Biden Admin Scrapped China Counterspy Program Under Activist Pressure, Republicans Say
Decision follows high-profile cases against Chinese nationals accused of spying in United States
Chuck Ross • March 31, 2022 3:30 pmRepublican lawmakers are challenging the Biden administration's decision to shut down the Justice Department's China Initiative following a series of high-profile cases against Chinese nationals accused of spying in the United States.
A trio of House Republicans allege in a letter to the Justice Department that the agency scrapped the Trump-era China Initiative due to pressure from progressive activists and the Chinese Communist Party. Republicans will also introduce a bill this week to require the Justice Department to release an annual report laying out the agency's efforts to combat China's national security threat.
"The Biden administration's decision to end the China Initiative appears to be motivated by nothing more than identity politics," Reps. Scott Fitzgerald (R., Wis.), Michael Waltz (R., Fla.), and Andy Biggs (R., Ariz.) said in a letter to Matthew Olsen, the head of the department's national security division.
Olsen announced an end to the China Initiative last month, even as he acknowledged the program was driven by "genuine national security concerns" over China's aggressive espionage activity on U.S. soil. Olsen cited complaints from civil rights groups that the initiative had "fueled a narrative of intolerance and bias" against Chinese Americans.
China hawks praised the initiative, launched in 2018, as necessary to address the massive counterintelligence threat posed by China. FBI director Christopher Wray has said that the U.S. government is conducting 2,000 investigations into China's theft of trade secrets from American companies and universities, as well as into Beijing's counterintelligence operations.
Fitzgerald and Waltz said that China steals intellectual property worth $600 billion from the United States each year, much of it used to build up China's military capability.
"The decision to end the China Initiative shows the Biden administration's eagerness to sacrifice national security to appease political activists and the Chinese Communist Party," the Republicans wrote to Olsen.
The Justice Department has revealed several criminal cases against Chinese government operatives since scrapping the China Initiative last month. Olsen announced charges on March 16 against five Chinese nationals accused of stalking and harassing anti-CCP dissidents living in the United States. The operatives allegedly targeted a House candidate who had organized the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. One operative, Fan "Frank" Liu, cultivated ties for years to Rep. Tom Suozzi (D., N.Y.), the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Olsen on Wednesday announced charges against another Chinese national who took part in "Operation Fox Hunt," a Chinese government initiative to repress dissent from Chinese nationals overseas. The defendant, Sun Haiying, is accused of hiring private investigators to wage a campaign of intimidation against critics of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Republican bill, dubbed the China Initiative Accountability Report Act, would require the Justice Department to release an unclassified report detailing China’s trade secret and intellectual property theft, as well as threats posed by academics and researchers working covertly for the Chinese government. The Justice Department in recent years has charged numerous researchers who failed to disclose ties to China's People’s Liberation Army while working at U.S. universities.
Rep. Jordan blasts media over Hunter Biden story: This 'was as real as it gets'
WaPo Admits Hunter Profited $4.8M from Chinese Energy Deal
Hunter Biden profited $4.8 million in retainer and consulting fees from a Chinese energy company though 2017 and 2018, the Washington Post admitted on Tuesday.
After ignoring the story for 532 days after it broke in 2020, the Post finally acknowledged Joe Biden’s son performed business transactions with CEFC China Energy for millions of dollars. Hunter’s windfall follows years of rubbing shoulders with powerful international companies and individuals while Joe Biden was chair of the Foreign Relations Committee and vice president.
In the process of reporting Hunter’s corrupt business dealings, the paper also confirmed Hunter’s previously reported “fake” laptop was indeed Hunter’s “laptop from hell” — the same laptop the establishment media falsely reported as “Russian disinformation” over and over again. In fact, 15 establishment media personalities claimed Hunter’s laptop emails were likely Russian propaganda. Perhaps most famously, CBS News reporter Lesley Stahl falsely told President Trump in 2020 that Hunter’s “laptop from hell” could not be verified.
According to the Post’s belated authentication, Hunter secured millions of dollars in just 14 months:
But the new documents — which include a signed copy of a $1 million legal retainer, emails related to the wire transfers, and $3.8 million in consulting fees that are confirmed in new bank records and agreements signed by Hunter Biden — illustrate the ways in which his family profited from relationships built over Joe Biden’s decades in public service.
[…]
Over the course of 14 months, the Chinese energy conglomerate and its executives paid $4.8 million to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and his uncle, according to government records, court documents and newly disclosed bank statements, as well as emails contained on a copy of a laptop hard drive that purportedly once belonged to Hunter Biden.
The Post did not find evidence that Joe Biden personally benefited from or knew details about the transactions with CEFC, which took place after he had left the vice presidency and before he announced his intentions to run for the White House in 2020.
The Post’s authentication follows the New York Times authentication two weeks ago.
In contrast, the laptop was authenticated in October of 2020 by the New York Post’s Emma-Jo Morris, who now is Breitbart News’s political editor. Morris authenticated the laptop before the presidential election, when businessman Tony Bobulinski corroborated his participation in a meeting with Hunter and then-Vice President Biden in Washington, DC, to discuss “the Bidens’ family business plans with the Chinese.”
Bobulinski has since confirmed the famous line, “ten held by H for the big guy,” was in reference to a discussed plan for Hunter to hold equity on behalf of his father.
Joe Biden claimed before the election he never spoke with Hunter about Hunter’s business dealings. “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” Joe Biden told the media.
But the Post reported Tuesday that Hunter had office keys made for Joe Biden, “his mother, Jill; his uncle James; and the Chinese executive, Gongwen Dog.” The office was apparently rented to facilitate the nearly $5,000,000 dollar contract he won from the Chinese energy company. Whether Joe Biden knew his son had keys made for him is unknown.
Hunter is allegedly under investigation for tax fraud concerning his foreign dealings. It is unknown if the investigation may implicate the president of the United States.
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