacy” because
that will provide them with economic supremacy, and the ability to
match American military capabilities.10
President Xi has said, “Science and technology is a national
weapon.” He goes further: “We should seize the commanding
heights of technological competition and future development.” He
believes that “in today’s world [science and technology] innovation
has become a critical support for increasing comprehensive national
strength.”11
To accomplish this goal, Beijing has created “civilian-military
fusion,” which means any technological advance in the civilian
market must be applied directly to the military sphere.12 And they
have effectively courted and seduced many powerful people in
Silicon Valley to willingly, and sometimes enthusiastically, play along.
Bill Gates is one of the world’s richest men, rightly recognized as a
visionary who helped build a massive technology industry. He has
moved into the world of philanthropy to pursue support for some
notable causes. He also has a deeply troubling relationship with the
Chinese regime.
No one can blame a corporate executive for being enticed by the
Chinese market’s opportunities. From the earliest days of the
internet, China has been seen as a lucrative market for the tech
industry. With approximately four times the population of the United
States, you can bet Bill Gates saw it, too.
But Gates has cooperated with the regime in ways that other tech
titans have not. He has lent credence to the claims of the Chinese
Communist Party and been rewarded with access, favors, and titles.
He has done the bidding of the regime in the tech world and has
apologized or made excuses for its aberrant activities. On top of all
that, he has invested in companies attached to Beijing’s military-
industrial complex.
Gates appears to have always underestimated the repressive
nature of the CCP. His relentless techno-optimism has made him an
easy mark. He has expressed naïve attitudes about the role of
technology in that repression. In 1995, at the dawn of the broader
internet age, he suggested that Chinese efforts to censor the web
would fail. Gates claimed that Chinese officials would literally need to
have someone looking over everyone’s shoulder to implement full
internet access and maintain censorship.13
Of course, Beijing had a censorship system in place just two years
later.14
Even after China erected what came to be known as the “Great
Firewall,” Gates still insisted that censorship was too hard to erect
and would not work. In 2008, he told students at Stanford University:
“I don’t see any risk in the world at large that someone will restrict
free content flow on the internet,” he told them. “You cannot control
the internet.”15
It was a bold statement that proved both inaccurate and
disingenuous. At that point, Microsoft had already been helping the
regime censor content for several years.
In June 2005, Microsoft launched a blogging software program
called MSN Spaces in China, just as blogging was taking off. But the
program censored words including “democracy,” “human rights,” and
“freedom of expression.” If you typed in those words or phrases, the
blogger would receive an error message. The system also blocked
or limited results of searches for specific names or phrases like
“Tibet independence,” “Falun Gong,” and “Tiananmen Square.” On
December 30, 2005, when a Chinese blogger and journalist named
Zhao Jing criticized the censorship on his MSN Spaces blog,
Microsoft shut him down, “following a request from Chinese
authorities,” according to Amnesty International.16 The problem
extends even to today.
In early June 2021, users of Microsoft’s Bing search engine in the
United States, Europe, and Asia reported that they could not pull up
images and information concerning the anniversary of the
Tiananmen Square massacre on their laptops. Microsoft blamed it on
“human error,” but did not specify what error would have caused
images of “tank man” and others to disappear.17
The controversy over the regime’s censorship on the internet
finally boiled over in 2010 when Google went to battle over search
engine restrictions. When the dispute became public, Gates actually
sided with Beijing and against Google, arguing that companies need
to follow local laws. His position even prompted the Chinese
embassy to run an approving story titled, “Bill Gates Bats for
China.”18
Gates tried to sound principled, but this simply did not conform to
the realities of his participation in censorship. In 2010, he claimed
that China’s restrictions were minimal and expressed confidence that
technology would overcome it. “Chinese efforts to censor the internet
have been very limited,” he said. “It’s easy to go around it, so I think
keeping the internet thriving there is very important.” Steve Ballmer,
the Microsoft CEO at the time, echoed that sentiment. “If the
Chinese government gives us proper legal notice, we’ll take that
piece of information out of the Bing search engine.” Ballmer added
that countries like the United States with “extreme” free speech laws
also censor some material.19
While Gates was attempting to explain away Chinese censorship,
he was actively helping the regime accomplish it. Meanwhile, he was
critical of any censorship in the United States. Gates was quick to
criticize efforts he saw to restrict internet access unnecessarily. One
example was his view of legislation that would curb children’s access
to pornography. As Gates put it:
Microsoft and others in industry and non-profit organisations were
deeply involved in trying to block language that would put chilling
restrictions on the use of the Internet for the free publication of
information. The language, ostensibly aimed at keeping pornography
out of the hands of children, goes much too far in restricting freedom of
expression… . Let’s not undermine the world-wide trend toward free
expression by setting a bad example when it comes to free speech on a
computer network.
Clearly, Gates did not want children to have easy access to
pornography. Yet, while the vagueness of language concerning that
law bothered him, China’s censorship apparently did not, given his
frequent defense of it.20
Beyond the issue of apologizing for Beijing’s censorship, Gates
continued to appease the Chinese government. Microsoft promised
Beijing that it would begin outsourcing jobs from the United States to
China—it was an explicit promise. By the early 2000s, Microsoft was
on track to have outsourced a thousand jobs. When the Chinese
government criticized the company for not keeping pace, Microsoft
said they would work harder to ship more jobs more quickly to the
Chinese mainland.21
Gates’s efforts to support the regime’s policies have been
rewarded over the years. In 2006, the state-run People’s Daily
Online named Gates among “50 foreigners shaping China’s modern
development.” Joining him on the list were Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin,
Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, and Joseph Stalin. Gates was the
only person from the world of technology on the list.22 Earlier that
year, when Chinese president Hu Jintao made his first official visit to
the United States, he too stopped in Seattle for a visit with Gates at
his “palatial home” before heading to Washington, D.C. ABC News
declared, “Chinese President Meets Bill Gates First.”23
The relationship between Microsoft and Beijing improved. By
2010, Microsoft had taken another step in its tightening association
with the Chinese government. The company set up a research
laboratory in China to work on artificial intelligence (AI) with a
Chinese military university, an essential area of research that would
have huge implications for the economy and on the battlefield.
Microsoft even started taking in interns from the People’s Liberation
Army at its Asian research facility.24
Microsoft worked with the Beijing regime in other ways. The
company allowed the PLA to access communications on Skype, the
company’s online videoconferencing platform. Communist officials
were monitoring chats that might include organizing protests or other
activities that might displease the regime. When asked about it,
Microsoft simply said, “Skype’s mission is to break down barriers to
communications and enable conversations worldwide.”25
Microsoft later formed a partnership with the state-owned military
conglomerate China Electronics Technology Group (CETC) to make
Windows available to government officials in Beijing. The agreement
would provide “operating system technology and services for
Chinese users in specialized fields in government institutions and
critical infrastructure state-owned enterprises.” The decision by
Microsoft to work with CETC raised plenty of eyebrows in the tech
world. As Computerworld noted, “CETC manages scores of research
institutes and more than 180 commercial subsidiaries, most of them
involved in defense-related research and development, the
production of defense and dual-use electronics, or supplying the
People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and government agencies and state-
run companies with technology products.” CETC’s labs designed the
electronic guts for China’s first nuclear bomb, as well as its guided
missiles and satellites. There are “very blurred lines” between what
is civilian and military at CETC, the publication noted. The specifics
of the deal were mysterious. Microsoft said that it made “changes” to
Windows for the Chinese government but would not explain what
they were.26
Gates appeared unconcerned.
Gates’s budding relationship with the Chinese government opened
the door to other opportunities. In 2014, when Gates stepped down
as chairman of Microsoft, he remained on the board as a technical
advisor. He wanted to spend time on his nonprofit foundation, but it
is clear that he still had other interests related to technology. With a
fascination with nuclear power, he had cofounded a company called
TerraPower in 2008, with hopes to build nuclear reactors in China.
He started working with Beijing on a project in 2011.27
As TerraPower chief technical adviser Roger Reynolds explained
during an interview, they were collaborating with the Chinese
National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) to build a “next-generation”
reactor. The technology involves something called a “traveling wave
reactor,” which is based on a molten-salt reactor conceived initially
by American scientists more than fifty years earlier.28
Gates seemed oblivious to national security concerns about the
project. By working with the communist regime, he was providing the
government a strategic leg up in its competition with the United
States for control over global nuclear markets. As the U.S. State
Department has repeatedly explained, China uses “its large, rapidly-
growing, state-sponsored nuclear industry as a strategic tool with
which to augment China’s ‘comprehensive national power’—both
through development in the civilian sector and in support of a military
buildup.” Furthermore, his partner, CNNC, has also come under fire
from the Nuclear Threat Initiative because it is “involved in the
development of China’s nuclear energy program, both civilian and
military.”29
Gates’s project also helped the communist regime in its military
competition with the United States. These “new generation” reactors
are incredibly effective at propelling ships at sea, including military
vessels. Beijing already had an active thorium molten-salt reactor
program itself, and the PLA is planning to use the technology to
propel aircraft carriers and military drones.30
In 2018, Gates’s plans to build nuclear reactors with the Chinese
government came to a halt when “policy changes” in Washington
made the project difficult to achieve. Later, the U.S. Department of
Defense released a list of twenty Chinese companies linked to the
PLA. His Chinese partner was on the list. This forced Gates to
shelve his joint deal with CNNC.31 But it was not for a lack of trying.
He has pledged to continue seeking efforts to cooperate with
Beijing on nuclear power projects. “The TerraPower thing, that was a
setback, but there are ways to come back and engage China in a
fairly deep way later in the project,” he told Chinese state media.32
Gates is also an investor in a Chinese electric vehicle company
with the uplifting name Build Your Dreams (BYD) and has praised
the company’s product. (His good friend Warren Buffett also owns a
stake.)33 BYD also has deep ties to, and cooperates with, the
Chinese military. According to a study sponsored by the Alliance for
American Manufacturing, BYD grants military enterprises access to
its technologies and research data. In 2018, for example, BYD
announced that it would conduct “strategic cooperation” with the
China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology—a PLA entity—which
is the “largest research and production base of missile weapons and
launch vehicles in China.” At the same time, BYD works with military
institutions to shape its products. For good measure, the company’s
founder and CEO is a Communist Party official.34
Beyond the deals, Gates has gone out of his way to personally
praise President Xi. During an interview with the Communist Party’s
People’s Daily in 2017, Gates talked about his relationship with Xi
and the fact that the Chinese leader took so much time to speak with
him. They discussed “the area of science, where China is now
leading a lot of ways and willing to invest, that’s been something I
discussed with President Xi.” He added: “And I am impressed of how
hard President Xi works. Now he is involved in the committee that
are looking at this problem and that problem. He’s quite amazing that
he’s able to contribute in a number of ways.”35
What does this mean? It means that one of the richest men in the
world was praising the leadership of a man who runs ethno-political
prison camps.
This is more than idle chatter. Gates is now an advisor of sorts to
the Chinese government. In 2017, the Chinese Academy of
Engineering (CAE) honored Gates with a lifetime membership. The
CAE is under the direct supervision of the Chinese State Council,
Beijing’s top governing body. This elite body, whose name sounds
relatively harmless, is actually at the center of Chinese government
power and plays a central role in the Chinese military-industrial
complex.36
Membership in the CAE requires “strict political clearance.”
Foreigners can join only if they have contributed to China’s
development. As the state-run People’s Daily reported, “Election as
a foreign member of CAE is a lifelong honor that is expected to build
up the institution, promote international cooperation and exchanges,
and improve CAE’s status in the field of engineering.”37
The CAE has a formal responsibility to advise the government,
and on its website, it has numerous political articles extolling Xi and
the Chinese Communist Party:
Enshrining Xi’s thought into the Party Constitution has proved the main
highlight of the congress, signifying a leap forward in the Sinicization of
Marxism.
The resolution on the amendment to the Constitution states that with
the integration of theory and practice, Chinese communists, with Xi as
their chief representative, have given shape to the new thought since
the 18th CPC National Congress.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Karl
Marx’s iconic book “Das Kapital,” while 2018 marks the 170th
anniversary of the Communist Manifesto as well as the 40th
anniversary of socialist China’s launch of the reform and opening-up
drive.
Xi believes that the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics
means “scientific socialism is full of vitality in 21st century China, and
that the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics is now flying
high and proud for all to see.”38
The founder of the Chinese Academy of Engineering was Zhu
Guangya, China’s “leading scientist in the country’s research and
development of nuclear weaponry.” On the anniversary of his death
in 2011, the current academy president, Zhou Ji, “pledged to follow
his example and urged all Chinese scientists to contribute to ‘the
great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.’”39
None of this seems to have bothered or concerned Gates as he
joined the organization.
Indeed, it was Zhou Ji who granted Gates his membership in the
academy.40
One of the most critical roles for the CAE is to adapt civilian
technologies to military use. These are so-called “dual-use”
technologies. Zhou Ji has noted on other occasions that artificial
intelligence “will be the most important dual-use technology in the
coming decades.”41 The Chinese Academy of Engineering sees that
AI has a role in boosting the Chinese military. In October 2012, the
CAE signed a partnership agreement with the People’s Liberation
Army Navy (PLAN) “to strengthen cooperation and push forward the
military-civilian integration and innovative development of the PLA
Navy and the CAE.”42
Microsoft continues to work closely with military researchers in
China, particularly in the area of AI. In 2018, Microsoft researchers
wrote three research papers on AI in cooperation with China’s
National University of Defense Technology (NUDT). The Central
Military Commission has authority over the school. Microsoft
research enjoys “long-running links to Chinese military-funded
academia.” This includes running “tech clubs” at several universities
known to have military connections.43
Microsoft, despite this close work with Beijing, is not immune to
cyberattacks launched with the support of the Chinese government.
In 2021, the Biden administration pointed a finger at Beijing
regarding a massive breach of Microsoft. But Microsoft has given no
indication that they will be scaling back their work with the
government that is targeting them.44
Gates has continued to praise Beijing—even its handling of the
coronavirus outbreak. Gates, ignoring the fact that the regime has
“disappeared” Chinese doctors, journalists, and others trying to alert
the world about the virus, has misrepresented what they knew about
it, and falsely blamed the U.S. military for the virus, explains that
Beijing “did a lot of things right.”45
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is where Gates spends
much of his time these days, working on health care issues around
the world. They do considerable work in Africa, where the foundation
has worked to expand Chinese government influence. According to
emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the
foundation helped “raise China’s voice of governance by placing
representatives from China on important international counsels as
high-level commitment from China.”46
Sadly, Bill Gates is not alone in his embrace of the Beijing regime.
Google has a similar but more complex history with China. The
company was founded in 1998 and quickly saw the Chinese
market’s value and worked hard to succeed there. The hope was to
bring the search engine into the hands of one billion Chinese
consumers. Google quickly found itself the target of pressure to
censor information available to Chinese users. At first, the company
accommodated Beijing, working to restrict certain words in a search.
YouTube, a subsidiary, also adjusted its algorithm to remove phrases
critical of the Communist Party. (It was “accidental,” the company
later explained.)47
Eric Schmidt, the CEO, tried to turn cooperation with the
communist regime into a virtue. “I think it’s arrogant for us to walk
into a country where we are just beginning to operate and tell that
country how to operate,” he explained when Google set up its offices
in Beijing.48
But there was division at the top of Google about how to deal with
China. While Schmidt and cofounder Larry Page favored continued
cooperation with the Chinese regime, cofounder Sergei Brin, a child
refugee from the Soviet Union, was skeptical that the strategy would
work. By 2008, he was arguing for Google to stop censoring in
China.49
Eventually, Google made a public announcement that it was
exiting the Chinese market after human rights campaigners
pressured the company. The reality was more complex.
Indeed, Google has continued to work with the communist regime
and even the military.50 At the heart of the company is an
unquenchable thirst for data, and their dealings in China show they
cannot resist tapping any vast resource offered to them.
In 2017, Google announced the opening of an AI research facility
in Beijing. The Google AI China Center would include “a small group
of researchers supported by several hundred China-based
engineers.”51 The head of the venture for Google, Fei-Fei Li,
explained, “I believe AI and its benefits have no borders.”52 The
research at the Google AI China Center includes machine learning
that would classify, perceive, and predict outcomes based on
massive amounts of data. This is precisely the sort of work that
military and intelligence officials would want from AI.
Google’s cooperation with China on AI research occurred the
same year that the Chinese Communist Party and government laid
out its “artificial intelligence development plan.” A report issued by
the Chinese government explains that “AI has become a new focus
of international competition,” mastering that technology enhances
“comprehensive national power,” and that it would lead to the “great
rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” It was quite clear that the plan
was to “promote two-way conversion and application for military and
civilian scientific” collaboration.53
Beijing has declared that passing the United States in artificial
intelligence is a “national priority.”54
Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal and the first outside investor in
Facebook, is a major player in the tech world, and criticized Google
for the decision, explaining that “A.I. is a military technology.” He
quoted President Obama’s defense secretary Ash Carter: “If you’re
working in China, you don’t know whether you’re working on a
project for the military or not.”55
Thiel was not alone in his concerns.
“The work that Google is doing in China is indirectly benefiting the
Chinese military,” marine general James Dunford, then chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a U.S. Senate committee. Then he
corrected himself. “Frankly, ‘indirect’ may not be a full
characterization of the way it really is, it is more of a direct benefit to
the Chinese military.” It is immaterial that Google might say that the
research work is intended for civilian application. “The technology
that has developed in the civil world transfers to the military world,”
explained then acting secretary of defense Patrick Shanahan. “It’s a
direct pipeline.”56 Google executives know and admit that they
cannot control all “downstream use” of their [cloud and AI]
technology, Diane Greene, CEO of Google Cloud, allowed in a June
2018 blog post.57
Collaboration between American tech companies and Chinese
military-linked research labs has enormous implications for our
national security. What makes that collaboration even more galling is
the fact that China has very different anticipated uses for the
technologies than the United States. As the National Security
Commission on Artificial Intelligence announced in its final report,
“Authoritarian regimes will continue to use AI-powered face
recognition, biometrics, predictive analytics, and data fusion as
instruments of surveillance, influence, and political control.”58
The chair of that commission? Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
He remained as executive chairman until 2015, then took that same
role at Alphabet, the new parent company, until 2018. Schmidt was a
“technical adviser” there until 2020.59
In short, Schmidt favors continued AI joint work with Beijing,
knowing that they will be using it to make Orwell’s dystopian 1984 a
reality.
The very real prospect of benefiting the Chinese military has not
deterred Google. In 2018, the tech giant announced that it was going
to fund research in artificial intelligence at China’s Tsinghua
University. The school, often called “China’s MIT,” is a tech-heavy
institution with close ties to the Chinese military.60 What kind of
university is Tsinghua? The school is intimately involved in the
development of military tools that will be pointed against Beijing’s
rivals, including the United States.
“The university’s research portfolio targets defense and military
capabilities,” explains scholar Roslyn Layton. “At least one laboratory
at Tsinghua University has been approved by the state as a key
national defense discipline lab with other labs dedicated to advanced
military technology development.”61
The university runs a subsidiary called Tsinghua Tongfang, which
“supplies military communications control equipment and electronic
countermeasures and satellite navigation equipment to the People’s
Liberation Army.”62 Indeed, the school has been quite vocal about its
commitment to the “military-civil fusion” program outlined by the
government. You Zheng, the vice president of the university, explains
that “Tsinghua University will closely integrate the national strategy of
military-civilian integration and the AI superpower strategy.” It does
not get any more clear-cut. Indeed, the school is the headquarters
for the “High-End Laboratory for Military Intelligence.” When it comes
to artificial intelligence, the focus of Google’s work at Tsinghua, the
university’s vice president explained that cooperation was necessary
“especially in actually supporting military applications of AI. Only in
this way can we ensure that our country becomes a veritable AI
superpower.”63
Google was not done.
In June 2018, the company signed yet another research
agreement, this time with Fudan University, an elite multicampus
school in northeastern Shanghai. Google was setting up another
joint artificial intelligence research lab on campus. (That same day,
Beijing authorities graciously allowed Google to release its second
mobile app in the country.64) Fudan, like Tsinghua, is deeply wedded
to the Chinese military. Indeed, shortly after signing the two-year
deal with Google, Fudan set up the Science and Technology
Research Institute, incorporating the schools’ former Military Projects
R&D Office.65 Elsa Kania, a fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy
Institute’s International Cyber Centre, explained, “This Fudan S&T
Research Institute includes the Military-Civil Fusion Research Office,
and there was also a Military Project Confidentiality Office (军工保密
办公室) opened at that time.”66
In 2019, Fudan University changed its school charter under the
direction of the Ministry of Education. You might say it was truth in
advertising, making completely clear where the school is focused.
They removed “free thinking” (which was never really allowed) from
the charter and replaced it with “patriotic devotion.” And while the
original charter proclaimed that the university was to be run by the
“teaching staff and students” (again, never really true), the new
charter declares “leadership by the Communist Party in the spirit of
Marxism and socialism” is in charge.67
Google also supports Chinese military research in other ways.
In January 2019, a research paper was published on the subject of
“non-negative matrix factorization,” an algorithm used in machine
learning. Five coauthors contributed to the report, including a
researcher at Google. What was unusual was that the lead author
was Professor Guan Naiyang, an associate professor at the People’s
Liberation Army NUDT—again, a school controlled by the Central
Military Commission, the country’s top military body. Guan’s doctoral
thesis earned him top prizes from the PLA. In the past, he had
worked on three projects focused on online surveillance and
information gathering. Guan was quite open in China about the
purpose of his research: “I want to hasten the software development
and application of high-performance computers, comprehensively
propelling artificial intelligence toward the battlefield.”68
There were two other papers the same year where Google
employees conducted joint work with Chinese military researchers in
artificial intelligence. Apparently, no one at Google saw a problem
with this.
In 2019, the South China Morning Post revealed that a Google
researcher named Shumin Zhai wrote a research paper with
Chinese researchers that helped to enhance the military capabilities
of Beijing’s Stealth fighter aircraft. (Zhai’s collaborators on the piece
worked at China’s State Key Laboratory of Computer Science.) The
J-20 (Weilong or “powerful dragon”) is designed to challenge
America’s F-22 Raptor. The paper in question was about a
technology to “speed up on-screen mobile target selection by more
than 50 percent and improve accuracy by nearly 80 percent.”69
An anonymous PLA researcher asserted that such collaborative
projects could be used for military applications without necessarily
letting the Google contributors know. “What we need is their brain.
For instance, they can be asked to develop an algorithm but not
briefed on the details of how the algorithm would be used.”70
When his claim was initially published, the Chinese Academy of
Sciences described the paper as having “broad application
prospects in military, medical, education and digital entertainment.”
After the South China Morning Post exposed it, the academy deleted
the reference to military applications from the paper’s description.71
Google responded by denying that the research helped the
military: “There is nothing in this paper that refers to a military
application.”72 Can they truly be that naïve?
American tech giant Intel is also investing in Chinese artificial
intelligence companies that have links to the Chinese military. Intel is
an investor, along with Sequoia Capital China, in something called
Horizon Robotics. “Horizon had early ties with the People’s
Liberation Army (PLA),” notes the industry-leading corporate
intelligence service Intelligence Online. “CEO Yu Kai served as
deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Association for Artificial
Intelligence (CAAI), an industry group headed by Major-General Li
Deyi, in 2016. Li was previously deputy director of the [People’s
Liberation Army] General Staff Department’s 61st research institute,
which is responsible for information systems.”73
What could possibly go wrong?
It is clear why Beijing wants to work with Silicon Valley firms. But why
are America’s technological gurus so eager to work with Beijing?
The short answer: data is king. “More data helps you more than any
other algorithm,” explains Dr. Kai-fu Lee, a tech investor and author
of AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, the New World Order.
“Therefore, in the era of AI, if data is the new oil, then China is the
new OPEC.”74 China has so much more data than the United States
because Chinese consumers are more data-connected, but even
more importantly because the Chinese government collects so much
more data on people than Western governments do. You can collect
all sorts of data in China that you cannot access in the United States
or in other Western countries. The secret attraction to AI research in
China is the fact that they have more data, not so much that they
have greater technical talent.
More data beats a better algorithm.75
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, works with Chinese military-
connected institutions in other ways. The company owns a $550
million stake in JD.com, which is the second-largest e-commerce
platform in China. That may sound innocent enough, but JD.com is
not just some Chinese version of eBay. The company has deep ties
to the Chinese military, including an agreement to help update the
logistics for the Chinese air force.76
The founder and CEO of JD.com, Liu Qiangdong, is a
controversial figure and an outspoken, true believer in the Chinese
communist system. He declared in 2017 that technological
advancements were making communism a reality. “Throughout the
past, many people believed that communism is something that can’t
be achieved, but with the technologies we have laid out in the last
two or three years, I have come to recognize that communism can
indeed be achieved in our generation,” he claims. Robots, he
explained, could do most of the work, so the government could
distribute the wealth to everyone, and “there will be no more poor or
rich people and all the companies will be nationalized.”77 It appears
that Liu believes that artificial intelligence offers some utopian
promise. Does Google?
John Chambers, the CEO and executive chairman of Cisco
Systems, was at the 2015 Seattle meeting with President Xi.78 That
same month, Cisco forged a $100 million joint venture with Inspur, a
Chinese computer company focused on developing advanced
information technology infrastructure, among other initiatives. Inspur
is linked to the Chinese military. The military uses Inspur
technologies, including communications systems, mobile mapping
systems, and networking equipment. Inspur also counts among its
clients the Chinese military’s Air-to-Air Research Academy and the
China Academy of Engineering Physics.79
Most of Cisco’s business in China comes from the central
government; as the Chinese media put it, “The majority of Cisco’s
customers in China have ties with the central government—including
State-owned enterprises.” The Global Times observed, “Losing the
good graces of Beijing could cost Cisco dearly.”80 So Cisco stays in
line.
Cisco Systems has been a regular partner with the Chinese
military-industrial complex. The company has a long history of
working with the Chinese Public Security Ministry, providing the
technological tools to develop the PoliceNet as well as upgrade their
“Golden Shield” surveillance database project (and its subset web-
filtering project—the “Great Firewall”).81 Golden Shield is a decades-
long ambitious program to create an “all-encompassing surveillance
network” to monitor the Chinese people.82
Huawei pitched Iranian officials on the fact that their equipment
“makes it easier to spy on potential troublemakers.” Cisco seems to
have followed suit in China.83
Leaked presentation materials indicate that Cisco executives knew
that the Chinese would use their technology against dissidents in the
country. One religious group that received the government’s ire was
a Buddhist offshoot spiritual group called Falun Gong. A Cisco
corporate slide on its work on Golden Shield said China’s motives for
the project were to “combat ‘Falun Gong’ evil religion and other
hostiles.”84
Cisco provided technology for the project, and company engineers
were deeply involved in enabling keywords to be blocked online. The
company was also commissioned to provide continued technical
support. “Cisco is very pleased to play another critical role in the
latest ChinaNet backbone network expansion,” one company vice
president proclaimed.85
Cisco CEO John Chambers appeared uninterested in how the
government would use Cisco’s technology—and clearly does not
want to pass judgment on the totalitarian regime. As he said, “One
thing a technology company should never do is fall in love with one
political party or one form of government. We don’t provide any
unique capabilities to any government, we will not enable any
organization uniquely, including our own U.S. government.”86
After all, falling in love with a free, representative government can
be bad for business.
Desperate to sell its products in China and get access to the
massive market, Cisco actually sold its products cheaply to Beijing in
the hopes of winning favor. For example, they sold firewall boxes to
the government-run China Telecom for just $20,000 apiece; they
sold the same product to Western customers for up to $50,000
each.87
As a result, Cisco won plaudits from the government for its work in
China. It was voted the title “China’s Best Corporate Citizen” by the
Chinese 21st Century News Group for four consecutive years.88
State-run media was apt to quote Chambers for his positive
comments about China, including his declaration that “China is
becoming the center of innovation and creativity”89 (emphasis
added).
Chambers was also quite open about seeing the company’s future
more anchored in Beijing than in Boston. After all, hiring engineers in
China was far cheaper than hiring engineers in the United States.
“My workforce has to be five times as productive in this country than
[in] the rest of the world,” he explained during a lecture at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineers in China were paid
about $40,000 a year, he explained, compared to U.S. tech workers
who made up to $250,000.90
However, Cisco’s embrace of Beijing was not perpetually
reciprocated. The government came to support the rise of a
significant homegrown competitor—Huawei. With a suitable Chinese
alternative, the communist government leaned on local governments
and businesses to start buying computer networking technologies
from Chinese companies like Huawei rather than American firms like
Cisco. For sensitive government entities, authorities declared, 100
percent must come from Chinese firms. For less critical projects, 70
percent should be from Chinese companies. Cisco was suddenly
feeling the squeeze of unrequited love.91
Three years earlier, Cisco and Chambers, and other tech firms
had encouraged U.S. officials to investigate Huawei.92 The Chinese
government responded, in part, with the restrictions we have just
shown. Cisco caved and negotiated with the Chinese government,
agreeing to invest $10 billion in mainland China for job creation. Like
Microsoft, Chambers was committing to export jobs from the United
States in order to get back into the good graces of the Beijing
regime.93
Twitter was founded in 2006.
In 2010, Jack Dorsey was stunned to learn that Twitter was
banned in China—something he did not know as the CEO of the
company.94 The response from the company was to propose a
censored form of Twitter that would conform with the “local laws” of
authoritarian governments. Reporters Without Borders, a free
speech organization, wrote to Dorsey: “By finally choosing to align
itself with the censors, Twitter is depriving cyberdissidents in
repressive countries of a crucial tool for information and
organization.” Critics noted that the policy move was made shortly
after Twitter received a $300 million investment from billionaire Saudi
prince Alwaleed.95
Twitter pursued deals with the Chinese government and touted its
services. It signed up the official Xinhua News Agency and helped it
beam its message to the globe.96
Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey has long coveted expanding
his business into China. The social media app is banned there, but
Dorsey figured the way to entry was in hiring the right person. So, in
April 2016, the first managing director of China for Twitter came on
board. Kathy Chen had an unusual pedigree. Dorsey’s choice had
previously served in the PLA for seven years, where she focused on
missile defense technology research. She was also involved in a
technology joint venture partly owned by China’s Ministry of Public
Security.97
China’s official news agency, Xinhua, sent her a “congratulations”
upon her appointment. Chen immediately wrote back: “Thanks and
look forward to closer partnership in the future!”
“Let’s work together to tell great China story to the world!” she
tweeted to another news service, CCTV.98
Twitter’s unusual hire sent shock waves through Chinese human
rights organizations concerned about where the company was going.
It did not take long for them to see that she was friendly with the
regime. Shortly after joining Twitter, she tweeted that message of
cooperation with CCTV, the government-controlled television and
media outlet. Chen also prompted Twitter to start working with
advertisers for Xinhua and the People’s Daily (the Chinese
Communist Party’s newspaper).99 After only seven months, Chen
stepped down—ostensibly to rest and investigate “more international
business opportunities.”100
Twitter, which touts a commitment to free speech, appears happy
to bow to Beijing’s wishes. Professor Anne-Marie Brady from the
University of Canterbury in New Zealand is a world-renowned expert
on China. When she tweeted criticisms of Beijing on the one
hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist
Party, Twitter blocked her account. Even the temporary stifling of
speech—as was the case here—in defense of the CCP is baffling.101
In 2019, in the days before the thirtieth anniversary of the
Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, Twitter removed the
accounts of several Chinese dissidents. The company claimed they
were not actually censoring, but that it was merely a “routine effort to
stop inauthentic and spam accounts.” Of course, they apply those
rules inconsistently, and only seem to use them against those who
oppose the regime.102
In the 2020 election and the run-up to the riot at the U.S. Capitol,
more than four hundred Chinese government–linked Twitter
accounts spread anti-U.S. propaganda. The Crime and Security
Research Institute (CSRI) at Cardiff University in Great Britain
conducted a major study monitoring the activity. Calling the operation
“sophisticated and disciplined,” they found that it “played a key role
in spreading disinformation during and after the U.S. election.”103 The
theme of the effort was presenting America as a “chaotic nation on
the verge of political collapse and major disorder,” and had a notable
anti-Trump sentiment. “It is unlikely that the network operates without
some official awareness and/or guidance,” noted Professor Martin
Innes, director of the CSRI. “This is significant given the levels of
influence and interference in U.S. politics that the accounts have
engaged in.”104
Regardless, Dorsey has continued his courtship of Beijing. He has
granted Chinese government entities a wide latitude on Twitter—
wider than he has given U.S.-based users, including former
president Donald J. Trump.105 When Chinese party officials accused
the U.S. military of being behind the coronavirus in Wuhan, Dorsey
defended the decision to leave the tweet up for two months with no
label as to its lack of veracity.106
Likewise, when Chinese officials went on Twitter to deny Uighur
abuse, they were not removed.107 More than that, Twitter promoted
tweets by the state-run Global Times furthering the propaganda.108
In May 2020, Twitter announced that it was putting Fei-Fei Li on
the company’s board of directors. Li, a professor at Stanford
University, is a controversial figure in tech circles because of her
bond to Beijing. She has multiple ties to Chinese Communist Party–
linked United Front groups. Li, as we saw earlier, opened Google’s
artificial intelligence center in China and does considerable work with
military-related entities.109 At that time, she was quoted in Chinese
state media as using the Chinese Communist Party slogans “stay
true to our founding mission” and “China has awakened.”110 While
Google’s China lab was working with military-linked researchers, she
became involved in a controversy at Google over their cooperation
with the Pentagon. Initially ambivalent, in a later response, she
emphasized that she believed that artificial intelligence research
should be designed for the “social good.”111
Chinese dissidents complained that shortly after her appointment,
their Twitter accounts were unceremoniously shut down. One
complained that at her arrival, Twitter was “dyed red.”112
Elon Musk is one of the richest men in the world, and perhaps the
most followed tech visionary on the planet. An early investor in
PayPal, he has gone on to launch a variety of cutting-edge
companies, including SpaceX, Tesla, and the Boring Company,
among others.113 Musk has a knack for riding the technology waves
of the future and does so with an eccentric and at times flamboyant
style. His gigantic ambitions include sending one million people to
Mars by 2050.114
Whether tech rebel or iconoclast, Musk has increasingly tied his
commercial fortunes to Beijing. Once outspoken and open about the
challenges presented by Beijing, he has, following a series of favors,
heaped praise on the government and the Communist Party.
In 2016, he announced his plans to blanket the skies with satellites
to provide high-speed internet around the globe. Unlike with fiber-
optic cables, it is much harder to block satellite transmissions. The
plan was to free the internet around the globe. But he was open
about how the Beijing regime censored communications. “If they
[Beijing] get upset with us, they can blow our satellites up, which
wouldn’t be good,” said Musk. “China can do that. So probably we
shouldn’t broadcast there.”115
In 2018, with his company Tesla producing popular electric
vehicles for export, he voiced his frustrations about Beijing’s high
tariffs on imported cars, including his own. “Do you think the US &
China should have equal & fair rules for cars?” he asked. “Meaning,
same import duties, ownership constraints & other factors.” He went
on: “For example, an American car going to China pays 25% import
duty, but a Chinese car coming to the US only pays 2.5%, a tenfold
difference.” He likened China’s tariffs to “competing in an Olympic
race wearing lead shoes.”116
Musk was also well aware that his companies, especially SpaceX,
were being probed by Chinese intelligence. SpaceX is a “prime
target” for Chinese espionage, and Beijing seems to have
successfully stolen designs related to the company’s Starship rocket
design. Musk himself acknowledges that Chinese entities stole
software code from his company Tesla. That is not just a competitive
problem, it is a national security one: that same software is used by
Musk’s SpaceX, which launches payloads and works closely with the
U.S. military.117
But Musk has clearly changed his tune. Perhaps part of it has to
do with the fact that Beijing built him a massive factory in China.
Musk had for several years denied that he was going to build a
facility in China, claiming that he was quite happy with his production
in the United States. In 2015, when transcripts of a meeting in China
were leaked, indicating he had plans to build a factory there, he
quickly declared that the transcripts were not accurate, refuting them
on Twitter. “My comments in China weren’t transcribed correctly.
Tesla will keep making cars & batteries in CA & NV as far into future
as I can imagine.”118
Beijing still courted him. In March 2017, China’s government-
linked Tencent Holdings bought a 5 percent stake in Tesla. Musk
explained on Twitter that Tencent would be both “an investor and
advisor.” (What advisory role the company would play was never
explained.)119 Then Beijing rolled out the red carpet: Chinese
government–backed banks coughed up $1.6 billion in subsidized
loans. And the regulatory red tape to build in China was eliminated
by government authorities. “What surprised me is how little time it
took for the regulatory process to get approved by the Chinese
government,” explained Ivan Su, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. The
enormous plant was built in less than a year.120
Musk arrived in the country for the groundbreaking ceremony and
met with top-ranking officials. Two days later, he was meeting with
Vice Premier Li Keqiang in the private compound reserved for high-
ranking visitors. “I love China very much and I am willing to come
here more,” Musk reportedly told Li. The vice premier offered to
make him a permanent resident in the country. He also clearly
wanted Musk’s help in the wake of the Trump administration’s
pushback on some of Beijing’s technology and export policies. “We
hope your company can become an in-depth participant of China’s
opening and a promoter of the stability of China-U.S. relations,” he
told Musk.121
Musk says they discussed “history, philosophy, and luck” at the
meeting. He later tweeted, “Excellent meetings with senior leaders in
China. Very thoughtful about the long-term future.”122
The Tesla factory was up and running in a year, producing cars for
sale in China and for export. The next step in the movement of the
company toward China came when it was soon announced that
Tesla was not only putting manufacturing in China, but also creating
design facilities there. China’s social media company WeChat
alerted people, noting, “In order to achieve a shift of ‘Made in China’
to ‘Designed in China,’ Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has proposed a very
cool thing—set up a design and research center in China.”123
Several politically connected executives were put in charge of
Tesla’s China operations. Tom Zhu took control of operations, and,
according to employees, started insisting that, when possible, emails
should be written in Chinese. Direct contact with the U.S.
headquarters of the company was “sharply limited.” Employees were
punished for directly reaching out to Musk. (The Tesla founder had
historically encouraged employees to reach out directly with
problems.) Grace Tao, a former television personality for China
Central Television, was brought on to head up communications and
government affairs. She explained to fellow employees that she was
linked to the highest levels of government and could communicate
with President Xi through a single intermediary if she needed to.124
In addition to producing cars (and apparently designing them),
Tesla has taken other actions as well. Tesla China has “aligned itself
explicitly with President Xi Jinping’s economic policy goals.”125
Musk has since become a Beijing booster. In January 2021, he
explained in one interview how the unelected Beijing regime was
possibly “more responsible” toward its people than the
democratically elected U.S. government. “When I meet with Chinese
government officials, they’re always very concerned about this. Are
people going to be happy about a thing? Is this going to actually
serve the benefit of the people? It seems ironic, but even though you
have sort of a single-party system, they really actually seem to care
a lot about the well-being of the people. In fact, they’re maybe even
more sensitive to public opinion than what I see in the US.”126
The Chinese foreign minister praised Musk for his wisdom, and
the government-backed Global Times added, “Anyone who is
unbiased and hopes to understand the real China objectively will
come to such a conclusion.”127
A few months earlier, Musk had effused, “China rocks in my
opinion. The energy in China is great. People there—there’s like a lot
of smart, hardworking people.” He went on to criticize his adopted
home country the United States. “I see in the United States
increasingly much more complacency and entitlement especially in
places like the Bay Area, and LA and New York.”128
In March 2021, Musk went on Chinese state television and touted
China’s leadership, explaining, “I’d like to strike an optimistic note
and I’m very confident that the future of China is going to be great
and that China is headed towards being the biggest economy in the
world and a lot of prosperity in the future.”129 Beijing obviously loved
the vote of confidence and reported his comments widely.130
His most explicit endorsement of the regime came on the one
hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of
China. The state-controlled Xinhua News tweeted a quote from
President Xi Jinping, stating that the party had achieved its “first
centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society” and was
heading toward accomplishing its goal of building China into a “great
modern socialist country.”
Musk replied on Twitter: “The economic prosperity that China has
achieved is truly amazing, especially in infrastructure! I encourage
people to visit and see for themselves.” For good measure, he also
posted on his Weibo social media account in China.131
Musk is not as effusive in his praise as some of his compatriots.
(He did not ask President Xi to provide a Chinese name for his
child.) But Musk’s shift has been obvious. Experienced observers
see Musk as having perhaps placed himself in a compromised
position.
Musk’s company SpaceX has numerous military- and intelligence-
related contracts with the U.S. government. His company launches
rockets for the U.S. Space Force, builds satellites that track missiles
for the Department of Defense, and deploys spy satellites for the
National Reconnaissance Office, among other things. This is,
obviously, very sensitive work.132
Tesla and SpaceX are disparate companies but they share key
personnel and some technologies. Elon Musk; his brother, Kimbal
Musk; as well as investor Antonio J. Gracias serve on the board of
directors for both companies. Charles Kuehmann, an engineer, is
vice president of materials engineering—also for both. In 2020, Tesla
even “temporarily” assigned twenty employees to “support SpaceX.”
Musk views the two companies as collaborators to some extent.
“That’s cross-fertilization of knowledge from the rocket and space
industry to auto back and forth, as I think it’s really been quite
valuable,” Musk explained in one 2017 call with investors.133
When legislation was introduced in Congress that would require
determination whether Chinese entities might be leveraging U.S.
companies that do work with NASA, SpaceX lobbied against the
legislation.134
Some national security experts are very concerned about Beijing’s
ability to leverage Musk and possibly SpaceX. Miles Yu, a professor
at the U.S. Naval Academy, says that Beijing lured Tesla “into China
with initial preferential tax and regulatory treatments. Once you are
hooked in China, and have gained initial success, the CCP would not
hesitate to use your investments in China as a leverage to force you
to comply with a whole list of demands, outright or subtle, including
sharing proprietary technologies and knowledge, prohibiting transfer
of funds out of China, curtailing your market share inside China and
possibly divulging critical national security secrets in your company’s
other operations with the U.S. government such as the SpaceX
project.”135
In 2021, the Chinese government became critical of Tesla.
Complaints about the quality of their cars by some of the public were
boosted by criticisms from Chinese government officials. Tesla
quickly issued an apology that could have come out of the Maoist
era, vowing to “carry out strict self-examination and self-
correction.”136
Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, may be less well known than
Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Google, or Jack Dorsey, but he is at the
center of the tech elite, known as “the most connected man in Silicon
Valley.”137 Outspoken about politics in the United States and what he
regards as the rising authoritarianism in America, he has mastered
the art of cooperation with authoritarian Beijing.
Hoffman has had great success in China because he is quite
willing to give the Beijing government the control that it demands. As
one report puts it, “U.S. companies considering a China move often
talk about the ‘LinkedIn model’—a model that means close local ties
and full cooperation with the government.”138 Hoffman also appears
at government-backed events that are denounced by many in the
tech industry as sham events designed to bolster the reputation of
the regime.139
Back in 2014, LinkedIn had only four million users in China. Today
that number has soared to fifty-two million, a testament to the
company’s success through cooperation with the regime.140 LinkedIn
has agreed to store data about Chinese citizens on servers hosted in
China, making them accessible to authorities. LinkedIn allows the
Chinese government to censor what gets posted, with relative
impunity.141 (LinkedIn says it will leave China in 2022.)
This arrangement has led to the censorship of Chinese human
rights activists like Zhou Fengsuo, one of the student leaders of the
prodemocracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
LinkedIn blocked his account without explaining why. Eventually,
LinkedIn reversed the decision after news reports drew attention to
the ban.142
Reid Hoffman sits on the board of directors of Microsoft, having
sold LinkedIn to the company in 2016.143 He presumably has no
objections to Microsoft’s close work with Beijing.
When Peter Humphrey, a British journalist and corporate
investigator, criticized Beijing on his LinkedIn account in Great
Britain, he found his account frozen and his critical comments
removed by LinkedIn. His sin? He called China a “repressive
dictatorship.” Though the account was reinstated upon appeal, this
shows how quickly dissent is quashed in support of what is,
objectively, a dictatorship that is repressive.144
Hoffman, like so many other tech leaders, is a Beijing booster. He
meets regularly with Chinese government officials and participates in
official events geared to legitimize the government’s control of its
people. When he met with President Xi in 2015, he explained that
Chinese tech companies have an advantage over Silicon Valley
firms because “they work much harder and will do anything to
win.”145
When asked in the United States who the United States should
look to and emulate, he said, “I think China, it’s super impressive… .
And I think there’s a bunch of things that they are actually in fact
practically investing in; everything from infrastructure, to technology,
to government, that we should also be doing as a society. There’s
things we should be learning from how China invests.”146
It is hard to find anything critical he has said about Beijing.
Presumably, he is up on events in the country—including its massive
human rights problem, abuses of power, and its increasing military
challenge to the United States. After all, President Barack Obama’s
secretary of defense, Ash Carter, appointed Hoffman to the
Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Advisory Board in 2016.147
Hoffman wants Silicon Valley firms working in Beijing. “The biggest
opportunity is for Silicon Valley and China to work together and
combine their respective strengths,” he says in a book he cowrote
called Blitzscaling.148
Hoffman has also been a consistent participant in a Chinese
government-sponsored sham event called the “World Internet
Conference.” Held in the city of Wuzhen, known for its ancient
canals, the event is sponsored by the Chinese government’s chief
censorship body, the Cyberspace Administration. Foreign
governments from around the world shun the event; those who do
show up include Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and a few others
known for supporting internet censorship. Chinese Communist Party
cyber expert Lu Wei explained in promoting the conference:
“Freedom is our goal and order is our means… . Controlling the
Internet is necessary in order to correct rumours… . [It] protects the
rights and interests of Internet users.” The glossy program put out for
the event features cover photos of President Xi. Fortune magazine
described the event as “farcical … The World Internet Conference
was really a soapbox for Xi to outline China’s Internet vision.” In
2015, President Xi addressed the conference and called for
countries to respect each other’s “cyber sovereignty.” New York
Times reporters attempted to attend the conference but were denied
press credentials.149
Yet Reid Hoffman spoke at the event for several years running—
strangely, the only Westerner who appears to have done so. He
appeared on the podium at the event in 2014, 2015, and 2016. In
2016, the conference featured a member of the Standing Committee
of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC)
Central Committee, Liu Yunshan, who talked about “innovation in
internet development.”150 Hoffman spoke that same year and praised
the communist government’s “One Belt, One Road” infrastructure
plan.151
Curiously, his speeches are not publicly available. He speaks
before the assembled guests, including Chinese internet censors,
behind closed doors.
Hoffman’s participation is notable, particularly in light of the fact
that the human rights group Freedom House continues to name
China as the “worst abuser of internet freedom.”152
The irony of Hoffman’s involvement in these sham, government-
supported events is thick, given his claims about President Donald
Trump’s authoritarianism. “LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman is there (he’s
passionately opposed to Donald Trump’s blustery authoritarianism,
but apparently fine with Chinese authoritarianism),” noted
TechInAsia.com.153
Few other tech execs have joined Hoffman at the propaganda
event. In 2017, Google CEO Sundar Pichai made a surprise
appearance, heralding Google’s return to China. Apple CEO Tim
Cook was there the same year, too. Apple had agreed to block apps
to the iPhone that allow Chinese citizens to bypass government
censors.154
Jim Breyer, brother-in-law to Senator Mitch McConnell and an
investor in China, has attended the event as well.155 Indeed, he told
Chinese state media he was “amazed at the long term strategic view
President Xi Jinping has articulated.” He noted that “we don’t often
see leaders articulate a 10 to 20 year plan.”156
America’s tech titans have seen the shifting public sentiment against
the Beijing regime. But they do not want to give up their cooperation
agreements with the government. Many have balked at policies that
would hold China to greater account—arguing as always that we
need to be “engaged” with China and not “decoupling,” which in their
minds is the worst thing that could happen. “We are enabling the
decoupling,” former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, a frequent voice on
China and technology, warned Wired. Decoupling, particularly in
tech, “splinters the internet platforms, reduces revenue for our
companies, and produces few opportunities for our tech firms to
succeed,” he believes.157
Never mind that Beijing has already made plans to either control
or split the internet.
Schmidt and others want more U.S. taxpayer money to go for
tech. But what they do not want is restrictions on selling rope to
Beijing. They do not favor disengaging from research projects with
China, which is the main source of concern. How can we win the
tech race if U.S. firms are effectively helping Beijing run faster? Why
continue to subsidize and cooperate with the Beijing regime?
Some Silicon Valley tech titans are capable of speaking honestly
about Beijing. Tech investors such as Peter Thiel have been critical
of those cooperating with the regime, calling them “useful idiots.”158
That is certainly the view that China’s President Xi has. In January
2017, he delivered a speech explaining that the “power to control the
internet” is the “new focal point of [China’s] national strategic
contest.” The kicker: he expected to use American tech companies
to help him do it. He did not elaborate.159
In 2019, Mark Zuckerberg spoke honestly about censorship in
China and pledged that Facebook would never set up a data center
in the country. His criticisms were not well received in Beijing.160
Facebook currently sells more than $5 billion worth of ad space to
Chinese businesses and government agencies looking to promote
their messages abroad.161
Zuckerberg’s Facebook teamed with Google in 2016 to build an
undersea cable that would link San Francisco (and therefore the
United States) with Hong Kong, China, and other locations in Asia.
The so-called Pacific Light Cable Network would provide better
internet and data services to their customers in Asia. But the two
American tech superpowers chose to partner with a Chinese
company called Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group to provide the link
to Hong Kong.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission in 2020 took the
unprecedented step of blocking the project. The Facebook-Google
cable presented “‘unprecedented opportunities’ for Chinese
government espionage,” according to the U.S. Justice
Department.162
Dr. Peng was financially backed by the Chinese government’s
China Securities Finance Corporation, and worked closely with
Huawei and military defense contractors in China.163
How the tech giants did not see the obvious espionage risk to their
plans is a mystery. Or maybe they saw it and did not care.
Why do already fabulously wealthy tech titans kowtow to such a
brutal regime? Why do they lay such obsequious comments at their
feet? Why do they seemingly shrug their shoulders to the reality that
they are boosting the Chinese military in its mortal competition with
us?
Thiel believes that there is something more at work here than
simply money. He said at the Nixon Forum in 2021: “There’s
something about the woke politics inside these companies, the way
they think of themselves as not really American companies. And it’s
somehow very, very difficult to, for them to have a sharp anti-China
edge of any sort whatsoever.”
He went on:
“You have this almost magical thinking that by pretending that
everything is fine, that’s how you engage and have a conversation.
And you make the world better. And it’s some combination of wishful
thinking. It’s useful idiots, you know, it’s CCP fifth columnist
collaborators.”164
The attraction may also be the power that tech giants can feel in
an authoritarian society. It is what writer Noam Cohen calls tech’s
interest in “the veneer of ultimate control.”165 He quotes computer
science trailblazer Joseph Weizenbaum of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, who wrote in the 1970s about the lure of
power through technology. “No playwright, no stage director, no
emperor, however powerful, has ever exercised such absolute
authority to arrange a stage or a field of battle and to command such
unswervingly dutiful actors or troops. The computer programmer is a
creator of universes for which he alone is the lawgiver.”166
Dictatorships in the real world work nicely with dictatorships in the
digital world.
Power—along with market access—can indeed be intoxicating.
And authoritarian regimes are capable of granting both without the
sort of ethical restraints that apply in a free country like the United
States.
If Silicon Valley is America’s innovation center, Wall Street is the
financial engine. And many of the financial masters of the universe,
the ultimate beneficiaries of the capitalist free market system, have
equally troubling links with the authoritarian leaders in Beijing.
5
Wall Street
In February 2017, dozens of guests arrived at a palatial Palm Beach
estate for an elaborate and opulent extravaganza. One of Wall
Street’s titans was celebrating his seventieth birthday. The party
theme was the “Silk Road,” and the entertainment included
Mongolian soldiers, acrobats—even a couple of camels. Attending
guests included the super-rich from finance as well as newly minted
Trump cabinet members Steve Mnuchin and Elaine Chao, the soon-
to-be-confirmed commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, and Ivanka
Trump and Jared Kushner.1
Stephen Schwarzman certainly knows how to throw a party. He is
also one of the most powerful people on Wall Street. Dubbed the
“King of Wall Street” by Fortune magazine, he cofounded Blackstone
Group and built it into a global financial titan.2 He has engaged in
many audacious deals during his career, but perhaps most troubling
is his partnership with the Chinese communist regime. The Chinese
government has invested both financial and political capital into the
Yale-trained financier’s business success. Simultaneously,
Schwarzman has served as a goodwill ambassador of sorts for
Beijing, blunting criticisms and cheerleading the regime’s policies. As
he jokingly explains it, he is the middleman between the two
superpowers, serving as both the “unofficial U.S. ambassador to
China” as well as the “unofficial Chinese ambassador to the U.S.”3
Thus, the theme of his 2017 blowout.
Beijing has benefited enormously from its close relationship to
Wall Street, in ways that are similar but also different from the ties it
enjoys in Washington and Silicon Valley. Wall Street titans clamoring
for opportunities in China have been seduced with financial riches,
accolades, and appeals to their self-importance. It has worked
fabulously well for Beijing, leading America’s top capitalists to praise
the dictatorial regime, help finance its operations, and even fund
some of its propaganda efforts.
But why China? Can the wealthiest Americans not find other ways
to be enriched and enabled? China offers several things that other
countries cannot. First, financiers tend to see the vast majority of
people as drones and obstacles preventing innovation. The appeal
of dictatorship is significant. Second, Wall Streeters constantly talk
as if their jobs were life-and-death—making a killing, scorched earth,
raiders—and China allows them to be close to genuine peril (without
being in peril themselves). Finally, there is no more appealing word
than “growth,” and China has provided it reliably for decades.
Schwarzman’s enormous financial successes, in part, result from
his close working relationship with Chinese Communist Party
officials in Beijing. This capitalist has deep and enduring ties with top
Chinese communists. By his own account, he knows “many of the
members of the Standing Committee and the State Council.” He first
met current Chinese president Xi back in 2007. As Schwarzman puts
it, “If you want to get anything done [in China], the strength of your
relationships means everything.”4
China’s economic climb has been the result of many factors, but
what must not be underestimated is the role played by Wall Street
finance and people like Schwarzman. Capital investments by major
players on Wall Street have fueled both China’s economic rise and
its military buildup. Influential Wall Street figures have played an
enormously important role in China’s efforts to challenge the United
States—and they have been paid handsomely for their efforts.
In 2007, Blackstone was going public, and Schwarzman found an
unusual new partner. The Chinese government and Communist
Party bought a 9.9 percent stake in the fledgling firm for $3 billion. It
was a sudden and surprising move—done through the government’s
sovereign wealth fund known as the China Investment Corporation
(CIC).5 The 9.9 percent stake was precise and specific: it was just
below the threshold of 10 percent that would have triggered a U.S.
federal government national security review in Washington.6
Beyond the investment of money, however, the deal was a clear
signal of confidence from Beijing that they would work to make
Blackstone a success. “It is a double victory for Blackstone because
you have to assume that the deal will be good for their expansion
plans in China,” one Hong Kong banker explained at the time.
“Beijing now has a vested interest in the firm performing well.”7 And
Schwarzman now had an apparent interest in Beijing doing well, too.
The Chinese government transaction with Blackstone yielded
Schwarzman some powerful allies. Lou Jiwei, head of CIC when it
made that initial investment, later became Beijing’s finance minister.8
Further deals between Blackstone and Beijing followed.
Schwarzman’s firm bought and sold companies with the Chinese
state, and he quickly became the “go-to man for Chinese buyers.”9
Today, Schwarzman is a regular fixture at high-level meetings and
events organized by CIC.10
Blackstone’s profits, courtesy of the Beijing regime, have come
with a certain quid pro quo. Blackstone-owned entities censor stories
that might anger the Beijing regime. With a partner, Thomson
Reuters, the firm owns a large chunk of Refinitiv, a financial news
and data analysis service. In June 2019, the thirtieth anniversary of
the Tiananmen Square massacre, Refinitiv censored and
suppressed stories about the event at the request of the Cyberspace
Administration of China.11
But more important, Schwarzman has also been a cheerleader for
Beijing, deflecting criticisms or painting the regime in a stunningly
benign light.
When some voice criticisms of China’s economic policies,
Schwarzman defends them: “It should not be surprising that as
China goes through an evolution mistakes will be made. The
developed world makes mistakes too. No group has a monopoly on
good policy.”12 He has characterized China’s rampant theft of
America’s intellectual property as “other approaches to intellectual
property.”13
While officials from both the Obama and Trump administrations
have characterized China’s Belt and Road Initiative as a challenge to
America’s global position, Schwarzman has actually praised it as a
wonderful program.14
When pressed on China’s economic power and the rising
suppression of its own population, Schwarzman punts about any role
that he could play in pushing for reforms. “Well, you know, we’re not
a one-person reform bureau.”15 He appears to have little negative to
say about how Beijing conducts its affairs.
Chinese government news outlets quote Schwarzman to show
Western approval of the Beijing regime. “The words of U.S. financier
Stephen Schwarzman may serve as a straightforward interpretation
of the CPC’s core mission,” explained the official government news
agency after the Communist Party Congress in 2012.16
When China state television quotes him, they also give him the
moniker “King of Wall Street.”17
Schwarzman’s attachment to China is so great that in 2013, he
launched an audacious $100 million plan to create a global
education scholarship program in China to rival the Rhodes
Scholarships offered at Oxford University.18 Cecil Rhodes, who was
South African, said he established his famous program at Oxford to
provide a British education for people worldwide so they could learn
the merits of British civilization. Schwarzman was turned down for a
Rhodes scholarship as a young man, so perhaps that has given him
added motivation.19
The Schwarzman Scholars do not study at an independent
university like Oxford, but instead at Tsinghua University, a training
ground for the Chinese Communist Party and government elite.20
(The school has an “Institute for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism
with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” established with the
cooperation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China.)21
Students from around the world—but especially the United States
—would come and be exposed to the Chinese communist system.
Schwarzman explains that his goal in setting up the program is that
“recipients would return to their countries able to interpret the
massive change in China in a way that calmed fears and
misunderstanding about the country.”22
Chinese officials have the same vision for the program. “Through
interactive learning at lectures and intensive deep-dive travel
seminars, they will gain deep insights in China’s society and culture.
Once they return to their motherland upon graduation, they will
become influential leaders in politics, economics, culture, education
and other fields, contributing to human civilization and progress as
well as world peace and development.”23
Government and Communist Party officials are very happy with
the program. Indeed, as the Associated Press notes,
“[Schwarzman’s program has] drawn support from the top ranks of
the ruling communist party.”24 Madame Chen Xu, secretary of the
CPC Tsinghua University Committee, was a big supporter of the
project.25
In the beginning, a committee was put together to ensure a
“scientific and fair” admission process for Schwarzman’s program.
The committee met on September 20, 2015, and included an
interesting mixture of experts. Along with academics, those present
included officials from the Chinese Communist Party Youth League,
the Central Party School (which imposes ideological discipline), and
the United Front Work Department, which runs political influence
operations.26
The program’s founding dean, David Daokui Li, was viewed by the
government’s propaganda arm “as an especially reliable ally.”27
Who runs the program? Who establishes the curriculum for
American students and others from around the world to study? That
would be Professor Daniel Bell, the Schwarzman Scholar program
chair professor. A Canadian, Bell is a Chinese government apologist,
explaining the superiority of the Chinese system of government over
those of his own country or the United States. In his book The China
Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy, he praises
the Chinese communist system as a “meritocracy” in comparison to
the failing Western system of one person, one vote.28 The Chinese
system is so much better because Communist Party “cadres are put
through a grueling process of talent selection, and only those with an
excellent record of past performance are likely to make it to the
highest levels of government.”29 (Never mind that China admits to a
corruption problem and is known to have the resident abuses of any
authoritarian state.)30 Bell also praises the Chinese media, which is,
of course, controlled by the Communist Party and government. He
considers it superior to the free press in the West. “When Chinese
journalists interview their subjects, they try to put forward a balanced
account of what the interviewees have to say, with emphasis on what
can be learned and communicated as something new and
interesting,” he said. “They rarely engage in muckracking [sic], public
character assassination, or put on a smiling face then betray their
interviewees in print.”31
Of course they do not. Journalists in China investigating the cover-
up of the COVID-19 outbreak were arrested or disappeared by
government officials.
Bell, with his warm views of the dictatorial regime, is, again, “chair
professor” in Schwarzman’s program.32
Chinese government and party officials regularly interact with
students in the program. When the inaugural class of Schwarzman
Scholars held their convocation ceremony, the vice premier of the
State Council of China, Liu Yandong, attended. The State Council is
one of the top decision-making bodies in the country.33
Schwarzman Scholars studying at Tsinghua are also required to
take a course titled “Theory and Practice of Socialism with Chinese
Characteristics,” which is taught by He Jianyu, associate professor in
the School of Marxism at Tsinghua University. The curriculum notes:
“There will also be group discussions based on the course literature,
a mid-term paper aimed at teaching how to read and analyze the
official text of CCP documents and files, and a final paper aimed at
providing an opportunity to communicate with a policy maker who is
engaged in the decision-making process or an ordinary Chinese
citizen who is experiencing the change of China.”34
The convocation of the first class for Schwarzman Scholars
brought congratulatory messages from both President Xi and
President Barack Obama. Xi explained the program’s value “to foster
the global vision and stronger sense of cooperation to strive together
a better future for mankind.” The American president lauded the
program for meeting the need to “instill in [the next generation] the
same spirit of cooperation that drives our community of nations
towards peace and progress.”35 It is unclear whether or not the
Obama White House was aware of the program’s curriculum.
The university highlighted one of the Chinese students
participating in the Schwarzman program, noting that the
architectural student “also has a great record in terms of social work
experience. He was the secretary of the Communist Youth League in
the School of Architecture.”36
So what does this mean? A Wall Street financier worth billions,
courtesy of the free market system, is funding courses in Marxism-
Leninism and a program that preaches the superiority of Chinese
communism over American capitalism.
In 2017, Chinese president Xi addressed a group of American
corporate executives at Tsinghua, which happens to be his alma
mater. Among those present were Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg,
Apple’s Tim Cook, and Stephen Schwarzman. They met in the Great
Hall of the People, where Xi spoke to them, explaining that the
recent 19th Communist Party National Congress was of “great
significance, and has enhanced China’s confidence on the path of
socialism with Chinese characteristics.” He went on to present in
stark terms his views concerning who should be educated in China:
“constructors and successors of socialism with Chinese
characteristics, rather than bystanders or opponents, should be
trained through education.” It was a pointed endorsement of party
rule and party control, even over education. The Chinese media said
that Schwarzman and the others “were deeply impressed by
President Xi’s report.”37
Schwarzman’s embrace of the regime’s agenda was also reported
by the Western media. Schwarzman was among those present who
“praised Mr. Xi’s leadership of China,” according to the Wall Street
Journal.38
In 2019, when the Schwarzman Scholars held their
commencement ceremony, the speaker for the event chosen by
school officials was a notorious figure to human rights officials
worldwide, Tang Xiao’ou. He is the founder of the Chinese high-tech
company SenseTime, which created facial recognition software able
to identify racial minority groups within larger crowds. The Beijing
regime has used the technology to identify and target Muslim
minorities in Xinjiang province. Four months after his speech,
SenseTime was placed on the U.S. government’s “entity list,”
prohibiting American companies from working with the firm because
of its involvement in human rights violations.39
Schwarzman had nothing public to say about the controversy, or
about the myriad of human rights problems in China. However, he
has spoken out about far less brutal and widespread racial matters in
the United States.40
When Washington and Beijing have diplomatic or strategic
disagreements, Schwarzman has characterized the two as feuding
parents who cannot get along, both seemingly equally responsible.41
During the Trump administration, he played an important role serving
as a go-between for the two powers. (The Washington Post dubbed
him the “China Whisperer.”)42 Jim Breyer, brother-in-law of Senator
Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao, sits on the Blackstone board of
directors.43 But Schwarzman’s written account of his shuttle
diplomacy appears more critical of Washington than it does of
Beijing, accusing the Trump administration of “ratcheting up the
rhetoric” at one point, but not criticizing Beijing in a similar fashion.44
In 2021, Blackstone took an early and substantial stake in a
Chinese company called JD Logistics, a spinoff of the tech giant JD.
The Wall Street firm became one of the company’s largest
shareholders.45 JD Logistics is no ordinary logistics company. In
2017, the firm signed a “strategic cooperation” agreement with the
People’s Liberation Army Air Force, which included plans to “jointly
build an information sharing platform” as well as providing “personnel
training and support services for the Air Force Logistics Department.”
This will allow China to further project air power into the Pacific,
challenging U.S. military forces.46
Schwarzman explained to President Trump that “President Xi is a
great guy.”47 It is common to see such praise for Xi on Wall Street,
ignoring the widespread and brutal suppression of dissent in the
country.
Hank Paulson, the former head of Goldman Sachs and U.S.
Treasury secretary under President George W. Bush, once
described Xi as “a guy who really knows how to get over the goal
line.”48 Dictators often appear to have such a gift. Billionaire Michael
Bloomberg has proclaimed that the unelected Xi is “not a dictator.”49
In January 2021, Schwarzman took the podium at a New York City
black-tie dinner hosted by the China General Chamber of
Commerce. It was the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Dog Gala,
and after brief remarks by the Chinese ambassador to the United
States, businessman Tung Chee-hwa took the stage. Tung, you may
recall, runs a united front organization called CUSEF, which pushes
influence operations in Washington. Tung sang Schwarzman’s
praises and then presented him with the “Goodwill Ambassador for
China-U.S. Exchange Award.”50
Schwarzman and Blackstone are not the only players on Wall Street
who have enjoyed a warm and cozy, mutually beneficial relationship
with the communist regime in Beijing. Carl Walter and Fraser Howie,
in their book Red Capitalism, explain, “The New China of the twenty-
first century is a creation of the Goldman Sachs … of the world.”51
In the 1990s, the venerable Wall Street investment house picked up
the moniker “Government Sachs” because of its close ties in
Washington, D.C.52 But it is the embrace of the Beijing regime that is
more notable and troubling.
Like Schwarzman and Blackstone, Goldman has enjoyed great
success through its partnerships with the Chinese government and
state-owned enterprises. In 1993, they were lead managers when
the China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC)
issued its first bond offering in the United States. The following year,
the firm opened its first China office (in Beijing, of course) and was
granted a “special seat” on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the first
American investment bank with such an honor. Goldman profited
enormously in the following years advising on the privatization of
state-owned firms, including China Telecom and PetroChina.53
Goldman found eager partners among China’s political and military
elite. It launched a venture capital fund with the son of a former
health minister.54 Another critical ally for Goldman’s entry into the
Chinese market was Fang Fenglei, the son of a former senior official
in the People’s Liberation Army. Goldman, desperate to further
expand its footprint in China, bailed out a business with which Fang
was involved and set up a joint venture with him.55
Chinese regional governments were also hiring the firm to help
with their debt restructuring.56
The deals accumulated and proved to be enormously lucrative. In
just six months of 2006, Goldman saw a nearly $4 billion increase in
value on a single investment in China.57
Goldman became a trusted partner to Beijing because it advised
officials on how to incorporate Communist Party leadership
structures into Chinese corporations. John Thornton, a former head
of Goldman Sachs Asia, explained it this way when discussing the
partial privatization of China’s national telecom company, Netcom:
In Netcom’s case we focused on putting in place the right structures,
processes, and interactions. We defined specific roles for the
Communist Party and left the rest to the board—for example, the party
participates and votes on key matters through nominated directors on
the Netcom board, but fewer than half of the board members are party
designees. We clearly defined the boundaries of party mandates for
senior-executive appointments, company strategy development, and
key investments. We gave authority to nominate and approve CEO and
CFO candidates back to the board. The CEO now owns the strategy-
setting process and is supported by a newly created strategy
department.
Thornton explained that there was no contradiction between the
interests of the Chinese Communist Party and corporate investors.58
Perhaps no one figure at Goldman is more responsible for the
cozy ties the firm enjoys in Beijing than Thornton, who has become
fabulously wealthy in part because of those ties. Thornton received
some unwanted attention for his oversized way of living when it was
revealed that during an extended drought in South Florida, his Palm
Beach home and property consumed 8,698,492 gallons of water in a
single year, well above the 108,000 gallons for the average
resident.59
The son of two “well-born Manhattan lawyers,” he attended prep
school at Hotchkiss before heading to Harvard, Oxford, and Yale. He
joined Goldman in 1980 and became a veteran mergers and
acquisitions banker (called “fiercely ambitious” by Fortune magazine)
and in 1996 took charge of Goldman’s Asia office based out of Hong
Kong.60 That same year he gathered a group of Chinese bureaucrats
and government officials on the Chinese island resort of Hainan,
where they were “fed, cosseted, and given a primer on how to
privatize their vast state-owned corporations.”61 Of course, Goldman
was positioned, courtesy of Chinese Communist Party officials, to
collect hefty fees to help them do so. They were also set to become
early investors in Chinese state-owned companies.
Thornton worked hard to cultivate working relationships with the
Chinese political elite and Communist Party officials. Thornton
became friends with Jiang Zemin when he was mayor of Shanghai in
the 1980s.62 Since he later became president of China, it would
seem that Goldman was in the driver’s seat to make deals. He met
regularly with the mayors of large cities and members of the Political
Bureau of the Communist Party of China.63
Through those relationships, Thornton gave Goldman the
opportunity to be the lead underwriters for major Chinese state-
owned companies going public, including China Telecom and
PetroChina.64
“The Chinese government views Goldman as a very important and
reliable business partner,” said Fang Zheng, a partner in Neon
Capital Management at the time.65
Thornton is an odd commodity, an unabashed defender of his
Gordon Gekko–like attitudes about business. “What we have in New
York,” he told one reporter, “is unfettered capitalism, and that
involves killing each other. A lot fall by the wayside. When I look at
the tombstones of the last 15 years! It’s a Darwinian model and the
survivors are very fit.” He went on: “Money is the ultimate
commodity. So if what you want is the cheapest funds as fast as
possible, then there are global institutions such as ourselves who
can find you the money. If you’re operating at our level, you’ve got to
be big, mean and intelligent, and it’s at that end of the business
where we shine. We’ve handled any number of big Chinese
privatizations—Chinese Telecom in Hong Kong, Bank of China, the
big oil company PetroChina—all in the last five years. All of them
were in billions and all of them were complicated.”66
At the same time, as we will see, he has been happy to work with
the Beijing regime as a trusted friend and perhaps even ally.
In 2003, Thornton abruptly left Goldman and took a professorship
at the elite Tsinghua University, the same institution where
Schwarzman would later set up his Schwarzman Scholars program.
It seemed a strange move. He was the first foreign full professor at
the school since the communist revolution in 1949. Thornton said he
would commute to Tsinghua from his New York home.67
Perhaps Thornton did not give up finance for the idyllic life in
academe. Rather, maybe he took the position because he saw China
as the center of gravity on the planet. “The single most important
thing to happen in our lifetime will be the emergence of China,” he
said in taking the job.68 And by joining the faculty of the most elite
institution of higher learning in China, he became “one of the most
important contacts for any businessman with thoughts of investing in
the People’s Republic.”69 As the Japanese business media stated,
“His presence in China, where personal connections are a key factor
in business success, is likely to give Goldman Sachs a great deal of
leverage for its future expansion in the country, people familiar with
the matter say.”70
Thornton continued to advise investment firms on deals with
Beijing, relying on his network of close ties. He also established a
center to study China at the venerable Brookings Institution in
Washington, D.C., and served as the think tank’s chairman for
several years.71 In October 2008, the Chinese government conferred
upon him the highest civilian award it grants to foreigners: the
Friendship Award. China’s premier, Wen Jiabao, personally
presented the award, which had been established to “thank and
commend outstanding foreign experts annually for their contributions
to China’s social development and economic, scientific,
technological, educational and cultural construction.”72 Months later,
Thornton spoke about Premier Wen and the Chinese government in
glowing terms. In Washington, he explained to the Congressional-
Executive Commission on China that China was moving toward
democracy. Thornton claimed then that party leader and premier
Wen Jiabao often advocated for the values of democracy. He spoke
of it in ways similar to many in the West. “When we talk about
democracy,” said Wen, “we usually refer to the three most important
components: elections, judicial independence, and supervision
based on checks and balances.”
Premier Wen’s emphasis on universal values of democracy reflects new
thinking in the liberal wing of the Chinese political establishment.
Political participation through institutional means remains very limited.
Yet, the ongoing political and intellectual discourse about democracy in
the country, the existence of a middle class, commercialization of the
media, the rise of civil society groups, the development of the legal
profession, and checks and balances within the leadership are all
important, contributing factors for democratic change in any society. In
all these aspects, China was making significant progress.73
Of course, those universal values never really gained traction in
the Communist Party.
Beyond glossing over Beijing’s human rights record, Thornton has
in more recent years cooperated with them in ways that benefit the
government and help the regime accomplish its geostrategic goals,
which are aimed squarely at the United States. These deals also
stand to make him even more money. Thornton serves as the
chairman of the board for the Silk Road Finance Corporation, an
investment firm funded by the Chinese government and designed to
support the government’s Belt and Road Initiative.74
As Thornton’s firm explains on its website, “SRFC is commercially
driven, while complementing [Chinese] Government policy.”75 The
firm’s strategic partner is the Silk Road Planning Research Center,
which advises and helps guide government policy on One Belt/One
Road. A “core shareholder” in Thornton’s firm is “a financial services
conglomerate under the direct supervision of the State Council of the
People’s Republic of China.”76
The CEO of Thornton’s Silk Road Finance Corporation, Li Shan, is
a member of the powerful China People’s Political Consultative
Conference, a top-level decision-making body.77
Belt and Road, also known as One Belt One Road, and
sometimes dubbed the “new silk road,” is an attempt by the Chinese
government to create development projects around the world
spanning Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa
and link them with China. Supporters of the project believe that it will
“seriously affect the dollar’s previous dominance and with it the
ability of the United States to exercise economic and political
influence throughout the world.”78 The United States government
certainly sees it as a geopolitical play by Beijing to supplant U.S.
power around the world.
A wide array of officials call Belt and Road a strategic program to
enhance Beijing’s position. Belt and Road is “boosting China’s ability
to project its power across the region and the world,” said Jack Lew,
who was Barack Obama’s Treasury secretary.79
The project is not good for everyone in China. “The entire Belt and
Road initiative is based on forced labor,” said Li Qiang, director of
China Labor Watch, a human rights organization.80
At the same time, Thornton continues to be a funder of the U.S.
policy debate in Washington, D.C. He has served as the chairman of
the prestigious Brookings Institution and currently serves on its
board of directors. The institution’s China policy centers, one housed
in Washington, the other in Beijing, are named after him. President
Xi Jinping’s nephew reportedly interned at Brookings.81
The big Wall Street firms actively bring the children of Beijing’s
party bosses into their companies. It was reported that in 2013
Goldman had more than two dozen sons and daughters of high-
ranking officials at the firm, including the grandson of Jiang Zemin,
the former Chinese premier and longtime friend of John Thornton.
Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, and other firms have done the same.
Merrill managed to snag the son-in-law of the second-highest-
ranking Communist Party official at the time.82
Today, Goldman Sachs offers derivative products on the Hong
Kong stock exchange directly linked to the Chinese military
companies. They only stopped trading them after the Trump
administration limited financial firms from doing business with
Chinese military entities.83 Goldman also issues U.S. dollar bonds for
Chinese military-linked companies as identified by the Pentagon.84
Trump’s declaration led Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and J.P.
Morgan to delist about five hundred warrants they had outstanding
on PLA-linked companies.85
One of the most powerful people on Wall Street is Ray Dalio, founder
of Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund. Dalio, who by his own
account started investing in the stock market when he was twelve
years old, has made billions running his investment funds. In 2018
alone, his compensation from Bridgewater was said to be $2
billion.86
But he is troubled by American capitalism. Capitalism is the
world’s best system, he says, but it has not worked well for ordinary
Americans.87
On the other hand, the capitalist has only warm words for China
and its dictatorial leadership. He has called Wang Qishan, the
second most powerful man in the Chinese Communist Party, a
“personal hero.”88 In his book, Principles, published in 2017, Dalio
goes further, describing him as “a remarkable force for good for
decades.” Spending time with Wang is a religious-like experience,
Dalio explains. “Every time I speak with Wang, I feel like I get closer
to cracking the unifying code that unlocks the laws of the universe.”89
Following the release of his book in the United States, Dalio toured
China promoting it. (At the same time, he was trying to get
government approval for a hedge fund in China.) State television
later reported that his tome was one of the most popular translated
books in the country that year.90
So who exactly is Wang, to warrant such high praise from the
world’s largest hedge fund head?
Wang is President’s Xi’s enforcer. The Economist calls him
“perhaps the most feared” leader in China.91 He oversees party
discipline and has waged an anticorruption campaign in the country,
which many observers point out is really a thinly veiled tool to help Xi
purge his political opponents and consolidate political power.92
Ironically, Wang and his family are said to have received “gifts” from
Deutsche Bank as part of their strategy of using bribes to gain
access in China, yet no one from his family has been charged.93
Under Wang (“a remarkable force for good”), the anticorruption
campaign uses techniques like beatings and torture to elicit
confessions, according to Human Rights Watch and other
organizations.94 And of course, Wang (a “personal hero”) is a
Communist Party man, bluntly declaring, “there is no such thing as
the separation of powers between the party and the government.”95
By 2010, Bridgewater was doing big business with China. The
Chinese government’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange
(SAFE) was investing billions of dollars in a number of hedge funds
in the United States, including Bridgewater.96 Dalio’s relationship
within the highest ranks of the government was becoming more
direct, including a personal meeting with the Chinese foreign
minister.97 As Dalio built his powerful ties in Beijing, he also hired
those with relationships in Washington to work for the firm. Dalio
tapped James Comey, former associate attorney general of the
United States, to serve as Bridgewater’s top lawyer in 2010. (Comey
left in 2013, when he was appointed FBI director by President
Barack Obama.) “He’s [Dalio is] tough and he’s demanding and
sometimes he talks too much, but, God, is he a smart bastard,”
Comey told the New Yorker.98
Comey indicated that he learned a lot from Dalio, including his
creating a culture of speaking truth to power. Unless you are talking
to dictators, of course.
In 2018, just a year after the publication of his book with the
wonderful words about Beijing’s number two, Dalio’s firm became a
significant player in China, having been granted the first license to
provide hedge fund investments to locals in China.99 And beyond his
love letter to Wang, Dalio has been a consistent apologist for the
communist system in China. His troubling views about China are
worth quoting at length:
One of China’s leaders who explained this concept to me told that the
word “country” consists of two characters, state and family, which
influences how they view their role in looking after their state/family.
One might say that the Chinese government is paternal.
For example, it regulates what types of video games are watched by
children and how many hours a day they play them. As a broad
generalization, when the interest of the country (like the family) is at
odds with the interest of the individual, the interest of the country (like
the interest of the family) should be favored over the interest of the
individual.
Individuals are parts of a greater machine. As a result of this
perspective, the system seeks to develop, promote and reward good
character and good citizenship. For example it gives people a social
credit score that rates the quality of their citizenship. And each person is
expected to view themselves as parts of the greater whole.
He concludes: “I’m not saying which system is better.”100
In addition to stating his appreciation for the virtues of Beijing’s
authoritarian rule, Dalio has backed other Chinese government
actions. In November 2020, the Chinese government went after
billionaire Jack Ma for voicing criticisms of Chinese regulators and
canceled his Ant IPO. Ma also disappeared for almost ninety days.
Ray Dalio, however, sided with the government against Jack Ma.
The billionaire described Chinese regulators as, among other things,
“caring.”101
Dalio is a Beijing regime booster. “Whatever criticisms you may
have about Chinese ‘state capitalism,’ you cannot say it hasn’t
worked,” he wrote in the Financial Times and on his LinkedIn page.
He is also quick to echo Beijing’s claims about human rights
violations in America being similar. Dalio, from the comforts of his
Greenwich, Connecticut, estate, calmly restates Beijing’s argument:
“China’s rejoinder is that a strong hand is needed to maintain order,
what happens inside its borders is its business, and the U.S. has its
own human rights problems.”102 He does not refute Beijing’s claim.
(Remember, their rule is “paternal.”) But he does add that many in
the West possess a “persistent anti-China bias”—one of many
China-defending points happily relayed by Chinese state media.
They should “clear their mind,” he says.103
Dalio believes in Beijing’s dictatorial model, because the
leadership is smart. He is skeptical that having leaders
democratically accountable would be better. “The Chinese
leadership is extremely knowledgeable in the lessons of its history
and how things work,” he said in 2020. “What I would convey to you
and my fellow Americans is that they have a lot of internal
disagreement and processes for dealing with it well within the
government, so it does exist. Whether or not it is more productive to
have the entire population in those discussions is a matter of
opinion.”104 Dalio is what one might call a Freedom Skeptic.
Dalio defends his bullish views of China, saying, “people have
accused me of being biased, naïve, and in some cases unpatriotic. I
think I’m just being objective.”105
Dalio’s defense of the Beijing regime and his efforts to invest in the
country are even more appalling because he believes that America
is already effectively at “war” with Beijing. As he explained in 2020,
“In terms of China, we will—we are in a conflict with China. You can
call it a war, like the 1930s, so that there is a—there is a trade war,
there is a technology war, there is a geopolitical war, and there could
be a capital war. And so that’s the reality.”106
Dalio enjoys a “rock-star investor status” in China, and his
business is booming, thanks to the assist from the Beijing
government.107 In 2020, the government granted him the right to
launch a second investment fund.108
The biggest asset manager in the world is BlackRock. Built from the
ground up by Larry Fink (the CEO) and his partners, the firm has
transformed finance. Beyond the amount of money that it manages,
BlackRock also provides analytical tools that other investment firms
use to assess their investment decisions, such that “those who
oversee many of the world’s biggest pools of money are looking at
the financial world, at least in part, through a lens crafted by
BlackRock.”109 So how Fink and BlackRock interact with China and,
perhaps even more important, view China, will have an enormous
effect in the world of finance.
Fink has been outspoken for years on the need for greater “social
responsibility” in investing, especially on environmental, social, and
governance (ESG) issues.110 He wants investors to focus not just on
profits but on doing social good through companies.
But those standards do not apply to investments in China. Indeed,
as we will see, Fink sings the praises of the regime and avoids
criticizing some of the more abhorrent actions in the country.
Fink was raised in Van Nuys, California, graduated from the
University of California, Los Angeles, and headed to Wall Street after
college. He was a young, aggressive financial professional at First
Boston when his career seemingly went up in flames: the
department he was running lost $100 million in a single quarter
because of a bad bet. Fink was asked to leave, and he kicked
around for a few years, working at Schwarzman’s Blackstone.
Ultimately, he went on to form his own firm, BlackRock.111
During the financial crisis in 2008–9, he made a series of
decisions that would transform BlackRock into a Wall Street monster.
Most important, his firm bought Barclays Global Investors, which ran
the collection of iShare index funds. That segment of the investment
industry exploded, and Fink found himself as one of the biggest
players on Wall Street. Fink, known for his direct talk and financial
acumen, not only became fabulously wealthy, but also became
known as a “Wall Street Wise Man.” Today, he serves as not only the
head of BlackRock but also as an advisor to CEOs, officials at the
U.S. Federal Reserve, Treasury secretaries, and U.S. presidents.
BlackRock has become so large and powerful that some bankers
regard it as “almost a shadow government.”112 Others have called it
the “fourth branch of government.”113
Fink has sought to use that size and muscle to push for causes he
believes in. His biggest is what he calls “corporate responsibility.”
Businesses should not just focus on the bottom line; they should
also factor environmental and social concerns into determining
whether they are successful.
In 2018, Fink called on corporate CEOs to make big changes in
how they operate. “Society is demanding that companies, both public
and private, serve a social purpose,” he wrote in a letter. “To prosper
over time, every company must not only deliver financial
performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to
society.”114 In another letter to corporate executives he insisted: “A
company cannot achieve long-term profits without embracing
purpose and considering the needs of a broad range of
stakeholders. A pharmaceutical company that hikes prices ruthlessly,
a mining company that shortchanges safety, a bank that fails to
respect its clients … these actions that damage society will catch up
with a company and destroy shareholder value.”115
What about a financial firm that partners with a repressive regime?
In 2018, Fink applied that approach when it came to Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi journalist named Jamal Khashoggi had been murdered and
brutally dismembered, and there was evidence that the Saudi
government was behind the killing. Fink went on CNBC and
explained why he was boycotting the Saudi government’s investment
conference in protest. “We have an incident now that we need to be
mindful of. You know, there’s an unexplainable death or murder. It
could impact relations worldwide. We have to be sympathetic to this.
This was a big issue with BlackRock’s employees. This was a big
issue with many clients who reached out and called.”116
When it comes to China, Fink does not have much criticism,
despite the widespread and persistent nature of its abuses. Indeed,
Fink actually praises the conduct of the Beijing regime and
misrepresents what is going on in the country.
“If Xi’s benevolent it’s a good thing, if he’s not benevolent it’s a bad
thing,” he told the Australian Financial Review. “But I don’t see any
reason to fear.” The mounting evidence of abuses against Uighurs,
Hong Kongers, or other minorities did not faze him. He went on,
declaring that the suppression of rights that was taking place was
theoretical and on balance, not so bad. “I think his first five years
have shown that the Xi government has done very well in terms of
navigating the economy and improving the quality of life for more
Chinese. In theory, some elements of the society may have less
rights, but on the other hand I would say the majority of society in
China have done very well” (emphasis added).117
This apparent excuse for repression is quite remarkable coming
from someone who wants to push corporations to be more
“responsible,” and make “positive contributions to society.”
Fink went on in the interview to offer a ringing endorsement of Xi’s
regime. “I would qualify the Chinese leadership as one of the best
leadership teams in the world.”118
Fink has apparently made clear to Chinese officials not to expect
any high-minded talk about human rights, social issues, or the role of
corporations as reformers. In November 2019, he reportedly told
officials in Beijing that “BlackRock should be a Chinese company in
China.”119 In fact, in 2021, while Beijing was crushing the pro-
democracy movement in Hong Kong, BlackRock was actually
expanding its presence in that city. Repression, apparently, is not
bad for business.120
China’s sovereign wealth funds, like the China Investment
Corporation (CIC), have hired BlackRock and others “to manage
large portions of their portfolios,” according to a U.S. congressional
report.121 CIC is no ordinary investment firm and is “expected to
pursue government objectives.”122 It also is a “central feature of
China’s technology acquisition strategy.”123 So BlackRock collects
fees while its client works to advance Chinese interests at the
expense of the United States.
BlackRock also manages the assets of “a lot of high-net-worth
clients in China,” presumably including members of the politically
connected corporate elite.124 Fink clearly sees China at the center of
BlackRock’s future. “We are here to work with China,” he says. “We
firmly believe China will be one of the biggest opportunities for
BlackRock.”125 And indeed, recently BlackRock struck up a
partnership with China Construction Bank Corporation to form a joint
venture.126 China Construction Bank is a financial titan backed by the
Chinese government.
But the governance standards he applies to American companies
do not apply in China. Chinese companies listed on American stock
exchanges were exempt from normal regulatory and accounting
rules that applied to American and other foreign companies listed. In
2020, Congress passed by overwhelming majorities the Holding
Foreign Companies Accountable Act. The law was straightforward.
BlackRock, for all its bluster about better governance, was weirdly
silent about the bill.127
When seventeen students were killed by a gunman at a Parkland,
Florida, high school, BlackRock was quick to argue for corporate
responsibility. The financial giant pledged to use its ownership in
several gun manufacturers through index funds to push for change.
China state television reported on the story and quoted a BlackRock
spokesman: “We focus on engaging with the company and
understanding how they are responding to society’s expectations of
them.”128
So, BlackRock takes extra care to speak to providers of weapons
to law-abiding American citizens. In China, they own shares in
companies directly linked to the People’s Liberation Army. The
companies in which BlackRock owns shares directly support Xi’s
“Military-Civil Fusion.”129 One wonders who might suffer at the wrong
end of those weapons and technologies. There is no evidence that
BlackRock has spoken to these Chinese companies asking them
how they are “responding to society’s expectations of them.”
Longtime global investor George Soros has called out BlackRock
for its financial efforts in China, declaring that it is on the “wrong
side” of the struggle between Beijing and the West, and noted that
BlackRock’s efforts “will damage the national security interests of the
U.S. and other democracies.”130
One of Fink’s great passions is climate change, and he often
speaks of the necessity of fighting it. He has been critical of fossil
fuel producers and companies resisting climate goals.131 But those
criticisms seem to stop at China’s border. Beijing is by far the
greatest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the world. China
continues to dive into coal-fueled power; the use of coal in the
country is “soaring.” In 2020 alone, local governments in China
approved forty-six gigawatts of new coal power plants in the country.
More than half of the coal power in the world is now generated in
China.132
Fink has not taken the regime to task here, either.
While Fink has pushed for better governance of companies in the
United States and the Western world, he has done the opposite in
China. Indeed, in China, Fink has used BlackRock’s muscle to help
the Communist Party consolidate control over companies.
In 2017, the CCP pushed for companies listed on the Hong Kong
stock exchange to change their corporate charters to make it
explicitly clear that the corporate boards would be required to “seek
advice on major decisions from Communist Party committees” in
Beijing.133 The proposed changes would give the Communist Party
more powers—allowing “China’s communist party writing itself into
company law.” The reforms established “internal party committees to
be consulted on important decisions.” Some made clear that
corporate executives were also to serve as heads of internal
Communist Party committees in their companies.134
It was a clear power grab by Beijing.
The investment giant Vanguard voted against the measure.
And BlackRock? They voted in favor.135
Observers called the move by BlackRock and others “bizarre,”
likening it to “turkeys voting for Christmas.”136
The fact that BlackRock went along and voted for greater
Communist Party control is, as Tamar Groswald Ozery at Harvard
Law School’s Program on Corporate Governance puts it, “suggestive
of their support or at least indifference.”137
Fink and those like him know that by cooperating and doing what
the party and regime want, they will get greater access to the
Chinese market and become even richer.
BlackRock’s reach extends beyond the purviews of financial
markets, and now includes the highest reaches of the White House.
No less than three executives from the firm, who were central to the
firm’s push into China, are in senior roles in the Biden administration.
Brian Deese, the former global head of sustainable investing at
BlackRock, is the head of the National Economic Council.138 Deese
had served in the Obama administration, where he helped negotiate
the climate change deal that allowed China to avoid curtailing carbon
emissions for more than a decade.139
Beijing was bullish on his appointment. Former trade official He
Weiwen told the Global Times, a party-run paper, that Deese
represented the interests of large corporations at BlackRock who
“have tasted the sweetness of doing business with China.”140
Fink’s kowtowing to the regime means BlackRock gets a special
seat at the table in Beijing.
In March 2021, Beijing authorities approved BlackRock’s bid to sell
wealth management products on the Chinese mainland.141
Wall Street thoroughly bought into the idea that as China grew
more prosperous, it would become less militaristic and more
democratic. Of course, that has not happened. And money is
fungible—making China more prosperous helps them build their
military. That means that even if financial deals with the Beijing
regime may not be directly related to military activity, they still pose a
serious security risk. As two scholars declared: “In today’s
interconnected financial world, transactions that pass formal legal
muster may in fact still engender substantial diplomatic and security
consequences.”142
Wall Street ignored the consequences of its financial dealings with
Beijing. They subsidized and helped construct the Chinese military,
which is ultimately aimed at our men and women in uniform. It has
helped the Chinese Communist Party grow wealthier and even more
powerful.
“Why are we sending American capital to a country and supporting
a defense industry that’s popping out a couple destroyers and
frigates a month and threatening to have total overmatch against us
in the Pacific?” asked White House national security advisor Robert
O’Brien. “I don’t see why we should be underwriting the Chinese
defense industry.”143
O’Brien went on to call out the California Public Employees’
Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest public retirement system
in the United States, for its investments in China. “Some of the
CalPERS investment policies are incredibly concerning,” he went on.
“If someone told me I had to invest my 401(k) in Chinese state-
owned enterprises or partially state-owned enterprises, where they
don’t follow the generally accepted accounting principles, and they
don’t have to report to independent regulatory bodies, I’d be pretty
worried about that.”144
CalPERS, the notoriously underfunded and overcommitted
pension system, responded that the Chinese investments were
“necessary for the pension fund to meet its 7% investment return
target to pay retirement benefits for our members for the long term.”
In other words, because the California state government hopelessly
underfunds the state pension system, it is now necessary to pour
capital into Chinese state-owned companies connected with the
Chinese military-security state.145
Chinese officials are well aware of the power they have over Wall
Street and the willingness of financiers to do their bidding.
On November 28, 2020, Di Dongsheng, the vice dean at Renmin
University, spoke candidly about the power that Beijing enjoys
through its relationships with Wall Street firms. As we saw in chapter
2, he referenced Beijing’s links to the financial activities of Hunter
Biden. In that same speech, he explained, “Since the 1970s, Wall
Street had a very strong influence on the domestic and foreign
affairs of the United States. So we had a channel to rely on.” He
went on to note that Wall Street had pushed hard against Donald
Trump’s tariffs on Beijing. “So during the U.S.-China trade war, they
[Wall Street] tried to help, and I know that my friends on the U.S. side
told me that they tried to help, but they couldn’t do much.”146
Indeed, Wall Street has been a go-to weapon for Beijing to deploy
against Washington. As Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg write in
their book on Chinese global influence operations, Hidden Hand,
“Whenever presidents Clinton, Bush or Obama threatened to take a
tougher stance on China’s trade protectionism, currency
manipulation or technology theft, Wall Street chiefs used their
influence to persuade them to back off.”147
They conclude, “Financial institutions have been Beijing’s most
powerful advocates in Washington.”148
Too many of America’s financial titans, who prospered under a
free market system and benefited from American rule of law, are now
actively cheerleading for Beijing and profiting from the regime’s
actions.
We have looked at Washington, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street.
Now let us peek behind the curtain to see what some of America’s
most esteemed public servants and diplomats have been doing with
Beijing.
6
Diplomats
In 1861, shortly after becoming the sixteenth president of the United
States, Abraham Lincoln nominated a former Massachusetts
congressman named Anson Burlingame to be the American minister
to China’s Qing Imperial Court. Burlingame was a respected
abolitionist and considered a highly principled figure. He was well
liked by Chinese officials. In fact, he was so good that Prince Gong
of the royal family approached him with a proposition: Could they
hire him away from the U.S. government? Would he come to work
for them, representing Chinese interests in the West? Burlingame
accepted, and served the Chinese Royal Court until he died in 1870
in St. Petersburg, Russia.1
Burlingame’s switching sides in the nineteenth century was
perhaps not such a big deal. China was then a weak and decaying
dynasty representing no threat or challenge to the United States—
and with no apparent aspirations beyond “upholding [the] nation’s
sovereignty and territorial integrity.”2
Today, however, the consequences of playing for the other team
are far more troubling.
America assigns its diplomats to protect and expand American
interests abroad. Diplomats actually swear an oath to defend the
Constitution and protect the country from “enemies, foreign and
domestic.”3 But all too often, when they leave government service,
they end up serving the interests of foreign governments and entities
in the host countries where they were paid to represent us. They
make a perfect target for influence. Diplomats become diplomats
because they believe they can make slow and steady cultural
progress. More cooperation is an end in itself. They see more trade
as better, no matter what it does to the economies trading. They see
international infrastructure in the Belt and Road gambit as a
worthwhile goal, no matter how it changes the playing field. They see
human rights violations as events to be handled quietly, no matter
how many there are or have been.
The greatest assets they possess—and the key point of
advantage for their clients—are the relationships they have forged
with both foreign and U.S. officials. When they leave office, in order
to maintain those relationships, they need to speak nice about
Beijing or risk losing their access. Their relationships with Chinese
government officials give them the power to make money. That
money grants the regime leverage over these former diplomats
involved in deals.
At the same time, many of these retired American officials appear
on national television, write for publications, testify before Congress,
and give paid speeches ladling out advice on how to deal with China.
Rarely—if ever—are the financial realities of their dependence on
access to Beijing revealed or made clear.
Some of the officials featured here will talk critically about China,
but they will never cause concern in Beijing because they restate the
necessity of engagement, and the accompanying access to
American capital and technology. The spirit of “big help with a little
badmouth” thrives. But speak too critically of Beijing and these
officials risk losing their moneymaking opportunities.
Today a long stream of former American diplomats and defense
officials have launched businesses that are dependent on being in
the good graces of the Beijing regime and create a conflict that is far
less innocent than that of Ambassador Burlingame. Some have
become wealthy courtesy of the Chinese government while
advancing China’s interests.
Henry Kissinger, the dean of American diplomats, once confided in
a colleague his concerns about the challenge that Beijing would
present to the United States. “When [the Chinese] don’t need us,” he
reportedly said, “they are going to be very difficult to deal with.”4
Apparently, until that time comes, there is no reason not to cash in.
Kissinger pioneered the idea of cashing in by using the
relationships he had forged serving as America’s chief diplomat.
Kissinger was the national security advisor to President Richard
Nixon, and later secretary of state under Nixon and later President
Gerald Ford. Most important, he had impeccable ties in the country
that he had helped open in 1972: China. It was Kissinger, after all,
who had conducted the secret diplomacy with Chinese officials
beginning in 1971 that led to the restoration of diplomatic ties
between the two countries in 1972.5 As a result, he is revered in
Chinese government circles. Kissinger, in return, was awed by
Chinese leaders. “No other world leaders have the sweep and
imagination of Mao and Chou [Zhou] nor the capacity and will to
pursue a long-range policy,” he marveled to Nixon after one meeting
in Beijing.6 Chairman Mao was apparently less impressed. He
reportedly told British prime minister Edward Heath that Kissinger
was “just a funny little man. He is shuddering all over with nerves
every time he comes to see me.”7
When he left government service in 1977, Kissinger had spent his
entire career in academe and government. Now it was time to make
some money. “Making money is actually boring, even if it is
necessary,” he reportedly told Soviet foreign minister Andrei
Gromyko in their last meeting.8
In July 1982, he launched Kissinger Associates as an active
business. Kissinger had no legal training and no background in
finance, so the prospect of joining a high-powered law firm or
investment bank was not an option. But he had something more
important than both of those qualities: he had unparalleled
relationships overseas—especially important were impeccable ties in
Beijing.
Kissinger was clearly a regime favorite. As a private citizen, he
repeatedly visited Beijing at the invitation of the Chinese
government, often meeting with Deng Xiaoping and other Chinese
leaders.9
China in the early 1980s was still off the beaten path for many
Western corporations. There can be little doubt, though, that many
corporate leaders saw the massive potential in a market of one
billion people. The work of Kissinger Associates included opening
doors for foreign clients, but his most important and lucrative role
was cutting through government regulations in Beijing. To do
business in China, for example, you needed government
endorsement and approval. As one Indian scholar allows, for
Kissinger, this “often involved making a few well-placed phone calls
to friends in top government positions.”10
At the same time, Kissinger was a widely cited spokesman and
commentator on foreign affairs, appearing on network television, in
America’s leading newspapers, and of course in America’s
bookstores. Kissinger seemed to ride these two horses at once until
the tragic events of June 1989 put him in an awkward position. That
was when the People’s Liberation Army marched into Tiananmen
Square. The conflict resulted in the deaths of thousands of peaceful
protestors.11 As events unfolded, Kissinger went on ABC News,
where anchor Peter Jennings asked him: “What should America do?”
Kissinger was calm and noted that we needed to maintain close
relations and “I wouldn’t do any sanctions.” ABC News was paying
him $100,000 a year at the time to provide insight and commentary
on world events. In his newspaper columns, Kissinger took the same
line, explaining that while he was “shocked by the brutality” of what
had happened, we needed to view it as “an internal matter.”12
Kissinger defended the Chinese government’s actions, strangely
arguing, “No government in the world would have tolerated having
the main square of its capital occupied for eight weeks,” and that “a
crackdown was therefore inevitable.” How the United States
responded was key, he argued, rejecting economic sanctions and
suggesting that we could not do much. Doing little was “a test of our
political maturity.” Above all, he maintained, it was “too important for
American national security to risk the relationship on the emotions of
the moment.”13
What Kissinger did not disclose at the time was that while he was
discussing China matters seemingly as a detached scholar or
analyst, he was simultaneously neck-deep in commercial deals
involving the Chinese government. Kissinger had worked with
Atlantic Richfield, the energy company, to negotiate a deal with the
Chinese government. When International Telephone and Telegraph
(ITT) wanted to hold a board meeting in Beijing, he found a
government agency that would act as their host. H. J. Heinz
executives were trying to set up a baby food factory in China, and
Kissinger helped the company navigate through the cobwebs of the
Chinese bureaucracy. American International Group (AIG), where he
was chairman of the international advisory board, wanted licenses in
Shanghai while constructing an office tower. Bottom line, Kissinger
had a reputation for being able to bring clients to Beijing and get
them meetings with the top Chinese officials.14 Condemning the
Tiananmen Square massacre too much would cost him access.
In fact, in December 1988, just six months before the horrific
event, Kissinger launched a limited investment partnership called
China Ventures. It was supposed to be a vehicle for U.S.
corporations to invest in joint ventures with the Chinese government.
Kissinger was the firm’s chairman, CEO, and general partner. The
deal promised to be enormously lucrative for Kissinger: he was to
receive management fees topping more than $1 million a year and
20 percent of profits after investors got an 8 percent return on their
investment.15
As Kissinger went on network television urging inaction in the face
of the massacre, word got out about his deals in Beijing. Rather than
address them, he described the criticisms as “McCarthyism,”
insisting there was no link between his views on China and his
business ventures.16
Kissinger’s reputation survived the substantial conflict of interest.
And he continued to work hard shaping and steering America’s
approach to China over the course of the next several decades. And
more deals came.
In February 1995, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich visited
Taipei and argued that Taiwan should be admitted to the United
Nations. Beijing, of course, was outraged. They viewed Taiwan as a
province of China, not as an independent country. Kissinger
“personally admonished” Gingrich for suggesting such a thing.17
In 1997, Kissinger became a crucial advisor to a corporate
lobbying group that wanted better U.S.-China relations and was
eager for China’s admission into the World Trade Organization. At
the time, Justice Department officials argued that his activity “strains
the limits of lobbying disclosure laws and possibly violates the
Foreign Agents Registration Act.”18
Still, he continued to appear before the public as an impartial
analyst on U.S.-China relations. At various times, he was a paid
media commentator by ABC News, CBS, and CNN.19 In a few
instances, he was forced to disclose his commercial links to Beijing.
In a 2005 piece for the Washington Post, he explained that
containment of China was not needed and would not work. He
added: “Before dealing with the need of keeping the relationship
from becoming hostage to reciprocal pinpricks, I must point out that
the consulting company I chair advises clients with business
interests around the world, including China. Also, in early May I
spent a week in China, much of it as a guest of the government.”20
In the corridors of official Washington, he remained a voice that
had the ear of America’s top policy makers. During her tenure as
secretary of state, even Hillary Clinton called on him for advice.21
The election of Donald J. Trump as president of the United States
in November 2016 threatened to upend U.S.-China relations in a
manner that would be detrimental to Beijing. Trump had publicly said
that he was going to renegotiate trade deals, challenge China’s
military expansion into the South China Sea, and deal with a myriad
of other issues far more assertively than his predecessors. In a
demonstration of his tougher approach, the president-elect had even
accepted a congratulatory call from Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen,
infuriating Beijing.22
China’s President Xi wanted to know more about Trump, so he
turned to Kissinger, who flew to Beijing to meet with him. Kissinger
was reassuring: “Overall, we hope to see the China-U.S. relationship
moving ahead in a sustained and stable manner.”23
Kissinger’s relationship with the Beijing regime includes more than
just informal consultations and help with his clients. The Chinese
government appointed Kissinger to the international advisory council
of the China Development Bank (CDB), a government-backed bank
erected to compete with Western financial institutions like the World
Bank.24
Kissinger has helped in other ways, too. He has used his prestige
as an added gloss to Chinese government-backed events. In 2009,
the Chinese government established the China Center for
International Economic Exchange (CCIEE), which the government’s
central planning agency oversees. Indeed, Chinese premier Wen
Jiabao created the organization by directive. The organization’s
personnel office also serves as the office of its Party Committee’s
Discipline Inspection Committee—which should tell you everything
you need to know about who controls the organization. CCIEE
organized “a major international conference” with Bloomberg, and
Henry Kissinger served as the conference’s advisory board chair. In
his words, the purpose of the meetings was “making the national
goals of China and the United States compatible.”25
As we saw earlier, he also agreed to serve as an honorary
cochairman of the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation, the united front
group linked to the government. Kissinger was also given the
honored title of “an old friend” of China, as one who has “rendered
great help to China.” He is in a rarefied group.26
When the Chinese government set up a think tank in Washington,
D.C., called the Institute for China-America Studies, it did so in part
to be “‘sending a clear message’ about Beijing’s claims on the South
China Sea.” Beijing asserts territorial control over vast portions of the
ocean, a claim rejected by the Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, and the
United States. But Kissinger sent the organization a video message
welcoming the new program.27
Kissinger’s legacy as a major friend of China is well established in
Beijing. As authors Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg put it,
“Kissinger is a revered figure in CCP circles. It’s said that at the
Central Party School in Beijing there is only one picture of a
foreigner adorning the walls, that of Kissinger.”28
Kissinger Associates has grown to include an array of other well-
known and powerful members of the American political class. John
Brennan, who served as CIA director during Barack Obama’s tenure,
is a “senior advisor” at the firm.29 Brennan has some familiarity with
consulting work in China. Brennan’s previous stint in international
consulting work, from 2005 to 2009, was serving as the president
and CEO of The Analysis Corporation (TAC), which was controlled
by Global Strategies Group (GSG), a British-based security
company. GSG had an office in Beijing, housed in the seventeen-
story glass, curtain-walled Towercrest International Plaza in the
Chaoyang District of the capital city. This was in the hopes of
winning “security contracts from Chinese state-owned corporations.”
A plan was discussed to sell TAC’s sensitive intelligence software to
the Chinese government, but GSG eventually gave up because “it
was covered by military secrecy export restrictions.” They did
manage to secure one deal with Beijing—a security contract with the
government-run China National Petroleum Corporation. A former
employee remarked, “It was all a massive conflict of interest, and it
was all a bit weird.”30
Beyond Kissinger Associates, other senior American diplomats from
secretaries of state to U.S. ambassadors have cashed in with a
similar business model. They have all collected large fees because
of their access to the highest reaches of government, while at the
same time speaking as elder statesmen, allegedly offering objective
advice on American foreign policy. It represents a troubling conflict of
interest that clouds our national conversation about the China threat.
Alexander Haig had a long, illustrious career as a military officer
and government official. He served as the Supreme Allied
Commander of NATO forces, later in the Nixon White House, and
briefly as President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state.31 Once Haig
left public service, he joined the ranks of those working for Chinese
government-backed companies. He served as an “honorary senior
advisor” to the Chinese “government-controlled maritime operation,
the China Ocean Shipping Co., or Cosco.”32 We met this military-
linked company back in chapter 2.
In May 1998, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was in China
tilling the ground for a later visit by President Bill Clinton. One of the
highlights of her trip was a planned speech in Beijing on the rule of
law. Just after she arrived, the government-controlled China Daily
ran a story about what China needed to do to improve the rule of
law. When Albright took the podium to give her speech, she held up
the newspaper and, with a big smile, declared that it was a sign that
China was getting better when it came to bringing the rule of law to
Beijing. “Clearly, both your leaders and your citizens recognize the
need to strengthen the rule of law,” she told the audience. James
Mann, who was the Los Angeles Times Beijing bureau chief,
recalled, “She did not seem to grasp that the newspaper story was
not some random, independent bit of journalism, but had been timed
specifically to influence her and her trip.”33
When Bill Clinton appointed Madeleine Albright as secretary of
state, he made history: she was the first woman to serve as
America’s top diplomat. Once she left office, she would prove as
equally adept as Kissinger at cashing in on her time of service. And
she would look to Beijing as a place for the biggest payday.
As secretary of state, Albright was an essential player in the effort
to bring China into the WTO. She echoed the themes that
“engagement” with China was the key to both American prosperity
and a more open China. In her memoirs, Albright declared, “By
entering the WTO, China committed to free itself from the ‘House
that Mao Built,’ including state-run enterprises, central planning
institutes, massive agricultural communes, and parasitic
bureaucracies” as well as “more institutions and associations free
from Communist Party control.”34
Albright was rosy in her assessment of the deal. “[China’s
membership] would give the United States more access to China’s
market, boost our exports, reduce our trade deficit, and create new
well-paying jobs,” she claimed.
Albright was entirely wrong. There was no massive movement
away from Communist Party control. And America’s annual trade
imbalance with China was $70 billion in 2000 when China joined the
WTO and ballooned to $200 billion by the end of 2005.35
American exports to China may not have blossomed as she
promised. But the consultancy she opened in China after she left the
State Department certainly did.
Albright launched the Albright Group—later Albright Stonebridge
Group—a “strategic consulting” practice that would profit from the
relationships she had forged while America’s chief diplomat. Like
Kissinger, she touted the fact that many of her clients were American
firms looking for help or a hookup in foreign countries. As in the
Kissinger case, this obscured the primary tenet: her commercial
opportunities rested on staying in the good graces of foreign
governments, particularly Beijing. American firms wanting help in
China would only pay her if she had access to the highest levels of
government in the Chinese capital. As author Sarah Chayes puts it,
“Its business model consists mostly in leveraging Albright’s
reputation and the relationships with developing country leaders she
gained as secretary of state to win favors for large corporations.”36
Albright also established a hedge fund, Albright Capital, despite a
lack of experience in the finance world. Her son-in-law, Gregory
Bowes, runs this business.37
Albright eventually joined forces with Sandy Berger, the former Bill
Clinton national security advisor, who had started a consulting firm
called Stonebridge with deals in Beijing. By his own account, Berger
was a frequent fixture in China’s capital. He would meet with
government officials and make appearances on Chinese state
media. “I’m a consultant to government and to business, in the
political and economic spheres,” he told the government’s Xinhua
News during one visit. “My two identities are like two hats, but they
both play the role of bridge in the development of U.S.-China
relations.”38
While Albright’s firm—rechristened as Albright Stonebridge Group
(ASG)—does business in Europe, it is in China where she has truly
cashed in. As the ASG website puts it, “ASG’s China practice is the
firm’s largest single country practice. With full-time senior-level
professionals based in Beijing, Shanghai, and Washington, DC, our
team of over 30 professionals supports clients across a wide variety
of sectors.” The firm even boasts that its senior leadership includes
both former U.S. officials as well as “former high-level” Chinese
government officials. ASG leverages its relationships within the
Chinese government: “We work to create allies within the Chinese
system,” according to the website.39
The chairman of the ASG China operation is a former senior
Chinese official named Jin Ligang, who spent twenty years in the
Chinese Ministry of Commerce.40 His American counterpart at ASG
is Amy Celico, who worked in the State Department and as senior
director for China affairs in the U.S. Trade Representative Office.
Celico’s job there was “developing negotiating positions” on policies
related to intellectual property rights.41
Celico was critical of President Trump’s hard line toward China,
arguing that we needed to “rightsize” the threat posed by China.
Indeed, she argues, we should not view China as a “threat” but as a
“challenge.” When the Trump administration and other foreign
governments took actions against Huawei because of its ties to the
Chinese security services, Celico argued that this was a “very
dangerous trend,” creating the impression that we wanted to “keep
China down” rather than compete with them.42 The list of countries
that have identified Huawei as a security threat include Japan,
Taiwan, France, Great Britain, the United States, Australia, and
Germany, among others.43
When Celico made these comments before the prestigious Aspen
Institute, it was never disclosed how her firm made their fees
courtesy of their access to high-ranking Chinese government
officials.
Celico is not alone at ASG in her relatively rose-colored view of
the Beijing regime.
Those views were echoed by Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who
headed up ASG’s Africa practice until she was appointed by
President Joe Biden as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations
in 2021. In 2019, Thomas-Greenfield gave a speech at the Chinese
government-funded Confucius Institute at Savannah State University
in Georgia. She praised China’s commitment to values and the role
that the regime was playing in Africa. She declared that the United
States and China could work in Africa together on “shared values of
peace, prosperity, sustained economic growth and development, and
a firm commitment to good governance, and gender equity, and the
rule of law.”
She added, “China is in a unique position to spread these ideals
given its strong footprint on the continent.”44
For good measure, Thomas-Greenfield even threw in a few good
words for Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative on the continent of Africa.
Never mind that Chinese officials, such as Major General Wang
Weixing, consider Belt and Road part of the military’s plan to “go
global.”45
When the speech came up during her U.S. Senate confirmation
hearings for her appointment as UN ambassador, Thomas-
Greenfield explained that she now regretted having given it.
Another alumnus from the Clinton administration set up a lucrative
consulting service following his tenure running the Pentagon. William
Cohen, the former Republican senator from Maine, established the
Cohen Group in 2001 to advise on everything from the defense
industry to international trade. But China has played a central role:
two of the four offices the Cohen Group has overseas are in China.46
Cohen’s background of more than thirty years in public life—first as a
member of Congress and the U.S. Senate, then as secretary of
defense—makes him an ideal candidate to work with Beijing. The
Cohen Group actually touts his deep ties to Beijing, noting that he
first visited China as a congressman in 1978 when he met Deng
Xiaoping. “Since then, he has been a constant presence in the U.S.-
China relationship, including commercial development and security
cooperation,” reads the Cohen Group website.47
During his tenure as secretary of defense, Cohen pushed policies
for greater cooperation with China.48 Near the end of the Cold War,
Beijing was trying to emerge from international isolation in the years
following the Tiananmen Square massacre. In July 2000, he paid his
final visit as SecDef to meet with Chinese leader Jiang Zemin.49
Within a year, he had opened his consulting firm.
The Cohen Group has grown over the years to include a pantheon
of former military officers and government officials, including former
secretary of defense James Mattis, and former vice chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Ralston. The roster of
professionals runs the gamut from the Department of Defense, State
Department, the White House, the Department of Homeland
Security, to the intelligence community.50
On the other side of the Pacific, Cohen enjoys access to the
highest levels of the Chinese government, personally meeting with
the vice premier of the State Council and members of the Chinese
Communist Party Central Committee.51
Cohen Group executives have met with Chinese officials in the
hopes of working on Beijing’s Belt and Road projects, by which
China will fuse itself internationally to other countries via large-scale
infrastructure projects. While both the Obama and Trump
administrations raised serious strategic concerns about the Belt and
Road Initiative, the Cohen Group views it differently—and in a very
positive light, extolling the virtues of the Chinese strategic
development plan, which also employs forced labor. “I think it’s a
very important project,” Marc Grossman, the vice chairman of the
Cohen Group, told the official Chinese news agency Xinhua in an
interview. “Because if you look at the area, especially in South Asia,
this is a part of the world where, unlike many other parts of the world,
there are very few connections really.”52
China Daily, the government news site, quoted Grossman, the
former undersecretary of state in the Obama administration, under
the banner “Belt and Road Receives Global Backing.”53
“The Belt and Road Initiative is a very positive project that helps
boost sustainable economic development in the world, especially in
ill-connected Asia,” he told them.54
The Cohen Group goes further than Kissinger or Albright in that it
not only works with U.S. companies seeking access in China; it also
has pledged to work with the Chinese government to help “Chinese
companies go global and conduct investment in the U.S., Europe
and other regions.”55 Indeed, the Cohen Group is “eager” to help
Chinese companies by “leveraging our regional expertise in the
United States” and elsewhere, Cohen said on a 2020 visit to China.56
The Cohen Group even extends its support to help Chinese state-
owned enterprises, often used as tools of the Chinese state.
In 2018, as the United States and other Western countries were
grappling with a myriad of contentious economic issues with Beijing,
William Cohen sat down in Switzerland with the man who heads up
China’s state-owned enterprises and “expressed willingness to
support and assist Chinese central SOEs’ [state-owned enterprises]
international operations, especially their business expansion in
Europe and the United States, with his company’s global
resources.”57
Like Kissinger and Albright, Cohen is a regular—even frequent—
voice on national security matters, including China. In addition to his
lucrative consulting business, Cohen has also served as the vice
chairman of the U.S.-China Business Council, a lobbying group. He
also sits on the board of the network CBS and is a trustee at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies, a prestigious
Washington-based think tank.58 In 2006, he even penned a China-
themed thriller called Dragon Fire. The plot: a “rogue faction in the
Chinese government plots the end of U.S.-Sino cooperation, and
only the Secretary of Defense can stop the madness.”59
Cohen gives dozens of interviews on television networks such as
CNN, MSNBC, and elsewhere. But the fact that he is reliant on
access to Beijing officials for his business, and even works on behalf
of Chinese state-owned enterprises, does not seem to get
mentioned when he offers advice on how to deal with China.
Cohen also works as a government advisor in China—specifically
to the mayor of Tianjin Municipal Government. He also serves as an
honorary professor at Nankai University.60
When Huawei was deemed a security threat because of its close
ties to the Beijing regime and the Chinese intelligence apparatus, the
company hired the Cohen Group to negotiate with the U.S. director
of national intelligence to find a way to sell equipment in the United
States. Those efforts ultimately failed.61
Beyond Kissinger, Albright, and Cohen, plenty of other diplomats
and trade officials have set up shop and have done deals in China.
Carla Hills, the former U.S. trade representative, created Hills &
Company. There is the Scowcroft Group, headed by former George
H. W. Bush national security advisor Brent Scowcroft. Mickey Kantor,
the trade representative and commerce secretary during the Clinton
administration, negotiated a series of deals with Beijing and then
joined the law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe, & Maw. For good measure,
he took two experts in China from the Trade Office with him.
Charlene Barshefsky, who had negotiated China’s entry into the
World Trade Organization on behalf of the Clinton administration,
returned to private practice in 2001, joining the law firm WilmerHale,
where she headed up—of course—the firm’s China team.62
Following in Madeleine Albright’s footsteps, Condoleezza Rice
became the second woman to serve as secretary of state, appointed
by President George W. Bush in 2005. During the Bush
administration, the policies of engagement with China, meaning
greater trade, capital investment, and technology transfer, were the
order of the day. Indeed, steps were taken to streamline regulations
and controls on the export of critical technologies to China. The new
rules, ultimately issued through the U.S. Commerce Department,
promised “exports for civilian use while denying items that would
support China’s military modernization.”63
Robert Gates, who served as secretary of defense during both the
Bush and Obama administrations, supported this export of U.S.
technologies under the Export Control Reform Initiative.64
Those rule changes streamlined efforts to export technologies to
China. It also offered these former government officials a business
opportunity.
In 2009, after leaving public service, Rice formed a strategic
consulting firm that would be eventually called Rice, Hadley, Gates,
and Manuel (RHGM). As the name shows, she has powerful
partners, including former George W. Bush national security advisor
Stephen J. Hadley, as well as Anja Manuel, who held positions in the
Bush State Department. Robert Gates added his name to the
company placard after he left the Pentagon in 2011.65
According to the firm’s website, an important component of the
business is helping guide companies through those new technology
export rules and to “navigate the political, policy, and regulatory
problems related to their expansion into China.”66
These include “technology transfer” issues.67
Elsewhere, RHGM says that it “assists in dealing with national
security and foreign policy challenges associated with offering
sophisticated technologies, products, and services in these overseas
markets.”68
RHGM’s client list is secret. We do know that beginning in 2009
the firm established a close relationship with a Swiss-based investor
named Marko Dimitrijevic and his investment firm Everest Partners.
Dimitrijevic himself managed elements of the George Soros fortune.
When Everest failed, its executives created RWC Partners, a new
London-based firm. RHGM continued to advise them.69
“We … have a unique consulting arrangement with Rice, Hadley,
Gates and Manuel,” explained John M. Malloy, an executive with
RWC, in a December 2020 interview. “Condoleezza Rice, the former
Secretary of State under Bush, started a consulting firm, and they
speak to world leaders, they have contacts, they have very good
access.”70
RWC specializes in emerging market investments, including
China. The firm’s investments included controversial companies like
Hikvision.71 Hikvision partners with the PRC government to carry out
citizen surveillance both in Tibet and upon Uighurs in Xinjiang, acts
for which the U.S. government sanctioned it in October 2019.72
Hikvision’s involvement with Orwellian monitoring of minority
populations in China was not a secret. RWC and RHGM had to have
an awareness of what the company was doing. Hikvision’s role in the
surveillance was first raised as early as 2013 in outlets as mundane
as USA Today.73 Meanwhile, RWC Partners was happily reporting
the profitability of its Hikvision investment at least as late as May
2019. They note that the company has “proven to be a leader in the
surveillance theme” of the booming market in China.74
Han’s Laser is another investment in China.75 The company is “the
Chinese national laser industry’s flagship” and produces lasers with
a military manufacturing application.76
RHGM casts a much smaller shadow than the other consulting
firms. Rice and Gates have been critical of China. But their
commercial interests—and the necessities of access in Beijing—
create powerful incentives to limit their criticisms of the regime and to
avoid recommending restrictions of technologies transfers and
capital investments in military-linked Chinese firms.
RHGM partner Anja Manuel has been particularly outspoken on
tech issues relating to China. While arguing that the United States
needs to spend more on research and development to stay ahead of
China in the tech race, she generally opposes efforts to restrict
cooperation between American firms and Chinese tech companies.
When the U.S. government and several allies, including Australia
and Great Britain, were working to restrict the flow of technology to
Huawei because of its ties to the Chinese military and intelligence
services, she criticized the move as “really quite draconian.”77
“Chinese Tech Isn’t the Enemy,” was the title of an Atlantic article
she wrote on the theme. “America needs to work with China to get
ahead in tech.”78
Manuel has additional motives beyond RHGM to see greater tech
cooperation between the two countries. She sits on the board of
directors of MoneyGram, a money transfer company. When a
Chinese finance company tried to buy it in January 2018, the deal
was blocked by the U.S. government on national security grounds.79
When Anson Burlingame was appointed minister to the Qing
Imperial Court in the nineteenth century, China was considered a
diplomatic backwater. Better to be posted in London, Paris, or Tokyo.
Today, the post of U.S. ambassador to the People’s Republic of
China is an important position because of the rivalry and commercial
links between the two countries. While ambassadors do not quite
have the prestige of the secretary of state, they do sit at the
crossroads of enormously important relationships that can help make
or break major deals.
Unfortunately, recent U.S. ambassadors to China have used that
position to go to work on behalf of Chinese entities after leaving the
diplomatic service.
Gary Locke was a rising star in American politics. The son of
Chinese immigrants, he had received an Ivy League education and
entered politics in Washington State early. He served as a
prosecutor, then as a member of the state legislature. In 1996, he
was elected governor, the first Chinese-American elected to that
office in the United States.80 But during his gubernatorial run, he
received the financial support and aggressive backing of several
donors implicated in the “Chinagate” fundraising scandal that rocked
Washington, D.C. John Huang, who pleaded guilty to violating
federal election laws in connection with fundraising for the Clinton
campaign, organized two fundraisers for Locke in Washington, D.C.,
three more in Los Angeles, and yet another in Universal City,
California. He also donated to Locke’s campaign personally, as did
Ted Sioeng, an Indonesian business mogul. The U.S. Justice
Department believed that Sioeng was acting on behalf of the
Chinese government in his donation activities during Chinagate. In
1998, Locke also took nearly $14,000 in donations from monks and
nuns who were members of a Buddhist temple in Redmond,
Washington. That was a surprise given that they had taken vows of
poverty, spoke little English, and when asked, did not recall donating
to Locke’s campaign.81
After leaving the Washington State governorship in 2005, Locke
joined the Seattle-based law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, which did
significant business in China. Indeed, that would be central to
Locke’s work at the firm. His focus was on lobbying and trade deals.
Locke boasted that he had high-level access in Beijing, helping
clients navigate certain regulatory requirements. As the Seattle
Times stated at the time, “Locke has parlayed his experience and
ancestry to an elevated perch at the apex of power in a country
where politicians still have a heavy hand in business.” Indeed, Locke
met the second most powerful man in China, where they convened
in the walled compound of the central government’s inner sanctum.
He said he hoped to demonstrate to people that “China’s growth
doesn’t harm Americans.” Joseph Borich, president of the
Washington State China Relations Council, said Locke was
“extremely well-liked” by the Chinese leadership. They had an
“appreciation” for him.82
Locke also did legal work for politically connected Chinese firms.
He had financial ties to the HNA Group, a controversial Chinese
company with a reputation for courting American political figures.83
“They trust Gary, and they trust him not to bring up the most
difficult issues in the relationship, or to keep them in a very
compartmentalized part of the dialogue,” said Professor David
Bachman of the University of Washington.84
In 2009, Locke was tapped to join the Obama administration as
the commerce secretary, where his portfolio included handling
commercial ties with Beijing.85 He met with the Chinese foreign
minister in Washington, and traveled to China.86
In 2011, President Obama gave him another assignment,
appointing him U.S. ambassador to Beijing. He was quickly
confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The move meant that he needed to
sell his six-bedroom, five-bathroom house in Bethesda, Maryland.
But the home sat on the market for more than two years, until
September 2013, when a Chinese couple paid the asking price for it.
Huaidan Chen, an executive with American Pacific International
Capital (APIC), paid $1.68 million for it—more than $150,000 over
what Locke had paid. APIC had deep ties to China. In the next
chapter we will see how she was involved in the illegal transfer of
$1.3 million in campaign contributions to the Jeb Bush presidential
campaign.87
As U.S. ambassador, Locke listed the sale on his federal financial
disclosure, but curiously, he listed it under “rents and royalties”
instead of capital gains. When a reporter asked the U.S. State
Department about whether ethics officials reviewed such
transactions, the astonishing answer was no. “There is no
requirement for any State Department official to clear the sale of his
or her personal residence with ethics officials at the department,
regardless of the value of the property. The department does not
review or approve the terms of sale for an employee’s private
residence.”88
It emerged later that the purchase of the home was not a random
event. Locke had first met APIC’s president Gordon Tang (Huaidan
Chen’s husband) in 2008 during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a
Chinese factory owned by APIC. In fact, Locke had provided legal
services to APIC before heading to Washington, D.C., to become
commerce secretary in 2009. Just before the home purchase, Locke
had met a man named Wilson Chen in Beijing, who happened to be
Huaidan Chen’s brother and who sat on the board of APIC.
According to Wilson Chen, Locke complained at the time that his
house was sitting on the market for months and he was disappointed
with his real estate agent.
Locke was “desperate to sell,” Chen recalled.89
Soon after, Chen and Tang bought it.
In short, wealthy foreign nationals from a country where Locke
represented the United States bought his home after he had told of
his desperation to someone well known to them.
Curiously, three months after the home purchase, Wilson Chen got
a choice invitation to an exclusive meeting with Ambassador Locke
at the U.S. Embassy. The meeting was to discuss real estate
opportunities in the United States. Others attended the conclave, but
APIC was by far the smallest player in the room.90
The fact that Ambassador Locke saw no problem in receiving a
financial favor from a Chinese business couple while he was
representing the United States in that country is quite astonishing.
Locke’s biggest test as U.S. ambassador emerged in 2012 when a
famed Chinese dissident named Chen Guangcheng showed up at
the U.S. Embassy seeking help. Known affectionately as “the
barefoot lawyer,” Chen is legally blind and active in human rights
issues in China—a courageous man and a considerable thorn in the
government’s side. Having made an amazing escape from
communist captivity, slipping past a police cordon around his small
farmhouse, spending nineteen hours on the run, he arrived at the
U.S. Embassy.91
Chen’s life was on the line, and he wanted political asylum in the
United States. His presence at the embassy, however, stood to be a
major embarrassment to the Chinese Communist Party.
Ambassador Locke was in the middle of it, and as Chen would
later recall, the American embassy team left a lot to be desired when
it came to standing up for basic freedoms. Heated negotiations took
place between the Chinese and the Americans about Chen’s fate.
Remarkably, the Americans were proposing that he stay in China
and study at New York University’s Shanghai campus. Beijing
demurred, but promised to protect his rights. Chen said that he felt
pressured by the Americans to accede to Chinese demands. He was
mystified by American approval only of options that kept him in
China and at risk.
“If it weren’t a question of my safety, then why would I have come
here?” he asked. “If there were anywhere else in China I could go
where I felt safe, why would I have come to the American
Embassy?”92 The dissident was perplexed.
“I wondered if the Americans fully understood the power Chinese
officials have over ordinary citizens,” he later wrote. He found himself
“exasperated at having to defend the idea of basic freedoms to
American officials.”
After a series of negotiations, Chen emerged from the U.S.
Embassy with Ambassador Gary Locke holding his left arm. They
were headed to a Beijing hospital to receive medical attention for his
injured foot.93 “Senior U.S. officials in Beijing who helped negotiate
Chen’s case say the activist left the diplomatic compound of his own
free will,” reported Voice of America. “In a background briefing with
reporters, the officials said Chen consistently stated his desire to
stay and work in China.”
Chen, however, had a very different account of what had
transpired. He said he felt “pressured” by U.S. officials to leave the
embassy.94
Chen eventually was able to leave China and settle in the United
States to continue his fight for human rights.95
But Locke’s efforts to defuse the situation with Chen no doubt won
him new friends in Beijing. After he finished his tenure as U.S.
ambassador in 2014, he rejoined Davis Wright Tremaine, which was
still handling major deals in China. “We are delighted with Gary’s
decision to join us as a leader in our China and government relations
group,” explained the firm’s chairman.
Locke also set up his own advisory firm called Locke Global
Strategies.
The Chinese executives who had purchased his house also hired
him as a “senior advisor.”96 Locke began giving frequent speeches at
conferences “as an expert on the ways Chinese business interests
can invest in the United States.”97
Locke was eager to note his deep ties with Chinese officials. “I
have good contacts and good relationships with high-ranking
government officials throughout China,” he declared.98 No surprise:
many of his opportunities would come from Chinese government-
connected firms.
Now back in private life, he was unrestrained in his praise for the
regime and President Xi. He touted China as “the world’s most
modern civilization” in an interview with state media, ignoring, of
course, the myriad of human rights abuses in the country.
“President Xi Jinping has done an excellent job as president,” he
proclaimed, while praising initiatives designed to challenge
America’s position globally. “He has great presence and visibility
around the world. The Belt and Road Initiative is receiving positive
reviews around the world, especially in those undeveloped countries
that will benefit. He is doing very well in talking about the needs of
global cooperation and avoiding protectionism. He has done much to
help bring stability and prosperity to the people of China.”99
It was a ringing endorsement of the authoritarian leader, one who
heads a country in which he hoped to do a lot of business.
In 2016, Locke was invited to join the board of AMC
Entertainment, a Chinese-owned theater chain. He replaced board
member Jian Wang.100 China’s Wanda Group had bought AMC in
2012.101 The founder and chairman of Wanda Group was Wang
Jianlin, who has also served as a deputy to the National Congress of
the Communist Party.102 A wide array of observers, from
Republicans in Congress to the Washington Post editorial board,
expressed alarm at the company possibly using its power to censor
film content that would be critical of Beijing.103 And now Locke was
on the board and would receive handsome stock options.104
In December 2016, Locke became the chairman of the advisory
board for something called the NW Innovation Works (NWIW). The
name was innocuous-sounding enough. The business planned to
develop one of the most “environmentally responsible, advance
manufacturing plants ever built,” by constructing a methane gas
plant in Washington State, with the products exported to China.105
The project even enjoyed support from the highest levels of the
Chinese government, including President Xi.106
Who was behind the project? That would be a company called
Chinese Academy of Sciences Holdings, or appropriately CASH.
The company is an investment vehicle run by the Chinese
government.107 Wu Lebin is the chairman of CASH, and prides his
entity’s operation for following the “national strategy” as laid out by
the government.108 A look at the organizational structure of CASH
shows the “State” at the top of the pyramid, followed by the Chinese
Academy of Sciences (CAS), which in turn runs CASH. The
government’s role and the tight relationship between CAS and CASH
is unmistakable.109 CAS has deep ties to the Chinese military,
developing weapons systems for cyber warfare, the navy, and other
branches of the armed forces.110
As the U.S. Department of Defense reveals, CAS “reports directly
to the State Council … with much of its work contributing to
products for military use.”111
With all of these commercial bonds with Beijing, Locke continues
to appear on U.S. national television opining on China relations. His
posture is generally soft and uncritical of Beijing. When the Biden
administration pushed back on China over human rights violations,
Locke argued on CNN: “That’s a subject matter they’re very, very
sensitive to because they think it’s other countries meddling in their
internal affairs and they’re trying to push back and say basically: who
are you, the United States, to lecture us on human rights and civil
rights and so forth when you have your own problems?”
His financial links to Beijing were never discussed. He was simply
identified as “a former U.S. Ambassador to China.”112
The man who succeeded Gary Locke as U.S. ambassador was
another politician, Senator Max Baucus of Montana. Baucus was
one of the most powerful people on Capitol Hill. And like Locke, he
would find ways to translate his service at the embassy into a
lucrative career helping Chinese firms, while at the same time taking
Beijing’s side in its trade dispute with the United States.
Baucus had long been a booster of closer ties with Beijing. For
decades, Baucus sat on the Senate Finance Committee, which
handles trade issues with China. He played an essential role in the
U.S.-China Bilateral Investment Treaty, “which sets the rules for U.S.
investments in China and vice versa.”113 That treaty has been
roundly criticized for empowering Chinese efforts to force American
firms to turn over their technology in order to do business in the
country.114
Former staffers from his Senate years remember Baucus was
often fascinated about business opportunities in China. “There were
times when I said, Senator, I know you love China, but we need to
allocate appropriate time vis-à-vis the time you spend on China and
trade issues versus what you spend on [other issues],” recalled Russ
Sullivan, a former staff director of the Senate Finance Committee
that Baucus chaired. “If you were in the multinational business
community interested in China, you knew Max Baucus was going
over there.”115
As a senator, Baucus was a strong supporter of retaining China’s
most-favored-nation (MFN) trading status and not letting concerns
about human rights get in the way. “Nothing can set freedom back
farther than revoking M.F.N.,” he claimed, to the benefit of Beijing.116
Baucus also championed China’s membership in the WTO and
made the same well-worn arguments of so many others featured in
this book: embracing China would liberalize the country and help
American manufacturing. During the opening hearings of the Senate
Finance Committee concerning the WTO, he explained that letting
Beijing join “should contribute to the development of a more open,
market-oriented society in which not only are people bound by the
laws and regulations, but so will be the government.”117
Of course, history did not turn out that way.
As a U.S. senator, Baucus never wanted to use America’s
economic leverage with China to address sensitive issues including
military activities in the South China Sea or human rights violations.
In short, he took off the table the most important form of influence
the United States had over China.118
When Baucus became ambassador, tensions were rising between
the Obama administration and Beijing. But his tenure in Beijing was
largely noneventful.
Shortly after he left as ambassador, Baucus started lining up
Chinese clients. In 2017, along with his wife, Melodee Hanes (a
former Senate staffer), he founded the Baucus Group. The firm
specializes in advising Chinese firms as well as American firms
looking to do business in China. Like so many others, he made a
point of marketing his close ties to Beijing’s gatekeepers and his
ability to make things happen with Chinese officials.119
Two Chinese firms quickly signed him up. A firm called Ingram
Micro put him on the board of directors. Based in Irvine, California,
Ingram Micro had been acquired in 2016 by China’s HNA Group,
which had strong connections to the Chinese government. HNA
director Chen Feng openly declared that the company would
“consciously safeguard the Communist Party’s central authority with
General Secretary Xi Jinping as the core” and “unswervingly follow
the party.”120
Alibaba, the Chinese tech giant closely linked to the Chinese
government and Communist Party, placed Baucus on their board of
advisors. Baucus served the company until May 2019.121
In his home state of Montana, the former ambassador set up the
Max S. Baucus Institute at the University of Montana Law School,
with a “China Summer Study Abroad” component to its programs.122
He was also an enthusiastic supporter of the Confucius Institute
established at the University of Montana, participating in their
activities.123 UM history professor Steven Levin, who is fluent in
Chinese, was partly responsible for bringing the Chinese
government-backed institute to the state. “Frankly, now I regret it
because the Confucius Institute … is in fact an instrument of
Chinese soft power.” He went on: “The teachers are very carefully
vetted to make sure that they don’t differ one syllable from any of the
official lines in Beijing.”124
Back in China, Baucus also became a featured guest on Chinese
state-owned television, where he quickly established a tone that was
far more critical of Washington than Beijing. He appeared on China
Global Television Network (CGTN), a mouthpiece for the communist
regime, in 2020. During the height of the coronavirus, there were
deep concerns about Beijing’s lack of transparency about the origins
of the disease and the disappearance and arrest of doctors who
were trying to alert the public.
Baucus went on the attack—but not against Beijing. Instead, he
went after those in Washington desiring to hold China
accountable.125
The segment was about how “President Trump is continuing to
blame China for the coronavirus outbreak” and how “China is fighting
back.”126
“Joe McCarthy [and] Adolf Hitler … rallied people up, making
people believe things that were really not true,” he said on May 12,
2020. “The White House and some in Congress are making
statements against China that are so over the top and so
hypercritical, they are based not on the fact, or if they are based on
fact, sheer demagoguery, and that’s what McCarthy did in the
1950s.”127
A few days later, Baucus chatted to the government-run Global
Times. The United States is entering “a kind of an era which is
similar to Joe McCarthy,” he told Chinese writers, and “a little bit like
Hitler in the ’30s.” He added, “Today people kind of like to see China
get criticized, which is unfortunate, because I think, basically, the
American people like the Chinese people, just like Chinese
people … like American people.”128
China’s propaganda outfits were quick to echo his sentiments.
Party-controlled media like the Xinhua News Agency, Global Times,
and People’s Daily all enthusiastically reported Baucus’s
comments.129
On May 15, he appeared on CGTN again, claiming that the
concerns raised about China were problematic. “There are a lot of
pretty smart people in the United States who are not speaking up,”
he claimed. “People in office, moderates, especially moderates on
the Republican side. They are afraid to speak up, they are
intimidated, intimidated by President Trump. And it’s kind of sliding
toward a form of McCarthyism—how it is politically incorrect to speak
the truth, speak the truth to power.”130
There was no mention, of course, of Chinese medical
professionals who were afraid of being arrested for speaking up.
It was not the first time Baucus was quoted in Chinese
government news outlets. In March 2018, he had an interview with
the People’s Daily. On this occasion, he criticized the U.S. position
on tariffs on Chinese goods, which he said were the “wrong policy”
and “too confrontational.”131
As the Trump administration sought increasing oversight of
Chinese companies, particularly those linked to the Chinese military,
Baucus advised Chinese firms to hang tough.
“Hang in there,” he coached them in a webinar with the China
General Chamber of Commerce, and “keep building those
relationships as much as you can,” since “this too shall pass,” and
the enmity with China will eventually “die down.”132
When the United States and other countries began to impose
sanctions on individual Chinese government officials over their
involvement in genocide against the Uighurs, Baucus went on CNBC
and dismissed it as causing more problems than it solves.133
His commercial ventures in China were never mentioned.
Baucus also linked up with the Chinese government’s united front
organization China United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF),
which as we saw in chapter 3, is so active on Capitol Hill making
Beijing’s case before U.S. lawmakers.134 His wife and business
partner lists the foundation as one of her interests on her LinkedIn
account.135
In March 2021, Baucus was hired by the Chinese-owned
cryptocurrency exchange company Binance as a “policy and
government relations advisor.”136 The firm was launched by
Changpeng Zhao in China in 2017. Shortly after Baucus joined the
company, it was announced that Binance was being investigated by
the U.S. government for money laundering and tax charges.137
The election of Donald Trump in 2016 set off a global earthquake,
especially in China, where Trump’s rhetoric about the country’s trade
and financial practices was alarming.
The man whom Trump appointed to follow Locke and Baucus to
the ambassadorship was yet another politician.
Terry Branstad was a political institution in Iowa: he had served as
the Republican governor of the state throughout the 1980s and ’90s
and again from 2011 to 2017. At first glance, he might appear to be
an unusual choice for U.S. ambassador to Beijing. But Iowa does big
business with China, especially with selling farm commodities like
pork and soybeans. Branstad had an important personal connection
as well: he was officially an “old friend of the Chinese People,” in the
words of China’s President Xi, because the governor and president
were quite literally “old friends.” The two had first met back in 1985
when Xi was visiting Iowa as part of an official delegation
representing Hebei province, Iowa’s “sister state” in China.138
Trump’s election as president came with a promise to get tougher
on China. Beijing was flexing its muscle in the South China Sea, but
there was also growing resentment about China’s economic and
technology policies.139 With Branstad’s appointment as U.S.
ambassador, the Trump transition team emphasized that the
governor “supports President-elect Trump’s mission to negotiate
trade deals that put America’s interests first.”140
For that reason, Branstad was a curious choice for Trump. For
most of his career, he had been a champion of closer commercial
ties to China. Indeed, members of his family would directly benefit
from increasing commerce. For this reason, publications like the
Economist said his appointment was a “conciliatory signal to
Beijing.”141
Beijing clearly saw it that way.
Branstad’s friendship with Xi was not necessarily a bad thing.
Personal bonds can be enormously helpful in resolving a diplomatic
impasse. But such friendships can also cloud judgments. Branstad,
who had known Xi for decades, appears to have seriously
underestimated what the Chinese leader would be like when he
assumed the top spot in China. In 2012, Xi made a return visit to
Iowa, shortly after Branstad reclaimed the Iowa governorship. During
the visit, the governor gave his assessment of Xi. Branstad told
China Central Television (CCTV) that Xi was a “progressive” who
was trying to “open China.” He went on: “He’s very personal. When
we had the state dinner in Des Moines, about half or maybe even
over half of his remarks were personal, off-script. I was impressed
with that, and I think it was very sincere and very genuine.”142
Branstad’s assessment of Xi’s easy manner proved to be correct
and a much-commented-on feature of the leader’s style. But his
views about his desires to “open China” proved to be completely
wrong.
As U.S. ambassador, Branstad pushed Trump to back down on
restrictions on goods and services trading despite the ongoing trade
disputes, while leaving unaddressed “the more fundamental
complaints of the American side.”143
Branstad may have been partially blinded by his friendship with Xi.
More troubling were the strong financial ties that his family enjoyed
with Chinese entities that would provide powerful incentives for him
to be soft on Beijing.
One Branstad son, Marcus, is a registered lobbyist for the
American Chemistry Council (ACC).144 The ACC was adamantly
opposed to Trump’s actions on China, arguing that “[we] deeply
value our trade relationship with China and believe it is critical to the
continued expansion and success of our industry.” They wanted the
Trump administration to “return to the negotiating table and rescind
these destructive tariffs.”145 Despite its name, the American
Chemistry Council also includes Chinese companies as members,
including the Wanhua Chemical Group, one of the world’s largest
chemical producers. While one can buy stock in the company, the
“ultimate controlling shareholder of the firm is a division of the Assets
Supervision and Administration Commission of China, the
government entity that oversees state-owned enterprises.”146
Another son, Eric, joined the Trump campaign and served as the
Iowa director during the 2016 election.147 Like his father, he was
rewarded with a federal job once Trump entered the Oval Office. In
2017, he became the U.S. Commerce Department’s liaison to the
White House.148
He was at the epicenter of the looming trade dispute between
Washington and Beijing, and he immediately began making the
rounds. He attended a Chinese-government-backed China General
Chamber of Commerce Gala in Chicago. According to Chinese state
media, the organization’s gala is designed to highlight those who
have “contributed significantly to increasing Chinese industry and
relations” in the United States.
“The U.S.-China relationship is simply too important not to get
right,” he told the government’s Xinhua News Agency.149
The younger Branstad was not a faceless political appointee. He
traveled with President Trump for a November 2017 trade mission to
China. According to documents obtained by the Intercept, he also
seemed to use his tenure at Commerce to cultivate opportunities in
the lobbying game. While still there, he met with a friend, Bryan
Lanza, who worked at the lobbying firm Mercury and represented
Chinese companies. One meeting he took included Chinese
executives.150
In June 2018, shortly after he left the Trump administration, Eric
Branstad made a trip to Shanghai, traveling with Lanza and Li Zhao,
an Iowa-based business consultant. (Zhao was investigated by the
FBI in connection with a case involving the theft of intellectual
property for the benefit of Beijing but was never charged.) Young
Branstad was now working for Mercury. (His father, of course, was
still U.S. ambassador.) According to the Intercept, which broke the
news of this trip, Lanza was directly representing the Chinese
telecom ZTE, which was paying Mercury $75,000 a month.151
ZTE was in the crosshairs of the Trump administration because of
its close ties to the Chinese military and concerns that it might be
surveilling global telecommunications networks.
While in China, Branstad and Lanza had “meetings with Chinese
government groups,” according to the Intercept. One of them, the
China Development Research Foundation, had links to the Ministry
of State Security.
Branstad told the Intercept that he did not lobby for ZTE on the trip
and had no “business or policy discussions” with the Chinese
entities. He was in China, he claimed, to “culturally connect and
show good feelings.”152
According to Chinese officials in their accounts of the meetings
posted online, they did in fact discuss issues and policies, some of
which were close to concerns about ZTE. During the trip, Eric also
delivered an odd but self-serving speech. Speaking before a
government-backed group on the topic “How to React to (Potential)
U.S.-China Trade War?” he announced before more than one
hundred lawyers, bankers, and advisors that he had joined Mercury.
He was clearly fishing for clients. Attendees noted that Branstad
“highlighted his personal relationship with Mr. Trump and plans for
his firm to open a China office.”153
Weeks after the trip to Beijing, the U.S. Commerce Department
announced that it had come to terms with ZTE.154
The firm that Branstad joined had a myriad of Chinese clients
beyond ZTE, including Hikvision, who, as we noted previously, works
with the Chinese government to monitor its citizens.155
America’s diplomats are hired and paid to look out for our national
interests. They take an oath to do exactly so. But how effective can
they be at their jobs if they are looking down the road and seeing fat
fees by doing business deals in Beijing? The revolving door is a
permanent fixture in Washington, D.C. Usually, it spins between the
U.S. government and American businesses. Diplomats have
globalized it—and far too often gone into business with our chief rival
on the global stage. Beijing knows this, and through seduction and
perhaps even cajoling, manages to put many of America’s national
security and diplomatic figures on the payroll.
Gathering favor with Beijing is not just profitable for former
diplomats; it is also transferrable to others within political families.
Let us explore two of the most prominent political families in North
America and dissect how they were enriched. And how favorable ties
with Beijing can be transferred from generation to generation, which
makes those relationships all the more tantalizing.
7
The Bush and Trudeau
Dynasties
In 2019, Neil Bush, son of one American president and brother of
another, took the stage at an event in Hong Kong. Tensions were
rising as people in Hong Kong were protesting the increasing
restrictions on their rights by Chinese government authorities. Bush
had stern words—not for Beijing, but for politicians back in
Washington. “I’d advise my American friends not to meddle in the
internal affairs of China,” he declared. Bush went on with a bizarre
claim that the dictatorial regime would be restricted when it came to
repression. “If the Chinese government gets carried away with
denying basic rights, then there will be a pushback from within,” he
claimed, without offering any evidence. “Once people enjoy the taste
of freedom, there is no turning back.”1
Neil Bush, who has a cluster of financial ties to Chinese political
elites in Beijing, is a frequent voice on Chinese state television. He
has nice things to say about the government—just not politicians in
Washington. In 2019, when the U.S. Congress passed the “Hong
Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,” calling out Beijing for a
massive and violent crackdown in the city, Bush shot back that those
who voted for the bill were not “well enough informed” about the true
state of “freedom and democracy.”
“I don’t understand what freedoms are not enjoyed by Hong Kong
people,” Neil declared.2
Sometimes, Beijing finds influential Westerners who are true
believers. They believe they are being given lucrative opportunities
in industries they know about because China is the new land of
opportunity. They believe the Chinese system is creating
unparalleled economic justice. They believe China will eventually
become a force for good in the world. When China finds people like
that, they shower their families with economic and political rewards.
In 2013, the son of a Canadian prime minister—and future prime
minister himself—was standing in front of a small group of political
donors. He was fielding questions, and someone asked him about
which country’s “administration he most admired.” Justin Trudeau,
then a young member of parliament (MP), thought for a moment,
smiled, and responded: “There is a level of admiration I actually have
for China … because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to
actually turn their economy around on a dime and say ‘we need to
go greenest, fastest—we need to invest in solar.’ I mean, there is
flexibility that I know Stephen Harper [the Canadian prime minister at
the time] must dream about of having a dictatorship that he can do
everything he wanted, and I find that quite interesting.”3
It might be easy to dismiss Bush’s comments as unimportant. He
was, after all, the Bush son who always seems to get into trouble. Or
one could dismiss Justin Trudeau’s admiration for a “basic
dictatorship” as an error or simply youthful daydreaming. But in both
instances, these sons of notable political families enjoy deep and
complex histories with Beijing that have benefited both of them. Their
families became wealthier courtesy of Beijing’s largesse, and in the
case of Trudeau, his political fortunes have bloomed as a result of
those ties.
As we have seen in previous chapters, Beijing’s courtship and
seduction of elites can happen quickly—the result of a single deal
with a powerful American figure. At other times, the relationship and
ties grow over the course of years. In this particular case, those
bonds have been strengthened over decades, as the Beijing regime
has quietly and steadily worked to cultivate opportunities to get “the
foreign to serve China.”4
Let us explore these two prominent political families and trace how
Beijing has worked to cultivate warm relations, helping these families
become wealthier and more sympathetic to the Beijing regime.
George H. W. Bush was a Texas oilman and former congressman
with an Ivy League pedigree when, in 1974, he was appointed chief
of the U.S. Liaison Office to the People’s Republic of China. (The
United States did not have full diplomatic relations at the time so he
was the senior U.S. representative in the country.) His job was to be
the face of the United States in a communist country that was just
slightly opening up to the outside world.5 Those duties also created
opportunities for him to develop meaningful relationships with
Chinese government officials that would serve his family for
generations. “My hyper-adrenaline, political instincts tell me that the
fun of this job is going to be to try to do more, make more contacts,”
he wrote in his first diary entry while in China. “And it is my hope that
I will be able to meet the next generation of China’s leaders—
whomever they may prove to be.” Bush served in Beijing for just over
fourteen months before heading back to Washington to head the
Central Intelligence Agency.6 On the eve of his departure, Chinese
leader Deng Xiaoping threw him a going-away party. “You are our old
friends,” said Deng. “You are welcome to come back anytime in the
future.”7
And return to China they did.
In 1981, George H. W. Bush was sworn in as vice president of the
United States. Within a year, his older brother, Prescott Bush Jr.,
made his first visit to China.8 Prescott, who lived in Greenwich,
Connecticut, and worked in the insurance brokerage business,
started making deals in China.9
As George H. W. Bush continued his political climb, the deals
continued to roll in for his brother. By February 1989, George was in
the Oval Office, and Prescott was off for a series of meetings in
Beijing. The timing of Prescott’s trip was precise: his brother, the
president, was scheduled for an official visit just ten days later.
Prescott closed a deal to build a golf club in Shanghai for foreign
business executives. It was one of the few golf courses in China that
received government approvals required for construction. Etched out
of the ground along the Huangpu River, the exclusive club later
hosted the China LPGA “Shanghai Classic.” The mayor of Shanghai
during negotiations for the golf course, Jiang Zemin, became a Bush
family friend who later became the premier of China. The Bush
family had collected another powerful ally.10
During that same trip, Prescott met with Chinese officials to
discuss another business venture, which included the creation of an
international satellite communications network in the country. At the
time, a New York financial firm called Asset Management
International Financing and Settlement Ltd., which was hoping to
finance the deal, was paying Prescott.11
In June 1989, the horrific events of Tiananmen Square happened.
The Western world significantly curtailed its commercial ties to
Beijing in protest. But Prescott Bush continued working. Shortly after
the massacre, he visited mainland China. “We aren’t a bunch of
carrion birds coming to pick the carcass,” he insisted to the Wall
Street Journal. “But there are big opportunities in China, and
Americans can’t afford to be shut out.”12
In December 1989, President Bush was grappling with a decision
concerning existing sanctions against China that had been erected
only months earlier. He was considering lifting restrictions on the
export of civilian satellite technologies to China. Beijing was hoping
to launch three communications satellites built by Hughes Aircraft.
The problem was that his brother Prescott was being paid $250,000
a year as a business consultant for Asset Management, which was
financing the deal. President Bush did eventually grant the waiver for
the satellite exports to Beijing. The Bushes denied that the lifting of
sanctions and Prescott’s involvement in the deal were related.13
President Bush was concerned about appearances and had
Secretary of State James A. Baker send a cable to every U.S.
embassy telling them not to have “any appearance of preferential
treatment” for any deals involving his brother or other members of
his family.14 But the move clearly had little, if any, effect on the Bush
family’s mounting deals in China. Any restrictions applied only to the
U.S. embassy—not the Beijing government or the Bush family.
In 1993, after President Bush left office, Prescott helped start the
U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce (USCCC), to serve as a lobby for
deeper commercial ties. “My brother, George, has been instrumental
in the development of U.S. and China relations since 1974,” he wrote
in a pitch letter.15 The organization touts the perks of membership
including “access to important contacts,” “opportunities to host
delegations from China,” and more.16 Prescott Bush’s USCCC client
list included Chinese state-owned companies with military links,
including COSCO.17
Chinese officials no doubt hoped that deals done with the Bush
family would redound to their benefit by bonding the family to their
success. So, when George W. Bush was elected president in 2000,
more commercial opportunities arose. Beijing valued its ties to the
Bushes and sent as its new ambassador to Washington an old Bush
family friend. Ambassador Yang Jiechi was an experienced diplomat
who had first made contact with the Bushes in 1977, when George
H. W. Bush had made a return visit to China. Yang served as his
interpreter and host. The Bush family even had a nickname for the
new ambassador: they called him “Tiger” Yang.18
Shortly after George W. Bush became America’s commander in
chief, a Hong Kong–based company called Plus Holdings hired
Prescott Bush as a special advisor. In 2003, they made him honorary
chairman.19 “He has many friends in China,” said the company’s
website at the time.20
Prescott collected an impressive array of financial partners in
China, including a “close working relationship” with Rong Yiren, a
former Chinese government trade minister and vice president. He
was known as the “Red Capitalist.”21
When the issue of his commercial deals with politically connected
businesspeople in China would come up, Prescott claimed that they
had nothing to do with his family’s political power. “I don’t get a lot of
business because my nephew is president or my brother was
president,” he boldly claimed. Still, he conceded, “You can meet a lot
of people because of it.”22
He did go on to admit that the family was well liked in Beijing. “We
are regarded well, if I may say so myself, by the Chinese.”23
With George W. Bush as president, Beijing officials were banking
on his father influencing his views on China. Jiang Zemin, friends
with both former President Bush and his brother Prescott, explained,
“The father of President [George W.] Bush, Bush Sr., came over to
China many, many times and had many meetings with me in the seat
you are now occupying,” he told one reporter. “We believe Bush Sr.
will definitely push Bush Jr. to bring U.S.-China relations to a new
level.”24
During the George W. Bush presidency, a new generation of
Bushes began securing deals with Chinese officials. Neil Bush,
brother of the president, signed a contract with a Chinese company
called Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing. Bush had no
background in computing, but the firm paid him $400,000 a year. The
company’s cofounder just happened to be Chinese premier Jiang
Zemin’s son.25 Neil also set up a firm called Interlink Management
Corporation, which would work with Chinese-linked firms like
Charoen Pokphand Group, which is based out of Thailand and was
then run by a CEO of Chinese descent.26
Doors swung wide open for Neil Bush in China. In 2009, he helped
Chinese state-controlled oil giant Sinopec bid on an oil contract in
Africa.27
In 2016, Neil helped launch still yet another firm, Asia and America
(A&A) Consultants, “which focuses on cross border business
development, mergers and acquisitions, fund management and
financial advisory.”28 Neil founded the firm with “a former senior
government PRC official,” according to the company website, and
provides advice for dealing with “large-scale enterprises under the
administration of the PRC central government, local state-owned
enterprises, and private enterprises.” To top it off, the firm even
included a reference to Neil’s father, explaining A&A is “the sole
institution founded by direct member of [a] U.S. presidential legacy in
China.”29
Today, Neil remains firmly wedded to Chinese companies. He
serves as the chairman of SingHaiyi Group Ltd., a real estate holding
company.30 He is also the cochairman of CIIC, a real estate company
in Beijing, and deputy chairman of Hong Kong Finance Investment
Holding Group (HKFI) Ltd. Hui Chi Ming, a politically active member
of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC),
leads this shadowy firm. The CPPCC meets regularly in Beijing to
advise the Chinese government. In 2019, the firm paid Neil about
$77,000, according to the corporate annual report. It is unclear
whether he has secured stock options.31
Neil Bush is not just involved in Chinese business deals. His value
to Beijing includes the work he does through an organization called
the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations. He is a
frequent fixture on Chinese state media and makes appearances
before government-linked think tanks where he has made dubious
and troubling comments about the nature of the Beijing regime.
In July 2019, he appeared at an event arranged by the
aforementioned government-linked front organization China-U.S.
Exchange Foundation (CUSEF). The former member of the First
Family lashed out at the “America first” rhetoric of the Trump
administration and generally argued that Washington needed to stop
seeing China as an existential threat. “China is not an economic
enemy or existential national security threat to the United States… .
The demonization of China is being fueled by a rising nationalism in
the U.S. that is manifested in anti-immigrant, anti-Chinese, pro-
America-first rhetoric,” he proclaimed. He had nothing to say about
rising nationalism in China, nor Xi’s stated ambitions. Naturally, the
Beijing government loved what he had to say.32
It has recently come to light that beginning in 2019, CUSEF
became a major donor to the Bush China Foundation. The pledge
was to contribute $1 million per year for five years beginning in 2019.
This amount would constitute a large portion of the nonprofit’s
income. While a spokesperson claimed that the gift would not
influence the foundation’s efforts, it is hard to imagine that Neil Bush
would find cause to be critical of Beijing in the future, given his
defense of bad behavior as described above.33
Jeb Bush, a very successful two-term governor of Florida, traveled to
the Chinese province of Hainan in search of opportunities after he
left office. An island off the southern coast, often called the Hawaii of
China, Hainan had been a place of drama under his brother
George’s tenure in the White House, when that Chinese fighter jet
collided with the U.S. Navy surveillance plane over the South China
Sea. You will recall that the American plane made an emergency
landing in Hainan, and that the Chinese held the twenty-four crew
members of the aircraft for eleven days.34
When Jeb visited Hainan a decade later, he was treated as a
visiting dignitary. Bush wore a necklace of flowers, and according to
the Chinese media, the former governor lauded “Hainan’s
environmental and economic development and spoke hopefully of
establishing stronger ties between Hainan and Florida.”35
Jeb set up a consulting business along with several investment
funds. In January 2012, he made a return trip to China. This time he
enjoyed the company of the highest-ranking officials in Beijing,
including a private meeting in the Great Hall of the People with then
Chinese vice president Xi Jinping. (Xi would become president just
over a year later.) Xi noted the Bush family’s close history with
China. “The Bush family has made great contributions to promoting
relations between China and the United States, ‘which the two
nations and the two peoples will not forget,’ the Chinese vice
president said.” In response, Jeb Bush pledged that he would
“continue making contributions to the development of bilateral ties
and economic cooperation between the two nations.”36
Seven months after that meeting, Xu Erwen, an ambassador for
the People’s Republic of China, was in Miami to meet with Jeb
Bush.37
Doors continued to open in China.
In February 2013, Jeb Bush met with Tan Xiangdong, the
president of the HNA Group. The HNA Group has been described as
a “mysterious company” with close ties to Beijing’s “red aristocracy.”
According to the HNA website, the purpose of Jeb Bush’s meeting
was to talk about “cooperation in the broad market between China
and the United States.”38
But it was more than a discussion. It was an opportunity for this
red aristocrat to develop a business relationship with a probable
candidate for the presidency of the United States. Three months
after that meeting, Jeb set up something called Britton Hill Holdings,
and brought in several partners with Wall Street experience.
However, some of the largest investors in his new venture would be
Chinese entities. Britton Hill created an entity called BH Logistics,
which raised $26 million to invest in a liquid petroleum shipping
company. Among the investors was the HNA Group.39
The relationship benefited Bush, but it also helped the politically
linked HNA Group avoid public scrutiny. “This is a classic example of
the way sophisticated Chinese firms work,” explained American
Enterprise Institute scholar Derek Scissors at the time. “They don’t
want to get involved directly in a U.S. startup that’s involved in shale,
so they’ll take a minority stake to keep a lower profile. They’re
looking for political protection, and the Bush name legitimizes the
investment and makes him the perfect partner.”40
Jeb Bush was not done. His next investment fund was BH Global
Aviation, which again found Chinese politically connected investors
ready to participate. According to SEC filings, 98 percent of BH
Global Aviation’s funding came from “non-U.S. persons.” Aviation
was, of course, an HNA Group strong suit. They already ran a
regional airline in China. Among the other investors in Jeb’s venture
was Guang Yang, CEO of a Beijing-based finance firm called
Finergy Capital.41
Jeb Bush’s prescription for American foreign policy was generally
to engage with China but expect them to cheat. “So total
engagement with the Chinese is important, and recognizing that
they’re going to cheat. They’re going to push. They’re going to
constantly probe. And when they see weakness they will move
forward.”42
Engagement was the key—there was no discussion of restricting
Beijing’s access to American capital and technology. Again, big help
with a little badmouth.
In the previous chapter, we met a Chinese couple named Gordon
Tang and Huaidan Chen, who had purchased U.S. ambassador Gary
Locke’s house near D.C. and later put him on the payroll. In 2013,
they appointed Neil Bush to the board of their real estate company,
SingHaiyi, as chairman.43 In 2016, with Jeb’s presidential campaign
launched, they sent $1.3 million to a SuperPAC supporting his
candidacy.44
A report by the Intercept exposed the donations, and at the behest
of the Campaign Legal Center, the Federal Election Commission
(FEC) investigated. The FEC eventually charged Tang and Chen
with funneling their contributions through their American-based
company, American Pacific International Capital (APIC), to avoid
detection. (Donations from foreign nationals to American political
campaigns are illegal. Both Tang and Chen are Chinese citizens.)
APIC was fined $550,000 and the Right to Rise PAC agreed to pay
$390,000 for “soliciting a foreign national contribution.” Jeb Bush had
raised money for Right to Rise but was never directly implicated in
the Chinese donations.45
And there was more money coming.
At least nine Chinese nationals linked to Chinese government-
connected front groups became actively involved with the Jeb Bush
2016 presidential run, and later the Donald Trump campaign. Cindy
Yang attended Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign kickoff event in
Miami on June 15, 2015. She had never been politically active
before—but she was firmly linked to Chinese government-run
groups. She served as the vice president of an organization called
the “Florida Association for the Reunification of China,” which is tied
to a Beijing-based entity run by the government. According to John
Dotson, who tracks the organization, it is “directly under the Chinese
government and has chapters in several countries.” The president of
that Florida group, Xianqin Qu, also attended the 2015 Bush
presidential campaign launch, as did another board member.46
Yet another Chinese national involved with the Bush campaign
was Zhonggang Li, who lived in Boca Raton. He started the South
Florida chapter of a group called the “China Association for Science
and Technology,” whose main headquarters is in Beijing. “It’s known
as an intermediary for establishing contact with and cultivating ethnic
Chinese overseas to encourage them to return knowledge to China,”
says John Dotson of the Jamestown Foundation.
Li dismissed the idea that he was linked with the Chinese
government as “absurd.”47
“It fits in perfectly with what we know about United Front,” says
Teufel Dreyer, a professor at the University of Miami. “They try to
mobilize all available segments that might be sympathetic to their
cause and draw them to their side.”48
When Bush dropped out of the 2016 Republican primary, Yang
and her compatriots started donating to the Trump campaign. Yang
gave $37,000 to political action committees linked to Trump, and her
husband and parents kicked in another $32,400. None had
contributed to any campaigns before 2015.49
The Bushes have seen Beijing ties redound to their benefit over
decades, profiting multiple generations of the family. George H. W.
Bush was viewed in a favorable light by Beijing’s leaders, a figure
who took positions that were beneficial to China. His family members
were rewarded with access to the highest levels of government as
well as lucrative business deals.
In Canada, perhaps the most prominent political dynasty in modern
times are the Trudeaus. Pierre Trudeau was a flamboyant and
passionate labor lawyer who went on to serve as prime minister of
Canada for more than a decade. He was philosophically attracted to
Communist China and would later cash in on the relationship he
enjoyed with the Beijing ruling elite. The torch in the family would be
passed to his sons, one of whom, Justin, would enter parliament in
2008 and later ascend to the prime minister’s office. As we will see,
the family’s warm ties to China and China-linked entities play an
essential role in their personal fortunes and influence how they
govern.
Before the story is told, it is important to note that it is impossible
to know the full extent of the Trudeau family’s commercial and other
ties with Beijing because in 2019 it was revealed that Canada’s top
spy agency had destroyed its files on Pierre Trudeau thirty years
earlier. Trudeau died in 2000, and the documents had been
expected to be released in 2020. The move was audacious and
denounced by historians as both “outrageous” and a “crime against
Canadian history.”50
Pierre Trudeau was a French Canadian with a “lifelong fixation on
China.”51 The interest was initially about ideology. Trudeau was
influenced in his early years by socialism. “The party of the people—
socialism, communism—will eventually come out the winner,” he
wrote as a young man.52
He first visited China in 1949, as the country was engulfed in the
revolutionary violence between the communist forces led by Mao
and the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek.53 He traveled again in
1960 with his friend Jacques Hébert, this time at the request of the
communist government. The invitation was unusual; few Westerners
were invited to visit the country and Trudeau was hardly a prominent
figure at the time. He had yet to enter parliament.54
Trudeau and Hébert traveled the country with official guides during
the height of the Great Leap Forward, when millions of Chinese were
confined, arrested, or killed by the regime. Trudeau later wrote about
the trip in a book he coauthored called Two Innocents in Red
China.55
He was enormously sympathetic to the regime and failed to take
note of anything involving repression, violence, and death around
him. “Goals have no more reality than the means that are devised to
reach them… . Indeed, the experience of that superb strategist,
Mao Tse-tung, might lead us to conclude that in a vast and
heterogeneous country, the possibility of establishing socialist
strongholds in certain regions is the very best thing,” the two wrote.56
This travelogue of his visit to China is filled with naïveté and
revolutionary sloganeering. Trudeau and Hébert posed for pictures
with the members of Young Pioneers, the Communist Party Youth
Group rich in indoctrination, and proclaimed, “It is these red-scarfed
kids who in twenty years will be the New Men of a country which at
that time will have a billion inhabitants.” While making no mention of
the Red Terror that was taking place, they claimed, “The Chinese
revolutionaries influence adults, they even give some attention to the
old, but it is on the young that they found all their hopes.”57
The trip afforded Trudeau the rare opportunity to meet with both
Chairman Mao and Chou En-lai, his right hand. Why the two young
French Canadians were granted such a meeting is unclear.58
Trudeau was awed by the two brutal leaders. He would regard Mao
as “The Great Helmsman,” steering the Chinese state as a
benevolent leader. Chou En-lai, who helped Mao carry out the
Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward, resulting in the
estimated deaths of fifty million or more people, he described in
warm, congenial terms:
Our firm impression was of a simple person, deeply committed to the
communist cause, but not at all with the aim of achieving personal
power, one who was almost deferential to all those around him, whether
Chinese villagers or foreign guests, a decent human being who
attracted respect because of his person, not his position.59
Trudeau’s book was openly supportive of the communist regime.
One friendly reviewer stated, “Observing and conversing with local
farmers, Trudeau discovers Chairman Mao Zedong’s logic in
fomenting his Communist Revolution amongst peasants rather than
industrial workers, and gains an understanding into why the 1960s
Cultural Revolution was deemed necessary for communism to
triumph.”60
Trudeau would retain his sympathies for the communist regime,
even as the horrors of the Maoist era became well known in the
West. Throughout his career, Trudeau was much harsher on the
nationalist government in Taiwan than on the communist dictatorship
on the mainland. Later, in retirement, he described the nationalists
as “dictatorial and brutal,” but argued that when it came to mainland
China, “To fail to recognize the undoubted successes of the
communist regime would be foolhardy.”61
Beijing authorities were no doubt thrilled with Trudeau’s account of
Maoist China. On the eve of his son Justin’s rise into national
politics, a Chinese government-controlled publishing house released
a Chinese-language version of the book. (What the Chinese
government paid the Trudeaus for the rights to the book is
unknown.) The book was launched at a lavish press conference in
Shanghai with coauthor Jacques Hébert and Alexandre Trudeau,
Justin’s younger brother, fielding questions from fifty Chinese
journalists. Hébert called the republication of the forty-five-year-old
book a “miracle.” Alexandre reflects, “Indeed, one must truly ask why
it is that, almost half a century after its publication in Canada, a big
Chinese publishing house would decide to launch a Chinese edition
of this relatively obscure little book.”62
Why, indeed? Perhaps because it was an opportunity to put some
money in the pocket of a powerful political family in Canada and
cultivate the relationship further.
Pierre Trudeau was elected to parliament in 1965 and, within a
couple of years, decided to seek the leadership of the Liberal Party.63
He became prime minister in 1968. One of his first acts was to seek
and achieve diplomatic relations with Beijing, which occurred in
1970. For good measure, Trudeau dropped diplomatic ties with
Taiwan, something that the United States did not do when Richard
Nixon established relations with China in 1972.64 Mao saw the move
by Trudeau as a significant victory, and reportedly said, “Now we
have a friend in the US’ backyard.”65
Trudeau continued with his enthusiastic courtship of Beijing. In
1973, the prime minister and his wife made a landmark trip to China
and officials pulled out all the stops. His wife, Margaret, recalled
about the arrival ceremony, “There were maybe 10,000 children out
on the tarmac with ribbons. Some of them were as small as three
and four, dancing in perfect symmetry,” singing, “Long live the
friendship between the peoples of China and Canada!” Margaret
Trudeau explained, “The children were very, very disciplined and
very courteous.”66 During the visit, her husband, the prime minister,
held extensive talks with Chinese officials, with his “most valued
memory” of the visit discussing politics with Chou En-lai “far into the
night.”67
When the Trudeaus returned home, the prime minister spoke in
parliament in glowing terms about China. He extolled members on
the importance of recognizing “the magnitude of one of the most
significant revolutions in the history of the world and the extension of
basic human amenities to hundreds of millions of persons to whom
they had been denied for millennia.”68
Pierre Trudeau had close ties in Beijing. But critical to his rise in
national politics was his alliance with a powerful corporation that
wanted to do business with China.
Aptly named, the Power Corporation was headed by a fellow
Quebecker, Paul Desmarais, a highly connected businessman who
cozied up to political figures and enriched them. His company had
supported Trudeau for a long time, beginning in the 1960s when
Trudeau sought the leadership of the Liberal Party. “Paul Desmarais
collects prime ministers and senior politicians like rare butterflies,”
said journalist Peter Newman. He adds, “One of his favourite
collectibles was Pierre Trudeau.”69
Desmarais was a forceful advocate for business deals with Beijing.
Like Trudeau, he ignored the repressive nature of the Chinese
regime and embraced the brutal leaders as friends. Later, one of the
prized paintings displayed on the wall in his palatial home was given
to him “by his good friend Li Peng,” who gave the infamous orders to
declare martial law in China leading to the massacre at Tiananmen
Square.70
In 1978, the Power Corporation formed the Canada-China
Business Council with Prime Minister Trudeau’s support. The
organization included Canadian business firms, but also the Chinese
government-run China International Trust and Investment
Corporation (CITIC). The purpose of the Council was not just to help
Canadian businesses get access to China, but also to help CITIC
invest in Canada.71 Desmarais, and his role in starting the venture,
helped the council “set in motion the beginnings of investment in
Canada by Chinese state-owned companies.”72
Jonathan Manthorpe, a longtime journalist and author of a book
about Chinese influence in Canada, calls the Canada-China
Business Council “the CCP’s principal channel for influence in
Canada.”73
Trudeau and Desmarais guided Canada’s relationship with Beijing,
with Trudeau as prime minister pushing closer relations with the
regime while Desmarais cashed in on significant deals with Beijing’s
elite. When Trudeau retired from politics, he went to work at Power
Corporation, further nurturing those deals and becoming wealthy in
the process. The legacy of these arrangements would provide a
robust base of support when his son Justin would run for prime
minister decades later.
Trudeau continued to be a booster of China throughout his tenure.
When he left office in 1984, he remained close to the Chinese
regime. Trudeau’s fidelity to China financially benefited the family as
he exploited his cozy relationships in Beijing. The former prime
minister became a consultant for Canadian businesses looking to
access the Chinese market. Trudeau could use his ties with Chinese
officials to help—for a price. Beijing had long used commercial
market access to reward friends, and Canadian companies looking
for access to Chinese leaders paid Trudeau handsomely.
Much of his work was for the Power Corporation. He signed on as
an “international advisor” to the firm.74 During his tenure, “Power
Corp. has been building its connections at the highest levels of the
Chinese government … the result has been a series of investments
across China in industries as diverse as real estate, rail cars and
high technology.” There were also joint ventures in Canada with
CITIC investing capital along with the company.75
Trudeau also became a lawyer at a Montreal firm, where he was
paid to help even more companies score meetings with Chinese
leaders, including a business delegation to China in 1985.76 He
returned the following year with another group of clients, and officials
at the highest levels of the communist government greeted them,
including Deng Xiaoping, in the Great Hall of the People.77
During the summer of 1989, Trudeau received an invitation from
Beijing to visit with two of his sons (including future prime minister
Justin Trudeau). Unfortunately, horrific events intervened when the
People’s Liberation Army sent tanks into Tiananmen Square to
attack student protestors. According to Alexandre Trudeau, the
family debated: should they still go? Eventually, the Canadian
government asked them to stay home—settling the matter. But the
following year, the opportunity arose again, and former prime
minister Pierre Trudeau brushed aside any qualms about going,
aside from the optics. “My father was still a little concerned about
appearances,” Alexandre recalled.78
On the trip, according to Alexandre, his father danced around the
subject of Tiananmen Square with government officials. “When
called to speak, my father would invariably refer very delicately to the
sad difficulties that China had recently faced.” “Sad difficulties”
almost implied that some external disaster rather than a brutal
crackdown had occurred. But Pierre Trudeau would tell his
government hosts, “Outsiders simply cannot know what is best for
China nor how it need travel down its chosen paths.” Trudeau added
softly, “It is hard to know how China needs to move forward.”79
The events of Tiananmen Square appeared to be little more than a
nuisance, or a speed bump, in Trudeau’s race to work with Beijing.
According to Alexandre, “This awe, this suspension of judgement
toward China, never left him.”80 And there is plenty of evidence that
those sympathies were passed along to his sons.
In 2008, Justin Trudeau ran for parliament. His father had died
eight years earlier, but his name, good looks, and charming
demeanor helped him rise quickly through the ranks of the Liberal
Party. His views on China were similar to those of his father. Recall
that during a 2013 Liberal Party fundraiser in Toronto, he had
expressed his admiration for the “basic dictatorship” of China.81
It was not just Trudeau’s words of admiration for the regime in
Beijing—the young MP also endorsed policies that benefited the
Chinese state. In 2012, he outlined his support for a controversial
energy deal involving the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation,
which was seeking to acquire the Canadian energy company Nexen.
There were concerns about the significant implications to national
security and possible damage to “Canadian interests and values.”
Trudeau’s attitude seemed to allow for considerably expanding
China’s investments in Canada, a view he said stemmed in part
because “obviously, my family has historical ties with China.”82
When Justin Trudeau became prime minister in 2015, Beijing
greeted the news with great enthusiasm. The Chinese ambassador
to Canada declared his election meant “real change,” a move away
from the previous government’s skepticism about Beijing. He also
noted the “extraordinary political vision” of Justin’s father.83 Chinese
officials appreciated that his father had not let matters like human
rights or geopolitical issues cloud trade. “[Pierre] Trudeau didn’t allow
much politics to color Canada-China relations,” recalled the
executive deputy director for the Centre for Canadian Studies at the
Guangzhou Institute of Foreign Languages, Tang Xiaosong. “He took
politics out of economic and trade relations… . The younger
Trudeau, I think, will very much follow in the footsteps of his father.
Because his father had a very positive stance toward China.”84
Indeed, in 2016 the state-owned Yilin Press published a Chinese
edition of Justin’s memoirs retitled as The Legend Continues.
Beijing’s ambassador to Canada proclaimed that he “strongly”
recommended the book. Curiously, some of Trudeau’s national
security aides were not even aware that the rights to his memoir had
been sold to Beijing, not finding out until 2021, after being contacted
by the media. “I think what gets me is that this is all being sponsored
by the propaganda department,” said Richard McFadden, a former
Trudeau advisor who also served as the head of the Canadian
intelligence service. Trudeau’s aides would later explain that all
profits from the book were going to the Red Cross. But the Globe
and Mail newspaper could not confirm that claim with either the
publisher or the Red Cross.85
The Communist Party publication Global Times looked at the
younger Trudeau’s soft spot for Beijing and added, “Junior Trudeau
has obviously been influenced by his family’s political opinions.”86
In May 2016, Justin Trudeau was in a beautiful mansion in Toronto
for a political fundraiser. At a cost of $1,500 a head, it was a small,
elite affair with only thirty-two people in attendance—perhaps not so
unusual for a politician. In this case, however, the host of the event
and some of the guests coughing up donations would raise
eyebrows. Benson Wong, the chairman of the Chinese Business
Chamber of Commerce, had opened up his mansion for the gala and
several other Chinese billionaires attended. One of them, Zhang Bin,
was no ordinary businessman. He was a political advisor to the
Beijing government and head of something called the China Cultural
Industry Association, which the communist government supervised.87
One attendee at the fundraiser was controversial Chinese
businessman Wei Wei, a real estate developer who actively worked
to foster closer relations between China and Canada. Among
multiple meetings, Wei had a private discussion with Prime Minister
Trudeau, along with three other representatives of a Chinese
government-endorsed industry group. In 2020, police raided Wei’s
ornate 20,000-square-foot home near Toronto for running an illegal
gambling operation. There were allegations of trafficking women,
too. “The money moving through these underground casinos leads
to huge profits for criminals that fund other ventures such as
prostitution and drug trafficking,” said the York Regional Police in a
statement.88
Trudeau raised a good amount of money that day.
Shortly after that fundraiser, the Trudeau Foundation announced
that Zhang had made another contribution, this time a $200,000
donation “to honor the memory and leadership” of Justin Trudeau’s
father. Also chipping in was Niu Gensheng, another wealthy Chinese
businessman. The Trudeau Foundation, which was seeded with
Canadian taxpayer money, had been established to memorialize the
late prime minister and his political views. The family was naturally
involved. Justin Trudeau had been a member of the board of
directors and brother Alexandre was still on the board, as was
another member of the family. Additional funds were also donated for
a statue of Pierre Trudeau.89
Alexandre Trudeau, in accepting the gifts, promised they would
“strengthen the Sino-Canadian friendship developed by his father,”
according to the Chinese government’s China Daily.90
In 2016, Justin Trudeau flew to China for a series of high-level
meetings. Chinese social media took a liking to Trudeau, calling him
“Little Potato” shortly after he visited the country.91 Trudeau directly
linked Canada’s fate to China. During a visit to Shanghai on that trip,
he told the Canada-China Business Council that “the success of the
world is inexorably linked to China’s success.” He never precisely
defined what a successful China would look like, but he called for
more trade and closer economic ties.92
When he finally raised the issue of human rights, he was quick to
point out that Canada is bad, too. “[I] talked about the challenges,
but also talked about the fact that Canada is not immune to criticisms
on human rights, either,” he said during an onstage interview at a
Canadian Chamber of Commerce event in Hong Kong.93
The lack of any candor about the repressive nature of the
communist regime runs deep in the Trudeaus. Brother Alexandre
Trudeau says that both he and his brother inherited much of their
thinking about China from their father. When asked about the human
rights situation in China, Alexandre responded: “I could be very
harsh, and you could find stories that are disgusting, but in a way I’m
harsher on Canada, or way more on the United States, which I think
have every reason to be better.”94
The Trudeau family clearly has a soft spot for strongman tyrants.
Alexandre Trudeau described Fidel Castro, whose government
killed, tortured, and imprisoned thousands of Cubans, this way in a
eulogy: “His intellect is one of the most broad and complete that can
be found. He is an expert on genetics, on automobile combustion
engines, on stock markets, on everything… . Combined with a
Herculean physique and extraordinary personal courage, this
monumental intellect makes Fidel the giant that he is.”95
Pierre Trudeau and his family have justified their silence on
matters of human rights because they do not want to “judge Chinese
values by western standards.” This is a naïve and absurd position. It
also happens to be a favorite line of argument pushed by the CCP.96
The suppression of rights and the brutality of the regime in China
is not a function of “Chinese values.” Marxism-Leninism is not a
Chinese idea—it is a profoundly Western idea. Repression in the
country is a function of a Leninist dictatorship run by the Chinese
Communist Party. The brutality that occurs in China is similar to that
of every Marxist-Leninist regime: the Soviet Union, East Germany,
and Cuba, to name a few.
But as we have seen, the ties are more than ideological.
Alexandre Trudeau is more than the brother of Prime Minister
Trudeau; he has also served as his foreign policy advisor when
Justin ran for the leadership of the Liberal Party. He wrote a book
about China—retracing his father’s steps taken during that 1960
visit. The book was, in Alexandre’s words, commissioned by the
Beijing government.97 (How much he was paid has not been
disclosed.) When he released the book, Alexandre explained: “I now
look at our own freedoms with a little more circumspection and
consider some of the irresponsible nature of some of the freedoms
we enjoy.”98 He also praised the communist dictatorship in Beijing,
explaining that China could not “have come so far so quickly without
the unity and organizational power” of the dictatorial government.99
His brother read the book as prime minister before making his first
official trip to China. “He read it a week before he left for China and
he told me it helped him get up to speed in what to think and feel
about China,” recalled Alexandre.100
The Trudeaus’ apologetics for the Beijing regime have become
increasingly unpopular in Canada. Mounting concerns among the
Canadian public about Beijing’s growing influence in their country
prompted Trudeau’s government to become involved in a two-year
effort to persuade Canadians that China is not so bad. The initiative,
funded by major Canadian corporations, was titled “Public Policy
Forum: Consultative Forum in China.” The goal was to push
Canadian public opinion to favor more trade with China.101 It does
not appear to have worked.
Trudeau’s government took other steps to accede to Beijing’s
wishes.
In March 2017, the administration overturned a previous order
pushed by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to bar a
Chinese company called O-Net from taking over a Canadian
research company called ITF Technologies. The Beijing government
partly owned O-Net, and ITF was developing technology related to
fiber-laser-directed energy weapons.102 Not too much later,
Trudeau’s administration permitted another Chinese firm, Hytera, to
buy Norsat International, a Canadian firm that provides military
satellite communication systems to the U.S. Department of Defense
and the government of Taiwan. Reportedly, Trudeau’s government
agreed to allow the purchase without even “doing an in-depth
security review.”103
As prime minister, Trudeau joined forces with Beijing and took a
stake in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which was being
hailed as China’s competition for the World Bank. This happened
despite Canadian diplomats’ warnings that the bank was going to be
used to “leverage its economic prowess to gain regional influence
and export its model of governance around the world.” They argued,
“[China] promotes perspectives on governance, economic security,
and human rights that diverge in fundamental ways from Canada’s.”
The Trudeau government ignored the warnings.104
When Prime Minister Trudeau was reelected in October 2019, he
made some changes. Among them was the appointment of a new
foreign minister, François-Philippe Champagne. The new foreign
minister was almost gushy in his praise of the Beijing regime. In a
2017 interview with Chinese state television (CGTN), he explained
how wonderful President Xi and the government were because they
“stand out as [a] beacon of stability, predictability, a rule-based
system, a very inclusive society.”105 Champagne also happened to
have borrowed more than $1 million from the Bank of China to buy
two apartments in London. When the loan was exposed, he changed
banks.106
Relations between China and Canada have deteriorated. After
Canadian officials arrested a Huawei executive in 2018 for
extradition to the United States on criminal charges, Beijing
retaliated by detaining two Canadians on spy charges.107 The
Canadian public became increasingly suspicious of the Chinese
regime given its aggressive conduct. When the Canadian
government joined the United States and the European Union in
sanctioning Chinese officials involved in the suppression of the
Uighurs, some turned angrily on Trudeau. “Boy, your greatest
achievement is to have ruined the friendly relations between China
and Canada, and have turned Canada into a running dog of the
U.S.,” tweeted Li Yang, a Chinese diplomat posted to the embassy in
Brazil.108 But Trudeau was hardly leading the parade. He gave all
indications of being a reluctant participant. Just two months earlier,
on February 22, 2021, the Canadian House of Commons voted 266–
0 in support of a resolution calling China’s actions against the
Uighurs “genocide.” Trudeau and his cabinet abstained from the
vote.109
Critics note that during the height of the pandemic, the Trudeau
administration granted lucrative contracts to a Chinese company to
produce personal protective equipment to fight the COVID virus over
Canadian firms that had the same capacity.110 And when the
prominent Canadian Halifax International Security Forum invited
Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen to receive the John McCain Prize for
Leadership in Public Service, the Trudeau government tried to
pressure it to disinvite her.111
When Prime Minister Trudeau leaves office, he will no doubt be
looking for financial opportunities just as his father and so many
other politicians have. Will he mimic his father and brother, building
on his own network of government contacts in China? His family’s
history seems to indicate that he will. And, of course, he will conduct
the balance of his tenure in office precisely with that in mind.
8
Higher Education
Nathan Law has lived a remarkable and impactful life even though
he has not yet reached the age of thirty. It was for good reason that
Time magazine named him one of “The 100 Most Influential People
of 2020.”1
Born in Shenzhen, China, he moved to Hong Kong with his family
at age six. At the age of twenty-one, with Beijing clamping down on
the city’s citizens, Law became involved in the so-called Umbrella
Movement, a peaceful protest organization standing up for the
individual rights the regime had once promised to Hong Kong.
Protesting in the streets and leading petition drives, Law founded a
prodemocracy group called Demosisto. By 2016, Law was elected to
the Hong Kong legislature at the ripe age of twenty-three—the
youngest ever. But Beijing took a disliking to his advocacy and
forcibly removed him from office. Law went to jail for eight months,
beginning in August 2017. Eventually, he found his way to Yale
University for graduate school.2
Yale was perhaps an obvious choice for a young man from China.
The school has a long history of ties to his country. The first Chinese
student to graduate from an American university—in 1850—went to
Yale.3
But arriving in New Haven, Law did not receive what one might
call a rousing welcome. He found himself subject to harassment and
abuse by other students from mainland China who were supportive
of the regime. And while some other students and faculty reached
out to him offering encouragement, the university administration
essentially abandoned him, “remaining silent against this attack on
free speech and the safety of a student.”4
The plight of Nathan Law is emblematic of the growing problem of
Chinese communist influence at America’s elite universities. It is not
simply an issue of pro-Beijing Chinese students attending elite
American schools and becoming politically active on campus. Entire
institutions of higher learning in the United States are being
influenced by the flow of money from China via large gifts from
wealthy alumni linked to the mainland’s power structure. We never
know how large this flow is because it is chronically (and illegally)
underreported. It appears that the talking points originated at
American universities: criticizing the CCP is racist against Asians
and critics of Beijing are sadly “misinformed” or uneducated. At Yale,
it has been particularly pronounced, and as we will see, this
university and other schools have worked to cover up the origins of
these funds.
Given Nathan Law’s extensive background and central role in
historic events unfolding in Hong Kong, one might think he would be
a popular speaker on the Yale campus. And he did speak at the
Schell Center for International Human Rights, albeit with hecklers
confronting him.5 One place where he never spoke was the Paul Tsai
China Center, at the heart of Yale Law School. At first blush, it would
seem to be a perfect fit. The Tsai Center’s mission is to study the
Chinese legal system and encourage U.S.-China relations. Law, as a
young activist and legislator, would have some valuable insights on
both of those subjects and more.6 However, when you dissect who is
behind the Tsai Center—with apparent strings attached—it becomes
quite clear why Law did not have many New Haven allies.
It was, without a doubt, a generous gift. Joe Tsai, a billionaire tech
entrepreneur and Yale graduate, donated $30 million to the China
Center at Yale Law School to honor his father. In recognition of the
donation, it was rechristened the Paul Tsai China Center.7
Yale president Peter Salovey naturally hailed the donor as “one of
Yale’s great citizens.”8
Tsai is a huge donor to colleges around the United States and the
owner of the National Basketball Association’s Brooklyn Nets. But he
also has strong and troubling views about and ties to the dictatorial
regime in Beijing. These positions and relationships are important to
understand in light of his remarkable influence in shaping the
national conversation about China.
The source of Tsai’s enormous wealth, estimated at over $10
billion, is his involvement with the Chinese tech giant Alibaba. Tsai
joined the nascent company back in 1999 when company founder
Jack Ma was still working out of his apartment with twenty
employees.9 Alibaba staffers were expected to work sixteen-hour
days, seven days a week. Ma even insisted that employees live
within ten minutes of work to minimize commuting.10
Tsai, who was then working for a Swedish investment firm, quit his
job and threw in with Ma. In some respects, the two men were
opposites. While Jack Ma came from a poor family in mainland
China, Tsai came from a prominent family in Taiwan. While Ma had a
big vision of what he wanted Alibaba to be, Tsai brought a financial
acumen and understanding of Western financial markets that Ma
simply did not possess. Tsai became Ma’s “right-hand man,”
eventually rising to serve as Alibaba’s chief financial officer and later
executive vice chairman.11
“Alibaba wouldn’t be where it is today without Joe Tsai,” explained
Porter Erisman, who worked at Alibaba in the early days. “Joe is the
international lens for the whole group.”12
Alibaba also had key allies in the Chinese government that were
critical to the company’s rise. While Alibaba is listed on the New York
Stock Exchange, the company has heavy ownership from the
Communist Party elite. Indeed, their significant investors include the
sons and grandsons of the most influential members of the ruling
Communist Party. As the New York Times has reported, “For
Alibaba, the connections go to the highest levels of government.”13
Indeed, Alibaba’s fortunes grew because of these Beijing ties.
“Since the early days, Alibaba has been supported by the Chinese
government which used Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall sites to do
billions of dollars of transactions between various government
agencies which allowed Alibaba to post eye-popping revenues and
growth in the early days,” reports Forbes magazine. It continued to
do so “to ensure the continued scorching growth rates that Alibaba
has been able to post year in and year out.”14
Alibaba is organized in a way that resembles the governance of
the Communist Party of China. “The Alibaba governance structure is
probably inspired by the Chinese political structure,” says former
banker David Webb. The firm is organized to be run by a
“Partnership”—not the shareholders. “The shareholders are
equivalent to the People, who have no say in how their country is
run.”15
It was Joe Tsai who was behind that “partnership governance
model,” which gave a limited number of individuals much control in
creating the board of directors.16
This design makes it harder for shareholders to actually influence
how the company is run. When MSCI, a financial firm controlled by
Morgan Stanley, looked at the corporate “Governance,” including
“Ownership & Control,” it gave Alibaba a “worst in class”
designation.17
Understanding Alibaba requires more than recognizing how it is
structured and how it prospered with government help. It helps to
know the loyalties of the corporate leaders, which in turn will help
explain why Tsai’s philanthropy deserves serious attention.
Jack Ma has remained a longtime and loyal member of the CCP.
Along the way, he defended the regime’s decision to send tanks and
soldiers into Tiananmen Square, killing thousands. It was, he
declared, “the correct decision.”18 While Ma mysteriously
“disappeared” in 2020 for his outspoken expressions of frustration
about Chinese regulators, the Alibaba founder has over the years
been a “vocal backer” of President Xi’s policies. He speaks favorably
about the “stability” provided by a one-party dictatorship and
endorses his country’s “strict online censorship.” He is even
supportive of constructing a comprehensive online surveillance
system to monitor the general public.19
The corporate culture that Tsai has built with Ma reflects the
founders’ attitudes related to the government and Chinese
nationalism. Military analogies are used to highlight well-regarded
employees. High fliers in the company are called “King of Soldiers,”
and corporate leaders use the fictional character Xu Sanduo as a
model. Xu, a character from the Chinese TV show Soldiers Sortie,
rose from a village boy to become an elite fighter in the People’s
Liberation Army (PLA).20
Ma’s favorite books “by far” are those in a series of novels that
contains “strong elements of Chinese patriotism,” as Chinese
villagers fight off invaders from the north.21 He has been known to
compare his challenges at Alibaba with those of Mao and has sought
guidance from his example.22
Beyond verbally supporting the regime, Alibaba also helps the
CCP dispense propaganda. Recently, Alibaba developed for the
Chinese government a propaganda app called Xuexi Qiangguo,
which means “Study to make China strong.” It includes quotes and
comments from President Xi, and Communist Party members were
told to download it.23
Alibaba also has close ties to the Chinese military. Alibaba Cloud
Computing, for example, has a strategic cooperation agreement with
military-linked firms to create a platform called “‘Cybersecurity
Feitian’ for military customers.” Several other Alibaba research
projects are being carried out jointly with industry and university labs
and will benefit the military and intelligence services.24 The company
even partnered with China’s biggest defense company to create a
location-based navigational system.25
Joe Tsai has also been outspoken in his defense of the Beijing
regime and its corporate cohorts and has attacked their critics.
Unlike Ma, who remains more reserved, Tsai addresses the issues
openly. In 2019, for example, the United States and several allied
governments began expressing concerns about Huawei and its close
ties to the Ministry of State Security and the PLA. The firm is widely
seen as posing a serious security risk. In his public comments, Tsai
never actually disputed Huawei had such ties but instead slammed
the United States and Western allies who raised them as “extremely
unfair.” The issue was “very politically motivated,” he told one
conference.26
One notices that Tsai often deflects rather than dealing with the
underlying facts.
When speaking on college campuses, Tsai presents a remarkably
rosy view of the communist regime. He explained to students at the
University of California, San Diego, for example, that the Chinese
government does not see the relationship with the United States as
competitive. (Never mind that Beijing itself has said it is competing
with the United States.) Tsai contends that the Chinese Communist
Party is simply trying to improve the country’s economy and the life
of the average citizen.27
In 2018, Senator Mark Warner, then vice chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, spoke at a tech conference and observed
that Chinese companies are “penetrated deeply by the Communist
Party,” thereby creating a security risk. (Few people dispute these
facts.) Tsai later took the same stage and simply dodged, claiming
the problem was really that some Americans wanted to “stop China”
from innovating. Tsai again painted a benign portrait of the
Communist Party. “Communist Party, per se, seems like a dirty word
here, but in China, that’s the form of government.”28
On other occasions, Yale’s big benefactor has expressed his
support for China’s Orwellian social credit system. The communist
government is constructing a giant technological web in which
ordinary citizens will be monitored, tracked, and graded concerning
what they say and do. The better they “behave,” as defined by the
Beijing regime, the higher their scores. The higher the score, the
better opportunities an individual will have in society. Tsai believes
this is a great development. “Especially for young people, your online
behavior goes toward building up your online credit profile, and we
want people to be aware of that so they know to behave themselves
better,” he said.29
Tsai’s children, of course, won’t have to worry about their social
credit score. While Alibaba is based in China, Tsai’s family lives in
California.30
Tsai has been involved in other efforts to obscure China’s role in
suppression. Under the guidance of Joe Tsai and Jack Ma, Alibaba
bought a prestigious Hong Kong English-language publication called
the South China Morning Post (SCMP) in 2016.31 The newspaper
had a stellar reputation for serious and fair reporting. That started to
change under the new ownership. When the SCMP covered protests
in Hong Kong in the summer of 2019, reporters sent a draft article
describing in detail the “chaotic and shocking scenes” of police
officers attacking “cowering commuters” on a subway train. But
South China Morning Post editors altered the story. The final version
described instead how masked “radical protesters” fled into the
subway from “elite Hong Kong police.” The newspaper, according to
observers, has “exemplified the type of heavy-handed, slanted
editing that became common” during the demonstrations.32
When Alibaba took over the Morning Post, Tsai certainly had
coverage of China in mind. He argued at the time, “A lot of
journalists working with these Western media organisations may not
agree with the system of governance in China, and that taints their
view of coverage.”33
In 2017, Joe Tsai bought a stake in the Brooklyn Nets NBA
franchise. (He became the sole owner in 2019.34) Tsai is a lifelong
sports fan, so his purchase certainly made sense given the wealth
he had accumulated. From the perspective of NBA management and
owners, it served their purposes as well. Tsai could be enormously
helpful in expanding the league’s presence in China, where it was
quickly becoming professional basketball’s best burgeoning market.
In fact, Tsai served as the league’s ambassador to China.35
A few months after Tsai became a full-fledged NBA owner,
Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey set off a firestorm
with a simple tweet about ongoing protests in Hong Kong. “Fight for
Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong,” he tweeted.36
The Chinese government in Beijing was furious and immediately
asked for Morey to be fired.37
Much more controversial statements had been issued by NBA
players over the past few years on other subjects. Comments about
the police, racism, social justice, and civil liberties are common. But
Tsai jumped in after Morey’s tweet and immediately declared that
expressions about China and civil rights were entirely out of bounds.
In a long, passionate, and frankly intolerant letter, Tsai
mischaracterized the Hong Kong protestors—declaring that they
were a “separatist movement.” (Most protestors were not calling for
separation from China, they were merely asking for the rights that
they had been promised would be respected.) Tsai also falsely
claimed that the protests were threatening the “territorial integrity” of
China. (No one was asking for borders to be altered.) In his letter, of
course, Tsai ignored the abuse of Uighurs in Chinese government
concentration camps, Tibetan activists harassed or imprisoned, and
Christian churches shut down by authorities.38
Tsai went even further, proclaiming that foreigners did not have a
right to even talk about human rights in China. “When the topic of
any separatist movement comes up,” he declared, “Chinese people
feel a strong sense of shame and anger because of this history of
foreign occupation.”39
Tsai was, in short, trying to erect “boundaries for acceptable
speech about China,” as the Economist put it.40
Tsai’s efforts to end any debate or discussion of human rights in
China were not a clumsy mistake. Indeed, as many observers
pointed out, his line of argument echoed the Chinese Communist
Party’s line.41
But Tsai’s public letter was only the beginning. Soon after Morey
made his statement, Taobao, a massive online sales website owned
by Tsai’s Alibaba, took almost all Houston Rockets jerseys and
products off the platform.42 The Houston Rockets, the most popular
NBA team in China because basketball great Yao Ming once played
center for the team, were shut out of the Chinese market.43
Others with ties in China piled on.
NBA superstar LeBron James rebuked Morey for his tweet. “You
know, when you’re misinformed, or you’re not educated about
something, and I’m just talking about the tweet itself, you never know
the ramifications that can happen,” said James.44 “So many people
could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically,
emotionally [and] spiritually.” James never explained how Morey was
“misinformed.” But the part about being financially harmed was no
doubt correct—and demonstrated the limits of his activism. James,
who is outspoken on numerous social issues, and has said that he
wants to speak the truth regardless of the cost, suddenly went silent
on the issue of justice in Hong Kong—and even appeared to defend
the regime.45
James actually has quite a long history of doing just that.
Since early in his professional career, James has coveted the
Chinese market. Early on, he mulled learning Mandarin before a trip
to China—perhaps to make himself more marketable.46 Back in
2006, James explained, “I say all the time, and I tell my friends and
teammates, that you have to go global—in basketball and
business.”47 That meant, of course, avoiding criticisms of Beijing.
Morey’s tweet was not the first time the normally outspoken James
has remained silent about Chinese abusive actions. In 2007, black
Sudanese Christians were being slaughtered in Darfur by a regime
backed by the Chinese government. In all, an estimated 200,000 to
400,000 were killed. Beijing provided the regime with political
support and was the Sudanese government’s chief trading partner.
The unfolding atrocities gave rise to a movement calling on Beijing to
stop supporting Sudan. A letter to the Chinese government was
written by one of James’s teammates on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Every player on the team signed the letter, save two. One, a backup
guard, had a shoe contract with a Chinese company. The other was
superstar LeBron James.48 After howls of protest, James eventually
did come out with a muted statement about human rights.49
James has a sizable contract with the sports apparel company
Nike. While based in the United States, it does huge business in
China and views itself as a Chinese company. (Nike’s then CEO
Mark Parker startled investors on a 2019 earnings call when he
declared that Nike “is a brand of China, for China.”50) Beyond selling
his jersey in China, James also has an exclusive arrangement that
caters to the Chinese elite. The superstar releases some of his
coveted shoes in China first, before fans in the United States can get
access to them. At the same time, he has a line of Chinese-themed
shoes that are available only in China, called “China” editions. They
are “inspirations from deep within Chinese history and culture
ingrained into the design of the shoe.”51
James also has an enormous presence in the country, courtesy of
Chinese media companies. James starred in a movie called More
than a Game, which was coproduced by a Chinese company called
Xinhua Sports and Entertainment, and was distributed by the state-
owned China Film Group Corporation.52 How much they paid James
for the movie is not clear. Similarly, he works as a spokesman for a
variety of companies selling their products in China.53 During the off-
season, James travels the Chinese mainland playing games. He
even dedicated a basketball court in the People’s Republic.54
Morey eventually lost his job in Houston because of the angry
reaction in China. So, too, did David Levy, a new executive brought
in by the Brooklyn Nets to help run the team, when Joe Tsai became
an owner. Levy’s sin? As the NBA controversy regarding the Hong
Kong tweet swirled, Levy had the character to declare in an
interview, “Whatever corporation you’re in or country you live in, you
should remain loyal to the values you have. Period.” He was fired
shortly after, with the Nets assuring the press it was “not based
solely on his comments.”55
Tsai’s vigorous defense of the Beijing regime amid the NBA
controversy quickly spilled over onto the campus at Yale because he
was a substantial donor to the university. Nathan Law was on the
Yale campus at the time and sounded a warning about what he saw
happening on campus. “Undoubtedly, China is a huge country with a
lot of talent and funding that universities here want,” he told the Yale
Daily News. “But we need to understand money coming from China
is colored; it comes with purpose, with influence, and with aims that
may not be stated when the relationships are built. There is a
balance between forming relationships with China and not making
concessions on core values of academic freedom.”56
Chinese donors often do attach strings to their donations. C. J.
Menard, a development consultant who has worked for Harvard and
Boston Universities, says that in China, “donors tend to be more
transactional… . There is an expectation of a quid pro quo.”57
Some students were appalled that Yale remained silent as Tsai
worked to squelch any discussion about human rights in China.
Kelsang Dolma, a student who is ethnically Tibetan, told the Yale
Daily News: “This may be a little naïve but I used to have this idea
that universities could be a beacon of freedom of speech, morality,
and education. I learned very quickly that ideas, such as freedom of
speech, could be used as shields for University administrators from
speaking out against people like Joseph Tsai. If people like Tsai have
freedom of speech, surely so do Yale administrators. For a
University that sells itself on its quest for light and truth, it is appalling
that it would consistently turn a blind eye to disinformation in order to
appease a foreign nation.”58
We will discuss how Tsai’s financial largesse to Yale has shifted
the debate about China on campus and even in the United States as
a whole. However, it is important to note first the byzantine structure
that he has set up for his charities to distribute his vast fortune—and
how Yale has tried to hide the source of those funds.
Tsai’s contributions to Yale and other institutions in the United
States come through an international network of charitable nonprofits
he established that spans four countries. We can only guess his
motives for the complexities of the arrangement, but it raises a cloud
of doubt over where they came from. The origin of the funds is
important because of federal law.
The charities were set up outside of China because of the
challenges for each of the two types of Chinese charities. Chinese
foundations, who do not pay taxes on gifts and whose gifts are tax-
deductible for the giver, have higher financial thresholds when
setting them up, higher operating costs, and stricter rules on
expenditures. Chinese charitable trusts have different benefits and
setbacks. They are far more flexible but do not have the tax
advantages and can hold only cash—no stocks or bonds.59
Therefore, Alibaba decided to set up Symasia Foundation Limited in
Singapore, to hold shares for Jack Ma and Joe Tsai to distribute to
charities they would establish. In his initial agreement with Alibaba,
Tsai was entitled to steer fifteen million shares of Alibaba stock to a
charity he created.60
Tsai did not just establish a single charity; he created three
corporate entities in three different countries (the United States,
Hong Kong, and Guernsey, a British tax shelter island in the English
Channel) to hand out money originating from China.61 Why establish
three charities instead of just one?
There may very well be tax reasons for doing so. But one notable
effect of this structure is that it makes it much easier to obscure the
actual source of the money. For example, Tsai donated $30 million to
rename Yale University’s Law School China Center after his father,
Paul Tsai.62 The Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation is the single United
States charity, which he set up in La Jolla, California. As we will soon
see, Yale would have been required to disclose that the donation
came from Tsai directly, or from the Hong Kong or Guernsey entities
—and there were no such disclosures at the time. We must assume,
then, that the donation came from the Joe and Clara Tsai
Foundation, based in California.
That is a problem: a review of that charity’s filings with the Internal
Revenue Service (the 990-tax filing) reveals that the La Jolla–based
Tsai Foundation has almost no assets and never donated funds to
any organization, including Yale. Indeed, there is not a single
directed donation that has appeared on their Form 990.63 This
means that the funds that Tsai sent to Yale must have come from
Tsai foundations located in Hong Kong or Guernsey—or from Tsai
himself—a noncitizen of the United States.
Why is this important?
Federal law requires American universities to disclose any foreign
donations to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). Section 117
of the Higher Education Act of 1965 demands “accurate and
transparent disclosures of sources and amounts to the Department.”
The requirement was explicitly added to the law in 1998. More
recently, a U.S. Senate committee directed the DOE to communicate
to universities that the department was “prohibiting the use of
domestic conduits and intermediaries to avoid the disclosures of
foreign gifts.”64
That means a considerable gift Yale received—likely from the
Tsais’ Hong Kong or Guernsey foundations—would need to be
disclosed to the federal government. Only if the donation came from
the La Jolla, California–based charity, would no disclosure be
required. When you check Yale’s disclosures to the DOE concerning
foreign donations, the university never listed a contribution from Tsai
foundations in either of those foreign locations. But of course, they
should have because the California-based foundation, as we
demonstrated above, had no assets and gave no grants.
Because of this type of maneuver, the DOE launched an
investigation into the Tsais’ gift and foreign gifts Yale received from
2014 to 2017. What officials discovered was that Yale—over and
above the Tsai donations—was not listing hundreds of millions of
dollars of overseas gifts they had received, many of them from
mainland China.65
There are other sidesteps in which the Tsai Foundation engaged.
According to Alibaba’s filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), Joe Tsai’s La Jolla–based foundation seems to
own the foundation he established in Guernsey. It is hard to tell
because the Guernsey entity (Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation
Limited) is “wholly-owned by Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation.” Not the
Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation (La Jolla). And not the Joe and Clara
Tsai Charitable Foundation (Hong Kong).66 (What the hell?) Why is
this important? Because U.S.-based charities are required to
disclose to the IRS any close connections or affiliations with other
organizations.67 But if the La Jolla–based Tsai Foundation owns the
Guernsey foundation and never revealed any such relationships, it
would be lying for consistently answering “no” when asked if it had
any affiliations with or links to other organizations.
This is a pattern that has been repeated over and over again by
the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation based in La Jolla. The charity has
“donated” hundreds of millions of dollars to institutions like Yale,
Stanford, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. In every
case, these institutions issued press releases proclaiming that the
donation came from either the La Jolla–based foundation or some
bastardization of the three foundation names. In its tax filings, the La
Jolla–based foundation lists no such contributions, so the funds must
have come from the foreign foundations.
How has the Tsai money influenced the situation at Yale? How have
Yale scholars guided the debate in the United States when it comes
to China policy?
The Paul Tsai China Center often echoes the positive views that
the funder has of the Beijing regime. This happens partly because
the Tsai Center often hosts visiting scholars and former government
officials from Beijing, connected to both the Chinese Communist
Party and the Chinese military.68
Even Western scholars running the Tsai Center have had positive
things to say about Beijing that run contrary to reality.69 Such
positions could at best be regarded as hopelessly naïve about the
increasingly autocratic regime under President Xi.
Over the past decade, Xi has concentrated further power in his
own hands and exerted the authority of the Chinese Communist
Party into every phase of Chinese life. Few Western scholars dispute
this. But Paul Gewirtz, director of the Paul Tsai Center, explained in a
2014 piece for the New York Times that the “current regime led by
Mr. Xi has already signed onto many reforms and even adjustments
in ideology that represent positive steps toward a modern system of
rule of law. These changes aren’t just window dressing; they reflect
the leadership’s recognition that it needs to improve governance,
address widespread public grievances, and respond to public
opinion.” Xi and other Chinese leaders, he claimed, recognized the
need for the Communist Party to “constrain some of its power.”
Gewirtz added, “A sea change has taken place in government
transparency, with important requirements of open government
information changing the relationship between the state and
citizens.”70
Of course, the trend has been entirely the opposite; greater power
by Xi and the Communist Party, more incarcerations, Uighur camps,
the arrest and detention of protestors in Hong Kong, and more.
Scholars at the Tsai Center have, like Tsai himself, also minimized
the totalitarian nature of the “social credit” system being developed
by the Beijing regime. In an article titled “China’s Orwellian Social
Credit Score Isn’t Real,” Tsai Center senior fellow and former
executive director Jamie Horsley explained, “Its essence is
compliance with legally prescribed social and economic obligations
and performing contractual commitments.” Contrary to all the
evidence, she says the tight public oversight is mainly about dealing
with fraud and counterfeiting.71
In 2016, despite the crackdown on free speech and increasing
arrests in China, Horsley noted that “the Chinese Party-state
continues to press forward with putting in place and improving new
governance mechanisms to achieve ‘open government’ as part of its
broader goal of more innovative, clean, service-oriented and law-
based government.”72
In yet another article, she was complimentary of the Beijing
government’s so-called Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which, as we
have noted earlier, is part of Beijing’s geostrategic ambitions and
also makes use of forced labor. Horsley suggests some
improvements for the program and writes:
Such good governance improvements can help ensure that the BRI will
genuinely contribute to, rather than complicate, China’s drive to achieve
common development, connectivity and prosperity, while at the same
time advance better global and local governance, thus also enhancing
China’s reputational influence. This would truly be a “win-win” situation
for all.73
Apparently, China’s global ambitions are not a threat to anyone.
Those linked to and being paid by the Tsai Center are not simply
ivory tower academics. The influence of the Tsai Center extends into
the highest reaches of Washington. Jake Sullivan, appointed Joe
Biden’s national security advisor, was a paid fellow at the Tsai Center
before he headed to the White House. Jeff Prescott, the deputy
director of the Tsai Center, was nominated by Biden as deputy U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations. Tsai Center senior fellow Mira
Rapp-Hooper landed a senior position at the U.S. State
Department.74
The fact that Tsai has donated funds to charities in congruence
with the interests of the Chinese government has drawn scrutiny
from experienced China watchers. During the COVID crisis in 2020,
Alibaba cofounders Joe Tsai and Jack Ma made a gesture by
promising to deliver one thousand ventilators to the state of New
York. Scholars saw this for what it was. “Prominent Chinese
entrepreneurs would not make these gestures without permission
from the Communist Party,” explained Joseph Nye, professor
emeritus at Harvard. “China has used a government-sponsored
propaganda campaign and aid programs to promote the theme that
China’s behavior had been benign, and to restore its soft power.”
Steve Tsang, the director of the China Institute at the SOAS
University of London, went even further. The philanthropy was tied to
what he called a “highly orchestrated propaganda operation.”75
Tsai may want to limit and control debate about injustices in China.
Here in the United States, though, he stands atop his fortune to
speak out about the wrongs he sees here. While Tsai has little
criticism for how the CCP governs the mainland, he has lots to say
about what he sees as the widespread injustice in the United States.
Again, this echoes the strategy Beijing has employed in dealing with
its critics.
Tsai’s philanthropic interests appear to operate in congruence with
what Chinese authorities are doing: widely repressing individual
freedom in their own country while equating them with American civil
rights issues. In August 2020, Joe Tsai donated $50 million through
the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation to various activist groups in the
United States to “advance social justice and economic mobility for
Blacks, Indigenous people, and people of color.” His Brooklyn Nets
gave $10 million more to the NBA Foundation to carry out similar
work.76 The “Social Justice Commitment Statement” accompanying
the donations explained the need for “antiracist” training.77 His wife,
Clara, remarked: “When it comes to dismantling systemic racism and
economic inequality in our communities, we want to lead by
example.”78 Joe Tsai even set up “a gathering space for Black Lives
Matter” in the plaza of the Barclays Center, where the Brooklyn Nets
play.79
Recall earlier how Tsai implied that we should support the
communist dictator in China because that is the “system of
governance.” In other words, we should simply accept that system
and move on. A vastly different standard seems to apply here, where
the Tsais believe systematic change is necessary.80
China has a deplorable, farcical system of “justice,” which features
incarceration without trial, torture, and other issues. Curiously, we
could not find a single statement by Tsai criticizing the Chinese
regime.
Meanwhile, his wife is one of the founding partners of REFORM
Alliance, a U.S. nonprofit focused on reducing the prison population
and helping criminals reenter society. This may be a very worthy
organization, but the Tsais ignore the imprisonment of Chinese
Uighurs by Beijing while working on fairer treatment of those on
probation or parole in what is, without question, a much fairer judicial
system in the United States.81
When Tsai appeared on CNBC in June 2021, Andrew Ross Sorkin
asked Tsai a very direct question: “How do you think about your role
as a leader here in the United States on issues around Asian
Americans, Black Lives Matter, voting rights, all of that. And whether
and how you can speak out about for example, human rights abuses
in China?”
Tsai, as always, deflected, and suddenly things like voting rights
now did not matter. “You have to be specific on what human rights
abuse you’re talking about because the China that I see the, the
large number of the population, I’m talking about 80 percent, 90
percent of the population are very, very happy with the fact that their
lives are improving every year.”
He added that dictatorships had their advantages, like, well, good
infrastructure. He noted, “You also have a very different political
system, in that one single party dominates the governance of the
country which, you know, whether you like it or not, there are some
great benefits, like, China has managed to build a terrific
infrastructure.”82
The yawning gap between Tsai’s stated interest in “social justice”
in the United States and his support for the brutal and unjust regime
in Beijing is further evidenced by the fact that Tsai’s company holds
patents “for tools that can detect, track and monitor Uighurs in a
move human rights groups fear could entrench oppression of the
Muslim minority.”83 The technology can determine if a subject is
“ethnic” and notably, “Is it Uighur?”84 Moreover, Alibaba is a big
backer of Megvii, which developed software that the New York Times
reported is a vital part of the “vast, secret system of advanced facial
recognition technology to track and control the Uighurs.”85
Yale’s strong ties to China, particularly China’s elite who govern the
country, are not by happenstance. Yale, as we noted earlier, has
deep historical ties to the country. Today, more than eight hundred
Chinese students and about eight hundred Chinese scholars are in
residence at Yale.86
Yale made a conscious decision decades ago to cultivate ties in
China, both academic and financial. “Part of the strategic thinking
was to make China a real priority,” recalled President Rick Levin of
his tenure back in the 1990s. “It was emerging as a global power
even then, and it seemed to us that the new century would be a
China century.”87
Levin seemed to embrace the idea peddled by so many that what
was good for the Beijing regime was good for the world. When
congressional members from both political parties argued for trade
restrictions to deal with China’s ballooning trade surplus back in
2006, he claimed that free trade was the best policy for both
nations.88
As Yale embraced Beijing, some faculty members began to
express concerns about the drift in thinking at the university because
of the growing financial ties. “What would happen if there were
another Tiananmen?” asked the Yale Council of East Asian Studies
chair, Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan, back in 2005. “Where would Yale
stand?”89 She did not answer her own question, but clearly, she was
doubtful that Yale would stand against the regime.
Collaborations began to mount, particularly with institutions linked
to the ruling government and the Communist Party.
In 2006, Yale University announced an agreement with the
Foreign Language Bureau of the CCP to produce joint publications.
As the name implies, this is not a scholarly body but an organization
run by the Party. Using the publisher’s name, China International
Publishing Group, the collaboration was officially launched at an
event in the Great Hall of the People. Yale scholars sat with senior
officials from the Communist Party’s Propaganda Department at the
ceremony.90
In 2013, Yale expanded its partnership with the All-China Youth
Federation for training programs at Yale. What exactly is the All-
China Youth Federation? It is a CCP-controlled organization that
trains cadre leaders for the Party. In announcing the program, Yale
glossed over the disturbing details, saying, “ACYF is a training
organization for China’s future leaders; members have included
former president of China Hu Jintao and the current premier, Li
Keqiang, and vice premier, Liu Yandong.” President Xi, in a recent
speech, explained ACYF’s role as “organising and mobilising a large
number of young people and students to follow the party.”91
Yale University also operates a series of joint research centers
with Chinese universities, including the University of Science and
Technology of China (USTC). The joint work is in software
engineering. What exactly is USTC? It is a prestigious university set
up to “serve national objectives in science and technology.” It also
“has recently sought to deepen its contributions to military research.”
Along those lines, it established a “military-civil fusion” center to
make sure civilian technology advances can be integrated into the
PLA.92
The university’s alumni are linked to something called the Yale-
China Association. David Youtz, president of the association, said
that when it comes to operating in China, “We try to follow rules, we
don’t want to get in trouble and have things closed off.”93
Getting in trouble with Beijing seems to explain quite a bit of Yale’s
behavior these days. In February 2019, Yale president Peter Salovey
traveled to China to meet with officials to discuss research ties. (He
is said to average three professional trips to China every year.94)
During this trip, he also met with alumni, just shortly after it was
revealed that a Yale University geneticist had provided data to the
Chinese government used to track and control Uighurs.95
Several months earlier, at a forum on China, Salovey was asked
by a Financial Times reporter whether the school would invite the
Dalai Lama to speak on campus. The Tibetan leader, of course, is
exiled by Beijing ostensibly because he had previously called for
independence from China. According to the Yale Daily News
account, the Yale president was unenthusiastic about the idea of
having the Dalai Lama speak on campus. “Salovey answered that
while Yale’s policies of free speech would prevent them from barring
a speaker, the administration would still recognize the action as
being offensive to the Chinese Communist Party and would have to
manage protests to prevent any voices from being smothered.”96
Not all university presidents operate with such complete caution
toward Beijing. When Harvard president Lawrence Bacow delivered
a speech at Peking University in March 2019, he raised the issue of
Uighur suppression occurring in Xinjiang province. He even quoted a
Uighur verse to make his point.97
Yale’s financial dependence on Chinese elites goes beyond Joe
Tsai. The Yale University endowment has a large amount of money
tied up in investments in mainland China. In 2005, Yale gave $20
million in “seed funding” to a Beijing-based investment firm called
Hillhouse Capital to manage money for the endowment, and sent
another $10 million shortly after. The fund was established by a 2003
Yale graduate named Zhang Lei. It is important to note that Zhang
did not locate Hillhouse in Shanghai, China’s financial capital, but in
Beijing, the seat of government power. Today, Hillhouse manages
billions of dollars for Yale and other university endowments and
investors.98
Yale was an early entrant in trading stocks in China. It was the first
foreign university allowed to trade in its “heavily regulated stock
market” back in 2006.99 Having the right connections is always
helpful.
Zhang has enjoyed enormous financial success. Much of the
economic success for Hillhouse (and therefore Yale) has been
Zhang’s ability to spot and gain access to big deals in China.
He got in on the ground floor of Tencent and other major
companies before their public offerings. Hillhouse also invests in
controversial companies like Yitu Technology, blacklisted in the
United States for providing facial recognition technology to the
Chinese government.100
In recent years, Yale has taken an unconventional investment
approach to its endowment. The Yale Endowment has less than 10
percent of its money in U.S. stocks. Instead, the endowment has
gravitated toward alternative investments, including a significant
commitment to emerging markets. This means that Yale’s financial
interests are increasingly decoupled from American markets and
more closely tied to markets overseas, including China.101
Zhang not only makes Yale richer; he also now helps steer the
university as he was appointed to the Yale board of trustees.102
What other ties does Zhang have?
He is also closely aligned with the Chinese government and
involved with United Front organizations. He sits on the board of
directors of the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation, the front
organization we highlighted in chapter 3.103
Zhang has used his money to support programs aggressively
pushed by President Xi and his regime. Zhang donated $45 million
to the Renmin University Gaoling School of Artificial Intelligence, an
AI development program operated jointly with the CCP’s China
Association for Science and Technology.104 During the ceremony
announcing the project, the association’s party secretary, Huai
Jinpeng, a member of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist
Party, said that the center would follow the guidance offered by
President Xi Jinping “to develop an AI system that is suitable for the
government to provide services and make policy decisions.”105
Another partner in Zhang’s lab is China International Publishing
Group, run by the CCP Propaganda Department. At the opening
ceremony for the AI center, officials from the Group explained that
the purpose of the Zhang-funded lab would be to “‘breed new AI
broadcasting projects’ by working with the government’s international
propaganda ‘big data service platform.’”106
Unfortunately, Yale is not the only university that has significant and
entangling financial ties with Beijing and works to obscure them. A
U.S. Senate subcommittee investigation found that numerous
universities were systematically underreporting donations from China
and were inaccurately disclosing them to the federal government.107
As the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Education noted in
a 2019 report, these are not likely to be mistakes. “Most foreign
funds flow to large, wealthy, and sophisticated institutions with highly
credentialed administrators and ready access to the very best
accountants and attorneys,” he wrote in the report. The general
counsel further noted that universities are very good at tracking any
expenses owed to them by students. How is it that they cannot track
large foreign gifts from China?108
Chinese officials seek influence on American universities to steer
the debate in a way more favorable to themselves. They also want
research partnerships in science and technology to enhance their
ability to steal technological and intellectual property. This has been
known by universities for quite some time but largely ignored. In
2011, the FBI Counterintelligence Strategic Partnership Unit issued a
white paper called “Higher Education and National Security: The
Targeting of Sensitive, Proprietary, and Classified Information on
Campuses of Higher Education.” The report warned that “foreign
adversaries and competitors take advantage of” the openness of
American higher education to “improve their economies and
militaries by stealing intellectual property from a world technology
leader like the United States. There are also foreign adversaries that
seek to gain advantages over the United States.”109 China clearly
seems to be the leading culprit.110
The U.S. Justice Department has charged individual scholars in
the United States for taking money from China for research and
failing to disclose it. It happened to the chair of the Chemistry
Department at Harvard University in June 2020. The next month, a
visiting researcher at Stanford University was charged “with visa
fraud in connection with a scheme to lie about her status as an
active member of the People’s Republic of China’s military forces
while in the United States conducting research at Stanford
University.”111
The Senate report also noted that Beijing is seeking to use its
financial support “to change the impression in the United States and
around the world that China is an economic and security threat.”112
In 2020, the DOE’s general counsel referenced that Senate
subcommittee investigation from the previous year, noting that 70
percent of colleges and universities in the United States “fail to
comply with the law, and those that do substantially underreport”
foreign donations, primarily from China. As a result of this finding,
the DOE initiated twelve civil investigations targeting universities
seeking greater disclosure about the flow of undisclosed money from
Chinese sources. Yale University was among the twelve schools
targeted. The investigations resulted in the schools reporting $6.5
billion in previously undisclosed foreign gifts and contracts. The
sums of money involved are staggering. Yale alone had “failed to
comply with federal reporting obligations” by some $375 million.113
What happens on college campuses does not stay on college
campuses. Students are influenced by what they learn and hear;
some will become the leaders of tomorrow. But colleges are often a
holding tank for those who are heading to Washington to shape our
policy.
America is in a grim position. Beijing’s effort at “elite capture”
appears to be working spectacularly. We have exposed how elites,
from Washington to Wall Street, from Silicon Valley to academe,
have been coopted and are helping the regime while in some cases
even bolstering China’s military and intelligence complex.
But there are very real things we can do to fight back. There are
people who are committed to counteracting Beijing. And there are
changes we can make to turn the tide. We will explore that next.
9
Fighting Back
From the White House to Capitol Hill, from the diplomatic corps to
the national security establishment to the executive suites of Wall
Street and Silicon Valley, American elites have sold the rope that will
hang us to Beijing. That rope has many strands, but the end result is
that these elites have helped strengthen and embolden a
government that sees us as their rival—or even as their enemy.
Elite capture by Beijing is a reality we must firmly counter. Many of
those profiled in this book know that the clock is ticking, and time is
in Beijing’s favor. Recall Kissinger’s sage quote, “When [the
Chinese] don’t need us, they are going to be very difficult to deal
with.”1
Clearly, we are approaching that point now.
There is still hope if we take action.
From the beginning of our country, there have been deep
concerns that foreign money and corruption would be used to buy off
America’s aristocracy. Alexander Hamilton, writing in Federalist 22,
argued, “One of the weak sides of republics, among their numerous
advantages, is that they afford too easy an inlet to foreign
corruption.”2 The Founders assumed that foreign rivals—especially
Great Britain—would look for opportunities to weaken and divide us
by striking deals with members of American high society.
George Washington echoed those concerns in his farewell
address, speaking of the “insidious wiles of foreign influence,” which
he considered “the most baneful foes of republican government.”3
Likewise, James Madison was wary of foreign influence operating
in the corridors of American politics and the business elite. “The
public attention has been much employed for some time, on the
danger of foreign influence,” he wrote in 1799. “To be honorable to
our character, and adequate to our safety, it [attention] ought to be
pointed to every quarter where danger lurks, and most awake to that,
from which danger is most to be feared.”4
Madison believed the business elite were vulnerable because the
British Crown had money to throw around: “Being an absolute
monarchy in its executive department, [Britain] can distribute its
money for secret services with every advantage of safety and
success.”
Sound familiar today?
Madison noted that the lure of money would tempt people to seek
informal alliances with foreign rivals like London; the “great flood-
gate of British Influence” was “British Commerce.” As he allowed:
“Money in all its shapes is influence; our monied institutions
consequently form another great engine of British influence.”5
America has tried to address the problems of hostile foreign
powers capturing the interests of the American elite. But the
attempts have been feeble at best. Part of the problem is that many
of the needed reforms have to be implemented by members of the
establishment, including the very people who benefit financially from
the reforms not being enacted.
The first modern attempt came amid the rising concerns about
fascism in Europe. In 1938 Congress passed, and President
Roosevelt signed into law, the Foreign Agents Registration Act
(FARA). The law required individuals in the United States acting on
behalf of foreign governments or entities to register and describe
their work to the U.S. Department of Justice.
But the law has been inconsistently enforced. While some people
have been charged with FARA violations, many have not, including
many of the people featured in this book who seem to have clearly
violated that law.
The law was not perfect when it was set in place. Foreign powers
could still try to influence our political leaders by donating to political
campaigns. So in 1966, a law was passed effectively banning all
foreign nationals from making political contributions to U.S. elections.
The ban was also added to the Federal Election Campaign Act in
1974. Like FARA, this law is certainly not airtight, and there is a
loophole. Foreign companies can set up U.S. affiliates and still
donate to campaigns through their U.S.-based corporate offices. So
long as the campaign funds do not come directly from the foreign
entity, they can still make contributions.6
These laws are a good start, but they do not go nearly far enough.
Here are some clearly needed protections to hold America’s elites to
account.
Ban lobbying on behalf of Chinese military- and intelligence-linked
companies. Lobbying has developed a bad reputation—for good
reasons. The U.S. Constitution does guarantee citizens the right to
petition their government—not all lobbying is bad. But that right does
not extend to foreign companies, especially those linked to the
Chinese military-intelligence apparatus. Too many former politicians
and diplomats are making bundles of money representing these
interests in the corridors of Washington power.
Ban Chinese military- and intelligence-linked companies from
appearing on American stock exchanges. Chinese military- and
intelligence-linked companies receive dollars from American
investors, pension funds, and investment firms, who then use that
capital to enhance Beijing’s military capabilities. How on earth is this
a good idea? We need to ban Chinese companies from raising
capital in our markets to strengthen their military and intelligence
capabilities. There are financial professionals who will argue that this
is draconian, but they are probably being paid to say so.
Ban joint research by American universities, investors, and
corporations with Chinese military and intelligence projects. It is
shocking to discover that we actually have to pass a law preventing
American tech firms and universities from working with and aiding
Chinese companies that are part of Beijing’s military-industrial
complex. That is precisely what we must do.
Why exactly does anyone in a corporate office or a college
campus believe it is a good idea to help strengthen Beijing’s military
capabilities?
It is very popular in Washington right now to push for greater
federal spending on American science and technology so we can
compete more effectively with Beijing. But that is not enough. If we
continue to provide Beijing with access to technologies that will help
them run faster in the race against us, how do we expect to
compete?
Critics of this proposal will argue that part of the problem is that in
China it is impossible to know whether the military or intelligence
community is involved in research projects. That is precisely the
point: Beijing has formalized the fusion of civilian and military
technology. They are responsible for this problem; we should not
encourage them.
Beyond passing laws, there are actions that corporate America
and the media can take to bring these problems further into the light.
Journalists need to openly ask questions about links to China. Wall
Street heads and Silicon Valley titans who collaborate with China
should be asked to give an account of their activities. Rather than
adoring interviews with corporate heads asking for their insights
about markets or technology, why not ask them about the
remarkable statements they have made about Beijing? How about
asking them about their technology cooperation agreements with
military-linked companies?
Media companies need to insist on truth and transparency when it
comes to their experts. Retired politicians, diplomats, and
intelligence officials are regular fixtures on cable news, opinion
pages, and Sunday morning news programs. They offer all sorts of
wisdom and advice on how to deal with China. But should we not
know if they are dependent on the Beijing regime for their
businesses to work? Media companies should ask experts whether
they do business in China and the nature of those relationships
when they are pontificating about how to handle Beijing. When
financial advisors appear on business television programs offering
stock picks, they are often required to disclose their own investment
holdings to reveal possible conflicts of interest. Why shouldn’t
diplomats and ex–public officials disclose their financial ties to China
if they are offering sage advice about China?
Wall Street firms need to consistently apply Environmental, Social,
and Governance (ESG) standards to Chinese companies. ESG
investing is all the rage, particularly among large financial firms like
BlackRock. But why do they only apply those standards to American
and European companies while ignoring Chinese firms? Financial
firms, if they insist on pushing conformity at home, and they want us
to take them seriously on these matters, need to apply these
standards to Chinese firms that are often engaged in much more
serious problems relating to ESG. And financial titans like Larry Fink,
who want to profess their commitment to making the world a better
place, can begin by speaking honestly about the Beijing regime, not
communicating how impressed they are by them. Otherwise, it
makes a mockery of ESG investing.
Use shareholder activism to hold corporate executives to account.
Many of the largest Wall Street and Big Tech companies exposed in
this book are publicly traded, which means you can buy stock in the
company and attend shareholder meetings. Shareholders should ask
questions of corporate leaders about their craven attitudes toward
China. The Free Enterprise Project does exactly this sort of thing.
(The project is an offshoot of the National Center for Public Policy
Research, where I sit on the board of directors.) The Free Enterprise
Project is already challenging corporate executives when it comes to
China. This sort of shareholder activism is a highly effective tool
because corporate executives do not like to appear stupid in front of
their shareholders.
We also need to reject the entire outlook regarding China, which
has enriched the elite and emboldened China.
For decades the mantra from Washington, D.C., is that
“engagement” with China is our only hope for a peaceful world.
Engagement was supposed to help the American trade balance with
China, reduce Beijing’s ambitions, and help them embrace the
international community of nations. But by every single measure,
that policy has failed.
Trade balances did not get better with engagement—they have
become worse. Beijing has become more ambitious around the
world, not less. And they have explicitly said they reject the
international community of nations erected after World War II. They
want to create their own community—with Beijing at the top.
James Mann is the former Beijing bureau chief of the Los Angeles
Times and is now a scholar at Johns Hopkins University.7 He argues
that “engagement” is essentially a strategic fraud. He writes:
“Engagement” became the principal catchword used to describe and
justify American policy toward China’s one-party state, and it has
endured to the present day. The suggestion was that sheer contact
would serve to moderate or alter China’s political system. Yet the policy
of engagement is simply a process, one that merely prescribes
continued contacts; if China’s repression becomes more severe, then
under the logic of engagement, the solution is to have more meetings.
Engagement says nothing about results. It does not require any
changes in policy on the part of the “engagee.” The implication is that
the “engager” will not let the behavior of the Chinese regime, however
reprehensible, get in the way of continued business with China.8
In short, this policy has been good for China, and it has been great
for American elites who continue to profit from their special access in
China. Never mind that they are contributing to their own—and more
important, our—possible demise.
It is time for us to change our approach to China—to see them as
the competitor and rival that they are.
Clyde Prestowitz, a longtime observer and author on China
matters, believes we should replace engagement with reciprocity.
If the New York Times cannot be distributed in China, the CCP should
not be allowed to own newspapers in America. If Amazon is limited in
China’s market, Alibaba should be similarly limited in the U.S. market. If
GE will have to move its avionics division into a joint venture with state
owned Avic, Washington will halt the move unless Avic drops state
ownership and enters into joint development, production, and sales
ventures with Boeing and Airbus for its planned new aircraft. Just as
U.S. universities, nonprofits, and religious organizations are restricted in
China, so Confucius Institutes and Chinese Student and Scholars
Associations will be restricted or banned in the United States.9
Beijing always wants rules applied inconsistently. We need to
demand that change.
This book paints a grim portrait of the American elite. I am often
accused of creating despair because I expose the corruption of
America’s leaders but fail to highlight those who are doing some
good. When it comes to China, there are some individuals in
Washington, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street who do take a superior
approach to Beijing, are prepared to resist the temptations being
offered, and are willing to confront the challenges we face.
Let me offer some names.
President Donald J. Trump took strong positions against Beijing
that have helped to reshape the debate in the United States.
Whether the reader likes him or not, there can be little doubt that he
saw the challenge posed by China clearly and moved America in a
positive direction to confront it.
Along the way, Trump received assistance from a political rival
who agreed with him on little else but clearly sees the threat posed
by Beijing. During one particularly bruising battle with Beijing, Trump
received an encouraging word of support from Senate leader Chuck
Schumer, Democrat of New York. “Hang tough on China,” he told
him in May 2019. “Strength is the only way to win.”10 Like Schumer
or not, he has been quite good when it comes to China.
We need to see this sort of bipartisan cooperation if we are going
to successfully navigate the perilous waters ahead of us.
There are others in the United States—from both political parties—
who have been solid on China. Republican senators Ted Cruz, Rand
Paul, and Marco Rubio have been consistently tough, as have
Democratic senators Mark Warner, Chris Coons, and Joe Manchin.
Our political leaders need to focus their criticisms on the dictatorial
regime, identifying the CCP, not the Chinese people, as our
adversary. This was the approach President Ronald Reagan took
during the Cold War to call out the “evil empire.”
In the business world, there are executives who are resisting the
siren call of Beijing, which promises access to the Chinese market in
exchange for strengthening the regime. In the tech world, legendary
investor Peter Thiel has not only been outspoken about the need to
recognize the China threat; he is also running his businesses that
way. Thiel, who was an early investor in Facebook and still sits on
the company’s board, is the founder of a new data company called
Palantir. One of the company’s principles is that it will not conduct
business with adversarial countries to the United States. That
includes China.
Keith Krach, the former chairman and CEO of Docusign, has been
equally outspoken about the need to see the China threat for what it
is, and for high-tech firms to avoid aiding and abetting Beijing.11
“For our friends we produce fine wine. Jackals, we welcome with
shotguns.”
The aggressive statement came from Chinese ambassador Gui
Congyou in 2019. The ambassador was not talking tough to the
United States or Russia; the warning was not directed at a terrorist
organization. Instead, his words were fired directly at small, neutral
Sweden. A free-speech organization in that country had honored a
Chinese-imprisoned Swedish citizen with a human rights award.
Hence, his angry threat.12
The bold and belligerent challenge presented by Beijing is visible,
open, and clear to see. Verbal wrath directed at a country offering a
human rights award halfway around the world is indicative of where
a bolder China is headed.
One can only assume that those who refuse to accurately see it
have other motives.
As muckraker and novelist Upton Sinclair reminds us, “It is difficult
to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on
his not understanding it.”13
Acknowledgments
This is without a doubt the most troubling book that I have written—
and one of the most challenging. The author alone is responsible for
the contents of this book. However, this work would not have been
possible without the contributions of numerous people.
First, the board of the Government Accountability Institute is
fearless and is prepared to go wherever the truth takes us. For that I
am grateful. Our chairman, Rebekah Mercer, provides thoughtful and
courageous leadership and, along with her family, great
encouragement. The other members of the board of directors,
including Ron Robinson and Thomas W. Smith, also share that spirit
and provide sage leadership and guidance. I am grateful to all of
them for their insightful guidance.
For this particular book, I have been blessed to have a research
team that is second to none: research directors Seamus Bruner,
Jedd McFatter, and Jacob McLeod did a superb job guiding the
effort. The research efforts of Brian Baugus, Hunter Pease, Maggie
Dowd, Steven Richards, Mark Hoekenga, Keegan Connolly,
Christina Hunter, Corey Adamyk, Price Sukhia, Peter Aagaard, and
Caleb Stephens made an enormous difference in following the most
important research trails. I also appreciate Matthew Tyrmand for his
help in securing the Bevan Cooney emails.
Working with a manuscript that includes masses of complex
information requires a deft and steady hand. To that, I owe Steve
Post, GAI’s vice president for content, for his tremendous help in the
preparation and editing of the manuscript, with considerable support
from Tarik Noriega and Joe Duffus.
Running an organization like GAI requires great leadership, and I
am blessed to have the help of our executive vice president and
general counsel, Stuart Christmas, as well as vice presidents Eric
Eggers and Steve Stewart, executive vice president Peter Boyer,
and our operations/IT manager, Catherine Baer. Thanks also go to
Grace Overholt.
Navigating the world of media can be frustrating and complex. But
it is made much easier with the guidance of our media team, Sandy
Schulz, Faith Bruner, and Maggie Clemmons.
Thanks also go to Glenn Hartley and Lynn Chu for their expert
representation, and to Eric Nelson for his thoughtful comments and
guidance on this difficult project. It is a blessing to have such a
terrific editor to work with.
My wonderful wife, Rhonda, has been so supportive and patient.
Thank you—I love you. To my family, my children, my sister, and my
mother, I can only say the same.
Notes
1: The Rope
- Quoted in Rush Doshi, The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace
American Order (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 261.- “Lenin 1870–1924,” in Susan Ratcliffe, ed., Oxford Essential Quotations, 5th
ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017) accessed July 14, 2021,
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.000
1/q-oro-ed5-00006613.- William Safire, “On Language,” New York Times Magazine, April 12, 1987,
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/12/magazine/on-language.html.- Anne-Marie S. Brady, “Making the Foreign Serve China: Managing Foreigners
in the People’s Republic of China” (thesis, 2000), 1.- Anne-Marie Brady, “China’s Foreign Propaganda Machine,” Wilson Center,
October 26, 2015, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/chinas-foreign-
propaganda-machine.- Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg, Hidden Hand: Exposing How the
Chinese Communist Party Is Reshaping the World (London: Oneworld
Publications, 2020), 26.- Tobias Hoonhout, “Chinese Government Assigning Han Men to Live and
Sleep with Uighur Women Whose Husbands Have Been Detained: Report,”
Yahoo News, November 4, 2019, https://news.yahoo.com/chinese-
government-assigning-han-men-194535189.html.- Austin Ramzy and Chris Buckley, “‘Absolutely No Mercy’: Leaked Files
Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims,” New York Times,
November 16, 2019,
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-
documents.html.
- Emma Graham-Harrison and Juliette Garside, “‘Allow No Escapes’: Leak
Exposes Reality of China’s Vast Prison Camp Network,” Guardian, November
24, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/24/china-cables-leak-
no-escapes-reality-china-uighur-prison-camp.- Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice and Professor Martin Elliott, “Organ Transplants
and Human Rights Abuses in China,” Gresham College, October 10, 2019,
https://s3-eu-west-
1.amazonaws.com/content.gresham.ac.uk/data/binary/3121/2019-10-
10_GeoffreyNice_OrganTransplants_T.pdf.- “Li Wenliang: Coronavirus Kills Chinese Whistleblower Doctor,” BBC News,
February 7, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51403795.- Clyde Prestowitz, The World Turned Upside Down: America, China, and the
Struggle for Global Leadership (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021),
9–10.- Elsa B. Kania and Wilson Vorndick, “Weaponizing Biotech: How China’s
Military Is Preparing for a ‘New Domain of Warfare,’” Defense One, August 14,
2019, https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/08/chinas-military-pursuing-
biotech/159167/.- Maya Angelou (@DrMayaAngelou), “When someone shows you who they
are … ,” Twitter post, 11:18 a.m., August 20, 2020,
https://twitter.com/drmayaangelou/status/1296466556856291329?lang=en.- Lu Hui, ed., “Commentary: Milestone Congress Points to New Era for China,
the World,” Xinhua Net, October 24, 2017,
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-10/24/c_136702090.htm; Michael
Pillsbury, The Hundred Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace
America as the Global Superpower (New York: Henry Holt, 2015), 27.- Yang Yi, ed., “Commentary: Enlightened Chinese Democracy Puts the West
in the Shade,” Xinhua Net, October 17, 2017,
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-10/17/c_136685546.htm.- Pillsbury, The Hundred Year Marathon, 27–29.
- Walter Russell Mead, “Why Foreign Influence Is on the Rise,” Wall Street
Journal, September 30, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-foreign-
influence-is-on-the-rise-11569885340.
2: The Bidens- Di Dongsheng, “Will China’s Opening Up in the Financial Sector Attract Wall
Street Wolves?,” The Answers television program, November 28, 2020,
transcript provided by Washington Times,
https://media.washtimes.com/media/misc/2020/12/06/Di_Dongsheng_trasncri
pt.pdf.
- “China Censors Boast About Influence on Biden, Wall Street After It Goes
Viral,” Bloomberg, December 9, 2020,
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-10/china-censors-viral-
boast-of-influence-over-wall-street-biden.- CV for Di Dongsheng, Renmin University of China website, September 4,
2017, http://sis.ruc.edu.cn/html/1/m/258/260/427.html.- Ling Yun, “Beijing Has Enormous Sway over Wall Street, Hopes for Biden
Win: Chinese Professor,” Epoch Times, December 8, 2020,
https://www.theepochtimes.com/beijing-has-enormous-sway-over-wall-street-
hopes-for-biden-win-chinese-professor_3604038.html.- “China Censors Boast About Influence on Biden, Wall Street After It Goes
Viral”; Dongsheng, “Will China’s Opening Up in the Financial Sector Attract
Wall Street Wolves?”- “China Censors Boast About Influence on Biden, Wall Street After It Goes
Viral.”- James Kynge, Lucy Hornby, and Jamil Anderlini, “Inside China’s Secret
‘Magic Weapon’ for Worldwide Influence,” Financial Times, October 26, 2017,
https://www.ft.com/content/fb2b3934-b004-11e7-beba-5521c713abf4.- Text message from Hunter Biden to Naomi Biden, January 3, 2019.
- Email From: SMancinelli, To: Rebekah J. H. Sullivan, Subject: Biden Matter,
December 9, 2016, shows that Hunter Biden was paying a multitude for family
members including a $260 monthly phone bill for Joe R. Biden. In numerous
communications and corporate documents, there are indications that
Rosemont Seneca Advisors paid or reimbursed Hunter for the AT&T cell
phone bills.- Ibid.
- “Gift Rules for the Executive Branch,” Public Citizen, June 2011, accessed
June 10, 2021, https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/migration/gift-rules-
executive-branch.pdf.- Email From: Joan Mayer, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: ATT, February 8, 2017.
(Emphasis added.)- Email From: Eric Schwerin, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: JRB Bills, June 5,
2010; Email From: Eric Schwerin, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: JRB Bills, June
8, 2010; Miranda Devine, “Hunter Biden Engaged in Some Daddy Pay Care:
Devine,” New York Post, July 4, 2021, https://nypost.com/2021/07/04/hunter-
biden-engaged-in-some-daddy-pay-care-devine/.- My team and I do not have direct access to the Hunter Biden laptop, but we
do have an exact copy of the laptop’s hard drive. How did we verify the
authenticity of the content? We checked the material against the verified
evidence we already had. When the Hunter Biden emails referenced travel,
did they correspond with the Secret Service travel logs? When the Hunter
Biden emails indicated that an email was sent to Bevan Cooney or Tony
Bobulinski, did those collections possess the exact same email and content?
In each and every case, we found them to be a correct match. We found no
inconsistences or contradictions between the collections. Note: Except where
we wish to show emphasis to highlight specific information, or add bracketed
information for clarity, all quoted email or other correspondence is exactly as it
appeared in the original—in context. This may make for more difficult reading,
but we did not want to edit them in any other sense.
15. Peter Schweizer, Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides
Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends (New York: Harper, 2019), 24–
26.
16. “President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts,” White House
Office of the Press Secretary, March 10, 2015,
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/10/president-
obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts; Email From: Eric
Schwerin, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: Equity Interests for Mediation, March 10,
2017.
17. Email From: Eric Schwerin, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: JRB Future Memo,
July 6, 2010.
18. Email From: Hunter Biden, To: Miguel Aleman, BCC: Jeff Cooper, Subject: Me
and Jeff, February 24, 2016.
19. Rachel Deason, “How Did China Really Get Its Name?,” Culture Trip,
December 21, 2017, https://theculturetrip.com/asia/china/articles/how-did-
china-really-get-its-name/.
20. Schweizer, Secret Empires, 28.
21. “Lin Junliang, the Original Matchmaker, Moved to Beijing for Many Years and
Served as an Important Position in Chinese State-owned Enterprises,” Apple
Daily, October 17, 2020,
https://tw.appledaily.com/headline/20201017/U4XZ4PRGLBD6JIV2HMWJX5I
K4I/.
22. Schweizer, Secret Empires, 29.
23. Email From: Hunter Biden, To: Gao Xiqing, and reply by Hu Bing, Subject:
Rosemont Realty, July 22, 2011; George Chen, “UPDATE 1-China Sovereign
Fund CIC Names New Private Equity Head,” Reuters, April 29, 2009,
https://www.reuters.com/article/china-cic-privateequity/update-1-china-
sovereign-fund-cic-names-new-private-equity-head-
idUKHKG18815820090429.
24. Schweizer, Secret Empires, 29.
25. Steve Clemons, “Biden Gets China,” Atlantic, January 2, 2012,
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/01/biden-gets-
china/250747/.
26. Email From: James Bulger, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: AES Sparrows Point,
April 12, 2010.
27. Email From: Eric Schwerin, To: Devon Archer, Hunter Biden, Subject: Biden
Books, January 8, 2011.
- “Remarks by the Vice President at Sichuan University,” White House Office of
the Vice President, August 21, 2011,
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/08/21/remarks-
vice-president-sichuan-university; “Remarks by Vice President Joe Biden to
the Opening Session of the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue,”
White House Office of the Vice President, May 9, 2011,
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/09/remarks-
vice-president-joe-biden-opening-session-us-china-strategic-econ.- Report of the Select Committee on U.S. National Security and
Military/Commercial Concerns with the People’s Republic of China, H. Rept.
105–851, 105th Cong. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1999),
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRPT-
105hrpt851/html/ch1bod.html; Bloomberg, “Bridgewater Booming in China,”
Pensions & Investments, November 10, 2020,
https://www.pionline.com/money-management/bridgewater-booming-china;
Allen T. Cheng, “How Ray Dalio Broke into China,” Institutional Investor,
December 18, 2017,
https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b15yw0fcgtz1l8/how-ray-dalio-
broke-into-china.- Email From: Hunter Biden, To: Devon Archer, Subject: Yo, April 20, 2011.
- Email From: Devon Archer, To: Caryn Suffredini, Dan Burrell, Person Marie
Anne, Hunter Biden, and Hermes Chang, Subject: RREAF Syndicate
schedule and follow-up, April 25, 2011.- Email From: James Bulger, To: Devon Archer, Subject: Hey, June 20, 2011.
- Email From: Devon Archer, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: Re: Super Chairman,
November 13, 2011; Yu Ning, Wang Duan, and Cui Xiankang, “Che Feng, the
Actual Controller of the Digital Kingdom, Was Investigated,” Caixin.com, June
4, 2015, https://companies.caixin.com/2015-06-04/100816165.html.- Scott Johnson and Carolyn Giardina, “Accusations of Fraud, Nonexistent
Companies and Shadowy Chinese Billionaires: The Very Strange Saga of
Digital Domain,” Hollywood Reporter, July 27, 2016,
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/digital-domain-legal-dispute-
chinese-915004.- “Xi Jinping Aims Crosshairs at Moutai Private Club Members,” Financial
Services Monitor Worldwide, July 2, 2015 (Lexis); “The Day After Tomorrow,”
Week in China, February 17, 2017,
https://www.weekinchina.com/2017/02/the-day-after-tomorrow/; Snehesh Alex
Philip, “Ministries of Security, Strategic Support Force–China’s Intel Agencies
& How They Operate,” ThePrint, July 18, 2020,
https://theprint.in/defence/ministries-of-security-strategic-support-force-chinas-
intel-agencies-how-they-operate/463697/; Dai Xianglong, biography, China
Vitae, accessed June 10, 2021,
https://www.chinavitae.com/biography/Dai_Xianglong; BHR Cross-Border
Investment Fund Private Placement Pitchbook, BHR Partners, June 2014, 15.
36. “China to Prosecute Former Senior Spy Catcher for Graft,” Reuters,
December 29, 2016, https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-corruption-
security-idUKKBN14J09T.
37. Roger Faligot, Chinese Spies: From Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping (London:
Hurst, 2019), 391.
38. Edward Wong, “Chinese Security Official Ma Jian Had Six Mistresses:
Reports,” Sydney Morning Herald, April 1, 2015,
https://www.smh.com.au/world/chinese-security-official-ma-jian-had-six-
mistresses-reports-20150331-1mc8ks.html.
39. Email From: Michael Lin, To: Jimmy Bulger, Hunter Biden, Subject: Four
Seasons Hotel, October 8, 2011.
40. Email From: Michael Lin, To: Hunter Biden, James Bulger, Jonathan Li,
Subject: Hong Kong Trip, October 8, 2011.
41. Email From: Michael Lin, To: Hunter Biden, Jim Bulger, Subject: Heads up-
Fund, September 22, 2011.
42. Frank Fang, “Chinese Firm’s Role in Takeover of Japanese LCD Maker
Raises Security Concerns,” Epoch Times, April 4, 2019,
https://www.theepochtimes.com/possible-chinese-takeover-of-japanese-lcd-
maker-raises-security-concerns_2866772.html.
43. Faligot, Chinese Spies, 228; “Liu Yunshan’s Daughter-in-law Lives in Bel-Air
to Open a BVI Company for Asset Management,” Hong Kong News, May 3,
2016, https://www.hk01.com/社會新聞/18866/巴拿馬文件-劉雲山媳豪住貝沙
灣-開bvi公司做資產管理.
44. Faligot, Chinese Spies, 180, 226.
45. Ibid., 141.
46. Michael Forsythe, “Panama Papers Tie More of China’s Elite to Secret
Accounts,” New York Times, April 6, 2016,
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/world/asia/china-panama-papers.html.
47. Schweizer, Secret Empires, 33–34.
48. Email From: Jim Bulger, To: Eric Schwerin, Hunter Biden, Subject: Super
Chairman, October 24, 2011.
49. Email From: Michael Lin, To: Jimmy Bulger, Hunter Biden, Subject: Heads up-
Fund, September 20, 2011.
50. Steven Nelson, “Hunter Biden Reportedly Still Owns 10 Percent Stake in
Chinese Firm,” New York Post, December 24, 2020,
https://nypost.com/2020/12/24/hunter-biden-still-owns-10-percent-stake-in-
china-firm-report/.
51. Email From: Devon Archer, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: Checking in,
September 21, 2011.
52. Email From: Hunter Biden, To: Devon Archer, Subject: Heads up-Fund,
September 22, 2011.
- Email From: James Bulger, To: Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, and Michael
Leonard, Subject: Response to Jonathan, March 8, 2013.- Secret Service, “Protectee Visits Detail Report,” for Hunter Biden, January 1,
2008–January 31, 2017, obtained via FOIA by Judicial Watch.- Schweizer, Secret Empires, 30.
- Adam Entous, “Will Hunter Biden Jeopardize His Father’s Campaign?,” New
Yorker, July 1, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/08/will-
hunter-biden-jeopardize-his-fathers-campaign.- Nelson, “Hunter Biden Reportedly Still Owns 10 Percent Stake in Chinese
Firm”; Russell Flannery, “Hunter Biden Listed as Director At China State-
Backed Company, SCMP Says,” Forbes, October 5, 2019; Email From: Eric
Schwerin, To: Robert Hunter (Biden), CC: George Mesires, Subject: Year End,
December 20, 2018.- Email From: Devon Archer, To: Jonathan Lee, CC: Hunter Biden, et al.,
Subject: My visit to U.S., January 23, 2014.- Bohai Harvest RST Private Equity Fund, March 2014, 2.
- Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund, BHR Partners, 2016,
- “China to Prosecute Former Senior Spy Catcher for Graft”; Johnson,
“Accusations of Fraud, Nonexistent Companies and Shadowy Chinese
Billionaires.”- Schweizer, Secret Empires, 48–49.
- “BHR and AVIC Auto Acquire Henniges Automotive,” PR Newswire,
September 15, 2015, http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bhr-and-avic-
auto-acquire-henniges-automotive-300143072.html; Schweizer, Secret
Empires, 46–49.- Nelson, “Hunter Biden Reportedly Still Owns 10 Percent Stake in Chinese
Firm.”- Robert Farley, “Trump’s Claims About Hunter Biden in China,” Factcheck.org,
October 10, 2019, https://www.factcheck.org/2019/10/trumps-claims-about-
hunter-biden-in-china/.- “Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government
Policy and Related Concerns,” U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs and U.S. Senate Committee on Finance Majority
Staff Report, 31–34,
https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/HSGAC_Finance_Report_FINA
L.pdf; Senator Chuck Grassley, “Johnson, Grassley Use Secret Service
Records to Verify Content from Alleged Hunter Biden Laptop, Request More
Travel Records,” press release, October 20, 2020,
https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/johnson-grassley-use-
secret-service-records-verify-content-alleged-hunter-biden.- Email From: Devon Archer, To: Gary Fears, Bevan Cooney, and Mohamed
Khashoggi, Subject: China Entrepreneurs Club, November 5, 2011.
- Nathan Vanderklippe, “Economic, Political Plans at Play as Ma Sells Trudeau
on a Modern China,” Globe and Mail, September 2, 2016,
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/eonomic-and-political-plans-
will-be-at-play-during-trudeau-ma-meeting/article31703382/.- “About Us,” China Entrepreneur Club, accessed June 10, 2021,
http://www.daonong.com/english/About/.- Ibid.
- Statement of Jeffrey Z. Johnson, president and CEO of SquirrelWerkz, U.S.-
China Economic and Security Review Commission, Hearing on “Chinese
Investment in the United States: Impacts and Issues for Policy Makers,” 115th
Cong., January 26, 2017,
https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Johnson_USCC%20Hearing%20Testi
mony012617.pdf.- Wang Zhongyu, biography, China Enterprise Confederation/China Enterprise
Directors Association website, accessed June 15, 2021,
http://www.cec1979.org.cn/view_nbqt.php?id=129; “Ma Weihua,” Cofortune
Information Technology Co., Ltd., on Internet Archive, March 18, 2019,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201101010914/http://english.boaoforum.org/20
19jb1/43940.jhtml (the screenshot of the site was captured on November 1,
2020); “Profile of Chairman of the Board of Directors,” Far East Holding Group
Co. Ltd., accessed June 11, 2021, https://www.fegroup.com.cn/ydkg-
en/349545/349549/index.html.- Email From: Devon Archer, To: Gary Fears, Bevan Cooney, and Mohamed
Khashoggi, Subject: China Entrepreneurs Club, November 5, 2011.- Ibid.
- Email From: Devon Archer, To: Gary Fears, Hunter Biden, and Bevan Cooney,
Subject: Potash, November 11, 2011.- Email From: Devon Archer, To: Gary Fears and Bevan Cooney, Subject:
Potash, November 11, 2011.- White House Visitor’s Logs (downloaded), November 14, 2011,
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/goodgovernment/tools/visitor-records.- “About Us,” China Entrepreneur Club, accessed June 15, 2021,
http://www.confindustria.pu.it/allegati/notizie/n20150590_01b.pdf.- Email From: James Bulger, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: Henry Call, October
23, 2014.- Email From: James Bulger, To: Eric Schwerin, CC: Hunter Biden, Subject:
Harvest, January 19, 2016.- Email From: James Bulger, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: BHR, June 13, 2014.
- Email From: Henry Zhao, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: Introduction, May 10,
- Email From: Hunter Biden, To: Henry Zhao, Subject: Burnham, April 22, 2016.
- United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, Case 19–619, Document 89–
1, March 4, 2020, 2792967, 103.
- Ibid.
- Email From: Jiang Ming, To: Devon Archer, CC: Hunter Biden, James Bulger
et al., March 18, 2016.- Ariel Zilber, “Hunter Biden ‘Was Paid $83,333 a Month by Ukrainian Gas
Company to Be a “Ceremonial Figure” with a “Powerful Name” While His Firm
Got a Total of $3.4 Million,’” Daily Mail, last updated October 20, 2019,
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7592235/Hunter-Biden-paid-83-333-
month-Ukrainian-gas-company-ceremonial-figure.html.- Email From: Vady Pozharskyi, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: Meeting for Coffee,
April 17, 2015; Dana Kennedy, “Hunter Biden’s Ukraine Contact Allegedly a
‘Fixer’ for Shady Oligarchs,” New York Post, October 31, 2020,
https://nypost.com/2020/10/31/hunter-bidens-ukraine-contact-allegedly-fixer-
for-rulers/.- Kyle Cheney and Natasha Bertrand, “Biden Campaign Lashes Out at New
York Post,” Politico, October 14, 2020,
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/14/biden-campaign-lashes-out-new-
york-post-429486.- Email From: Jason Galanis, To: Devon Archer and Bevan Cooney, Subject:
No Subject, November 4, 2014.- Email From: Hunter Biden, To: Devon Archer, Subject: Burisma, April 21,
- Email From: John DeLoche, To: Ramji Srinivasan, Eric Evans, Hunter Biden,
and Devon Archer, Subject: China, May 28, 2014.- Email From: Eric Schwerin, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: CITIC, May 29, 2014.
- “Remarks by Vice President Joe Biden to the Opening Session of the U.S.-
China Strategic & Economic Dialogue.”- Email From: David Wittig, To: Hunter Biden and Michael Karloutsos, March
24, 2015.- Ibid.; Schweizer, Secret Empires, 40.
- Anthee Carassava, “Greek Port Is Our ‘Dragon’s Head’ in the Mediterranean,
Says Xi Jinping,” Times (London), November 12, 2019,
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/greek-port-is-our-dragons-head-in-the-
mediterranean-says-xi-jinping-xrd5nll0r.- Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats
of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 115th Cong. (2018),
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115hhrg30178/html/CHRG-
115hhrg30178.htm.- Carassava, “Greek Port Is Our ‘Dragon’s Head’ in the Mediterranean, Says Xi
Jinping.”- Philippe Le Corre, Harvard University, Testimony Before the Subcommittee
on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats, “Chinese Investment and
Influence in Europe,” 115th Cong. (2018),
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115hhrg30178/html/CHRG-
115hhrg30178.htm; Email From: Paris Kokorotsikos, To: Hunter Biden et al.,
Subject: GR politics, December 30, 2014.
101. Email From: David C. Wittig, To: Hunter Biden and Michael Karloutsos, March
24, 2015.
102. Email From: David C. Wittig, To: Hunter Biden and Michael Karloutsos, March
11, 2015.
103. Email From: David C. Wittig, To: Hunter Biden and Michael Karloutsos, March
24, 2015.
104. Joseph P. Shaw, “Q&A: Father Alex Karloutsos on His Close Connection with
the President-Elect,” 27East.com, November 11, 2020,
https://www.27east.com/southampton-press/qa-father-alex-karloutsos-on-his-
close-connection-with-the-president-elect-1736335/; Tasos Kokkinidis,
“Father Karloutsos: Biden Considers Himself Part of the Cultural Heritage of
Greece,” Greek Reporter, January 19, 2021,
https://greekreporter.com/2021/01/19/father-karloutsos-interview-joe-biden-
greece/.
105. “FS Completes Acquisition of Greek National Operator Trainose,” Railway
Gazette International, September 14, 2017,
https://www.railwaygazette.com/europe/fs-completes-acquisition-of-greek-
national-operator-trainose/45168.article.
106. Schweizer, Secret Empires, 38.
107. Email From: Hunter Biden, To: Thomas Tsao, Subject: Thank You, April 29,
2011.
108. Email From: Devon Archer, To: Jonathan Lee, James Bulger, Michael Lin,
and Hunter Biden, Subject: Pipeline-RR, August 26, 2014.
109. As quoted in Schweizer, Secret Empires, 39.
110. Ibid., 40.
111. “The Role of Chinese Institutions in the Acquisition of Business Intelligence,”
Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization,
accessed June 12, 2021,
https://www.ide.go.jp/English/Data/Africa_file/Manualreport/cia_06.html.
112. Bruce Krasnow, “Global Development Firm Purchases Rosemont Realty,”
Santa Fe New Mexican, last updated August 25, 2015,
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/business/global-development-
firm-purchases-rosemont-realty/article_2fa9787e-350d-5d44–83e3-
b24b1300978f.html; Rosemont Realty, LLC, “Gemini Investments and
Rosemont Realty Form Joint Venture,” PR Newswire, August 24, 2015,
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gemini-investments-and-
rosemont-realty-form-joint-venture-300132117.html.
113. Email From: Eric Schwerin, To: Hunter Biden, Subject: Re: Equity interests for
Mediation, March 10, 2017.
114. Email From: Eric Schwerin. To: William Morgan, Subject: Taxes, April 14,
2016.
- “U.S. Vice President Biden to Visit Balkans,” BalkanInsight, April 28, 2009,
https://balkaninsight.com/2009/04/28/us-vice-president-biden-to-visit-
balkans/.- “Past Presidents: 67th Session—Vuk Jeremić,” United Nations, General
Assembly of the United Nations, accessed June 12, 2021,
https://www.un.org/en/ga/president/67/index.shtml.- Email From: Vuk Jeremic, To: Eric Schwerin, Hunter Biden, Devon Archer,
and Joan Mayer, Subject: Dinner in DC, December 1, 2015.- Ibid.
- Hunter Biden and Tony Bobulinski October 14, 2017, text message exchange,
uploaded by the Epoch Times,
https://www.scribd.com/document/481679945/2017-10-14-Biden-Bobulinski-
Texts.- “Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government
Policy and Related Concerns: Majority Staff Report Supplemental,” U.S.
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs,
November 18, 2020, 5, https://www.finance.senate.gov/download/hsgac_-
finance-joint-report-supplemental.- “Top Chinese Oilman Falls Out of Favor and a $9 Billion Russian Deal Is at
Risk,” Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-
chinese-oilman-is-struck-down-and-a-9-billion-russian-deal-is-at-risk-- “The Secretive China Energy Giant That Faces Scrutiny: QuickTake,”
Bloomberg, last updated April 3, 2018,
https://www.bloombergquint.com/quicktakes/the-secretive-china-energy-giant-
that-faces-scrutiny-quicktake.- Andrew Chubb and John Garnaut, “The Enigma of CEFC’s Chairman Ye,”
Southseaconversations, June 7, 2013,
https://southseaconversations.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/the-enigma-of-
cefcs-chairman-ye.- Sam Cooper, Wilful Blindness: How a Network of Narcos, Tycoons and CCP
Agents Infiltrated the West (Ottawa: Optimum Publishing International, 2021),
125, 126.- See for example Professor Dai Xu, who both worked at the PLA National
Defense University and was affiliated with CEFC’s Beijing Office; “Top
Chinese Oilman Falls Out of Favor and a $9 Billion Russian Deal Is At Risk”;
Mark Stokes and Russell Hsaio, “The People’s Liberation Army General
Political Department: Political Warfare with Chinese Characteristics,” Project
2049, October 14, 2013, 26, https://project2049.net/wp-
content/uploads/2018/04/P2049_Stokes_Hsiao_PLA_General_Political_Depa
rtment_Liaison_101413.pdf; Michael Raska, “China and the ‘Three
Warfares,’” Diplomat, December 18, 2015,
https://thediplomat.com/2015/12/hybrid-warfare-with-chinese-characteristics-
2/.
126. Stokes and Hsaio, “The People’s Liberation Army General Political
Department: Political Warfare with Chinese Characteristics,” 28.
127. Alexandra Stevenson, “U.S. Bribery Case Sheds Light on Mysterious
Chinese Company,” Minneapolis/St.Paul Business Journal, November 22,
2017, https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2017/11/22/u-s-bribery-
case-sheds-light-on-mysterious-chinese.html.
128. J. Michael Cole, “Unstoppable: China’s Secret Plan to Subvert Taiwan,”
National Interest, March 23, 2015,
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/unstoppable-chinas-secret-plan-subvert-
taiwan-12463.
129. Andrew Chubb, “‘A Golden Opportunity to Use Force’: Mysterious China
Energy Fund Committee Attack-Dog,” Southseaconversations, September
29, 2011, https://southseaconversations.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/golden-
opportunity-to-use-force-says-china-energy-fund-committee/; Long Tao, “Time
to Teach Those Around South China Sea a Lesson,” Global Times, on
Internet Archive, September 29, 2011,
https://web.archive.org/web/20111001222727/http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEW
S/tabid/99/ID/677717/Time-to-teach-those-around-South-China-Sea-a-
lesson.aspx (the screenshot of the site was captured on October 1, 2011).
130. Cole, “Unstoppable: China’s Secret Plan to Subvert Taiwan.”
131. “Chairman of the Board of Directors of CEFC China Ye Jianming Bestows the
Distinguished Alumni Award by East China University of Political Science and
Law,” M2 PressWIRE, November 20, 2017 (Lexis).
132. “Top Chinese Oilman Falls Out of Favor and a $9 Billion Russian Deal Is at
Risk.”
133. “Grassley Questions DOJ on Biden Family FARA Compliance Stemming from
Business Deals with Chinese Communist-Backed Energy Tycoons,” Chuck
Grassley’s Senate page, November 10, 2020,
https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-questions-doj-
biden-family-fara-compliance-stemming-business-deals; Email From: James
Gilliar, To: Tony Bobulinski, Subject: Ye Jianming & CEFC updated profile,
Attachment: “Ye Jianming & CEFC China Energy Company Limited: An
Introduction,” March 5, 2017.
134. Emma-Jo Morris, Ebony Bowden, and Bruce Golding, “Hunter Biden’s Ex-
Business Partner Told ‘Don’t Mention Joe’ in Text Message,” New York Post,
October 22, 2020, https://nypost.com/2020/10/22/hunter-biden-ex-business-
partner-told-dont-mention-joe-in-text/.
135. Ibid.
136. This comes from access we were given to text messages and emails on Tony
Bobulinski’s phone. While we were unable to corroborate this with other
sources as we were with many of the emails, this information comports with
our body of research on the Biden MO, and comes from Bobulinski himself,
who had nothing to gain personally by divulging this correspondence. He
gave this same correspondence to the Senate and the FBI.
137. Ibid.
138. Email From: Hunter Biden, To: Cecilia Browning, Subject: 507, September 21,
2017.
139. Fang Block, “Chinese Buyer Snaps Up Second Manhattan Trophy
Apartment,” Mansion Global, July 28, 2017,
https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/chinese-buyer-snaps-up-second-
manhattan-trophy-apartment-70060; E. B. Solomont, “New York’s Top 10
Residential Sales of 2017,” Real Deal, December 20, 2017,
https://therealdeal.com/2017/12/20/price-matters-in-2017s-top-residential-
sales/; Radiance Holdings (Group) Company Limited, “Global Offering,”
October 16, 2020, I-12,
https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/1016/20201016000
15.pdf.
140. “Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference,” National People’s
Congress, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, accessed
September 4, 2021, http://www.china.org.cn/english/27750.htm; Eleanor
Huang and Wu Yufei, “Civic Leaders Slam US Sanctions as Barbarous,
Hegemonic,” China Daily, August 8, 2020,
https://www.chinadailyasia.com/article/139448; Radiance Holdings (Group)
Company Limited, “Global Offering,” 6, 297.
141. Alexander Bowe, “China’s Overseas United Front Work: Background and
Implications for the United States,” U.S.-China Economic and Security
Review Commission, August 24, 2018,
https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/China’s%20Overseas%20U
nited%20Front%20Work%20-
%20Background%20and%20Implications%20for%20US_final_0.pdf.
142. Daniel Bates, “Revealed: Hunter Biden Raked in $6M in Just Nine Months
from Chinese Business Dealings–and That Doesn’t Include the 2.8 Carat-
Diamond He Got as a Gift,” Daily Mail, December 10, 2020,
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9040381/Hunter-Biden-raked-6m-
nine-months-Chinese-business-dealings.html.
143. Morris, Bowden, and Golding, “Hunter Biden’s Ex-Business Partner Told
‘Don’t Mention Joe’ in Text Message.”
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mining/china-moly-to-help-bhr-acquire-stake-in-congos-tenke-copper-mine-
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148. Ibid., 100.
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9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
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12. Noorani, “Kissinger’s China.”
13. Eric Alterman, Sound and Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy (Ithaca, NY:
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14. Noorani, “Kissinger’s China.”
15. Ibid.
16. Alterman, Sound and Fury, 162.
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18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
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22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
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26. Ibid., 40.
27. Ibid., 223.
28. Ibid.
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35. Mann, The China Fantasy, 84.
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Regime Against Trump,” Washington Examiner, July 19, 2019,
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chinas-basic-dictatorship-at-toronto-fundraiser; Terry Milewski, “Justin
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china-but-then-so-does-stephen-harper-1.2422068.- Aaron Kaiser-Chen, “Using the Old to Serve the Present, and the Foreign to
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government/article4423275.html.- “Xi Meets Jeb Bush, Calls for Closer Cooperation Between China, U.S.,”
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January 17, 2012,
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Circle Gained Access,” Palm Beach Post, March 23, 2019,
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how-cindy-yangs-china-linked-circle-gained-access.- Lee Fang, “Shadowy Chinese Conglomerate Cultivated Ties to the Most
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Surveillance State (New York: Custom House, 2020), 311.- Fang, “Shadowy Chinese Conglomerate Cultivated Ties to the Most Powerful
U.S. Politicians”; Green and Weiss, “Jeb Bush Has a Mitt Romney Problem.”- “Jeb Bush’s Private Equity Ventures Resemble Mitt Romney’s.”
- Ibid.
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Insider, December 14, 2015, https://www.businessinsider.com/jeb-bush-china-
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Gained Access.”- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
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remain-mao-s-pioneers.html.- Cleo Paskal, “In U.S. Backyard: How China Embedded Itself in Canada,”
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Austin Ramzy, “China’s Cultural Revolution, Explained,” New York Times, May
14, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/world/asia/china-cultural-
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life/entertainment/books/china-chronicles-393747141.html.- Head and Trudeau, The Canadian Way, 223.
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star/20051016/282364035071812.- “Pierre Trudeau,” Biography.com, last updated June 23, 2020,
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2013): 66–71, EBSCO, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
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Policy Since 1970,” in Huhua Cao and Vivienne Poy, eds., The China
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23, 2006, https://archive.macleans.ca/article/2006/10/23/paul-desmarais-
latest-power-play.- Jonathan Manthorpe, Claws of the Panda: Beijing’s Campaign of Influence
and Intimidation in Canada (Toronto: Cormorant Books, 2019), 128.- Ibid., 125; Paskal, “In U.S. Backyard: How China Embedded Itself in Canada.”
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Fixation,” Vancouver Sun, December 7, 2020,
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canadas-asia-policy-from-its-china-fixation.- Manthorpe, Claws of the Panda, 126–27.
- “Power Player: In Making Power Corp. a Business Pioneer in China, Paul
Desmarais Sr. Positioned the Company to Become a Leader Among a
Network of Canadian Companies There,” Gazette (Montreal), September 24,
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‘Basic Dictatorship.’”- Charles Burton, “Relations with China Should Hinge on More than Short-Term
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- Zhaohui Luo, “Opening a New Chapter,” China Daily, last updated January 9,
2016, http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2016-01/09/content_23008728.htm.- “Foreign Relations: Father’s Legacy Casts Shadow of Great Expectations
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Owned Company after He Became Prime Minister,” Globe and Mail,
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legend-continues-how-a-state-owned-company-republished-justin/.- “Foreign Relations: Father’s Legacy Casts Shadow of Great Expectations
over Trudeau Visit to China.”- Robert Fife and Steven Chase, “Trudeau Attended Cash-for-Access
Fundraiser with Chinese Billionaires,” Globe and Mail, November 22, 2016,
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access-fundraiser-with-chinese-billionaires/article32971362/.- Tom Blackwell, “Alleged Mastermind of Lavish Mansion Casino Raided by
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8, 2020, https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/alleged-mastermind-of-lavish-
mansion-casino-raided-by-police-met-twice-with-prime-minister-justin-trudeau.- Ibid.; David Cochrane, “8 Things to Know About the Pierre Elliott Trudeau
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1.3868049; Claire Brownell and Zane Schwartz, “Money Began to Rain on
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foundation-once-justin-took-over-liberals-analysis-shows; “Across Canada,”
China Daily, last updated June 10, 2016,
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2016-06/10/content_25668569_3.htm.- “Across Canada.”
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of ‘Handsome’ Trudeau—or ‘Little Potato’—in China,” National Post,
September 3, 2016, https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/canadian-
businesses-look-to-capitalize-on-popularity-of-handsome-trudeau-or-little-
potato-in-china; “Prime Minister Concludes Successful First Official Visit to
China,” Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, September 6, 2016,
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concludes-successful-first-official-visit-china.- Yu Lintao, “Back on the Right Track,” Beijing Review, October 6, 2016,
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068700.html.- Andy Blatchford, “Canada Not Perfect on Human Rights Either, Trudeau Tells
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94. Catherine Tsalikis, “A Barbarian Abroad: Alexandre Trudeau and the Call of
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96. “Offer China a Carrot, Trudeau’s Son Says,” Record
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99. Linda Renaud, “Alexandre Trudeau: The Once-Reclusive Member of
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103. Hsu and Cole, Insidious Power, 123.
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- Mark Katkov, “China Charges 2 Canadians with Espionage in Case Tied to
U.S. Prosecution of Huawei,” NPR, June 19, 2020,
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espionage-in-case-tied-to-u-s-prosecution-of-huaw.- Tom Blackwell, “Chinese Diplomat Blasts Justin Trudeau, Says He Ruined
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2021, https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/chinese-diplomat-blasts-justin-
trudeau-says-he-ruined-relations-with-china-and-is-a-u-s-running-dog.- Tristin Hopper, “A Self-centered Giant Baby: How China Is Bashing Canada,”
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centred-giant-baby-how-china-is-bashing-canada; Jeremy Nuttall and Joanna
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genocide-in-china-are-lies-adviser-to-bc-premier-says.html.- Brian Lilly, “Trudeau Bet on China over Canada at Height of Pandemic,”
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trudeau-bet-on-china-over-canada-at-height-of-pandemic.- Josh Rogin, “How an Attempted Canadian Concession to China Backfired,”
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- “Yale and China: A Centuries-Old Partnership,” Yale University, July 31, 2018,
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480f-acd7-871d1cc6ea93.- Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg, Hidden Hand: Exposing How the
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22. Ibid., 143.
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33. Ibid.
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donation-to-rename-china-center/.
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U.S. Department of Education Office of the General Counsel, October 2020,
1, https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/institutional-compliance-section-
117.pdf.
65. Liz Teitz and Linda Lambeck, “Yale Preps Response to Federal Probe of
Foreign Funding Sources, Says Failure to Report Was ‘Oversight,’” New
Haven Register, February 13, 2020 (Lexis).
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private issuers [Sections 13 or 15(d)], Securities and Exchange Commission,
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67. Note: immediately following an inquiry by our researchers as to this
confusingly named set of corporations, Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation Limited
(Guernsey) trademarked “Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation,”
https://uspto.report/company/Joe-Clara-Tsai-Foundation-L-T-D.
68. Alan P. L. Liu, “Rebirth and Secularization of the Central Party School in
China,” China Journal 62 (July 2009), accessed July 19, 2021,
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Tingting, “Wang Yong Takes Helm at SASAC,” China Daily, last updated
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08/25/content_11200917.htm; “Li Qiang,” Yale Law, on Internet Archive,
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enemy-is-counterproductive/2019/07/02/647d49d0-9bfa-11e9-b27f-
ed2942f73d70_story.html.
70. Paul Gewirtz, “What China Means by ‘Rule of Law,’” New York Times,
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71. Jamie Horsley, “China’s Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn’t Real,” Foreign
Policy, November 16, 2018, https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-
orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/.
72. Jamie P. Horsley, “China Promotes Open Government As It Seeks to
Reinvent Its Governance Mode,” Wilson Center, February 23, 2016,
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seeks-to-reinvent-its-governance-mode.
73. Jamie P. Horsley, “Challenging China to Make Good Project Governance a
Centerpiece of the Belt and Road Initiative,” Yale Law School, working paper,
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na_bri-good_governance_infrastructure.pdf.
74. “Paul Tsai China Center Virtual Open House,” Yale Law School, February 5,
2021, https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/yale-law-school-events/paul-tsai-china-
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75. Blake Schmidt and Venus Feng, “Trump’s ‘Friend’ Jack Ma Helps Repair
China’s Image After Virus,” Bloomberg, April 8, 2020.
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50-million-for-social-justice-grants-roundup.
77. “Clara Wu and Joe Tsai Commit $50 Million to Social Justice, Equality,”
Philanthropy News Digest, August 26, 2020,
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million-to-social-justice-equality.
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Fund,” New York Daily News, December 16, 2020,
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urk6phhimzh7nmorru7lecac64-story.html; “Social Justice Commitment
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Are the Uyghurs and Why Is China Being Accused of Genocide?” BBC News,
June 21, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037.- “CNBC Exclusive: CNBC Transcript: Alibaba Co-Founder, Executive Vice
Chairman & Brooklyn Nets Owner Joe Tsai Speaks with CNBC’s ‘Squawk
Box’ Today,” CNBC, June 15, 2021,
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alibaba-co-founder-executive-vice-chairman-brooklyn-nets-owner-joe-tsai-
speaks-with-cnbcs-squawk-box-today.html.- Avi Asher-Schapiro, “Chinese Tech Patents Tools That Can Detect, Track
Uighurs,” Thomson Reuters Foundation News, January 14, 2021,
https://news.trust.org/item/20210113195157-jq6lj/.- Sarah Coble, “Alibaba Facial Recognition Tech Picks Out Uyghur Minorities,”
Info Security, December 18, 2020, https://www.infosecurity-
magazine.com/news/alibaba-tech-uyghur-alert/.- Paul Mozur, “One Month, 50,000 Face Scans: How China Is Using A.I. to
Profile a Minority,” New York Times, April 14, 2019,
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/technology/china-surveillance-artificial-
intelligence-racial-profiling.html.- Davis, “No Lux or Veritas.”
- Ibid.
- Matt Apuzzo, “Chinese President Hu to Cap U.S. Tour with Yale Speech,”
Associated Press International, April 21, 2006,
http://archive.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/04/21/chinese_
president_hu_to_cap_us_tour_with_yale_speech/?
rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+News.- Davis, “No Lux or Veritas.”
- Hamilton and Ohlberg, Hidden Hand, 245.
- “Globalization Was Key Focus at Inaugural China-Yale Youth Leaders
Dialogue,” Yale News, April 16, 2013,
https://news.yale.edu/2013/04/16/globalization-was-key-focus-inaugural-
china-yale-youth-leaders-dialogue; Zhuang Pinghui, “How China’s Communist
Party, Founded by Young People, Continues to Engage Youth,” South China
Morning Post, May 26, 2021,
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3134774/role-young-people-
chinas-communist-party.
92. “Summary of Yale University’s Collaborations and History with China,” Yale
University, accessed July 21, 2021, 40, 53; “University of Science and
Technology of China,” Australian Strategy Policy Institute, last updated May
13, 2021, https://unitracker.aspi.org.au/universities/university-of-science-and-
technology-of-china/.
93. Davis, “No Lux or Veritas.”
94. Ibid.
95. Ibid.
96. Ibid.
97. Ibid.
98. David Ho, “How China’s Zhang Li, the Billionaire Tencent and JD.com Tech
Investor, Went from Selling Instant Noodles to Buying Stake in Amazon,”
South China Morning Post, December 10, 2019,
https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/tech-design/article/3041233/how-
chinas-zhang-lei-billionaire-tencent-and-jdcom-tech; Alexandra Stevenson,
“The Chinese Billionaire Zhang Lei Spins Research into Investment Gold,”
New York Times, April 2, 2015,
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/03/business/the-chinese-billionaire-zhang-
lei-spins-research-into-investment-gold.html; “Hillhouse Capital Group,”
Crunchbase, accessed July 20, 2021,
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/hillhouse-capital.
99. Apuzzo, “Chinese President Hu to Cap U.S. Tour with Yale Speech.”
100. Pan Yue, “Hillhouse Capital’s Zhang Lei Establishes U.S.$43M Education
Fund for Renmin University,” China Money Network, June 26, 2017,
https://www.chinamoneynetwork.com/2017/06/26/hillhouse-capitals-zhang-lei-
establishes-us43m-education-fund-for-renmin-university; “Addition of Certain
Entities to the Entity List,” Federal Register, October 9, 2019,
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/10/09/2019-22210/addition-
of-certain-entities-to-the-entity-list; Stevenson, “The Chinese Billionaire Zhang
Lei Spins Research into Investment Gold.”
101. “The Yale Endowment 2020,” accessed July 20, 2021,
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55db7b87e4b0dca22fba2438/t/607e4d
a7bc999d01b4752ea2/1618890160689/2020+Yale+Endowment.pdf; “The
Yale Investments Office,” Yale Investments Office, accessed July 20, 2021,
https://investments.yale.edu/.
102. “Lei Zhang, B.A., ’02 M.A. ’02 M.B.A.,” Yale, accessed July 21, 2021,
https://web.archive.org/web/20160819184505/https://www.yale.edu/about-
yale/president-leadership/yale-corporation/lei-zhang (the screenshot of the
site was captured on August 19, 2016).
103. John Dotson, “The China-U.S. Exchange Foundation and United Front
‘Lobbying Laundering’ in American Politics,” Jamestown Foundation,
September 16, 2020, https://jamestown.org/program/the-china-u-s-exchange-
foundation-and-united-front-lobbying-laundering-in-american-politics/; “Zhang
Lei,” Center for China & Globalization, accessed July 20, 2021,
http://en.ccg.org.cn/archives/58926.
104. Natalie Winters, “EXC: Top TikTok Investor Funds Chinese Communist Party–
Linked Artificial Intelligence Program,” National Pulse, August 7, 2020,
https://thenationalpulse.com/news/tiktok-ccp-investor/.
105. Annie Wu and Nathan Su, “How an Investor Managing America’s Top College
Endowments Funded an AI Research Institute Beneficial to China,” Epoch
Times, October 16, 2019, https://www.theepochtimes.com/how-an-investor-
managing-americas-top-college-endowments-funded-an-ai-research-institute-
beneficial-to-china_3092601.html; “Xu Yanhao,” China Association for
Science and Technology, accessed July 20, 2021,
http://english.cast.org.cn/col/col570/index.html.
106. Ibid.
107. United States Senate, “China’s Impact on the U.S. Education System,” U.S.
Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, accessed July 21, 2021.
108. Institutional Compliance with Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of
1965, U.S. Department of Education Office of the General Counsel, October
2020.
109. “Higher Education and National Security: The Targeting of Sensitive,
Proprietary, and Classified Information on Campuses of Higher Education,”
Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, April 2011, 1,
https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/higher-education-national-security.pdf/view.
110. Daniel Flatley, David McLaughlin, and Janet Lorin, “College Foreign Cash at
Risk as Senate Targets China’s Clout,” Bloomberg, last updated April 20,
2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-20/colleges-foreign-
cash-at-risk-as-congress-targets-china-s-clout.
111. Institutional Compliance with Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965,
U.S. Department of Education Office of the General Counsel, October 2020,
7–8.
112. United States Senate, “China’s Impact on the U.S. Education System,” 1.
113. Institutional Compliance with Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of
1965, U.S. Department of Education Office of the General Counsel, October
2020, 6, 9, 13.
9: Fighting Back
- Quoted in Richard McGregor, Xi Jinping: The Backlash (New York: Penguin
eBooks, 2019), 80.- Alexander Hamilton, “The Same Subject Continued: Other Defects of the
Present Confederation,” New York Packet, Federalist No. 22, December 14,
1787, https://guides.loc.gov/federalist-papers/text-21-30#s-lg-box-wrapper-- Mark Boonshoft, “The Specter of Foreign Influence in Early American
Politics,” New York Public Library, November 8, 2016,
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/11/08/specter-foreign-influence-early-
american-politics.- “Foreign Influence, [23 January] 1799,” James Madison papers, Founders
Online, National Archives, January 23, 1799,
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-17-02-0140.- Ibid.
- “Foreign Nationals,” Federal Election Commission, June 23, 2017,
https://www.fec.gov/updates/foreign-nationals/; Opensecrets.org, “Foreign-
Connected PACs,” accessed July 16, 2021,
https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/foreign-
connected-pacs/2020.- “James Mann,” James-mann.com, accessed July 16, 2021, https://james-
mann.com/bio/.- James Mann, The China Fantasy: Why Capitalism Will Not Bring Democracy
to China (New York: Penguin, 2007), 79.- Clyde Prestowitz, The World Turned Upside Down: America, China, and the
Struggle for Global Leadership (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021),- Quoted in McGregor, Xi Jinping: The Backlash, 7.
- “Blog,” Keith Krach, accessed July 16, 2021, https://keithkrach.com/blog/.
- Matt Schrader, “Friends and Enemies: A Framework for Understanding
Chinese Political Interference in Democratic Countries,” Alliance for Securing
Democracy, April 22, 2020, https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/friends-and-
enemies-a-framework-for-understanding-chinese-political-interference-in-
democratic-countries/; “China Sentences Swedish Publisher to 10 Years in
Prison,” DW, February 25, 2020, https://www.dw.com/en/china-sentences-
swedish-publisher-to-10-years-in-prison/a-52517293.- Derek Lidow, “Mark Zuckerberg and the Tech World Still Do Not Understand
Ethics,” Forbes, March 11, 2019,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereklidow/2019/03/11/mark-zuckerberg-and-
the-tech-world-still-do-not-understand-ethics/?sh=541f32085386.
Index
A specific form of pagination for this digital edition has been developed to match
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Therefore, we encourage you to please use your device’s search capabilities to
locate a specific entry.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), 80–82
AEOW 2000 LP, 58
Aeroflex, 57–58
Agere Systems, 58
Airbnb, 83
Albright, Madeleine, 159–63
Albright Group, 160
Albright Stonebridge Group (ASG), 160, 161–62
Alderman, Daniel, 66
Aleman, Miguel, 15–16
Alibaba, 71, 178, 213–18, 223, 224–25, 230
Alibaba Cloud Computing, 215–16
All-China Youth Federation (ACYF), 231
Allen, Mike, 79, 80
Alphabet, 98
Alwaleed (prince), 106
Amazon, 83
AMC Entertainment, 174–75
Ameco Beijing, 57–58
American Chemistry Council (ACC), 182–83
American International Group (AIG), 154
American Pacific International Capital (APIC), 171–72, 196
Ant IPO, 140
APCO Worldwide, 72
Apple, 83, 85, 117
Archer, Devon, 13–14, 17–18, 22, 23, 25–26, 27, 29, 31
Arms Export Control Act, 58
Asia and America (A&A) Consultants, 192
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, 209
Asset Management International Financing and Settlement Ltd., 189–90
Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of China, 183
Atlantic Richfield, 154
Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), 24
Bachman, David, 171
Bacow, Lawrence, 232
Baker, James A., 190
Ballmer, Steve, 88
Bank of America, 53
Bank of China, 133, 209
Bao, JiaQi, 39–40
Barbour, Haley, 79
Barclays Global Investors, 142
Barshefsky, Charlene, 166
Baucus, Max, 29, 176–81
Baucus Group, 177–78
Beacon Global Strategies, 79–80, 81–82
Beau Biden Foundation, 31
Bell, Daniel, 126–27
Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
background, 31, 36, 70–71
Cohen Group and, 164
funding for, 135–36
Horsley on, 227
Locke on, 174
Schwarzman on, 124
Thomas-Greenfield on, 162–63
Berger, Sandy, 160–61
BH Global Aviation, 195
BH Logistics, 194–95
Biden, Hunter
business model, 10–11, 13–17
China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC) and, 33–40
Chinese clients and investors, 17–25, 29–31, 33–40, 42–45
Chinese political ties, 25–29
family finances, 11–12, 36–37, 44–45, 250–51n9, 262n173
information sources on business deals by, 12–13, 250–51n9, 251n14, 259n136
real estate ventures, 31–33
Biden, James, 36, 38, 39, 43
Biden, Joseph Robinette (JRB)
business model, 10–11, 14, 15–16
China connection while vice-president, 10–11, 17–18, 22, 27, 30
China policy while president, 42–43
family finances, 11–12, 36–37, 44–45, 250–51n9, 262n173
presidential campaign, 40
Promises to Keep, 18
Biden, Sara, 38
Biden Center, 40–42
Biden Foundation, 37
“big help with a little badmouth,” 4, 43, 65, 151
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 95
Binance, 180–81
Bing search engine, 87–88
Black Lives Matter, 228
BlackRock, 141–48
Blackstone Group, 121–24, 129, 142
Blinken, Tony, 41, 42, 43
Blitzscaling (Hoffman), 116
Bloomberg, Michael, 130, 157
Blum, Richard, 48–51, 53–54, 56–59
BLUM Capital Partners, 57
Blum Family Partners LP, 58
Bobulinski, Tony, 13, 33–37, 251n14, 259n136
Boehner, John, 69–71
Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), 20–24, 42
Bonderman, David, 49
Bonker, Don, 72
Borich, Joseph, 170
Boucher, Rick, 73
Boustany, Charles, 78
Bowes, Gregory, 160
Boxer, Barbara, 73
Brady, Anne-Marie, 3, 107
Branstad, Eric, 183–85
Branstad, Marcus, 182–83
Branstad, Terry, 181–85
Breaux, John, 72
Brennan, John, 157–58
Breyer, Jim, 67–68, 118, 129
Bridgewater, 137–41
Brin, Sergei, 96
Britton Hill Holdings, 194–95
Broadcom, 82
Brookings Institution, 134, 136
Brooklyn Nets, 218, 221, 228
Buffett, Warren, 92
Build Your Dreams (BYD), 92
Bulger, Billy, 16
Bulger, James “Jim” (nephew), 16, 17, 21, 22, 27
Bulger, James “Whitey” (father), 16
Burlingame, Anson, 150
Burnham Asset Management, 27
Bush, George H. W., 188–90, 191, 197
Bush, George W., 190–92
Bush, Jeb, 171, 193–97
Bush, Neil, 186, 191–93
Bush, Prescott, Jr., 188–91
Bush China Foundation, 193
ByteDance, 71–72
California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), 148
Canada-China Business Council, 202, 206–7
Canadian Halifax International Security Forum, 210
Capital, Albright, 160
Capitol Counsel, 78–79
Carter, Ash, 97, 116
Castro, Fidel, 207
Cathay Fortune, 42
CB Richard Ellis, 57
CEFC Infrastructure Investment LLC, 38
Celico, Amy, 161–62
Center for American Progress (CAP), 75
Central Military Commission, 94–95, 100
Central Party School, 126
Chambers, John, 104–6
Champagne, François-Philippe, 209
Chan, Nick, 70
Chao, Angela, 67–68
Chao, Elaine, 64–67, 121
Chao, James, 64–67
Charoen Pokphand Group, 191
Chayes, Sarah, 160
Che Feng “The Super Chairman,” 18–23
ChemChina, 70, 73
Chen, Huaidan, 171–72, 195–96
Chen, Kathy, 106–7
Chen, Wilson, 172
Chen Feng, 178
Chen Guangcheng, 172–74
Chen Xu, 125
Chen Yun, 51–52
Cheng, Maggie, 27
Chieffalo, Lee, 59
China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, 92
China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC), 34, 75
China Association for Science and Technology, 196–97, 234
China Center at Yale Law School, 212–13, 223
China Center for International Economic Exchange (CCIEE), 156–57
China Construction Bank Corporation, 145
China Cultural Industry Association, 205
China Development Bank (CDB), 156
China Development Research Foundation, 184
China Dream, The (Liu), 8
China Electronics Technology Group (CETC), 73, 90
China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC), 33–40
China Entrepreneur Club (CEC), 25–27
China Film Group Corporation, 221
China Fund, 62
China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), 23–24
China Institute of Culture, 34–35
China International Publishing Group, 231, 234
China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC), 18, 29–30, 131, 202
China Investment Corporation (CIC), 17, 29, 123, 144
China LPGA, 189
China Merchants Bank, 42
China Model, The (Bell), 126–27
China Molybdenum, 42
China National Petroleum Corporation, 158
China Ocean Shipping Corporation (COSCO), 30–31, 32, 72, 159
China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, 70
China Securities Finance Corporation, 119
China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), 66–67
China Telecom, 131
China Ventures, 154–55
Chinagate, 53–54, 169–70
China-U.S. Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), 74–75, 77–79, 130, 157, 180, 192–
93, 233
Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), 93–94
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), 58, 175
Chinese Academy of Sciences Holdings (CASH), 175
Chinese Communist Party (CCP). See Communist Party of China
Chinese Communist Party Youth League, 126
Chinese National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), 91–92
Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation, 204
Chinese National Overseas Oil Company (CNOOC), 61
Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), 37–38, 74–75, 192
Chinese State Council, 93
Chinese United Front, 11, 37–38, 74–75, 126, 157, 180, 197
Chou En-lai, 199
Christensen, Jon, 72
Christopher, Mike, 12
CIIC, 192
Cisco, 104–6
City Car Services (CCS), 63
Clinton, Bill, 52, 53, 159
Clinton, Hillary, 80, 156
Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, 76
Cohen, Noam, 120
Cohen, William, 163–66
Cohen Group, 163–65
Coleman, Norman, 72
Comey, James, 139
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), 81
Communist Party of China (CPC)
Alibaba and, 213–14
China–United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) ties, 74–75
Feinstein on, 55
Gates and, 86–87
Ma and, 214–15
power concentration by, 225–26
privatization of companies and, 131–32
Schwarzman and, 122–29
Tsai on, 216–17
Wall Street and, 146–47, 148
Yale University and, 231
ZTE ties, 77–78
Confucius Institute, 162, 178
Cook, Tim, 83, 85, 117, 128
Cooney, Bevan, 12–13, 251n14
Coons, Chris, 244
COVID-19 virus
Alibaba and, 227–28
Baucus on, 178–80
Canadian policies, 210
origins, 63–64
Crime and Security Research Institute (CSRI), 107–8
Cruz, Ted, 80, 244
Cultural Revolution, 199–200
Dai, Xiaoming, 53, 54
Dalai Lama, 232
Dalio, Ray, 137–41
Davis Wright Tremaine, 170, 174
Deese, Brian, 147
DeLoche, John, 29
Demosisto, 211
Deng Xiaoping, 163, 188, 203
Denham, Jeff, 72
Desmarais, Paul, 201–2
Di Dongsheng, 9–10, 149
Dimitrijevic, Marko, 167
Docusign, 245
Dolma, Kelsang, 222
Dong, Gongwen, 37–38
Dorsey, Jack, 106–9
Doshi, Rush, 66
Dotson, John, 196, 197
Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group, 119
Dragon Fire (Cohen), 165
Dreyer, Teufel, 197
Dunford, James, 97
Ellison, Larry, 53
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards, 241
Erisman, Porter, 213
Eudora, 14
Evanina, William, 81
Everest Partners, 167
Export Control Reform Initiative, 166–67
Facebook, 83, 84–85, 119, 245
Faligot, Roger, 19
Falun Gong, 104
Fang, Christine (aka Fang Fang), 60
Fang Fenglei, 131
Fang Zheng, 133
FBI, 38–39, 44, 53–54, 59–60, 235
Federal Election Campaign Act (1974), 239
Feinstein, Dianne, 46–52, 53–55, 56–60
Finergy Capital, 195
Fink, Larry, 141–49
First Boston, 142
Florida Association for the Reunification of China, 196
Fontheim, Claude, 79
Fontheim International, LLC, 79
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of 1938, 26, 155, 238–39
Foreign Language Bureau, of CCP, 231
Foremost Maritime, 64, 65–67
Founder, 19
Francisco Partners, 57
Free Enterprise Project, 242
Frelinghuysen, Rodney, 71
Friendship Award, 134
Fudan University, 99–100
Galanis, Jason, 13, 27, 29
Gallo, Ernest, 53
Gates, Bill, 86–95
Gates, Robert, 166, 167, 168
Gemini Investments, 32
George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, 192
Gewirtz, Paul, 226
Gilliar, James, 36
Gingrich, Newt, 155
Glenn, John, 51
Global Ambassador Concierge, 62
Global Strategies Group (GSG), 158
Global Tech Industries Group, 63
Global Times, 35
Goldman Sachs, 130–34, 136–37
Gong (prince), 150, 195
Google, 88, 95–101, 108, 117, 118, 119
Google AI China Center, 96, 108
Gordon, Bart, 72
Governance of China, The (Xi), 84–85
“Government Sachs,” 130
Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing, 191
Gracias, Antonio J., 113
Grassley, Charles, 36
Great Leap Forward, 198
Greece, 30–31
Greenberg Traurig, 71
Greene, Diane, 97
Gromyko, Andrei, 152
Grossman, Marc, 164
Guan Naiyang, 100
Guan Video (website), 9
Guang Yang, 195
Gui Congyou, 245
H. J. Heinz, 154
Hadley, Stephen J., 167
Haig, Alexander, 158–59
Hainan province, 193–94
Hambrecht, William, 62
Hamilton, Alexander, 237
Hamilton, Clive, 149, 157
Hanes, Melodee, 177–78, 180
Han’s Laser, 168
Harvard University, 232, 235
Harvest Fund Management, 20
Harvest Global Investments, 20, 27
He Jianyu, 127
He Xin, 53
Heath, Edward, 152
Hébert, Jacques, 198–200
Heinz, Christopher, 13–14
Henniges Automotive, 24
Hidden Hand (Hamilton and Ohlberg), 149
Higher Education Act (1965), 224
Hikvision, 73, 167–68, 185
Hillhouse Capital, 232–33
Hills, Carla, 166
Hills & Company, 166
HNA Group, 170, 178, 194–95
Ho, Allen, 24
Ho, Patrick, 39
Hoffman, Reid, 114–18
Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (2020), 145
Hong Kong, 186, 211, 218–19
Hong Kong Finance Investment Holding Group (HKFI) Ltd, 192
Horizon Robotics, 101
Horsley, Jamie, 226–27
Houston Rockets, 218–19
Howie, Fraser, 130
Hu Jintao, 67, 89
Huai Jinpeng, 234
Huang, John, 53, 169–70
Huawei, 70, 72–73, 78, 82, 105–6, 119, 162, 165, 209–10, 216
Hudson West, 40
Hudson West IV, 36
Hughes Aircraft, 189–90
Hui Chi Ming, 192
Humphrey, Peter, 115
Hutchison, Tim, 71
Hytera, 209
IBM, 58–59
IDG Capital, 67
Ingram Micro, 178
Innes, Martin, 108
Institute for China-America Studies, 157
Intel, 80, 101
Interlink Management Corporation, 191
International Finance Corporation, 50
International Media Acquisition Corp., 63
International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), 154
International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 58
Italian National Railway, 31
ITF Technologies, 209
James, LeBron, 219–21
JD Logistics, 129
Jennings, Peter, 153
Jeremic, Vuk, 32–33
Jia Chunwang, 20–21
Jia Liqing, 20–21
Jiang Zemin, 48, 49, 50–52, 59, 64, 133, 137, 189, 191
Jin Ligang, 161
Jiwei, Lou, 123
Joe and Clara Tsai Charitable Foundation (Hong Kong), 224–25
Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation (La Jolla), 223–25, 228, 325–326n67
Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation Limited (Guernsey), 224–25, 325–326n67
J.P. Morgan, 137
Kaldany, Rashad, 50
Kania, Elsa, 99
Kantor, Mickey, 166
Kaplan, Steven, 24
Karloutsos, Alex, 31
Karloutsos, Michael, 31
Kerry, John, 76
Khashoggi, Jamal, 143
Kingston, Jack, 73
Kissinger, Henry, 75, 152–58
Kissinger Associates, 152–53, 157–58
Kokorotsikos, Paris, 31
Koresh, David, 55
Krach, Keith, 245
Kuehmann, Charles, 113
Kushner, Jared, 121
Kuwata, Kam, 56
Lai Changxing, 34
Lam Ting Keung, 37–38
Lanza, Bryan, 183–84
Law, Nathan, 211–13, 221
Layton, Roslyn, 98
Le Corre, Philippe, 30–31
Lee, Kai-fu, 102
Legend (company), 58
Legend Continues, The (Trudeau and Hébert), 205
Lenovo, 58–59
Levin, Rick, 230
Levy, David, 221
Lew, Jack, 136
Li, David Daokui, 126
Li, Fei-Fei, 96, 108–9
Li, Jonathan, 22
Li, Zhonggang, 196–97
Li Deyi, 101
Li Keqiang, 111
Li Peng, 202
Li Qiang, 136
Li Shan, 136
Li Yang, 210
Lieberman, Joe, 72
Lin, Michael (aka Lin Junliang), 16–17, 21
Lincoln, Abraham, 150
LinkedIn, 114–18
Lippo Group, 54
Liu Mingfu, 8
Liu Xiaobo, 56
Liu Yandong, 127
Liu Yunshan, 21, 117
Locke, Gary, 169–76
Locke Global Strategies, 174
Lott, Trent, 72
Lowe, Russell, 59–60
Lu Wei, 84–85, 116
Ma, Jack, 140, 213–15, 217, 223, 227–28
Ma Jian, 19, 23
Ma Weihua, 25
Ma Yanli, 47
Mack, Connie, IV, 72
Madison, James, 238
Malloy, John M., 167
Manchin, Joe, 244
Mann, James, 159, 242–43
Manthorpe, Jonathan, 202
Manuel, Anja, 167, 168–69
Mao Tse-tung, 3, 51, 152, 198–200, 201
Matthews International Capital Management, 62
Mattis, James, 163
Max S. Baucus Institute, 178
Mayer, Brown, Rowe, & Maw, 166
McCarthyism, 155, 179–80
McConnell, Mitch, 44, 64–65, 68, 118
McFadden, Richard, 205
Mead, Walter Russell, 8
Menard, C. J., 221–22
Mercury, 183–84
Merrill Lynch, 137
Mexico, 15–16
Microsoft, 83, 86–91, 94–95, 115
Military Project Confidentiality Office, 99
Ming, Yao, 219
Mnuchin, Steve, 121
Moffett, Toby, 73
More than a Game (film), 221
Morell, Mike, 79
Morey, Daryl, 218–21
most-favored-nation (MFN) trade status, 50, 53, 56, 61, 177
Mozur, Paul, 84
MSCI, 214
MSN Spaces, 87
Munson, Lester, 79
Musk, Elon, 109–14
Musk, Kimbal, 113
Nankai University, 165
National Council for Social Security Fund, 19
National People’s Congress (NPC), 70
National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), 94–95
NBA, 218–21
NBA Foundation, 228
Netcom, 131–32
Newbridge Asia, 49–50
Newbridge Capital, 49–50, 59
Newman, Peter, 201
Newsom, Gavin, 59
Nexen, 204
Nike, 220
Niu Gensheng, 206
Norsat International, 209
North Dragon Iron & Steel Works, 50
Nuclear Threat Initiative, 91
Nunn, Sam, 51
NW Innovation Works (NWIW), 175
Nye, Joseph, 227–28
Obama, Barack, 75, 77, 127
O’Brien, Robert, 148
Ohlberg, Mareike, 149, 157
Oldaker, Biden, and Belair, LLP, 14
Olympics (2008), 62–63
One Belt One Road. See Belt and Road Initiative
O-Net, 208–9
Oracle, 53
Owasco, 14, 39
Ozery, Tamar Groswald, 147
Pacific Light Cable Network, 119
Page, Larry, 96
Palantir, 245
Panetta, Leon, 79
Paris Climate Accords, 75–77
Parker, Mark, 220
Patton Boggs, 69
Paul, Rand, 244
Paul, Scott, 69
Paul Tsai China Center, 212, 223, 225–27
Paulson, Hank, 130
Pelosi, Nancy, 60–64, 76
Pelosi, Paul, 62–63
Pelosi, Paul, Jr., 63
People’s Daily Online, 89
People’s Liberation Army Air Force, 129
People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), 94
People’s Liberation Army (PLA), 34, 36, 52, 71, 90, 92, 145
PetroChina, 131, 133
Pichai, Sundar, 117
Piraeus (Greek port), 30–31
Plus Holdings, 190–91
Podesta, John, 75–76, 77
Podesta, Tony, 76, 77–78
Podesta Group, 77–78
Power Corporation, 201–3
Prescott, Jeff, 227
Prestowitz, Clyde, 243
Principles (Dalio), 137–38
Promises to Keep (Biden), 18
Qihoo 360, 68
Qualcomm, 82
Radiance Holdings, 37
Ralston, Joseph, 163
Rapp-Hooper, Mira, 227
Reagan, Ronald, 244
Red Capitalism (Walter & Howie), 130
Refinitiv, 124
REFORM Alliance, 229
Reines, Philippe, 79
Renmin University Gaoling School of Artificial Intelligence, 234
Reporters Without Borders, 106
Reynolds, Roger, 91
Rhodes Scholars, 125
Ricchetti, Steve, 41
Rice, Condoleezza, 166–69
Rice, Hadley, Gates, and Manuel (RHGM), 167–69
Richard C. Blum & Associates, 48–49
Right to Rise PAC, 196
Rong Yiren, 191
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 238
Rosemont Capital, 13
Rosemont Realty, 14, 31–32
Rosemont Seneca Advisors, 14
Rosemont Seneca Partners, 12, 13–18, 23, 37, 43–44
Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners, 14, 29
Ross, Wilbur, 121
Royce, Ed, 71
RSP Investments, 14
RSTP I, 14
RSTP II Alpha and Bravo, 14
Rubin, Robert, 75
Rubio, Marco, 80, 244
RWC Partners, 167–68
Salovey, Peter, 213, 232
San Francisco, 48–49, 50
Saudi Arabia, 143
Schmidt, Eric, 96, 98, 118
Schumer, Chuck, 244
Schwarzman, Stephen, 121–30
Schwarzman Scholars, 125–29
Schwerin, Eric, 11–12, 14–15, 18, 21, 27, 33
Science and Technology Research Institute, 99
Scissors, Derek, 195
Scowcroft, Brent, 166
Scowcroft Group, 166
Secret Empires (Schweizer), 13–14, 16–17, 21, 44, 65
Seneca Global Advisors, 14
SenseTime, 68, 129
Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), 46
Sequoia Capital China, 101
Shanahan, Patrick, 97
Shanghai, 48–49, 50
“Shanghai Classic” golf tournament, 189
Shanghai Investment and Trust Company, 49
Shanghai Pacific Partners, 49
Shanghai Stock Exchange, 131
shareholder activism, 241–42
Shenzhen Development Bank, 49–50
Silk Road Finance Corporation (SRFC), 135–36
Silk Road Planning Research Center, 135
Silverstein, Ken, 55
Sinclair, Upton, 245
SingHaiyi Group Ltd., 192
SinoHawk, 36
Sino-Ocean Land (now Sino-Ocean Group), 32
Sinopec, 192
Sioeng, Ted, 170
Skaneateles, 14
Skype, 90
Smithsonian Institution, 225
Soldiers Sortie (TV show), 215
Sorkin, Andrew Ross, 229
Soros, George, 145–46, 167
South China Morning Post (SCMP), 217–18
SpaceX, 110, 113–14
Spalding, Robert, 81
Squire Patton Boggs (SPB), 69, 70–71
Stanford University, 225, 235
State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), 138
Stearns, Cliff, 72
Stern, Tod, 75
Stonebridge, 161
Su, Ivan, 110
Sugon Information Industry Company, 80–82
Sullivan, Jake, 227
Sullivan, Russ, 177
Sun Ninghui, 81
Suntech Power Holding, 76
Swalwell, Eric, 60
Symasia Foundation Limited, 223
Taiwan, 48, 155, 200–201
Tan Xiangdong, 194
Tang, Gordon, 171–72, 195–96
Tang Xiao’ou, 128–29
Tang Xiaosong, 205
Tao, Grace, 111–12
Tao, Long, 35
Taobao website, 214, 219
Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, 78
Technorati, 83
Telecom, 133
Tencent, 71, 110, 233
TerraPower, 91
Terry, Lee, 72–73
Tesla, 109–12, 113–14
The Analysis Corporation (TAC), 158
Thiel, Peter, 97, 118, 119–20, 245
Thomas-Greenfield, Linda, 162–63
Thomson Reuters, 123–24
Thornton, John, 131–37
Thornton Group, 16–17
Tiananmen Square massacre (1989)
Blum on, 49
censorship of, 87–88, 107, 115, 124
Feinstein on, 50, 55
Jiang and, 51–52
Kissinger on, 153–54
Ma on, 214–15
Pelosi on, 61
Trudeau (Pierre) on, 203–4
Tianjin Municipal Government, 165
TikTok, 71
Tmall website, 214
TrainOSE, 30–31
Tree Top Industries, 63
Trina Solar, 76
Trudeau, Alexandre, 200, 203–4, 206, 207, 208
Trudeau, Justin, 187, 200, 202, 203, 204–10
Trudeau, Margaret, 201
Trudeau, Pierre, 197–205, 206, 207
Trudeau Foundation, 206
Trump, Donald J.
coronavirus policies, 179–80
Hoffman on, 117
presidential campaign donations, 196, 197
trade policy, 156, 161–62, 243
on Wall Street’s involvement in China, 137
Trump, Ivanka, 121
Tsai, Clara, 228, 229
Tsai, Joe, 212–19, 221–23, 227–28, 229–30
Tsai Center, 212, 225–27
Tsai Foundation, 224–25
Tsai Ing-wen, 156, 210
Tsang, Steve, 228
Tsinghua Tongfang, 98–99
Tsinghua University, 98–99, 125–29, 133–34
Tung Chee-hwa, 74, 130
Twitter, 106–9
Two Innocents in Red China (Trudeau and Hébert), 198–200
Umbrella Movement, 211
united front organizations, 11, 37–38, 74–75, 126, 157, 180, 197
United States Senate Oversight Committee Report, 12, 13
Universal Energy, 63
University of California, San Diego, 216
University of Pennsylvania, 40–42
University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), 231
Unocal, 61
U.S. Department of Education, 224, 234–36
U.S. Federal Communications Commission, 119
U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC), 196
U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 46
U.S.-China Bilateral Investment Treaty, 176
U.S.-China Business Council, 165
U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce (USCCC), 190
U.S.-China Transpacific Foundation (UCTPF), 78–79
Vitter, David, 73
Walter, Carl, 130
Wanda Group, 175
Wang, Jian, 175
Wang Jianlin, 175
Wang Lijun, 41
Wang Qishan, 137–38
Wang Weixing, 162
Wang Zhongyu, 25
Wanhua Chemical Group, 70, 183
Warner, Mark, 216, 244
Washington, George, 8, 237–38
Webb, David, 214
Wei Wei, 206
Weiwen, He, 147
Weizenbaum, Joseph, 120
Wen Jiabao, 134–35, 157
WestExec, 42
WilmerHale, 166
Wolfington, Vincent, 62–63
Wong, Benson, 205
World Bank, 50, 209
World Internet Conference, 116–18
World Trade Organization (WTO), 56, 155, 159–60, 166, 177
Wu, Harry, 65
Wu Lebin, 175
Wynn, Albert, 71
Xi Jinping
on All-China Youth Federation, 231
Belt and Road Initiative by, 30
Biden (J.) and, 40, 43
Branstad and, 181–82
on Bush family, 194
on China’s re-ascension, 1, 7, 8
concentration of power by, 6, 128, 225–26
Governance of China, The (Xi), 84–85
Locke on, 174
military policy, 77
Schwarzman on, 122, 130
Schwarzman Scholars address by, 127
Silicone Valley and, 83–86, 92–94, 113, 116, 117, 118–19
Xianqin Qu, 196
Xinhua, 7–8
Xinhua Sports and Entertainment, 221
Xipei, Jiang, 25
Xu Erwen, 194
Xuexi Qiangguo (app), 215
Yale Endowment, 232–33
Yale Law School, 212–13, 223–24, 225–27
Yale University, 211–13, 221–24, 225–27, 230–34, 236
Yale-China Association, 232
Yang, Cindy, 196, 197
Yang Jiechi, 190
Ye Jianming, 33–39
Yiengpruksawan, Mimi Hall, 231
Yilin Press, 205
Yingli Green Energy Holding, 76
Yitu Technology, 233
You Zheng, 99
YouTube, 96
Youtz, David, 232
Yu, Miles, 114
Yu Kai, 101
Yu Yong, 42
Zaikin, David, 77
Zhai, Shumin, 100
Zhang, W. K., 49
Zhang Bin, 205
Zhang Lei, 233–34
Zhao, Changpeng, 180–81
Zhao, Henry, 27
Zhao, Li, 184
Zhao Jing, 87
Zhao Runlong, 38
Zhao Xuejun (aka Henry Zhao), 20, 21, 23
Zhengfei, Ren, 73
Zhongnanhai, 51
Zhou Fengsuo, 115
Zhou Ji, 94
Zhu, Tom, 111
Zhu Guangya, 94
ZTE Corporation, 58, 72, 77–78, 184–85
Zuckerberg, Mark, 83–85, 119, 128
Zuckerberg, Priscilla, 83
About the Author
PETER SCHWEIZER is the president of the Government
Accountability Institute and the former William J. Casey Research
Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is the author
of the New York Times number one bestsellers Secret Empires and
Profiles in Corruption, as well as the Times bestsellers Clinton Cash,
Throw Them All Out, Extortion, and Do As I Say (Not As I Do). He is
the author of numerous other books on history and politics that have
been translated into eleven languages. His investigative work has
been featured on the front pages of the New York Times and the
Wall Street Journal as well as CBS News’ 60 Minutes.
Peter received his BA from George Washington University and his
MPhil from Oxford University. He lives with his wife in Florida.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com
Also by Peter Schweizer
Architects of Ruin: How Big Government Liberals Wrecked the
Global Economy—and How They Will Do It Again If No One Stops
Them
Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign
Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich
Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption
and Enriches Family and Friends
Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive
Elite
Copyright
RED-HANDED. Copyright © 2022 by Peter Schweizer. All rights reserved under
International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the
required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to
access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be
reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored
in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or
by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter
invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Cover design by James Iacobelli
Cover photographs © Reuters/Lintao Zhang (Biden and Xi); © Jim Lo
Scalzo/EPA/Shutterstock (Boehner); © Action Press/Shutterstock (Musk); © Lenin
Nolly/NurPhoto/Shutterstock (Pelosi); © Broadimage/Shutterstock (James); ©
Omer Messinger/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (Kissinger); © Markus
Schreiber/AP/Shutterstock (Gates)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Schweizer, Peter, 1964– author.
Title: Red-handed : how American elites get rich helping China win / Peter
Schweizer.
Description: First edition. | New York : Harper, 2022. | Includes index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2021039597 (print) | LCCN 2021039598 (ebook) | ISBN
9780063061149 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780063061163 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Elite (Social sciences)—Political activity—United States. |
Political corruption—United States. | United States—Foreign relations—China. |
China—Foreign relations—United States.
Classification: LCC HN90.E4 S35 2022 (print) | LCC HN90.E4 (ebook) |
DDC 305.5/20973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021039597
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021039598
Digital Edition JANUARY 2022 ISBN: 978-0-06-306116-3
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-306114-9
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