IT’S NOT JUST THE OLD WHORE DIANNE FEINSTEIN AND THE BIDEN BOYS, JOE AND HUNTER WHO HAVE SERVED RED CHINA, WALL STREET MITCH’S WIFE IS A DEDICATED WHORE TO THE CHINESE INTERESTS!
VIDEO
It’s Hard To Believe This Is Happening
https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/americas-china-dependency-syndrome-lloyd-billingsley
The deal would impose no review of human rights and impose no conditions for democratic reforms, supervised multi-party elections and such. All that, and more, is already a done deal with China, like the USSR a one-party Communist dictatorship that never produced a single product the United States needs. This has come about, in large part, due to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, San Francisco Democrat.
LLOYD BILLINGSLEY
Schweizer added, “We also now know that Hunter Biden did these deals, but the larger family benefited. We know that James Biden, Joe Biden’s brother, got at least $2 million of that money from China. We also now know that Hunter Biden was subsidizing his father’s lifestyle. He was paying for his bills. He was paying for renovations on his home up in Delaware while Joe Biden was Vice President of the United States. It’s not only illegal according to ethics laws. It also shows that Joe Biden is now a beneficiary of the foreign dealings that Hunter Biden has had. It’s no longer good enough for him to say, well, I didn’t have anything involved. He was a beneficiary.”
For 20 years, through three election cycles, Feinstein maintained on her staff a Chinese spy who would even attend consular functions for the California Democrat. One wonders what the FBI knew, when they knew it, and what they did about it, if anything.
Other politicians with China business connections include Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi , whose husband has conducted a series of deals in the Communist nation. Recall that Speaker Pelosi kept Eric Swalwell on the House Intelligence Committee even after his “PoonFang” liaisons with a Chinese spy (FEINSTEIN LONG EMPLOYED A CHINESE SPY).
China: Power and Prosperity -- Watch the full documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JovtmKFxi3c
THE BIDEN KLEPTOCRACY American people deserve to know what China was up to with Joe Biden , especially when Beijing had already shelled out millions of dollars to Biden family members — including millions in set-asides for “the big guy.” What else is on that infamous Hunter Biden laptop? The conflicted Biden Justice Department cannot be trusted to engage in any meaningful oversight on this issue. We need a special counsel now.
TOM FITTON - JUDICIAL WATCH
THE BIDEN KLEPTOCRACY RIDING THE DRAGON: The Bidens' Chinese Secrets (Full Documentary) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRmlcEBAiIs
Chris Hedges: How Republicans, Democrats, and the Media Have Weakened US Democracy
Schweizer: ‘It’s Going to Be Business as Usual’ for Hunter’s Dealings https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/01/20/schweizer-its-going-to-be-business-as-usual-for-hunters-dealings /
Schweizer: ‘It’s Going to Be Business as Usual’ for Hunter’s Dealings
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/01/20/schweizer-its-going-to-be-business-as-usual-for-hunters-dealings /
Joe Biden, the corrupt, unaccomplished 47-year career politician, with a reputation of having been a proud segregationist , an unabashed plagiarist and liar , a resolute tale-teller , and a serial flip-flopper , is pretending to head up a radical social-democratic ticket for President of the United States that includes as his running mate the ambitious, disagreeable junior senator from California: Kamala Harris.
“Protect and enrich.” This is a perfect encapsulation of the Clinton Foundation and the Obama book and television deals. Then there is the Biden family corruption, followed closely behind by similar abuses of power and office by the Warren and Sanders families, as Peter Schweizer described in his recent book “Profiles in Corruption.” These names just scratch the surface of government corruption. BRIAN C JOONDEPH
Feinstein ’ s Close China Ties Under Scrutiny After Chinese Spy Discovery · BY ZACHARY STIEBER
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· News of a Chinese spy working for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein broke recently, revealing the spy was employed by Feinstein for 20 years.
· Initially reported as part of a larger story about spies in Silicon Valley, a former intelligence official later revealed that the staffer was Feinstein’s driver for many years.
· The source told the San Francisco Chronicle that the driver passed information to Chinese officials based at the local Chinese Consulate . Part of the staffer’s role was acting as a liaison between Feinstein’s San Francisco office and the local consulate.
· The staffer was recruited to spy after visiting China.
· The staffer, who has not been named, worked for Feinstein for 20 years.
·
· “They interviewed him, and Dianne forced him to retire, and that was the end of it,” the source said. “None of her staff ever knew what was going on. They just kept it quiet.”
· Feinstein wouldn’t comment on the spy but her office told CBS that none of the staffers in San Francisco have ever had security clearances.
· Noting the oddness of the discovery, President Donald Trump said via Twitter on August 3: “Dianne is the person leading our Nation on ‘Collusion’ with Russia (only done by Dems). Will she now investigate herself?”
· …Dianne is the person leading our Nation on “Collusion” with Russia (only done by Dems). Will she now investigate herself? https://t.co/OG6l04bBwg
· — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2018
· Feinstein’s Relationship With China · Some details of Feinstein’s past are now being examined anew, centered on her close relationship with China, beginning with her service as mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988.
· Feinstein has long been linked to China. For instance, she hosted former president of China Jiang Zemin at her home for dinner when she was mayor of San Francisco, and celebrated the resumption of air service from China to the United States (starting with San Francisco International Airport) after a 32-year hiatus.
· San Francisco and Shanghai have been sister cities for 38 years, after the agreement was put into place by Feinstein and Jiang, who was then Shanghai’s mayor. Feinstein was cited as having a “ close relationship ” with Jiang and ties between the two continued for many years later.
· Jiang is infamous for cracking down on human rights , most notoriously by banning the peaceful meditation practice of Falun Gong and throwing many of its estimated 100 million adherents into jail.
· A re-enactment of organ harvesting in China on Falun Gong practitioners, during a rally in Ottawa, Canada, 2008. (The Epoch Times)
· Under Jiang, torture, rape, murder, and even organ harvesting from detained practitioners became common.
· To help facilitate the relationship between the U.S. and China, Feinstein asked organizers of the city’s popular Chinese New Year Parade to stop displaying the flag of the Nationalist Chinese government, which ruled in exile in Taiwan after 1949.
· Feinstein also defended China, despite its communist policies, insisting that it was merely “socialist.”
· “There was originally this kind of anti-communist view of China,” Feinstein told the Washington Pos t. “That’s changing. . . . China is a socialist country but one that is increasingly becoming capitalistic.”
· Husband Becomes Prominent Investor in China · Several articles from the 90s explore the development of not only Feinstein’s developing relationship with China while she was mayor, but her husband’s burgeoning investments there.
· According to the Los Angeles Times , in 1997 Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum, who invests his own and clients’ money into undervalued firms, expanded his business investments into the communist nation to the point that “his firm is now a prominent investor” there.
· In 1992, the investments amounted to one project worth less than $500,000. Two years later he was planning to invest up to $150 million and two years after that a Blum investment firm paid $23 million for a stake in a Chinese government-owned steel company.
· Another investment by Blum’s firm was helped by the International Finance Corp., an arm of the World Bank, which invested $10 million in the leading producers of soybean milk and candy in China.
· Utterly amazing to read this 1997 report on Sen Feinstein’s family’s political and business ties to #China in context of revelations about a Chinese spy working for her as a driver for 20 years, quietly let go seemingly rather than being brought to justice https://t.co/efwT2yZgkg pic.twitter.com/twAI5igZ2I
· — Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) August 4, 2018
· “It seems to be going quite well,” Rashad Kaldan—who in 1994 managed the IFC’s capital markets investments in Asia—told the Times of the project. He added: “There also was some comfort in that Mr. Blum had some contacts with the Chinese.”
· Blum said that his interest in China went back many years, predating political connections. He won permission from the Chinese in 1981 to climb the east face of Mt. Everest and called himself a close friend of the Dalai Lama , the exiled Tibetan leader who the Chinese government opposes.
· In dispatches written for the San Francisco Examiner, according to the San Francisco Chronicle , Blum said that a goodwill visit to China by Feinstein in 1979 helped him win permission to climb Everest.
· “We had come to build goodwill, promote trade and to make new friends,” Blum wrote in one story, adding, “but I asked for and received permission to have another kind of meeting—one with the Chinese Mountaineering Association.”
· Trips to China · Feinstein took three trips between 1995 and 1997 to China, in addition to trips earlier in her mayoral service, to meet with top communist officials, including Jiang. Blum often attended the meetings with her, an arrangement the Times described as “unusual.”
· At one time, the couple had dinner at Zhongnanhai, the enclave reserved for the president and other top officials in China.
· “We had dinner in Zhongnanhai in Mao Tse-tung’s old residence in the room where he died. We were told that we were the first foreigners to see his bedroom and the swimming pool. It was a very historic moment to see some of these things,” told the Los Angeles Times. Mao was the communist leader of China whose policies led to the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese people.
· Feinstein insisted that Blum had never spoken to officials during meetings about business.
· “I am open to any suggestion as to how I can even make a firewall more fireproof,” she said. “I don’t know what else I can do. . . . Either he retires or I suppose we end our marriage.”
Mr. McConnell benefited from his marriage into the Chao family
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2020/12/senator-mitch-mcconnell-yes-my-wife.html
The first $10,000 came in June 1989. In the 30 years since, 13 members of the extended Chao family have given a total of more than $1 million to Mr. McConnell’s campaigns and to political action committees tied to him. In 2008, James Chao gave the couple a gift of as much as $25 million, vaulting Mr. McConnell into the ranks of the richest senators.
In a statement, Mr. McConnell said he was proud to have his family’s support.
It is little wonder that Mitch McConnell turned on Trump in recent days even though the President helped him get re-elected. Mr. McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao’s family earns money from a shipping company with Chinese ties and Chao likes to help out.
Across America, breaking the law often means there are no consequences
By Jerold Levoritz
Let’s begin with the conclusion so as not to keep anyone waiting: Punishment under the law is no longer acceptable in a “woke” society. One may still be subjected to legal prosecution if the crime threatens the Left, as happened to Donald Trump, Carter Paige, and Michael Flynn. “Truth,” however, has nothing to do with such prosecutions of convenience, although punishment is highly acceptable under informal social norms. So, we have “cancel culture” that can ruin a person’s life in an afternoon, moving right along until the victim enters his eternal rest.
Rejecting legal punishment except in political cases can be seen in the West Coast’s aversion to prosecuting street crimes such as trespassing, mugging, and serious violence resulting in bodily injury. Just this afternoon, as I am writing, Portland, Oregon has decided not to prosecute someone who drove into a Proud Boy in a parking lot and then left the scene. In the olden days, this was a pure crime, but unworthy of charges at this time and in that venue.
In another case, the prosecutor of a case told the murder victim’s family to “keep their mouth shut.” If victims and their families have no standing, punishment is increasingly irrelevant. The proper “woke” attitude towards victims is that all that happened to them was they had some really bad luck.
From where does this impulse to ignore punishment arise? Most rationalizations explaining this phenomenon do not interest me. I have my own!
Those holding political power who downplay punishment desperately need a punishment-free society to protect themselves from investigation and jail time. If everyone else can get away scot-free, so can those who wield power.
In fact, not only should everyone be allowed to get away scot-free, but they should not even be subjected to questioning about their deeds. My wife keeps laughing at me for continuing to believe Hillary should be wearing orange.
Donald Trump is hated because he blew the whistle on the big game. He brought the entire official Washington world down on him by talking about the “swamp” and calling the fake news “fake.”
It is little wonder that Mitch McConnell turned on Trump in recent days even though the President helped him get re-elected. Mr. McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao’s family earns money from a shipping company with Chinese ties and Chao likes to help out. The continuation of Mr. Trump’s tough line against China could easily cause the collapse of Ms. Chao’s portfolio and that loss of income can only be prevented with Mr. Trump’s timely retirement.
From the Chao example, does it not seem logical and desirable to the average person that our lawmakers should be conflict-of-interest free when they consider our national legislation. Under benign business conditions, having important connections is a good thing, an advantage that helps businesses prosper, but things can quickly get out of hand.
What we have here is a feeding frenzy. As the Federal honey pot keeps growing, gorging by the elected elite has become the rule. If China offers cash upfront, who’s to say no now that the Chinese are defined as “good guys”? In this way “treason” loses its nasty edge. If the New World Order is an ethical position, how can a “local” government like the United States impose punishment for treason on those who work for One World!
So, what we have here, in the end, is a problem of values. For the individual, voting gives him the status of being an American citizen, but the “swamp” can argue that the horrible ignorance of the average voter is too much for a modern functioning government to bear. What the “swamp” never argues is that it too is too ignorant to control a complex system that changes without notice. As long as it can call itself and the money men “good,” there are no crimes either it or its voters can commit; there are only political crimes the other side commits.
The genius of Trump is his extraordinary flexibility. That is what is necessary to respond to quickly changing conditions. Without that extreme flexibility, which requires high intelligence, rejection of dogma, and the complete refutation of self-interest, there is no hope of “making things better.” We will spiral out of control as we bathe in increasing amounts of misallocated money until the monetary system collapses.
It is for this reason that we must beg each other to do the right thing by giving Trump his due – four more years. Maybe the behemoth of government and its enticement to riches can be reduced in that time.
For the Chao Family, Deep Ties to the
As transportation secretary, Elaine Chao is the top Trump official overseeing the maritime industry. Her family owns Foremost Group, a shipping company. Credit...Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times
By Michael Forsythe and Eric Lipton
The family of Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary and wife of Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, has high-level political connections not only in the United States but also in China. That gives the family unusual status in the world’s two largest economies.
Through interviews, industry filings and government documents from both countries, The New York Times found that the Chaos, and by extension Mr. McConnell, prospered as the family’s shipping company developed deeper business ties in China. Along the way, one of the company’s boosters was Ms. Chao, who now oversees efforts to promote America’s own maritime industry, which is in steep decline as China’s shipping sector rises in global dominance. Here are five takeaways.
The Chao family’s connections to the Chinese state go back decades
James S.C. Chao, 91, Ms. Chao’s father, studied navigation at a university in Shanghai before fleeing the mainland ahead of the Communist takeover in 1949. His schoolmate for a time was Jiang Zemin, who would become China’s president.
As China was emerging from decades of turmoil in 1984, the Chao family took a stake in a state-owned Chinese manufacturer of marine electronic equipment, documents show. The company targeted sales to China’s military, among other sectors, and was closely affiliated with a ministry run by Mr. Jiang. After Mr. Jiang came to lead the Communist Party a few years later, Mr. Chao met with him at least six times, including in August 1989 in Beijing — inside the party’s secretive leadership compound. Chao family members said they could not recall this investment.
The family shipping company is centered on China
Image
The main gate of the Shanghai Waigaoqiao shipyard, a building site for Foremost ships.Credit...Giulia Marchi for The New York Times
Foremost Group, the New York-based shipping company founded by Mr. Chao in 1964, landed its first big contract with the United States government, shipping rice to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.
Now, it builds most of its ships in state-owned shipyards in China, with some financed by Chinese government loans. In at least two instances, those Chinese-backed, Chinese-built ships entered long-term contracts to deliver iron ore for a state-owned steel maker.
More than 70 percent of Foremost’s freight goes to China, and most of that is iron ore, according to recent shipping data. The cargo helps feed China’s industrial machine, which manufactures steel products that are a point of dispute in the deepening trade war between China and the United States. The company describes itself as a small international business and says it does not have a particular focus on China, beyond what most dry bulk carriers have in a world dominated by Chinese manufacturing.
As budget cuts have targeted America’s shipping sector, the Trump administration’s commitment under Ms. Chao has been questioned
The Trump administration has left little doubt that the federal government is willing to use its clout to boost certain American industrial sectors, including coal and steel. Those efforts have not extended to the maritime industry under Ms. Chao’s leadership.
The Transportation Department budget during her tenure has repeatedly called for cuts for programs intended to support the depressed system of American-flagged ships. The agency budget has also called for scaling back plans to replace up to five academy ships to train a new generation of American mariners.
Agency officials noted that many of the cuts were forced on the department by the White House, and that some of the same programs had been previously targeted, only to see the money restored by Congress, as happened again with the Trump cuts.
With the action by Congress, the plans to build the new training ships are now back on track, and overall maritime spending is up. But the proposed cuts have led to bipartisan questions about the Trump administration’s commitment to shipping.
Transportation Department officials say that Ms. Chao has been a champion for the United States maritime system, and that her actions as the head of the agency have nothing to do with her family’s business in China. In China, the Chao family has for decades offered scholarships to students training to join the fast-growing shipping industry there.
“My family are patriotic Americans who have led purpose-driven lives and contributed much to this country,” Ms. Chao said in a statement.
Ms. Chao’s family ties to the shipping company and her dealings in China raise ethical issues
Image
A certificate being presented to Ms. Chao in her role as an international adviser to the city of Wuhan.Credit...Imaginechina, via Associated Press Images
Ms. Chao hasn’t held a formal position at Foremost since the late 1970s, but she has repeatedly used her connections and status to boost the company’s reputation and visibility.
As transportation secretary, she attended a Foremost contract-signing ceremony in New York in 2017. The other party to the contract, the Sumitomo Group of Japan, was subject to Transportation Department oversight for transit projects. Two months later, she canceled a China trip after officials at the American embassy in Beijing raised ethical concerns when her office asked to have family members from the shipping company participate in events.
The Transportation Department provided no reason for the trip’s cancellation, though a spokesman later cited a cabinet meeting President Trump had called at the time.
At her confirmation hearing, Ms. Chao did not mention her family’s extensive ties to the Chinese maritime industry. She also did not disclose several accolades she had received in China — including a role as an international adviser to the city of Wuhan — though the Senate questionnaire requires nominees to list all honorary positions. An agency official described that as an oversight.
Marilyn L. Glynn, a former general counsel at the Office of Government Ethics, said Ms. Chao should recuse herself from decisions that broadly impacted the shipping industry. “She might be tempted to make sure her family company is not adversely affected in any policy choices, or it might even just appear that way,” Ms. Glynn said.
The department spokesman denied the existence of any conflict, saying that “the family business is not in U.S.-flag shipping.” Angela Chao, Foremost’s chief executive, said her sister Elaine attended Foremost events “as a family member.”
Mr. McConnell benefited from his marriage into the Chao family
s. Chao and Mr. McConnell married in 1993, but her campaign donations, along with those of her parents, sisters and brothers-in-law, began flowing years before the wedding. The first $10,000 came in June 1989. In the 30 years since, 13 members of the extended Chao family have given a total of more than $1 million to Mr. McConnell’s campaigns and to political action committees tied to him. In 2008, James Chao gave the couple a gift of as much as $25 million, vaulting Mr. McConnell into the ranks of the richest senators.
In a statement, Mr. McConnell said he was proud to have his family’s support.
As Glenn Bunting of the Los Angeles Times reported in 1997, Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum “has expanded his private business interests in China – to the point that his firm is now a prominent investor inside the communist nation.” In 1995, Dianne Feinstein became a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “giving her a prominent platform for her efforts to support China’s trade privileges.”
As Ben Weingarten noted in the Federalist in 2018, Feinstein’s husband has “profited handsomely from the greatly expanded China trade she supported.” The senator also “served as a key intermediary between China and the U.S. government, while serving on committees whose work would be of keen interest to the PRC.”
For 20 years, through three election cycles, Feinstein maintained on her staff a Chinese spy who would even attend consular functions for the California Democrat. One wonders what the FBI knew, when they knew it, and what they did about it, if anything.
Other politicians with China business connections include Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi , whose husband has conducted a series of deals in the Communist nation. Recall that Speaker Pelosi kept Eric Swalwell on the House Intelligence Committee even after his “PoonFang” liaisons with a Chinese spy (FEINSTEIN LONG EMPLOYED A CHINESE SPY).
‘Red-Handed’: 20 Republicans Who Sold Out to China U.S. Congress, Nicolas Asfouri/Getty Images, AP, Wikimedia Commons, BNN Edit 11:57
A total of 20 former and current elected Republicans are named in Peter Schweizer’s new bestseller Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) talks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on October 6, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his wife, former President Trump’s Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, “enjoy some of the deepest and most abiding ties to Beijing- linked entities of anyone in Washington, D.C.,” Schweizer writes.
Those ties mostly stem from Chao’s fathers’ massive shipping business, the Foremost Group, which has built the family’s fortune by sharing a close financial relationship with China-owned companies like the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC).
After McConnell visited Beijing, China in 1993, alongside Chao, the Foremost Group received 10 mammoth ships from China-owned companies between 2001 to 2011.
“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,” Schweizer notes.
Former President George H.W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush
Former President George H.W. Bush, right, clenches his fist as he hugs son Jeb during a Florida GOP fund-raiser in Tampa on September 16, 1994. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
The Bush family’s ties to China began before former President George H.W. Bush became vice president to former President Ronald Reagan but flourished when he became Commander in Chief.
Prescott Bush, Bush Sr.’s brother, met with Chinese officials in Beijing in February 1989 just days before the president was set for an official visit. Prescott’s meeting helped close the deal to build a golf club in Shanghai, China for non-Chinese business executives when they were visiting the country.
Prescott also met with Chinese officials, on that same trip, to push for the creation of a communications network across China. Prescott was trying to secure the deal on behalf of New York-based Asset Management International Financing and Settlement Ltd. which had been paying him $250,000 a year.
Months later in 1989, Bush Sr. lifted U.S. restrictions on exporting satellite technologies to China — a boon for Prescott’s client, Asset Management. Prescott would later launch the U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce (USCCC) which exists to this day and has sought to further tether the U.S. economy to China.
When former President George W. Bush entered the Oval Office, Schweizer writes that “a new generation of Bushes began securing deals with Chinese officials” including Bush’s brothers, Neil Bush Jeb Bush.
Neil, for example, scored a $400,000 annual salary working for the Chinese company Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing which had deep political ties in China. Neil also a China-linked firm called the Interlink Management Corporation.
Jeb, in 2013 after leaving office, began meeting with a number of Chinese business executives. Later, he created Britton Hill Holdings and raised $26 million to invest in a liquid petroleum shipping company backed by the China-based HNA Group “with close ties to Beijing’s “red aristocracy,’” Schweizer writes.
Former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH)
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) on September 24, 2015. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
While Speaker of the House, former Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) “took positions and actions that were highly beneficial to Beijing,” Schweizer writes.
Particularly, in 2011, Boehner single-handedly blocked legislation that would have held China to account for its years of currency manipulation after the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. deployed the lobbying firm, Squire Patton Boggs, to lobby lawmakers against the bill. Boggs was paid $35,000 to block the legislation.
“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,” Boehner said at the time.
After leaving office in 2015, Boehner became a “strategic advisor” for Boggs. The firm, Schweizer writes, is “one of the most powerful in the United States, has deep and abiding ties to the Chinese government.”
“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,” Schweizer writes. “These include ChemChina, China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, Huawei, and Wanhua Chemical Group.”
Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour
Gov. Haley Barbour at a news conference in Jackson, Mississippi, on January 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
One of China’s “most effective organizations cultivating Chinese interests on Capitol Hill,” known as the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation (CUSEF),” signed former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s lobbying firm BGR Group as a client.
CUSEF, founded by Chinese billionaire Tung Chee-hwa who has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, has paid Barbour’s BGR Group about $370,000 to lobby on its behalf.
Former Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington on August 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The Chinese surveillance company Hikvision, which is owned mostly by a China-controlled defense corporation known as the China Electronics Technology Group, has been hired by the Chinese Communist Party to monitor the nation’s Uyghurs ethnic minority who are held in prison camps.
Former Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), a partner at the lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs with former Rep. Toby Moffett (D-CT), has taken Hikvision as a client to lobby for their interests in Washington, D.C.
Vitter and Moffett’s firm was $70,000 a month to represent Hikvision.
Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad addresses a joint session of the Iowa Legislature in Des Moines, Iowa, on February 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
After being appointed by Trump as U.S. Ambassador to China, former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad — who admittedly considers Chinese President Xi Jinping an “old friend” — sought to get the former president to back away from “restrictions on goods and services trading,” Schweizer writes.
Branstad’s sons, Marcus Branstad and Eric Branstad, have even deeper ties to China.
Marcus Branstad, for instance, lobbies on behalf of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) which opposed Trump’s U.S. tariffs on China. The ACC’s members include the Chinese company Wanhua Chemical Group whose largest shareholder is China’s government agency in charge of state-owned companies.
Eric Branstad previously served as Trump’s Iowa director in the 2016 presidential campaign and later got a job in the administration as the U.S. Commerce Department’s liaison to the White House. While at his post, he befriended Bryan Lanza, a lobbyist working on behalf of the China-owned company, the ZTE Corporation, for Mercury Public Affairs.
In June 2018, after leaving the Trump administration, Eric Branstad traveled to Shanghai with Bryan Lanza and Li Zhao — the Iowa-based business consultant who was previously investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for intellectual property theft.
After the trip, which included meetings with Chinese officials, the Trump administration settled their dealings with ZTE. Eric Branstad went on to work for Mercury Public Affairs for a few years and now works as a “senior advisor” at Trump’s Save America PAC.
Former Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA)
Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on May 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
After failing to secure a job as Trump’s top trade representative, former Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) was hired by CUSEF — founded by Chinese billionaire Tung Chee-hwa who has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party — as part of its lobbying arm in Washington, D.C.
In 2019, Boustany took former lawmakers to China on a trip sponsored by CUSEF while at the same time lobbying the Trump administration against U.S. tariffs on China via the group “Tariffs Hurt the Heartland.”
Former Sen. Norman Coleman (R-MN), former Rep. Connie Mack IV (R-FL), and former Rep. Jon Christensen (R-NE)
From left to right: Sen. Norman Coleman (R-MN), Rep. Connie Mack IV (R-FL), and Rep. Jon Christensen (R-NE). (United States Congress)
The China-owned ZTE Corporation, linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), has been represented in Washington, D.C. by the likes of former Sen. Norman Coleman (R-MN) as well as former Reps. Jon Christensen (R-NE) and Connie Mack IV.
Coleman’s firm, Hogan Lovells, has cashed in nearly $3 million in 2019, alone, lobbying for ZTE’s interests on Capitol Hill.
Former Sen. William Cohen (R-ME)
Secretary of Defense William Cohen speaks at a briefing at the Pentagon on June 3, 1999. (WILLIAM PHILPOTT/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2001, former Sen. William Cohen (R-ME) created the Cohen Group which now has two offices in China out of its four total offices. Executives with the firm, including Cohen, have sought to popularize among U.S. lawmakers China’s Belt and Road infrastructure projects despite its use of forced labor.
“I think it’s a very important project,” Cohen Group executive Marc Grossman previously said of Belt and Road. In addition to lobbying on China’s behalf, Cohen is a government advisor in China to the mayor of the Tianjin Municipal Government and is an honorary professor at Nankai University.
Former Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-AR) and former Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)
Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), right, and Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), left. (United States Congress)
The brother of Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), now works as a lobbyist for the Chinese Communist Party-linked e-commerce corporation Alibaba.
Hutchinson’s firm, Greenberg Traurig, was paid $200,000 in 2020. Former Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) is also a part of the lobbying deal representing Alibaba.
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS), former Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), and former Rep. Jeff Dehman (R-CA)
From left to right: Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS), Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), and Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA). (United States Congress)
China’s Tencent Holdings company, linked to the Ministry of Public Security and the PLA, makes technology and products to help the Chinese Communist Party control the nation’s 1.4 billion residents. Former Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) is a lobbyist for the company, scoring $330,000 for his firm in 2020, alone.
Likewise, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) is a lobbyist for ByteDance which operates the population social media application TikTok. Schweizer writes that “there are [Chinese Communist] Party cells within [ByteDance’s] corporate structure, and the company admits that it censors political content.”
Former Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) also lobbies on ByteDance’s behalf. His firm raked in $160,000 from the Chinese company in 2020.
Former Reps. Lee Terry (R-NE), Jack Kingston (R-GA), and Cliff Stearns (R-FL)
From left to right: Reps. Lee Terry (R-NE), Jack Kingston (R-GA), and Cliff Stearns (R-FL). (United States Congress)
The Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, with close ties to the PLA, enjoys lobbying services from former Reps. Lee Terry (R-NE) and Cliff Stearns (R-FL), among others. Stearns, with the firm APCO Worldwide, has lobbied for the PLA-linked China Ocean Shipping Corporation (COSCO).
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, Schweizer notes, told employees in 2018 to “wage war” on the West and urged them to “surge forward, killing as you go, to blaze us a trail of blood.”
Meanwhile, former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) has lobbied on behalf of the China-owned chemical company ChemChina.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here .
Watters: The Five (CRIME) Families of the Democrat Party
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBpvvHethg0
THE BIDEN KLEPTOCRACY American people deserve to know what China was up to with Joe Biden , especially when Beijing had already shelled out millions of dollars to Biden family members — including millions in set-asides for “the big guy.” What else is on that infamous Hunter Biden laptop? The conflicted Biden Justice Department cannot be trusted to engage in any meaningful oversight on this issue. We need a special counsel now. TOM FITTON - JUDICIAL WATCH
Peter Schweizer’s ‘Red-Handed’ Hits #1 on New York Times Bestseller List for 3rd Week in a Row Photo: Nicole Myhre 6:57
Peter Schweizer’s blockbuster new book Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win number one on the New York Times bestseller list for the third week in a row since its release by HarperCollins.
Schweizer, whose past books have sparked an FBI investigation and exposed congressional insider trading that spearheaded groundbreaking legislation, has called the revelations in Red-Handed the “scariest” of his quarter-century career investigating corruption.
As the book’s subtitle states, Red-Handed exposes the vast complicity of elites – from politicians to diplomats to business, tech, and entertainment tycoons – who have enriched themselves by advancing the interests of China’s communist regime.
Schweizer, who is the president of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Institute (GAI) and a Breitbart News senior contributor, spent over a year conducting the research for Red-Handed with his team of forensic investigators at GAI, combing through a trove of financial and corporate records. The book contains 1,093 endnotes and 81 pages of source material with no off-the-record sources, making it easier for federal law enforcement and U.S. intelligence services to track down the book’s bombshell revelations.
Indeed, Breitbart reported Wednesday that U.S. House Republicans have introduced the “Stop CCP Act” to impose sanctions on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, including Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and his family. The legislative proposal comes on the heels of the shocking revelations in Schweizer’s book.
Leaders on Capitol Hill — including Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) — are also calling for Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate the revelations in Red-Handed concerning President Joe Biden’s family members’ business dealings with individuals with direct ties to the highest levels of China’s spy apparatus.
The New York Post’s editorial board echoed these calls in an op-ed headlined, “Appoint a special counsel on Hunter Biden—now.”
Breitbart’s coverage of Red-Handed’s revelations include:
How the Biden family scored some $31 million from five deals in China, all with individuals with direct ties to the highest levels of China’s intelligence apparatus How a Chinese global energy company linked to a Chinese intelligence operation sent close to $6 million to Hunter Biden in 2017 How American elites — including the Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe — purposefully aid the communist regime of China How donations from Communist China to the University of Pennsylvania almost tripled after the university established a “Biden Center” in 2017 and gave former Vice President Joe Biden a professorship How Hunter Biden planned to share his family’s office space in Washington, DC, with a Chinese intelligence-linked firm that employed a man Hunter described as “the f**king spy chief of China ” How Hunter Biden’s business deals were helpful to the Belt and Road Initiative, which is China’s colonialist scheme for buying influence across the Third World and luring poor nations into taking loans from Chinese banks they can never repay How 23 former U.S. senators and congressmen (most of whom are Republican) have lobbied for Chinese military or intelligence-linked companies after leaving office How politicians use tepid criticism of China’s human rights abuses as cover to continue doing Beijing’s bidding — a concept the CCP refers to as “big help with a little bad mouth ” How members of the Bush family cashed in on friendship with the Chinese official involved in the Tiananmen Square massacre How the husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee, was the part owner of a Chinese firm that allegedly sold computers with spyware chips to the U.S. military How House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) softened her previous criticism of the Chinese Communist Party as her husband and son scored big business deals in China How Pelosi reined in her criticism of the 2008 Beijing Olympics after her family members were involved in business ventures in China that would benefit from the 2008 Games How Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has followed in his father Pierre’s footsteps both in assuming high office and in using it to further the interests of the Chinese Communist Party How Wall Street titan Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone launched a $100 million global education scholarship program for Americans and other students studying in China to inculcate the superiority of Chinese communism How Antony Blinken helped American universities “navigate problems” of legally balancing their Pentagon contracts while still accepting Chinese funding of dubious origin , and how he encouraged the U.S. government to deny political asylum to a high profile Chinese Communist Party defector who could have been a priceless intelligence asset for the United States How American universities have often not complied with federal laws when it comes to accepting donations linked to the Chinese Communist Party Schweizer’s track record investigating both Republicans and Democrats is well-established, winning him a unique mix of bipartisan praise for his investigative work from both the left and the right. After the release of Schweizer’s bestselling Clinton Cash , liberal columnist Eleanor Clift called Schweizer “an equal-opportunity investigator, snaring Republicans as well as Democrats.” Clift added: “It’s a mistake for the Clinton campaign to write off conservative author Peter Schweizer as a right-wing hack. It won’t work, and it’s not true.” Similarly, Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessing wrote that “on any fair reading, the pattern of behavior that Schweizer has charged is corruption.”
Schweizer is also the author of Throw Them All Out , which, according to left-leaning Slate , was “the book that started the STOCK Act stampede.” The bipartisan STOCK Act (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) banned insider trading by members of Congress and was signed into law by President Barack Obama on April 4, 2012. The legislation received overwhelming support from both parties. One of the main figures featured in Schweizer’s Throw Them All Out , then-chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Spencer Bachus (R-AL), announced he would not seek reelection after the book’s reporting. CBS’s 60 Minutes did an investigative report on Schweizer’s revelations that won them the Joan Shorenstein Barone Award for excellence in Washington-based journalism.
Schweizer: Joe Biden Was a ‘Beneficiary’ of Hunter’s Deals with China
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Breitbart News senior contributor Peter Schweizer said Tuesday on FNC’s “America’s Newsroom” that President Joe Biden was a “beneficiary” of his son Hunter’s business deals with China.
Schweizer, the author of Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win
He continued, “We knew that there was a commercial tie in the past, that Hunter Biden put it together. I broke story in 2018. What we now know are two separate strands that are critically important. Using the Hunter Biden laptop and using emails from a Gmail account of one of Hunter’s business partners, he gave us access to the email account. We now know that every deal that the Bidens got in China came through individuals with links to the highest level of Chinese intelligence.”
Schweizer added, “We also now know that Hunter Biden did these deals, but the larger family benefited. We know that James Biden, Joe Biden’s brother, got at least $2 million of that money from China. We also now know that Hunter Biden was subsidizing his father’s lifestyle. He was paying for his bills. He was paying for renovations on his home up in Delaware while Joe Biden was Vice President of the United States. It’s not only illegal according to ethics laws. It also shows that Joe Biden is now a beneficiary of the foreign dealings that Hunter Biden has had. It’s no longer good enough for him to say, well, I didn’t have anything involved. He was a beneficiary.”
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It’s Hard To Believe This Is Happening
For 20 years, through three election cycles, Feinstein maintained on her staff a Chinese spy who would even attend consular functions for the California Democrat. One wonders what the FBI knew, when they knew it, and what they did about it, if anything.
Other politicians with China business connections include Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi , whose husband has conducted a series of deals in the Communist nation. Recall that Speaker Pelosi kept Eric Swalwell on the House Intelligence Committee even after his “PoonFang” liaisons with a Chinese spy (FEINSTEIN LONG EMPLOYED A CHINESE SPY).
Mr. McConnell benefited from his marriage into the Chao family
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2020/12/senator-mitch-mcconnell-yes-my-wife.html
The first $10,000 came in June 1989. In the 30 years since, 13 members of the extended Chao family have given a total of more than $1 million to Mr. McConnell’s campaigns and to political action committees tied to him. In 2008, James Chao gave the couple a gift of as much as $25 million, vaulting Mr. McConnell into the ranks of the richest senators.
In a statement, Mr. McConnell said he was proud to have his family’s support.
It is little wonder that Mitch McConnell turned on Trump in recent days even though the President helped him get re-elected. Mr. McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao’s family earns money from a shipping company with Chinese ties and Chao likes to help out.
Across America, breaking the law often means there are no consequences
By Jerold Levoritz
Let’s begin with the conclusion so as not to keep anyone waiting: Punishment under the law is no longer acceptable in a “woke” society. One may still be subjected to legal prosecution if the crime threatens the Left, as happened to Donald Trump, Carter Paige, and Michael Flynn. “Truth,” however, has nothing to do with such prosecutions of convenience, although punishment is highly acceptable under informal social norms. So, we have “cancel culture” that can ruin a person’s life in an afternoon, moving right along until the victim enters his eternal rest.
Rejecting legal punishment except in political cases can be seen in the West Coast’s aversion to prosecuting street crimes such as trespassing, mugging, and serious violence resulting in bodily injury. Just this afternoon, as I am writing, Portland, Oregon has decided not to prosecute someone who drove into a Proud Boy in a parking lot and then left the scene. In the olden days, this was a pure crime, but unworthy of charges at this time and in that venue.
In another case, the prosecutor of a case told the murder victim’s family to “keep their mouth shut.” If victims and their families have no standing, punishment is increasingly irrelevant. The proper “woke” attitude towards victims is that all that happened to them was they had some really bad luck.
From where does this impulse to ignore punishment arise? Most rationalizations explaining this phenomenon do not interest me. I have my own!
Those holding political power who downplay punishment desperately need a punishment-free society to protect themselves from investigation and jail time. If everyone else can get away scot-free, so can those who wield power.
In fact, not only should everyone be allowed to get away scot-free, but they should not even be subjected to questioning about their deeds. My wife keeps laughing at me for continuing to believe Hillary should be wearing orange.
Donald Trump is hated because he blew the whistle on the big game. He brought the entire official Washington world down on him by talking about the “swamp” and calling the fake news “fake.”
It is little wonder that Mitch McConnell turned on Trump in recent days even though the President helped him get re-elected. Mr. McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao’s family earns money from a shipping company with Chinese ties and Chao likes to help out. The continuation of Mr. Trump’s tough line against China could easily cause the collapse of Ms. Chao’s portfolio and that loss of income can only be prevented with Mr. Trump’s timely retirement.
From the Chao example, does it not seem logical and desirable to the average person that our lawmakers should be conflict-of-interest free when they consider our national legislation. Under benign business conditions, having important connections is a good thing, an advantage that helps businesses prosper, but things can quickly get out of hand.
What we have here is a feeding frenzy. As the Federal honey pot keeps growing, gorging by the elected elite has become the rule. If China offers cash upfront, who’s to say no now that the Chinese are defined as “good guys”? In this way “treason” loses its nasty edge. If the New World Order is an ethical position, how can a “local” government like the United States impose punishment for treason on those who work for One World!
So, what we have here, in the end, is a problem of values. For the individual, voting gives him the status of being an American citizen, but the “swamp” can argue that the horrible ignorance of the average voter is too much for a modern functioning government to bear. What the “swamp” never argues is that it too is too ignorant to control a complex system that changes without notice. As long as it can call itself and the money men “good,” there are no crimes either it or its voters can commit; there are only political crimes the other side commits.
The genius of Trump is his extraordinary flexibility. That is what is necessary to respond to quickly changing conditions. Without that extreme flexibility, which requires high intelligence, rejection of dogma, and the complete refutation of self-interest, there is no hope of “making things better.” We will spiral out of control as we bathe in increasing amounts of misallocated money until the monetary system collapses.
It is for this reason that we must beg each other to do the right thing by giving Trump his due – four more years. Maybe the behemoth of government and its enticement to riches can be reduced in that time.
For the Chao Family, Deep Ties to the
As transportation secretary, Elaine Chao is the top Trump official overseeing the maritime industry. Her family owns Foremost Group, a shipping company. Credit...Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times
By Michael Forsythe and Eric Lipton
The family of Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary and wife of Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, has high-level political connections not only in the United States but also in China. That gives the family unusual status in the world’s two largest economies.
Through interviews, industry filings and government documents from both countries, The New York Times found that the Chaos, and by extension Mr. McConnell, prospered as the family’s shipping company developed deeper business ties in China. Along the way, one of the company’s boosters was Ms. Chao, who now oversees efforts to promote America’s own maritime industry, which is in steep decline as China’s shipping sector rises in global dominance. Here are five takeaways.
The Chao family’s connections to the Chinese state go back decades
James S.C. Chao, 91, Ms. Chao’s father, studied navigation at a university in Shanghai before fleeing the mainland ahead of the Communist takeover in 1949. His schoolmate for a time was Jiang Zemin, who would become China’s president.
As China was emerging from decades of turmoil in 1984, the Chao family took a stake in a state-owned Chinese manufacturer of marine electronic equipment, documents show. The company targeted sales to China’s military, among other sectors, and was closely affiliated with a ministry run by Mr. Jiang. After Mr. Jiang came to lead the Communist Party a few years later, Mr. Chao met with him at least six times, including in August 1989 in Beijing — inside the party’s secretive leadership compound. Chao family members said they could not recall this investment.
The family shipping company is centered on China
Image
The main gate of the Shanghai Waigaoqiao shipyard, a building site for Foremost ships.Credit...Giulia Marchi for The New York Times
Foremost Group, the New York-based shipping company founded by Mr. Chao in 1964, landed its first big contract with the United States government, shipping rice to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.
Now, it builds most of its ships in state-owned shipyards in China, with some financed by Chinese government loans. In at least two instances, those Chinese-backed, Chinese-built ships entered long-term contracts to deliver iron ore for a state-owned steel maker.
More than 70 percent of Foremost’s freight goes to China, and most of that is iron ore, according to recent shipping data. The cargo helps feed China’s industrial machine, which manufactures steel products that are a point of dispute in the deepening trade war between China and the United States. The company describes itself as a small international business and says it does not have a particular focus on China, beyond what most dry bulk carriers have in a world dominated by Chinese manufacturing.
As budget cuts have targeted America’s shipping sector, the Trump administration’s commitment under Ms. Chao has been questioned
The Trump administration has left little doubt that the federal government is willing to use its clout to boost certain American industrial sectors, including coal and steel. Those efforts have not extended to the maritime industry under Ms. Chao’s leadership.
The Transportation Department budget during her tenure has repeatedly called for cuts for programs intended to support the depressed system of American-flagged ships. The agency budget has also called for scaling back plans to replace up to five academy ships to train a new generation of American mariners.
Agency officials noted that many of the cuts were forced on the department by the White House, and that some of the same programs had been previously targeted, only to see the money restored by Congress, as happened again with the Trump cuts.
With the action by Congress, the plans to build the new training ships are now back on track, and overall maritime spending is up. But the proposed cuts have led to bipartisan questions about the Trump administration’s commitment to shipping.
Transportation Department officials say that Ms. Chao has been a champion for the United States maritime system, and that her actions as the head of the agency have nothing to do with her family’s business in China. In China, the Chao family has for decades offered scholarships to students training to join the fast-growing shipping industry there.
“My family are patriotic Americans who have led purpose-driven lives and contributed much to this country,” Ms. Chao said in a statement.
Ms. Chao’s family ties to the shipping company and her dealings in China raise ethical issues
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A certificate being presented to Ms. Chao in her role as an international adviser to the city of Wuhan.Credit...Imaginechina, via Associated Press Images
Ms. Chao hasn’t held a formal position at Foremost since the late 1970s, but she has repeatedly used her connections and status to boost the company’s reputation and visibility.
As transportation secretary, she attended a Foremost contract-signing ceremony in New York in 2017. The other party to the contract, the Sumitomo Group of Japan, was subject to Transportation Department oversight for transit projects. Two months later, she canceled a China trip after officials at the American embassy in Beijing raised ethical concerns when her office asked to have family members from the shipping company participate in events.
The Transportation Department provided no reason for the trip’s cancellation, though a spokesman later cited a cabinet meeting President Trump had called at the time.
At her confirmation hearing, Ms. Chao did not mention her family’s extensive ties to the Chinese maritime industry. She also did not disclose several accolades she had received in China — including a role as an international adviser to the city of Wuhan — though the Senate questionnaire requires nominees to list all honorary positions. An agency official described that as an oversight.
Marilyn L. Glynn, a former general counsel at the Office of Government Ethics, said Ms. Chao should recuse herself from decisions that broadly impacted the shipping industry. “She might be tempted to make sure her family company is not adversely affected in any policy choices, or it might even just appear that way,” Ms. Glynn said.
The department spokesman denied the existence of any conflict, saying that “the family business is not in U.S.-flag shipping.” Angela Chao, Foremost’s chief executive, said her sister Elaine attended Foremost events “as a family member.”
Mr. McConnell benefited from his marriage into the Chao family
s. Chao and Mr. McConnell married in 1993, but her campaign donations, along with those of her parents, sisters and brothers-in-law, began flowing years before the wedding. The first $10,000 came in June 1989. In the 30 years since, 13 members of the extended Chao family have given a total of more than $1 million to Mr. McConnell’s campaigns and to political action committees tied to him. In 2008, James Chao gave the couple a gift of as much as $25 million, vaulting Mr. McConnell into the ranks of the richest senators.
In a statement, Mr. McConnell said he was proud to have his family’s support.
As Glenn Bunting of the Los Angeles Times reported in 1997, Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum “has expanded his private business interests in China – to the point that his firm is now a prominent investor inside the communist nation.” In 1995, Dianne Feinstein became a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “giving her a prominent platform for her efforts to support China’s trade privileges.”
As Ben Weingarten noted in the Federalist in 2018, Feinstein’s husband has “profited handsomely from the greatly expanded China trade she supported.” The senator also “served as a key intermediary between China and the U.S. government, while serving on committees whose work would be of keen interest to the PRC.”
For 20 years, through three election cycles, Feinstein maintained on her staff a Chinese spy who would even attend consular functions for the California Democrat. One wonders what the FBI knew, when they knew it, and what they did about it, if anything.
Other politicians with China business connections include Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi , whose husband has conducted a series of deals in the Communist nation. Recall that Speaker Pelosi kept Eric Swalwell on the House Intelligence Committee even after his “PoonFang” liaisons with a Chinese spy (FEINSTEIN LONG EMPLOYED A CHINESE SPY).
‘Red-Handed’: 20 Republicans Who Sold Out to China U.S. Congress, Nicolas Asfouri/Getty Images, AP, Wikimedia Commons, BNN Edit 11:57
A total of 20 former and current elected Republicans are named in Peter Schweizer’s new bestseller Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) talks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on October 6, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his wife, former President Trump’s Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, “enjoy some of the deepest and most abiding ties to Beijing- linked entities of anyone in Washington, D.C.,” Schweizer writes.
Those ties mostly stem from Chao’s fathers’ massive shipping business, the Foremost Group, which has built the family’s fortune by sharing a close financial relationship with China-owned companies like the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC).
After McConnell visited Beijing, China in 1993, alongside Chao, the Foremost Group received 10 mammoth ships from China-owned companies between 2001 to 2011.
“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,” Schweizer notes.
Former President George H.W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush
Former President George H.W. Bush, right, clenches his fist as he hugs son Jeb during a Florida GOP fund-raiser in Tampa on September 16, 1994. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
The Bush family’s ties to China began before former President George H.W. Bush became vice president to former President Ronald Reagan but flourished when he became Commander in Chief.
Prescott Bush, Bush Sr.’s brother, met with Chinese officials in Beijing in February 1989 just days before the president was set for an official visit. Prescott’s meeting helped close the deal to build a golf club in Shanghai, China for non-Chinese business executives when they were visiting the country.
Prescott also met with Chinese officials, on that same trip, to push for the creation of a communications network across China. Prescott was trying to secure the deal on behalf of New York-based Asset Management International Financing and Settlement Ltd. which had been paying him $250,000 a year.
Months later in 1989, Bush Sr. lifted U.S. restrictions on exporting satellite technologies to China — a boon for Prescott’s client, Asset Management. Prescott would later launch the U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce (USCCC) which exists to this day and has sought to further tether the U.S. economy to China.
When former President George W. Bush entered the Oval Office, Schweizer writes that “a new generation of Bushes began securing deals with Chinese officials” including Bush’s brothers, Neil Bush Jeb Bush.
Neil, for example, scored a $400,000 annual salary working for the Chinese company Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing which had deep political ties in China. Neil also a China-linked firm called the Interlink Management Corporation.
Jeb, in 2013 after leaving office, began meeting with a number of Chinese business executives. Later, he created Britton Hill Holdings and raised $26 million to invest in a liquid petroleum shipping company backed by the China-based HNA Group “with close ties to Beijing’s “red aristocracy,’” Schweizer writes.
Former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH)
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) on September 24, 2015. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
While Speaker of the House, former Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) “took positions and actions that were highly beneficial to Beijing,” Schweizer writes.
Particularly, in 2011, Boehner single-handedly blocked legislation that would have held China to account for its years of currency manipulation after the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. deployed the lobbying firm, Squire Patton Boggs, to lobby lawmakers against the bill. Boggs was paid $35,000 to block the legislation.
“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,” Boehner said at the time.
After leaving office in 2015, Boehner became a “strategic advisor” for Boggs. The firm, Schweizer writes, is “one of the most powerful in the United States, has deep and abiding ties to the Chinese government.”
“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,” Schweizer writes. “These include ChemChina, China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, Huawei, and Wanhua Chemical Group.”
Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour
Gov. Haley Barbour at a news conference in Jackson, Mississippi, on January 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
One of China’s “most effective organizations cultivating Chinese interests on Capitol Hill,” known as the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation (CUSEF),” signed former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s lobbying firm BGR Group as a client.
CUSEF, founded by Chinese billionaire Tung Chee-hwa who has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, has paid Barbour’s BGR Group about $370,000 to lobby on its behalf.
Former Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington on August 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The Chinese surveillance company Hikvision, which is owned mostly by a China-controlled defense corporation known as the China Electronics Technology Group, has been hired by the Chinese Communist Party to monitor the nation’s Uyghurs ethnic minority who are held in prison camps.
Former Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), a partner at the lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs with former Rep. Toby Moffett (D-CT), has taken Hikvision as a client to lobby for their interests in Washington, D.C.
Vitter and Moffett’s firm was $70,000 a month to represent Hikvision.
Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad addresses a joint session of the Iowa Legislature in Des Moines, Iowa, on February 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
After being appointed by Trump as U.S. Ambassador to China, former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad — who admittedly considers Chinese President Xi Jinping an “old friend” — sought to get the former president to back away from “restrictions on goods and services trading,” Schweizer writes.
Branstad’s sons, Marcus Branstad and Eric Branstad, have even deeper ties to China.
Marcus Branstad, for instance, lobbies on behalf of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) which opposed Trump’s U.S. tariffs on China. The ACC’s members include the Chinese company Wanhua Chemical Group whose largest shareholder is China’s government agency in charge of state-owned companies.
Eric Branstad previously served as Trump’s Iowa director in the 2016 presidential campaign and later got a job in the administration as the U.S. Commerce Department’s liaison to the White House. While at his post, he befriended Bryan Lanza, a lobbyist working on behalf of the China-owned company, the ZTE Corporation, for Mercury Public Affairs.
In June 2018, after leaving the Trump administration, Eric Branstad traveled to Shanghai with Bryan Lanza and Li Zhao — the Iowa-based business consultant who was previously investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for intellectual property theft.
After the trip, which included meetings with Chinese officials, the Trump administration settled their dealings with ZTE. Eric Branstad went on to work for Mercury Public Affairs for a few years and now works as a “senior advisor” at Trump’s Save America PAC.
Former Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA)
Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on May 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
After failing to secure a job as Trump’s top trade representative, former Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) was hired by CUSEF — founded by Chinese billionaire Tung Chee-hwa who has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party — as part of its lobbying arm in Washington, D.C.
In 2019, Boustany took former lawmakers to China on a trip sponsored by CUSEF while at the same time lobbying the Trump administration against U.S. tariffs on China via the group “Tariffs Hurt the Heartland.”
Former Sen. Norman Coleman (R-MN), former Rep. Connie Mack IV (R-FL), and former Rep. Jon Christensen (R-NE)
From left to right: Sen. Norman Coleman (R-MN), Rep. Connie Mack IV (R-FL), and Rep. Jon Christensen (R-NE). (United States Congress)
The China-owned ZTE Corporation, linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), has been represented in Washington, D.C. by the likes of former Sen. Norman Coleman (R-MN) as well as former Reps. Jon Christensen (R-NE) and Connie Mack IV.
Coleman’s firm, Hogan Lovells, has cashed in nearly $3 million in 2019, alone, lobbying for ZTE’s interests on Capitol Hill.
Former Sen. William Cohen (R-ME)
Secretary of Defense William Cohen speaks at a briefing at the Pentagon on June 3, 1999. (WILLIAM PHILPOTT/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2001, former Sen. William Cohen (R-ME) created the Cohen Group which now has two offices in China out of its four total offices. Executives with the firm, including Cohen, have sought to popularize among U.S. lawmakers China’s Belt and Road infrastructure projects despite its use of forced labor.
“I think it’s a very important project,” Cohen Group executive Marc Grossman previously said of Belt and Road. In addition to lobbying on China’s behalf, Cohen is a government advisor in China to the mayor of the Tianjin Municipal Government and is an honorary professor at Nankai University.
Former Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-AR) and former Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)
Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), right, and Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), left. (United States Congress)
The brother of Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), now works as a lobbyist for the Chinese Communist Party-linked e-commerce corporation Alibaba.
Hutchinson’s firm, Greenberg Traurig, was paid $200,000 in 2020. Former Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) is also a part of the lobbying deal representing Alibaba.
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS), former Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), and former Rep. Jeff Dehman (R-CA)
From left to right: Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS), Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), and Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA). (United States Congress)
China’s Tencent Holdings company, linked to the Ministry of Public Security and the PLA, makes technology and products to help the Chinese Communist Party control the nation’s 1.4 billion residents. Former Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) is a lobbyist for the company, scoring $330,000 for his firm in 2020, alone.
Likewise, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) is a lobbyist for ByteDance which operates the population social media application TikTok. Schweizer writes that “there are [Chinese Communist] Party cells within [ByteDance’s] corporate structure, and the company admits that it censors political content.”
Former Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) also lobbies on ByteDance’s behalf. His firm raked in $160,000 from the Chinese company in 2020.
Former Reps. Lee Terry (R-NE), Jack Kingston (R-GA), and Cliff Stearns (R-FL)
From left to right: Reps. Lee Terry (R-NE), Jack Kingston (R-GA), and Cliff Stearns (R-FL). (United States Congress)
The Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, with close ties to the PLA, enjoys lobbying services from former Reps. Lee Terry (R-NE) and Cliff Stearns (R-FL), among others. Stearns, with the firm APCO Worldwide, has lobbied for the PLA-linked China Ocean Shipping Corporation (COSCO).
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, Schweizer notes, told employees in 2018 to “wage war” on the West and urged them to “surge forward, killing as you go, to blaze us a trail of blood.”
Meanwhile, former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) has lobbied on behalf of the China-owned chemical company ChemChina.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here .
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