Tuesday, August 8, 2023

JOE BIDEN'S INVASION OF CHINESE SPIES - Large numbers of Chinese illegal aliens are showing up in America

 

Large numbers of Chinese illegal aliens are showing up in America

For all four years of Trump’s presidency, the Democrat establishment never let up: “Russia! Russia! Russia!”—as if a corrupt country with a dying population and a minimal industrial base was a threat to us. (The Dems never minded the very powerful Soviet Union.) Donald Trump tried very hard to get America to focus on the real risk, which is China. All the Chinese stories in the news of late show he was correct…and a new one has just been added to the list, which involves Chinese citizens (foot soldiers?) being smuggled into America.

Here are just a few things to consider about China vis-à-vis America:

Image: Chinese “migrants” at the border (cropped). YouTube screen grab.

While it’s true that China has problems—a drastically declining population and an artificially inflated economy, for starters—it’s still a global threat because it seeks to empower itself by spreading its empire. After all, having an empire sending riches home is what kept both Rome and England at the top of the heap for so long.

The main threat to China’s push for dominance is America. It’s true that we’ve become a markedly less consequential country under Biden (a trend that started under Obama or, heck, even under Clinton), but we still matter. We’re still China’s greatest geopolitical rival.

Therefore, it’s unnerving to know that, among the millions of military-aged men from around the world marching across our open southern border, many are Chinese. This NBC article tries to make it sound as if the “at least 4,300 Chinese undocumented migrants” apprehended are tired, hungry, huddled masses but, if you look at the pictures, they’re military-aged men. And that’s just the ones who were caught.

Now we learn that the government is worried that Chinese illegal aliens are also slipping into America through Florida:

Federal authorities are growing increasingly concerned about a route Chinese migrants are utilizing to make their way to Florida illegally, according to an internal federal intelligence report obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The report states that law enforcement lacks information regarding who is coordinating the smuggling between the Bahamas and Florida, where the migrants are being staged in the Bahamas and why Chinese migrants are choosing the Caribbean island. It also references recent incidents of Chinese nationals entering Florida illegally via the Bahamas.

There have been five such incidents of Chinese migrants attempting to “self-smuggle” from the Bahamas, according to the report. One incident took place on July 16 and involved a group of six Chinese migrants.

The numbers of those caught are small (27), but the feds admit that “It is unclear, however, how many of the total number of Chinese migrants caught by Florida authorities used the Bahamian smuggling route.” They really know nothing.

I know I sound paranoid, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. And over the last 20 years, with accelerating speed of late, China has been doing everything it can to impress upon us that (to switch metaphors) it’s in the driver’s seat, and we’re being taken for a ride.


Chinese Buyers Back Making US Home Purchases After Beijing Ends Lockdowns

Catherine Yang
August 5, 2023Updated: August 7, 2023

0:003:31

Chinese homebuyers are making a comeback in the United States now that Beijing has lifted its “zero COVID” policy, and they’re showing more interest in homes and vacation residences than investment properties as they did a decade ago, a recent report found.

“Home purchases from Chinese buyers increased after China relaxed the world’s strictest pandemic lockdown policy,” said National Association of Realtors (NAR) Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.

The NAR’s yearly report on foreign purchases of U.S. residential real estate pointed to an overall dip that it attributed largely to the COVID-19 pandemic and the current lack of U.S. housing inventory. NAR is the country’s largest trade association, representing both residential and commercial real estate industries.

Purchases from China dominated foreign buying of U.S. homes in recent months, totaling $13.6 billion.

The average purchase price of these homes was $1.23 million, far higher than the average international purchase ($639,900), the international median ($386,400), and the median sales price of all U.S. home purchases ($384,000)

“For all but three months of the year covered by the report, China was locked down with closed borders, yet Chinese buyers still accounted for one-fourth of the $53.3 billion spent by foreign buyers on a U.S. home,” Kashif Ansari, co-founder and CEO of Malaysia-based Juwai IQI, a property technology company, told the South China Morning Post.

“Only about one in every 10 Chinese buyers is purchasing purely as an investment, which is a big change from the mid-2010s, when wealthy Chinese consumers looked to diversify their wealth out of China.

“In 2023, the typical Chinese buyer is no longer an offshore investor but is on their way towards becoming an American resident and citizen.”

With Chinese buyers out of the picture, the past two years saw a significant drop in foreign purchases.

The last report, ending this March, was 9.6 percent lower in dollars and 14.2 percent down in the number of properties, which NAR says is the lowest since 2009. That’s partly due to the housing shortage, and NAR is predicting that it’ll rise again in the coming years, especially with Chinese buyers in the market.

“Sharply lower housing inventory in the [United States] and higher borrowing costs across the world have dented international buyers for two straight years,” Yun said. “However, recovering international travel following the end of the pandemic will bring more foreign transactions in coming months and years.”

Where Are They Buying?

Florida remains the top destination for foreign buyers for the 15th year, with 23 percent of purchases being made in the Sunshine State.

California followed at 12 percent but was the top destination for Chinese buyers (33 percent of purchases), while Texas, North Carolina, and Arizona rounded out the top five.

According to NAR, Florida, Texas, and Arizona have consistently been attractive to foreign buyers, even with potential heat waves and price increases.

The majority (51 percent) of foreign buyers reside in the United States, as NAR’s report classifies recent immigrants (less than two years at the time of purchase) and nonimmigrant visa holders as foreign buyers.

It found that 76 percent of these buyers purchased detached single-family homes or townhomes, and 50 percent planned to use the properties as vacation homes or rentals.

China Recruits BLM to Protest for Slavery

Will the next race riots be Made in China?

Remember how Russia supposedly elected Trump using only the television ad budget of a failed congressional race in Amish country?

The Senate intelligence report actually found that “most of the videos” put up by Moscow “pertained to police brutality and the activist efforts of the Black Lives Matter organization”.

The Russians had created their own Black Lives Matter groups, activists and protests. Their favorite ‘Black Russian’ hate groups included Marxists who under their “gender non-conforming” leader marched through Atlanta shouting, “Kill the police! To get free, you’ve got to kill the pigs.”

Not to be outdone, the People’s Republic of China decided to join the fun by paying black nationalists to organize rallies against a ban on solar panels produced by its slave laborers.

In a historical irony, black nationalists went out to protest in defense of slavery.

At least two known protests were organized in Washington D.C. where a crowd waved signs outside the White House with terrible slogans like  ‘Solar Panels are Paneless, Leave Them Alone’, and ‘I’m Getting Heated,- Leave My Solar Panels Alone.’ Coverage of a previous rally by an alleged Chinese propaganda outlet claimed that “except for Caucasians, other races are restricted by law in terms of rights, and they even do not have the right to participate in politics.”

The organizer of the first rally has since been identified as Imani Wj Wright, a black nationalist activist who told CNN that he was hired through a gig work site to set up a flash mob. The organizer of the second rally is unknown but a photo displayed on Chinese propaganda sites featured a woman holding up signs related to the Socialist Worker organization. It’s unknown if the British leftist group actually took part in the solar panel protest in Washington D.C.

While the Chinese effort to recruit Black Lives Matter to its cause may seem more amateurish than the Russians, Beijing is slowly picking up on the vocabulary of wokeness. Chinese propaganda coverage of its own protests claimed that “anti-racist educators link racism and white privilege, insisting that they are essentially intertwined concepts—as long as there is any form of racism, a certain form of white privilege will work” and that, “before advocating global peace and democracy, the US should resolve its domestic conflicts and protect people’s livelihood rather than go bare-handed on the world stage.”

That was big of the People’s Republic of China which had responded to the outbreak of the Wuhan Virus by blaming it on African workers and expelling them from hotels and housing to stop the disease. Then there was the time that Communist state television decided to celebrate its relationship with black people by having a Chinese woman in blackface with a fruit basket on her head accompanied by a monkey shouting, “I love Chinese people! I love China!”

And this was Chinese state television actively trying not to be racist.

The Chinese Communist dictatorship obviously doesn’t have any respect for its useful idiots, but this latest revelation is a reminder that black nationalism remains a dangerous fifth column.

There had already been evidence of collusion between Chinese front groups and BLM activists during the race riots of 2020, but here the Communist dictatorship appeared to be recruiting black activists to explicitly campaign for its own economic goals inside the United States.

In 2020, Black Lives Matter riots inflicted the worst enemy assault on American cities since 9/11. It’s not surprising that on seeing the handiwork of the racist domestic terrorist movement that China is interested in being in the BLM business. Chinese propaganda outlets have amplified and tried to incite racial conflict after police shootings. Xinhua, a state propaganda outlet, has tweeted out the racist BLM hashtag and showed up to interview people in hot spots.

Chinese diplomats practicing confrontational ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomacy have used slogans such as, “I can’t breathe” and accused America of racism. This follows an extended history of alliances between Maoists and black nationalists. When Robert F. Williams fled the United States, he headed to Castro’s Cuba, then to China where he wrote and dispatched his propaganda to the United States. In China, Williams tried to form ties between the Nation of Islam and the Communist regime for a joint campaign to overthrow America.

“Let me thank our great leader and teacher, the architect of people’s warfare, Chairman Mao Tse-tung, for his great and inspiring statement in support of our struggle. And to our great Chinese brothers and true revolutionaries throughout the world, we revolutionary Afro-Americans vow that we shall take the torch of freedom and justice into the streets of racist America and we shall set the last great stronghold of Yankee imperialism ablaze with our battle cry of Black Power!” Williams, who is remembered as a civil rights leader, had declared.

Communist China had welcomed a Black Panther delegation led by domestic terrorist Huey P. Newton. “What I experienced in China was the sensation of freedom,” Newton claimed after meeting with Premier Zhou Enlai. It’s a long way from that to paying a few protesters to march around Washington D.C. chanting, “Solar, solar, you are not the controller”.

China is trying to rebuild its relationships with black nationalist groups. The trouble though is that while the PRC is officially Communist, it’s not the brand of brutal revolutionary mass murder that convinced Williams, Newton and others that the future lay with Maoism not with Moscow.

Maoist China was able to convince black nationalists that it represented a revolutionary vanguard, but today it all too obviously stands for nothing except a Han Chinese oligarchy. And how better can Beijing demonstrate that than by organizing black nationalists to chant in favor of Chinese slave labor solar panels. While China may not especially excite the “trained Marxists” of BLM, the existence of a fifth column remains an ongoing national security threat.

If Beijing decides to invest enough money in BLMers, the next race riots may be Made in China.

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Daniel Greenfield

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

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Exclusive — Devon Archer’s Wife Holds 10% Stake in Same Chinese-State-Backed Fund as Hunter Biden’s Lawyer

Krista Archer
drkristaarcher.com

Devon Archer’s wife, Krista Archer, holds a ten percent stake in a Chinese-state-backed investment fund, BHR Partners, the same fund in which Hunter Biden’s lawyer controls a ten percent stake, according to legal documents unearthed by nonprofit Marco Polo and exclusively obtained by Breitbart News.

Krista Archer’s stake in BHR Partners is notable because Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s best friend in business and who co-founded BHR Partners in 2013 with the president’s son, testified on Monday before Congress regarding BHR Partners, a fund in which the Archer family has an ongoing interest.

The documents raise questions about if Devon Archer divulged his family’s stake in BHR Partners to investigators. Such information could be relevant to the congressional probe into the Biden family.

A source with knowledge of the documents confirmed their authenticity to Breitbart News in April. Now that Devon Archer has resurfaced in the news, the documents are newly relevant.

Devon and Krista Archer did not reply to a request for comment when asked about Mrs. Archer’s ownership stake in BHR Partners through Ulysses Diversified, Inc.

On Monday, Devon Archer told investigators during his testimony that Hunter Biden put then-Vice President Joe Biden on speakerphone more than 20 times with business associates to sell “the brand.” One of those phone calls included a dinner in China with Jonathan Li, the third co-founder of BHR Partners. The official transcript of Devon Archer’s testimony does not appear to include any reference to his wife’s share in the Chinese-state-backed fund.

It is unknown why Devon Archer’s wife would hold a ten percent stake in BHR Partners. 

Krista Archer is a medical doctor and mother of three children. She practices medicine in New York City at Northwell Health/Lenox Hill Hospital, where she specializes in podiatry. She is associated with the American Board of Multiple Specialties in Podiatry. She also sports her own foot care retail line called the Arch. She has made a number of appearances on network television:

According to a document titled “Equity Transfer Agreement,” Krista Archer acquired a ten percent stake in BHR Partners on March 18, 2017, from Devon Archer through Ulysses Diversified, Inc.

The document is signed by Krista Archer, Devon Archer, and Eric Schwerin, “President” of Skaneateles, LLC, an entity that also acquired a ten percent stake in BHR PartnersThe equity agreement is written in both Mandarin and English.

Equity Transfer Agreement – Executed Version by Breitbart News on Scribd

Breitbart News confirmed in April with a source familiar with the document that Krista Archer maintains her ten percent stake in BHR Partners. Krista Archer is also listed on a 2023 document titled “AMENDED AND RESTATED JOINT VENTURE CONTRACT of BHR PARTNERS (SHANGHAI) EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND MANAGEMENT CO., LTD. A FOREIGN-FUNDED ENTERPRISE.”

The document shows Krista Archer is the managing partner of Ulysses Diversified, Inc., a Delaware corporation that opened in 2016. The corporation’s address is tied to an address in a commercial office space complex in Wilmington, Delaware.

On page five of the confidential document, it says, “Ulysses shall subscribe for 10% of the Company’s registered capital, i.e., RMB3,000,000.” BHR Partners claims it maintains 22 billion Chinese Yuan (RMB) in various portfolio companies, translating to more than three billion USD.

Attachment 4 2023 Updated Joint Venture Contract en 0419 Final by Breitbart News on Scribd

In addition, the source with knowledge of the transaction confirmed that “Kevin Morris is the ‘managing partner’ of Skaneateles, LLC’ and that ‘Skaneateles has a 10 percent stake in the [BHR] venture.’” Kevin Morris, Hunter Biden’s top attorney, who paid Hunter’s IRS debts, controls Hunter’s stake in BHR Partners, Breitbart News reported in April. 

Author Kevin Morris, who is also Hunter Biden’s attorney, attends his “White Man’s Problems” book release party on June 3, 2014, in Los Angeles, California. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

According to Chinese public records from Baidu, Skaneateles, LLC has an ownership stake of ten percent in BHR Partners. Hunter Biden controlled Skaneateles as the sole governor until its dissolution in September 2021, a Washington, D.C., registration form indicates. 

Hunter Biden allegedly divested from BHR Partners after increased pressure due to a conflict of interest upon President Joe Biden assuming the White House.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer told the New York Times in the fall of 2021 that his client “no longer holds any interest, directly or indirectly, in either BHR or Skaneateles.”

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.


CUT AND PASTE YOUTUBE LINKS

Bidens don't seem to 'cover their tracks' in alleged China money web: Curley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQkbnOO-mbM

 SERVING RED CHINA: JOE BIDEN AT WORK

Biden admin is ‘enormously dangerous’ to the survival of America: Newt Gingrich

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB8YNrfbD_E

Did Hunter Biden Sleep with a Chinese Spy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn83Uk9pX2k

Hunter Biden faces possible subpoena after missing deadline to turn over docs

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6hxjrGHJ8I

 My colleague Peter Schweizer’s runaway bestseller, Red Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win, first revealed that the Biden family received some $31 million from the highest levels of Chinese intelligence at the same time Hunter was paying the vice president’s bills. Schweizer believes that there is a slam dunk case to indict Hunter Biden.

 VIDEO

CUT AND PASTE YOUTUBE LINK

Watters: I guarantee you Satan went to law school

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6Ln2aXLqWw

 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

 

Breitbart Political Editor Emma-Jo Morris’s investigative work at the New York Post on the Hunter Biden “laptop from hell” also captured international headlines when she, along with Miranda Devine, revealed that Joe Biden was intimately involved in Hunter’s businesses, appearing to even have a 10 percent stake in a company the scion formed with officials at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

 

Hunter has reportedly sold five paintings worth $75,000 each to an anonymous buyer. Hunter’s art dealer, Georges Bergès, has previously boasted he had strong ties to businessmen in Communist China, which has concerned many due to the Biden family’s business ventures abroad.

“We are 95% sure that that artwork went to China,” Comer said. “We don’t know where exactly that went to in China, but we’re going to try to find out when we get subpoena power.”

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

Biden family business dealings with China is a ‘national security issue’: Schweizer

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hew-Pm1d-0

 

 Peter Schweizer’s new book Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win tells the story of how Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) husband Richard Blum was part owner of a Chinese firm that allegedly sold computers with spyware chips to the U.S. military. The military has never been able to calculate how much sensitive data these computers allowed China to steal.

THE BIDEN KLEPTOCRACY

RIDING THE DRAGON: The Bidens' Chinese Secrets (Full Documentary)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRmlcEBAiIs

BlackRock, MSCI Draw Congressional Scrutiny for China Investments

Eva Fu
By Eva Fu
August 1, 2023Updated: August 2, 2023
0:005:14

The world’s largest asset manager and a leading investment index provider are facing congressional probes for allegedly facilitating the flow of U.S. dollars into Chinese companies that the United States has deemed to be fueling China’s military or the regime’s human rights abuses.

In letters dated July 31 to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and MSCI head Henry Fernandez, the U.S. House’s China Select Committee stated that a brief review of MSCI indexes and BlackRock funds showed that the two companies together have directed investments to more than 60 Chinese entities already on the U.S. blacklist.

As a “direct result” of BlackRock’s and MSCI’s decisions, Americans who invested savings in their funds are now “unwittingly funding” Chinese companies that build weapons for the Chinese military known as the People’s Liberation Army, giving a hand to “the CCP’s stated mission of technological supremacy,” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), the committee’s chairman, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the ranking Democrat, wrote.

“It is unconscionable for any U.S. company to profit from investments that fuel the military advancement of America’s foremost foreign adversary and facilitate human rights abuses,” the lawmakers wrote, adding that the “massive flows of American capital” to these entities are “exacerbating an already significant national security threat and undermining American values.”

In the case of BlackRock, across five funds alone, the asset manager has invested more than $429 million in flagged Chinese firms, while nearly 5 percent of the MSCI China A Index is pegged to blacklisted entities. Such numbers, the lawmakers suspect, are only the tip of the iceberg.

The probe makes up part of the committee’s ongoing investigation into U.S. investments in China, which, in July, included venture capital firms that have invested in China-based artificial intelligence, semiconductor, and quantum companies.

MSCI logo
The MSCI logo is seen in an illustration photo on June 20, 2017. (Thomas White/Reuters)

A tough stance on China is one of the few issues that garner support from both political sides in the deeply divided Congress. The bipartisan House panel, formed in January, makes policy recommendations and has subpoena power, which Mr. Gallagher has said he would use if executives fail to cooperate with the committee probes.

“Both Democrats and Republicans can agree that we should not be funding PLA military modernization, supporting the CCP’s techno-totalitarian surveillance state, nor the CCP’s gross human rights abuses,” a source close to the committee told The Epoch Times.

MSCI has more than $13 trillion benchmarked to its products, making it one of the largest index providers globally. BlackRock oversees more than $9 trillion in assets, and is responsible to millions of U.S. investors who depend on its services for their future retirement.

BlackRock told The Epoch Times in a statement that it “complies with all applicable U.S. government laws” with “all investments in China and markets around the world,” and will continue to engage with the committee on the issues raised.

“Like many global asset managers, BlackRock offers our clients a number of strategies to invest in or exclude China from their portfolios. The majority of our clients’ investments in China are through index funds, and we are one of 16 asset managers currently offering U.S. index funds investing in Chinese companies,” a company spokesperson said.

MSCI, similarly, said it’s reviewing the request for information from the lawmakers.

“MSCI indexes measure the performance of equity markets available to international investors, and comply with all applicable U.S. laws. MSCI does not manage or recommend or facilitate investments in any country,” an MSCI spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

The Chinese entities on MSCI indexes include state-owned aerospace firm Aviation Industry Corp. China, which makes aircraft for the Chinese military; BGI Genomics, a military-linked Chinese genetics giant that the United States has found complicit in supporting forced labor; and ZTE, whose telecom equipment the United States banned last year, citing national security risks.

BlackRock, meanwhile, has funded a major subsidiary of China General Nuclear Power Group that the U.S. authorities accused of stealing U.S. nuclear technology, as well as that of China North Industries Group Co., producer of artillery shells and munitions for the Chinese military.

The lawmakers said they want to see a list of all the companies on MSCI indexes, as well as the thinking behind their inclusion, policies, and guidance documents relating to conflicts of interest that BlackRock has applied when engaging with China-linked entities, and details of U.S. investor exposure.


Lawmakers Raise Alarm Over TikTok’s Potential to Flood US Market With Slave Labor Goods

Dorothy LiEva Fu
By Dorothy Li and Eva Fu
July 31, 2023Updated: July 31, 2023

0:008:50

WASHINGTON—TikTok’s launch of a new shopping platform is causing concern among some U.S. lawmakers because of the prospect of the Chinese-owned video-sharing app flooding the U.S. market with the e-commerce business.

TikTok, owned by the Beijing-based tech giant ByteDance, is reportedly expanding its e-commerce business by introducing a new program in the United States as early as August.

Rather than partnering with U.S. merchants, TikTok will use the digital marketplace to sell goods manufactured in China, such as clothes and household gadgets, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed sources.

With the shopping feature, TikTok is eyeing to take on Temu and Shein, two fellow Chinese e-retailers that have gained explosive growth in the United States by directly selling low-cost products made mostly in China.

“TikTok will follow in the path blazed by Shein and Temu. That is, it will flood the U.S. market with slave-made goods, bypassing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act by keeping shipments below the $800 de minimis threshold for customs inspection,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told The Epoch Times.

Epoch Times Photo
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) speaks during a press conference in the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 11, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

“This will undermine American businesses, because who can compete with slave labor and duty-free entry? Worse, it will make American citizens complicit in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) genocide in Xinjiang.”

More than a million Uyghur and other Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in internment camps in China’s far-western Xinjiang region, where they have been subjected to forced sterilization, torture, and forced labor. The United States and other Western democracies have labeled Beijing’s actions a genocide. An independent tribunal in London in December 2021 reached the same conclusion.

In response, President Joe Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law in 2021, banning products from Xinjiang from being imported into the United States, unless companies could prove their suppliers don’t use forced labor. The law has been in effect since June 2022.

But lawmakers took note of a potential “loophole” in implementing the ban. Under current laws, products under $800 in valuation could enter the United States free of duty. These shipments could face fewer inspections by border officials related to the forced labor ban. Moreover, by avoiding tariffs and import duties, these digital marketplaces could sell products at low prices, offering them advantages over local retailers that buy in bulk.

Shein Garment Factory
A worker makes clothes at a garment factory that supplies Shein, a cross-border fast fashion e-commerce company in Guangzhou, in China’s southern Guangdong Province, on July 18, 2022. (Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images)

The two booming Chinese shopping apps, Shein and Temu, have been accused of taking advantage of the exemption rule, which is referred to as the de minimis provision, and shipping thousands of small packages directly to U.S. customers.

According to a congressional finding released in June, more than 30 percent of imported parcels under the de minimis provision were reported by Shein and Temu last year. Nearly half of such shipments were from China, it added.

In the report, the House Select Committee on the CCP accused Temu of failing to maintain “even the façade of a meaningful compliance program” that blocked products sourced from forced labor in China from being sold on its platform.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who is among the leading lawmakers in Congress pushing to clamp down on products made with forced labor in Xinjiang, raised concerns that merchandise sold on TikTok’s new marketplace could bypass the standard import controls.

The “Uyghur community, having been enslaved in an incredible, science fiction, high-track fashion is of concern to anybody who loves freedom in the world and who cares about human rights, and that was a big deal to say the products made with forced labor can’t come to the U.S.,” Mr. Merkley, co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, told The Epoch Times.

“So if this bypasses that in any way, that’s a problem.”

Epoch Times Photo
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) speaks during a hearing about “Corporate Complicity: Subsidizing the PRC’s Human Rights Violations” in Washington on July 11, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

The company last November quietly introduced the existing in-app shopping feature, TikTok Shop, to allow vendors to sell products by paying a commission on their sales. But for the new marketplace, TikTok will store and ship items and handle transactions, logistics, and customer service, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Additionally, TikTok is testing a new retail function, dubbed Trendy Beat, in the app’s British version. Products offered are shipped from China and sold by a subsidiary of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. A spokesperson for TikTok told media outlets they’re not testing the new program in the United States. But a trademark application filed in May for Trendy Beat suggested the social media company may be preparing to do so.

By expanding its e-commerce presence, TikTok is seeking to increase the gross merchandise value to as much as $20 billion from last year’s $4.4 billion, according to the report.

In response to a question from The Epoch Times at a press briefing, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel wouldn’t comment directly on TikTok’s initiative to sell goods made in China but said the Biden administration has moved to ban the Chinese-owned social media app on government devices.

Epoch Times Photo
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel speaks with reporters during a press briefing at the Department of State in Washington on July 27, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

“What I can say is from the State Department’s point of view, we’ve been clear—at least as it relates to TikTok—that they are not available or sanctioned to be used on State Department and U.S. government devices,” Mr. Patel said.

Mr. Rubio, calling for Congress to pass the Import Security and Fairness Act that he co-sponsored in June, said it’s time to ban TikTok.

“What matters more: a CCP-owned cellphone app or the economic health and moral security of our nation?” he asked.

The Epoch Times reached out to TikTok for comment but received none by press time.

National Security Concern

The push to ban TikTok, which has more than 113 million U.S. users a month, has been gaining momentum, at a time when threats stemming from the CCP’s global ambitions to challenge the liberal democratic world order are drawing broader concern.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed security concerns about the viral app that could hand over American users’ data to the Chinese authorities, given that China’s intelligence law compels “any organization or citizen” to “support, assist, and cooperate” with security and intelligence agencies when asked.

The popular China-owned platform has for years sought to minimize its links with Beijing—links that triggered efforts from the Trump administration to block TikTok from operating in the United States. In a number of public statements, the company has maintained that it stores U.S. user data locally and wouldn’t hand it to Chinese authorities if asked.

As the social media app moves aggressively into e-commerce, its handling of American users’ data has Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) concerned.

It’s important to ensure that “we’re not getting over to China or anyone else our information and access” that “they can play games with,” Mr. Meeks, House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member, told The Epoch Times.

“We’ve got to protect our records, our identity, and our people,” he said. “I don’t want anything that’s stored in China.”

Epoch Times Photo
U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), then-chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, gives remarks at the opening plenary session for the African and Diaspora Young Leaders Forum at the African American History and Culture Museum in Washington, on Dec. 13, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

More than half of U.S. states have banned government-owned devices from using TikTok. Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed legislation in May banning the social media app from operating in his state. TikTok is challenging the state-wide ban that is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

During a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on March 8, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that TikTok “screams out with national security concerns” and could be used as a tool by the CCP to manipulate the thinking of millions in the United States.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), like Mr. Rubio, called for a complete ban in the United States.

“Not only is the Chinese Communist Party stealing our data using TikTok, but they want to team up together to influence our manufacturing sector. If there was any question that the app is being used as a tool for the CCP to embed in American society, there shouldn’t be now,” she said.

Epoch Times Photo
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) speaks at a news conference on the Supreme Court at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, on July 19, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“They are a national security risk that should have no place in the U.S. while they are under CCP control.”

Jackson Richman contributed to this report.


Chinese Student With Military Ties Arrested for Alleged Visa Fraud

Catherine Yang
August 4, 2023Updated: August 4, 2023

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Chinese national Jiaxuemo Zhang, 28, was arrested and charged with criminal visa fraud, facing a maximum of 10 years in prison, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York Trini E. Ross announced on Aug. 3.

Mr. Zhang is pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Buffalo under an F-1 nonimmigrant visa issued by the U.S. Department of State in 2021 to study aerospace engineering. According to the complaint, Mr. Zhang conducted research and studied at Beihang University in China, which is known to do research for the Chinese military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). He omitted this information in his visa application outlining his education history and research activity. The only university listed was China University of Mining and Technology Beijing.

Beihang University is designated as one of China’s “Seven Sons of National Defense” and also houses nine major Chinese defense laboratories, including the National Laboratory of Computational Fluid Dynamics co-established with a military academy. Mr. Zhang conducted research in this laboratory.

During his time there, Mr. Zhang was also mentored by Chongwen Jiang, the deputy director of the Military Research Office.

Last December, Mr. Zhang began to apply to Ph.D. programs in the United States, and the agent on his case alleged the information on the CV he submitted differed from his visa application, revealing ties to Beihang University.

“My client is a Chinese student at the University at Buffalo. The Government alleges that he left information off his visa application to study in the United States. Mr. Zhang simply wanted to come here because America can provide him with the best education in the world. We look forward to sorting this all out as the case proceeds,” Fonda Dawn Kubiak, assistant federal public defender, told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times.

“Mr. Zhang entered a not guilty plea to the charge and is presumed innocent. The case is in the early stages of the criminal trial process. At this point, the defense team will review and assess the government’s evidence and thereafter formulate our defense as the case proceeds.”

Mr. Zhang appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael J. Roemer on July 28 and was released on conditions.

Students Collecting Technology for China

According to historical annual reports from Open Doors, there has been an explosion in the number of Chinese students enrolling in the United States in the past two decades, seeing a five-fold increase from 60,000 in 2000 to 317,000 in 2020. The constant upward trend dipped to 290,000 in 2021, but Chinese students still comprise the majority of international students.

In May 2020, then-President Donald Trump signed a proclamation suspending certain students and researchers from entry as nonimmigrants. The proclamation went into effect on June 1 of that year.

“The PRC authorities use some Chinese students, mostly post-graduate students and post-doctorate researchers, to operate as non-traditional collectors of intellectual property,” the proclamation reads.

These students and researchers “are at high risk of being exploited or co-opted” by China to acquire “sensitive United States technologies and intellectual property to modernize its military.”

The effort is “wide-ranging and heavily resourced” and “is a threat to our Nation’s long-term economic vitality and the safety and security of the American people,” the proclamation reads.

The proclamation barred nonimmigrant Chinese nationals from obtaining an F or J visa if they have received funding from, been employed by, studied at, or conducted research on behalf of entities with ties to China’s “military-civil fusion strategy” or its efforts to acquire foreign technologies. It makes an exception for students seeking to pursue undergraduate studies and asylum seekers, among others.

The FBI has repeatedly warned that China’s communist regime is targeting businesses, universities, and government research facilities to obtain artificial intelligence research and products in order to advance their own technologies, posing a national security threaT


Washington Post Gives Joe Biden ‘Four Pinocchios’ for Saying Hunter Never Made Money in China

Getty Images stock photo/studioKL, Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images, Breitbart News edit
Getty Images stock photo/studioKL, Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images, Breitbart News edit

The Washington Post‘s fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, gave President Joe Biden four Pinocchios for lying about his son Hunter Biden not making money in China.

Kessler documented two instances where Biden denied his son had made money in China.

In an October 22, 2020 presidential debate, Biden told moderator Kristen Welker: “My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, China. I have not had … the only guy who made money from China is this guy [Donald Trump]. He’s the only one. Nobody else has made money from China.”

In a September 29, 2020, debate, Trump told Biden, “Once you became vice president [Hunter Biden] made a fortune in Ukraine, in China, in Moscow and various other places,” to which Biden responded, “That’s not true.”

Kessler wrote:

But now, nearly three years later, Biden’s assertions have been directly rebutted by Hunter himself. In court testimony last week, the younger Biden acknowledged that he in fact had been paid substantial sums in China — the first official confirmation that this was the case.

He added, “What is clear is that Hunter Biden did receive ‘a dollar from China.'”

Kessler noted that Hunter’s admission came “shortly before” lawmakers were due to interview his former business partner, Devon Archer.

Kessler also reviewed what he said were the “facts” about Hunter’s past business dealings in China.

He noted that Hunter flew on his father’s Air Force aircraft when the then-vice president was on an official trip to China in 2013, and that by Hunter’s own admission, he used the trip to connect with a Chinese business partner, and even introduced the partner to his father.

FI:LE – In this Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013 file photo, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, waves as he walks out of Air Force Two with his granddaughter Finnegan Biden and son Hunter Biden at the airport in Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, Pool)

Kessler noted that 12 days after he was in China, Hunter joined the board of a just-formed investment advisory firm known as BHR (Bohai, Harvest and Rosemont), whose partners included Chinese entities, including the partner he introduced to his father.

The goal was to raise $1.5 billion, although they fell short of that, Kessler said. He wrote that Hunter later acquired a 10 percent interest in the entity overseeing the fund, but his lawyers claimed he divested of it after his father was elected president.

Kessler noted that after Biden left public office, Hunter in 2017 inked a deal with Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy, and that documents found on his laptop showed that over the course of 14 months, CEFC and its executives paid $4.8 million to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and Joe Biden’s brother, James.

Kessler also noted that a former Hunter business partner, Tony Bobulinski, said an email found on Hunter’s laptop about a proposed partnership agreement involving CEFC that said 10 percent would be “held by H for the big guy,” was a reference to Joe Biden.

“What wasn’t clear until now was how much money Hunter Biden personally received from these deals,” Kessler wrote.

Kessler wrote that last week, under questioning from U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, Hunter acknowledged he earned nearly $2.4 million in 2017 and $2.2 million in 2018, ” most of which came from Chinese or Ukrainian interests.”

Under questioning, he acknowledged that in 2017 he earned just under a million dollars from a company he formed (Hudson West) with a CEO of a Chinese business conglomerate, and then latter he earned an additional $644,000 from CEFC later that year.

He also acknowledged he earned $500,000 in directors fees from Ukrainian natural gas and oil company Burisma, as well as $70,000 from Romanian business interests.

Hunter acknowledged that on March 22, 2018, he received a “million dollar payment” for legal fees for Patrick Ho, a CEFC official who was later charged in connection with a scheme to bribe African leaders.

Kessler also noted that both Democrats and Republicans acknowledged that Devon Archer testified behind closed doors that Hunter had put his father on speaker phone with business associates about “20 times over the course of a decade” — despite Biden saying he had “never spoken to” his son about his business dealings.

Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s former business partner, arrives on Capitol Hill to give closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee in the Republican-led investigations into President Joe Biden’s son, in Washington, Monday, July 31, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Democrats and the White House claimed those instances did not amount to a “substantive” conversation.

A Biden aide told Kessler that at the time Biden made his false claims he was “addressing a barrage of false attacks by Donald Trump.”

Kessler conceded that Biden may have been sloppy in his phrasing, but concluded, “The fact remains that Biden, during the debate, denied his son had made money in China. In court last week, his son has said he earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from Chinese business deals.”

Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on TwitterTruth Social, or on Facebook. 

Dem Rep. Krishnamoorthi on Alleged Leak of Secrets to China: DOD Has to Do More to Protect Secrets 

On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) reacted to two Navy sailors being charged for sharing secret information with China by stating that “low-level folks in the military have access to too much classified or protected or sensitive information,” and the Department of Defense needs to do more to safeguard American secrets.

Krishnamoorthi stated that while he has a high degree of confidence that the U.S. can defend its interests in the Pacific, China is trying to get information about American operations in the Pacific, and it is “absolutely trying to get more of this information, and then, on the flip side, we have to do more to protect that information. And, quite frankly, I think it continues a pattern where I am concerned that low-level folks in the military have access to too much classified or protected or sensitive information, and that’s a separate issue that we have to tackle as well.”

He added, “I think they’re doing everything they can to target members of our military. They have 110,000 people in their equivalent of our CIA, which is called the Ministry of State Security, the MSS. And these people, around the world, are trying to go after targets, trying to recruit people like these individuals who were indicted recently. It’s a good thing that we uncovered this particular plot. But, going forward, obviously, we have to continue to be vigilant, because these folks, the CCP, are hell-bent on getting an information advantage on us.”

Co-host Boris Sanchez then asked, “Do you think the Pentagon is adequately protecting its secrets?”

Krishnamoorthi answered, “I think it could do more. I think it’s doing a decent job, but it needs to do more. What we know about the CCP is that roughly two-thirds of cyberattacks in the United States, just generally, come from the PRC. And, on top of that, they have recently been found to be planting malware in critical infrastructure related to military bases. I’m talking about power, water, and communications lines. They are, obviously, also trying to go after secrets within the Pentagon and at our federal contractors. And so, to that extent, we have to do a better job of promoting cybersecurity, not only at the Pentagon, but also in the private sector and making sure that those who are subject to attacks or victims of attacks are willing to share the information about it so we can all be protected.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett



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


5 People Referenced Joe Biden as the ‘Big Guy’

President Joe Biden following a bilateral meeting with Britain's Prime Minister on July 10, 2023, in London, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Leon Neal/Getty Images

Overwhelming evidence suggests the “big guy” is a monicker that represents President Joe Biden.

The monicker appears in an FBI informant form, text messages, and emails between Biden business associates. It also reportedly formed a part of the grand jury investigation into Hunter Biden, which IRS whistleblowers claim was politically influenced to protect the Bidens.

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When questioned if he is the identity behind the monicker, Joe Biden snapped: “Why do you ask such a dumb question?”

At least five individuals involved in the family business referenced Joe Biden as the ‘big guy.”

1) Mykola Zlochevsky

An FBI informant form publicly revealed Thursday shows Zlochevsky referred to Joe Biden as the “big guy.” Zlochevsky is the founder of Burisma Holdings. An FBI informant claimed in a FD-1023 form that Zlochevsky bribed Joe and Hunter Biden with $5 million each:

CHS mentioned Zlochevsky might have difficulty explaining suspicious wire transfers that may evidence any (Illicit) payments to the Bidens. Zlochevsky responded he did not send any funds directly to the “Big Guy” (which CHS understood was a reference to Joe Biden).

KIEV, UKRAINE - 2012/03/19: Ukrainian businessman and founder of the Burisma Holdings company, Mykola Zlochevsky during a media conference. On the evening of September 24, 2019, Democratic Speaker of the House from California, Nancy Pelosi announced that six committees of the House of Representatives would undertake a formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump. The impeachment inquiry has been initiated following a whistleblower complaint over allegedly dealings of US President Donald J. Trump with Ukraine. The whistleblower report claimed that President Trump had "pressured" Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky during a July 2019 phone call to launch investigations into the actions of former vice president and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden and involvement of his son Hunter Biden in the Burisma Holdings Company. In 2014 Hunter Biden , the son of then-US vice president Joe Biden was appointed to the board of Burisma Holdings, as Wikipedia webpage reported. (Photo by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Ukrainian businessman and founder of the Burisma Holdings company, Mykola Zlochevsky during a media conference. (Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

2) Gary Shapley

IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley said the leadership of the DOJ’s criminal investigation of Hunter Biden for alleged tax and gun violations prevented subordinates from investigating the “big guy.”

The whistleblower told Republicans:

Among other things, we wanted to question Walker about an email that said: “Ten held by H for the big guy.” We had obvious questions like who was H, who the big guy was, and why this percentage was to be held separately with the association hidden. But AUSA Wolf interjected and said she did not want to ask about the big guy and stated she did not want to ask questions about “dad.” When multiple people in the room spoke up and objected that we had to ask, she responded, there’s no specific criminality to that line of questioning.

Whistleblowers - IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley, left, and Joseph Ziegler, an IRS Agent with the criminal investigations division, are sworn in at a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing with IRS whistleblowers, Wednesday, July 19, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley, left, and Joseph Ziegler, an IRS Agent with the criminal investigations division, are sworn in at a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing with IRS whistleblowers on July 19, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

3) James Gilliar

Hunter Biden’s business partner, James Gilliardubbed Joe Biden ‘the big guy’ in a 2017 email. Gilliar used the monicker for Joe Biden in his May 13, 2017, email to whistleblower Tony Bobulinski, who confirmed “the big guy” was a reference to Joe Biden. The 2017 email revealed a business deal between Bobulinski, the Biden family, and high-ranking members of the Chinese Communist Party would include 10 percent “held by H for the big guy?”

Gilliar also called Joe Biden the “big guy” a second time on October 14, 2020, in an exchange with a panicked unnamed person, the New York Post reported:

Gilliar was asked if “Hunter and/or Joe or Joe’s campaign [would] try to make it ‘Oh, we were never involved’ … and try to basically make us collateral damage?”

“I don’t see how that would work for them…,” Gilliar responded in the 6:07 p.m. message reviewed by The Post.

“I think in the scenario that he wins they would just leave sleeping dogs lie,” Gilliar added. “If they lose, honestly, I don’t think that the Big Guy really cares about that because he’ll be too busy focusing on all the other s–t he is doing.”

4) Geoff Roger

An executive at wealth management company Glenmede Trust Company, Geoff Roger, used the monicker in an email to Hunter Biden about then-Vice President Joe Biden’s appearance at a dinner at Whitehall Neck Sportsman Club, a private club in Delaware in 2013.

Rogers wrote to the president’s son, “Hunt see below… I was not there but heard all about it. The big guy made them happy.”

5) Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden used the “big guy” monicker in a 2014 email to Chuck Harple, a trade union lobbyist, with whom Hunter Biden hoped to set a meeting between the head of the North American Building Trades Union and Joe Biden. The email came after not receiving a response after using an official channel.

I’ll work on it — but is there any issue I should know about before I go around everyone and straight to him?” Hunter questioned.

“What works best — for you and I — is for you to call [the union president] first. Say you talked to me and that you want to get all the facts before you talk to the big guy,” Harple replied.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

Getting Biden Wrong

By Paul Gottfried

Okay, I get it! From listening to Republican TV and reading Republican publications, I have learned that Joe Biden is a sleazy, mendacious, and demented chief executive. He has weaponized the entire Justice Department and the IRS against his real and suspected political opponents, thrown open our southern border to drug cartels, and reduced our armed forces and international posture to shambles. Moreover, Joe has a gangster son with whom he has engaged in illegal business ventures; and it’s entirely possible that the cocaine recently found in the West Wing of the White House came from son Hunter, who is a drug addict as well as many other bad things. 

 Biden seems to be far and away the most incompetent, unprincipled, and verbally incoherent president of my lifetime, going back to the 1950s. It would be hard to think of any president who has disgraced his office to the same degree or who has unleashed more problems on this country. 


The Media Throw Hunter Biden Under the Bus To Save the 'Big Guy'

Devon Archer (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
August 1, 2023

After years of ignoring, downplaying, and defending Hunter Biden’s scandals, the mainstream media appear ready to throw in the towel. It looks like the first son may have to take the fall to protect his dad, President Joe Biden.

How long till the media come for Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's former best friend and business partner, who testified on Monday that Joe Biden spoke to his son's business partners on speakerphone "over 20 times"?

Then: When news broke in June that Hunter Biden had been given a sweetheart plea deal to wrap up a wide-ranging investigation by the Joe Biden's Justice Department, the media rushed to declare the case closed. Coverage often treated Hunter Biden as a victim of drug addiction and ruthless partisan politics, as the Washington Free Beacon previously reported.

If anything, the charges against Hunter Biden are too harsh, per NBC News experts:

The federal gun charge, which makes it unlawful for a drug addict to possess a weapon, is a rarely used statute that is facing legal challenges and has recently been used as a catch-all charge against white supremacists.

Like the gun charge, the tax charges are rarely brought against first-time offenders and even more rarely result in jail time, Andrew Weissmann, a former FBI general counsel and NBC News contributor, tweeted Tuesday. "This is if anything harsh, not lenient," he wrote. ...

If you think about it, Biden is really a victim of his own brave honesty, CNN suggested:

It is a fascinating thing, though, certainly for Hunter Biden and the candidness of him talking about his substance abuse problems is what ended up causing some issues for him.

Looking ahead, the network predicted a national dialogue about Biden's "personal agonies and struggles with addiction":

Debate over the exact terms of the deal will likely play out until a federal judge finalizes the terms. As will the question of whether Hunter Biden’s conduct caused unnecessary political problems for his father or whether his family circumstances meant that his personal agonies and struggles with addiction played out on a far more public level than would have been the case for many people. ...

Meanwhile, MSNBC wanted to know: "How does Hunter Biden feel?"

"I think Hunter feels happy to move on with his life and his recovery," Biden's lawyer informed viewers. ...

There's just one problem, per ABC News: "It is clear Republicans are not going to drop [their investigations of Biden's corruption] despite the fact that there is nothing in this agreement to substantiate their concerns."

Reported CNN: "Hunter Biden ... is set to play a starring role in the 2024 election as Joe Biden’s political enemies seek to weaponize his son’s legal struggles—those that are real and those that are hyped by conservative media."

On MSNBC, former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) vented: "I don’t know what America [Republicans] live in. And I don’t know how they sleep at night. What do these jerks in the House want Joe Biden to do, throw [Hunter Biden] out, refuse to speak to him, say he doesn’t love him publicly?"

Now: After a series of developments in recent days credibly implicated Joe Biden in his son's scandals, the media pulled a motte and bailey and ditched Hunter Biden to defend the president, aka "the big guy."

To review the news: Archer told the House Oversight Committee under oath on Monday that Joe Biden talked to his son's foreign business partners all the time—rather than "never" as the White House had repeatedly claimed. Last week, a judge refused to "rubber stamp" the plea deal that would have given Hunter Biden sweeping immunity. Before that, two IRS whistleblowers testified that the Justice Department protected Biden from being charged with felonies in the case.

According to the New York TimesCNN, and others, the noteworthy part of Archer's testimony was that he said Biden sold the "illusion" of access to his father. In other words, Biden supposedly tricked his clients into paying him millions of dollars over many years for influence that Joe Biden never delivered as vice president.

On MSNBC, Hunter Biden's business dealings were suddenly agreed to be "obviously unseemly and problematic" "profiteering."

But it was equally obvious, as Politico's Jonathan Lemire put it, that Republicans "are trying to create a scandal when there's no evidence that they have one."

Lemire and the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson excused Joe Biden's involvement by noting that he was grieving during Hunter Biden's influence peddling.

"We know how important family is to the president," said Robinson. "So, do you hang up on your son?"

Meanwhile, the Times reported that Joe Biden's interactions with his son's business partners are old news anyway.

Flashback: The media's standards for proof of presidential wrongdoing haven't always been so demanding.

Published under: Devon Archer Hunter Biden Joe Biden Media Bias

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