Lee Fang talking:
China’s sprawling police state relies heavily on a high-tech security apparatus to monitor, track and incarcerate those viewed as a threat to the Chinese state. That’s dissidents, activists, journalists and increasingly the entire Uyghur Muslim population in Western China. And a key component of this security apparatus is the collection of biometric data. This biometric data collection comes from a number of private sector firms. One of the major Chinese startups involved in this biometric data collection is a company called Face++. This is a facial recognition software company, a Chinese company. It provided a key license to the app that Sophie has explained, and it’s also used in security cameras all over the country. Now, in the last week we have seen a number of Western reports scrutinizing the Chinese investors that stand to profit, that have invested in Face++. But in our story on Friday, we revealed that there are a number of American investors that also stand to profit from this mass surveillance that are also invested in Face++, one of whom is Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden.
over the last 10 years, Hunter Biden has been involved in a number of investment opportunities and business deals. In 2008, he de-registered as a lobbyist and transitioned into this investment career. In 2014, he traveled to China and formed this very exclusive investor partnership with the Chinese government, partnering with the Bank of China. That’s one of the largest state owned banks. And in 2017, Hunter Biden and his company, Bohai Harvest RST, participated in the C Series investment round in Face++, helping the company raise over $400 million, bringing its valuation to currently over $3 billion. So he’s far from a passive investor. In fact, this business deal shows that he has been given really exclusive access to investing in some Chinese—China’s most largest technology companies. And he certainly stands to benefit as this company continues to grow.
the tactic by special interests, both domestic and foreign, to put politicians on the payroll of any interest group seeking to seek influence over a powerful politician is a bipartisan issue. It is not a right-wing issue or a left-wing issue. I can go through a laundry list of Democrats and Republicans in Congress who have had family members, sons and daughters or spouses, that were added to lobbying firms or corporations to peddle influence.
And this dynamic extends certainly to the White House as well. The Trump sons, including Don Jr., have received exclusive licensing agreements and permits to expand Trump hotels in Indonesia and in India and so on. Ivanka has received special licenses to sell her products in China. We see this dynamic and this criticism, in addition to the Biden family, coming from folks from across the ideological spectrum, and it is not particular to the China issue.
In 2003, one of the most controversial votes Joe Biden took—he joined with Republicans to pass the 2003 bankruptcy bill. At the time, one of the largest credit card issuers in the country was MBNA, which was lobbying for that legislation. MBNA hired Hunter Biden as a consultant at a time when they were lobbying for Joe Biden to pass that law. In 2014, when Joe Biden was engaged in high-stakes negotiations in Ukraine at a time at the height of Russian aggression in that region, Hunter Biden was hired and placed on the board of a major Ukrainian fracking company, paid as much as $50,000 a month.
And now with this China issue, we’re seeing a lot of criticism of Joe Biden and his son, because again, Hunter Biden gained exclusive access to this very unusual investment vehicle, investment deal, with the Chinese state at a time when Joe Biden was leading negotiations, traveling between Beijing and Washington, D.C., as the vice president. And it will pose serious conflicts of interest as Joe Biden seeks the presidential nomination.
– Clinton family’s corruption issues over their dealings with foreign governments as well.
that certainly may be a political issue, but it is also a genuine policy concern for any observer or any critic of U.S.-China relations. And look, it is not exclusive to the Biden family. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, was once a big critic of China policy, of China human rights. Later he became a big proponent of trade relations with China and kind of ended his very vocal criticism of China. Later, actually after the 2016 election, Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law, Angela Chow, was added to the board of Bank of China. There are many instances, both Republican and Democrat, where China has attempted to seek influence with powerful policy figures.
Joe Biden, I should note, has long been a friend of China. In 2000, when there was a major vote about permanent normal trade relations with China, Joe Biden rallied Democratic support and he basically argued that China does not pose an economic threat to the U.S. That China, at the time—this was in the year 2000—had the economy of the size of the Netherlands, and that China would never pose a threat to American manufacturing. So Joe Biden has been a friend of China for a very long time, and it appears China has been very friendly to the Joe Biden family as well.
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Lee Fang
investigative journalist for The Intercept.
— source democracynow.org | May 07, 2019