Monday, August 29, 2022

THE LYING DEMOCRAT PARTY POLS - THEY ALL LIE LIKE A BIDEN OR A WARREN! - J.D. Vance Blasts Tim Ryan — ‘You Can’t Just Flip-Flop on Every Position You’ve Held’

And we deserve to have a good senator from Ohio — not a rubber stamp for Joe Biden.”


J.D. Vance Blasts Tim Ryan — ‘You Can’t Just Flip-Flop on Every Position You’ve Held’

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On Sunday, Ohio Republican Senate nominee J.D. Vance ripped his opponent, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), for “pretending that he’s something that he’s not.”

According to Vance, Ryan’s voting record and public statements don’t back up his claims in his television ads.

“I think we’re in a really good spot here in Ohio,” Vance told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo.

“The problem that my Democratic opponent, Tim Ryan, has is that he tries to be one thing on his TV commercials, but his voting record and his public statements just don’t back it up. So, on the one hand, he criticizes mildly Joe Biden’s debt forgiveness plan for college students. On the other hand, he voted for the exact same thing two years ago. And you can’t just flip-flop on every position you’ve held over the last two years and expect people to take it seriously.”

“So, I think we’re in a good spot against Tim Ryan,” he added. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, and I think we have to make sure that Ohio voters actually get out there and vote because if they don’t, we’re going to put a guy who supported defund the police and supported these inflationary policies into the Senate from Ohio. And we deserve to have a good senator from Ohio — not a rubber stamp for Joe Biden.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent


Biden accuses others of what he is guilty of

During a recent speech at a Democrat fundraiser, Joe Biden launched a scathing attack on President Donald Trump and his supporters, which include many GOP votes, lawmakers and governors.

He referred to the GOP as the “ultra-MAGA party” and called their political philosophy “semi-fascism.”

According to the Washington Post:

On Thursday night, he used newly ramped-up rhetoric in ways that the White House and Biden’s political advisers are signaling will be part of a no-holds-barred strategy for the midterms. The president accused the GOP of “semi-fascism” and said he doesn’t respect, and can’t work with, “MAGA Republicans” who he said “embrace political violence.” He hardened his assertion that democracy is under threat, and said the country could be facing the sort of test that comes every few generations, “one of the moments that changes everything.”

So what does MAGA Stand for?

Make America Great Again: MAGA is a nationalist movement.

MAGA stands against big government that entails overregulation and wasteful spending of taxpayer money. MAGA stands for freedom and liberty. MAGA stands for free market capitalism, which allows everybody with equal opportunity to rise based on their merits. MAGA stand for the will of the people, i.e., free and fair elections to determine the elected leader.

Democrats often cite MAGA’s opposition to illegal immigration to make their case for fascism. MAGA believes that each nation is an individual entity and places the interests and rights of tax-paying citizens foremost. Allowing an uncontrolled influx of unvetted illegal aliens drains the nation's resources, results in wage reductions or job losses on the citizens, and places the citizen in peril if the illegal migrant is of the criminal variety.

Democrats also claim MAGA’s opposition to illegal immigration is rooted in racism. It is racist to assume that all illegal migrants belong to the same race.

If nationalism is fascist, then every country in the world is fascist. The word is rendered meaningless.

So what is fascism?

A reference to the authoritarian movement led by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler beginning in the 1920s and 1930s.

It is a political philosophy that stands against a multiparty democracy. Fascists desire a one-party state where the big government controls everything, including the economy, the private sector, and free expression. In Fascist nations, political opponents are targeted using law enforcement agencies. The citizen is kept in the dark about facts. The media is coopted and spouts propaganda. Supporters of political opponents are monitored, threatened, and conferred with pejorative epithets.

In modern times, China totally fits that description.

There is only one party, i.e., the Chinese Communist Party, that rules with an iron fist. The economy is run by the government. Most companies, including 'private' enterprises, are subjected to punishing state regulations if not active government control. The government is often a partner in these firms. The media is run by the state. The citizen is fed propaganda. Any sign of political dissent and the opponent is crushed with extreme force. Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai who alleged she was sexually assaulted by a powerful Chinese official was compelled to retract her statement and retire from the game.

How about America under Biden?

COVID-19 was used to impose lockdowns that infringe on the right to freedom of movement and the right to earn a living.

The right of choice was overstepped upon by vaccine mandates; some were compelled to quit their jobs owing to their skepticism about the vaccine, and some who reluctantly took the vaccine to remain employed, are suffering from health issues. Now that they are exposed, the Democrats are blaming Trump for the vaccine, as always.

Dissent is grounds for vilification. Parents who opposed the teaching of critical race theory in school were labeled domestic terrorists.

The Biden administration set up the Orwellian ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ that sits in judgment of the utterances of regular citizens. Apparently, it's been gotten rid of, but it is impossible to trust a government with such a record of mendacity.

The nation is subjected to a series of disinformation campaigns, the Russian collusion hoax, the Ukraine call hoax, and now the insurrection hoax.

Donald Trump was the sole target of these hoaxes and is being persecuted via a series of gratuitous probes and  investigations. His crime was challenging the establishment and the deep state and vowing to ‘drain the swamp.’

There was an unprecedented raid without any basis on Trump’s Florida home of Mar-a-Lago. The FBI, which conducted the raid, released a mostly redacted affidavit that even obscures the reason for the raid.

This is how secret police functions in fascist nations.

Many of the January 6 protesters remain in jail as they await their trials. Some have been subjected to solitary confinement.  Biden’s Justice Department is seeking a sentence of 17 years in prison for one among the protestors. One among them committed suicide in despair. An unarmed protestor was shot dead, but the shooter faced no consequences, and in fact, the departed was vilified.

‘Protestors’ for causes that are supported by the establishment are seldom punished despite rioting, looting and destroying property. If they are arrested, they are bailed out by lackeys of the establishment.

It is not just regular citizens in the crosshairs; they even targeted a retired United States Army lieutenant general, Michael Flynn. Why? Because he planned to audit intelligence agencies as Trump’s National Security Advisor.

The FBI trapped Flynn on a process crime and found him in violation of a 1799 law called the Logan act that has never been prosecuted successfully. Flynn was sacked for lying to the vice president and the FBI. He was subjected to a Kafkaesque legal quagmire that bankrupted him. He continues to be vilified.

There are many in the establishment and the deep state who are guilty of worse, but will never receive even an iota of punishment.

The Democrats plan to hire 87,000 new IRS agents who will obviously harass the middle class quite likely in states that don’t vote Democrat. There are reports of citizens being targeted by the IRS. Most people do not have the financial resources and the patience to take on the government.  

For all the disinformation and demonization campaigns against anyone who is a threat to the status quo of the establishment, the media is a willing participant. The gladly recite talking points handed over to them. They often try to outdo each other in their quest for outrageous merely for a seat at the table. The suppress all news items that threaten or shut down anyone who tries to report the truth.

If this isn't fascism, what is?

Back to Biden.

He has always been a bloviating simpleton. Back in 2012, he was addressing an African-American group when he claimed Republicans would “put y’all back in chains.” Biden referred to Georgia’s 2021 voting law as “Jim Crow in the 21st century.”

Both were scandalous overstatements, trivializations of the darkest chapter in U.S. history, and a vile affront to the real victim of slavery and Jim Crow.

What is worse than a rambling ignoramus?

A rambling ignoramus afflicted by senility.

Every syllable Biden utters is read like a teleprompter. Like a parrot, Biden doesn’t always comprehend the sounds he is producing, but he says them anyway.

 

ONLY SEN DIANNE FEINSTEIN HAS SERVED RED CHINA AS MUCH AS THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY!


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.”

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).

“This family is fused closely to the Chinese government,”

Schweizer stated. “In fact, her sister, Angela Chao, is one of the

few foreign nationals that sits on the board of the Bank of

China, which is the biggest bank — and most important bank

— as far as Chinese economic statecraft is concerned.”


Follow Parsing Immigration Policy on RicochetApple PodcastsAmazon MusicSpotifyStitcherGoogle Podcasts

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 26, 2022) – A record number of illegal aliens have been caught at the U.S. Southwest border this year, and more than 1 million have been released into the United States. Despite these historic numbers, the arrest, detention, and removal of illegal aliens inside the country is down as a result of the Biden administration’s disregard for the enforcement of immigration laws. Robust border security and interior enforcement work together to provide a deterrent to illegal immigration but both are being undermined by the White House, and increased illegal immigration is the natural result.

Tom Homan, former director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, joins Parsing Immigration Policy this week to discuss the Biden administration’s lack of transparency on the dangerous public safety impact of its policies, and the insufficient response from Congress.
Homan and guest host Jon Feere, the Center’s Director of Investigations and former ICE Chief of Staff, focus on the policy differences between the Trump and Biden administrations and discuss the disturbing results of the current administration’s restrictions on immigration enforcement, which has seen a decrease in arrests even of aliens guilty of homicide, sexual assault, robbery, assault, and kidnapping. Homan concludes that border security cannot exist without interior enforcement and that illegal behavior can only be deterred when there are consequences.

Listen to today’s podcast to hear about the importance of detention, worksite enforcement (a source for identifying trafficking and smuggling cases), and the impact our nation’s porous borders are having on national security.

Homan and Feere explain that the next Congress must provide ICE and the Border Patrol an increase in resources that is commensurate with the massive increase in illegal immigration. They reason that Congress must also be much more demanding of the Department of Homeland Security and require a minimum number of arrests, removals, filled detention beds, and new officers hired, so that the Executive Branch is stopped from exploiting the discretion it has previously been given by Congress.
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Biden Slams MAGA Republicans for 'Destroying' the America Democrats Are 'Saving'

By Susan Jones | August 26, 2022 | 6:25am EDT

  

President Joe Biden participates in a rally for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland, on August 25, 2022. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
President Joe Biden participates in a rally for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland, on August 25, 2022. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

(CNSNews.com) - In a divisive speech where he derided "MAGA Republicans" as "extreme" -- full of "anger, violence, hatred and division" -- President Joe Biden, the "unity" guy, laid out two starkly different views of where this country is heading.

"Those of you who love this country, Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans, we must be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving America than the MAGA Republics are to destroying America," Biden said.

"Look, every election is a choice," Biden said. "Well, the alternative to the Democrats are the MAGA Republicans."

Biden drew a distinction between MAGA Republicans and "real Republicans."

"What's happened is, there are no, there are not many real Republicans anymore. Biden, who was speaking in Maryland, conceded that liberal Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is a "Republican you can deal with. We disagree...but at least he's within the mainstream of the Republican Party.

"I respect conservative Republicans," Biden said. "I don't respect these MAGA Republicans, folks."

Biden attacked Republicans on the now-familiar issues -- life/abortion, entitlement programs, tax reduction, social issues, the "climate crisis."

"Look, my friends, we offer a starkly different version and vision of this country, a vision of a better America that's within our reach, that's within our hands," Bidens said:

If we just vote if we elect two more (Democrat) senators, we keep the Democrats, we're gonna get a lot of unfinished business. We're gonna get done folks.

Biden said with more Democrats in the ranks, Congress will codify Roe v. Wade, ban assault weapons, pass universal Pre-K, restore the child care tax credit and "protect voting rights."

"And we'll continue to build an economy where everyone gets a fair shot. An economy built from the bottom up and the middle out, not the top down. An economy that rewards work, not wealth -- finally stops billionaires who pay on average less tax than a teacher or a firefighter. I think they should be able to be a billionaire. But pay your fair share. Damn it!

"Because we understand something MAGA Republicans don't -- Wall Street did not build this country. You did. Working people. Middle class built this nation and unions built the middle class and we're not going to let anyone or anything tear America apart."

"I'll close with this. We're at a serious moment. Our nation's history. The MAGA Republicans don't just threaten our personal rights and economic security. They're a threat to our very democracy. They refused to accept the will of the people, they embrace, embrace political violence. They don't believe in democracy.

"This is why in this moment. Those of you who love this country, democrats, independents, mainstream republicans, we must be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving America than the MAGA Republics are destroying America.

"We the people are the first words of our constitution and we the people will still determine the destiny of America. If we the people stand together, we will prevail as we the people. We just have to keep the faith. We just have to persevere.

“We just have to vote folks. We just have to remember who we are. We are the United States of America. And there's nothing nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together. So let's get it done. God bless you all."


China is About to Trigger a Global Crisis by Devaluing the Yuan




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.


Exclusive — Blake Masters: Mark Kelly Allowing China to Colonize American Farmland

Mario Tama/Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Mario Tama/Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
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Arizona Senate Republican candidate Blake Masters told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement that Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) has allowed China to colonize America’s farmland.

Kelly, a swing state senator, voted in lockstep with his 49 other Senate Democrat colleagues to block an amendment proposed by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) that would ban the Chinese government from purchasing American farmland.

The amendment would prohibit the Chinese government from reaping the benefits of USDA farm programs under Section 21001.

The amendment would have required only one Democrat, such as Kelly, to vote alongside Republicans to ensure that China cannot purchase American farmland.

Masters said that Kelly’s vote would allow the Chinese Communist Party to colonize the United States.

“Personally, I’d prefer not to be colonized by a tyrannical foreign regime hellbent on destroying us, but I guess Mark Kelly has found some common ground with the Chinese Communist Party,” Masters told Breitbart News.

After Senate Democrats, including Kelly, blocked her amendment, Blackburn questioned why the Senate majority would block her proposal to ensure that Americans have better access to these federal funds.

Blackburn said, “Why would Democrats vote against an amendment that keeps federal funds out of the Chinese Communist Party’s hands and into American farmer’s?”

Data from the USDA suggests that China owns over 191,000 acres of U.S. land, but that was before Fufeng Group, a Chinese company, purchased 300 acres in North Dakota for $2.6 million.

Masters, in an exclusive statement to Breitbart News in July, called to ban acquisitions of American land by Chinese Communist Party-affiliated entities.

“It’s obscene that we would allow Chinese Communist Party stooges to profit off our resources. These are basic mistakes a serious country would never make. They are flooding us with fentanyl, launching cyber attacks, stealing our IP, and our current crop of failed leaders seems more or less OK with it. That needs to change,” the Arizona nationalist told Breitbart News’s Michael Foster.

Masters has sounded the alarm about the dangers of letting a foreign competitor buy land, especially near national security-sensitive areas.

He shared a tweet about how a former general in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army purchased 200 square miles near Laughlin Air Base in Texas. He said, “We are going to make this illegal.”

“For decades, China built its economy off our backs, and the ideologues running our country (see: Biden in 2019) refused to admit it,” Masters explained. “When it comes to international labor, trade, and investment, it’s time to wake up: we’re talking about foreign powers with their own interests.”

“A major lesson to learn from China? Our government should stake out a position that the only labor, trade, and investment policies we support are those that help Americans — not in an abstract ideological sense, but materially. That’s what it means to care about our own people,” he added.

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.

Thanks, Comrade: Famed U. of Maryland Professor Created Surveillance Machine for Communist China

UMD prof Dinesh Manocha
University of Maryland
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University of Maryland (UMD) professor Dinesh Manocha, a decorated scholar in AI and robotics, created machine-learning software “useful for surveillance” that can read people’s personalities and “predict their behavior” for Chinese tech giant Alibaba.

Manocha built the software as part of a six-figure research grant from Alibaba, which wanted to “classify the personality of each pedestrian and identify other biometric features,” according to documents obtained by the Daily Beast. “These capabilities will be used to predict the behavior of each pedestrian and are useful for surveillance,” the document read.

Security guards patrol below surveillance cameras on a corner of Tiananmen Square in Beijing on September 6, 2019. - Some Beijing karaoke bars are closing, toy bombs are banned and every delivery package is being scanned: the capital is taking no chances weeks ahead of a massive military parade to mark Communist China's 70th anniversary. (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY CHINA-POLITICS-ANNIVERSARY,FOCUS BY POORNIMA WEERASEKARA (Photo credit should read GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)

 (GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)

china

(GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images))

The 2018 contract signed by the University of Maryland and Alibaba raises concerns that a U.S. tax-payer-funded university has directly contributed to the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance capabilities.

“The bottom line is that Alibaba financed U.S. academic research that was tailor-made for China’s surveillance state,” Ryan Fedasiuk, an associate fellow at the Center for New American Security, told the Daily Beast.

The grant document states that Manocha and his research team pledged to “work closely with Alibaba researchers” to develop surveillance software that can identify pedestrians based on their unique gaits, and classify them into categories such as “aggressive,” “shy,” and “impulsive,” among other personalities.

The document also states that UMD researchers would need to test their algorithm on videos provided by Alibaba, and then go to Alibaba labs in China, where they would present their findings in person.

In 2020, it was discovered that Alibaba’s product, Cloud Shield, can recognize and classify the faces of Uyghur people. This revelation was concerning, given the ongoing Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang.

Manocha is a decorated scholar in the AI and robotics field who has earned awards and accolades from Google and IBM, among others, the report adds.

Therefore, Alibaba was not the only entity to commission the professor and his research team.

In 2019, while the Alibaba grant was still active, Manocha also secured a taxpayer-funded $321,000 grant with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), which was looking for a very similar project to be conducted. And the research outputs produced by both grants ended up having significant overlap.

Additionally, Manocha’s ties to Communist China go beyond his research for Alibaba.

Between 2014 and 2016, the professor worked as a scholar for China’s Thousand Talents Plan, the Communist Party’s program — launched in 2008 — designed to recruit thousands of high-quality overseas experts. The program is also considered a national security threat by the U.S. government.

A bipartisan report by the Senate investigations committee has described the program as careless elites in government and in universities helping the Chinese government steal U.S. technology and get taxpayer funding for Chinese research.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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.

Trump: Mitch McConnell Helping ‘Crazy’ Wife Elaine Chao ‘Get Rich on China’

Elaine Chao
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
2:50

Former President Donald Trump accused Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) of helping his “crazy” wife Elaine Chao “get rich on China.”

In a post to his social media site TruthSocial, the former president said Mitch McConnell should spend more time helping Republicans get elected instead of helping his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, profit from Communist China.

“Why do Republicans Senators allow a broken down hack politician, Mitch McConnell, to openly disparage hard working Republican candidates for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote. “This is such an affront to honor and to leadership. He should spend more time (and money!) helping them get elected, and less time helping his crazy wife and family get rich on China!”

Breitbart News Senior Contributor Peter Schweizer has warned of Mitch McConnell’s and Elaine Chao’s ties to China for several years. In his recent bestseller, Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China WinSchweizer noted that the senator and his wife “enjoy some of the deepest and most abiding ties to Beijing-linked entities of anyone in Washington, D.C.”

The China ties stem from Chao’s father’s 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).”

“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 noted.

Speaking to Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow in 2021, Schweizer also alleged that Chao used her position as transportation secretary to help promote a memoir her father wrote.

“[Chao] was using Department of Transportation — that is taxpayer-funded people — to promote his book,” Schweizer said. “This is a book that was released in China, that was the primary audience.”

“Her father had a book that was released in mainland China, kind of his life story,” he added. “James Chao is oftentimes identified as being from Taiwan. He’s actually from mainland China, and he was classmates with a guy named Jiang Zemin, who ended up being the leader of China 20-something years ago, and that’s really why he was so juiced in [to the Chinese government].”

“This family is fused closely to the Chinese government,” Schweizer stated. “In fact, her sister, Angela Chao, is one of the few foreign nationals that sits on the board of the Bank of China, which is the biggest bank — and most important bank — as far as Chinese economic statecraft is concerned.”

‘Red-Handed’: 20 Republicans Who Sold Out to China

ccp-gop-getty-ap
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 as having business dealings and political ties to the United States’ largest adversary, China.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 06: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) talks to reporters after the Senate voted to confirm Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh at the U.S. Capitol October 06, 2018 in Washington, DC. The Senate voted 50-48 to confirm Kavanaugh to replace retired Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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

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

9,174U.S. Congress, Nicolas Asfouri/Getty Images, AP, Wikimedia Commons, BNN Edit

JOHN BINDER

17 Feb 20220

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 as having business dealings and political ties to the United States’ largest adversary, China.

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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