The facts are still urgently relevant because Chinese Communist Party influence operations are still going strong.
A 2018 book by investigative reporter Peter Schweizer, Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, tackles the CCP connections of two uniparty families, one Republican, the other Democrat: “the families of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and former Vice President Joe Biden” (“Author Alleges China Used Business Deals to Influence Families of Mitch McConnell, Joe Biden,” The Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2018).
Counterintelligence officials have worried for years about China’s efforts to cultivate relationships with family members of those in power through business dealings, and they have warned senior officials to be mindful of such relationships, according to people familiar with the briefings….
Mr. Schweizer points to what he claims is evidence of a close relationship between Foremost Group, the shipping company run by the family of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, and Beijing. The author argues that Mr. McConnell, who is Ms. Chao’s husband, has softened his views on China as that relationship grew….
In his new book, Mr. Schweizer cites what he calls evidence from public sources including news reports and company records that Foremost Group does significant business with a Chinese state-owned defense conglomerate, China State Shipbuilding Corp. Foremost ships are constructed by Chinese government shipyards, with some construction financed by the Chinese government; employ Chinese crews, and carry goods for Chinese state-owned companies as well as other clients, Mr. Schweizer writes.
Mr. Schweizer also points to the appointment of Ms. Chao’s sister, Angela Chao, to the board of state-owned Bank of China, 10 days after the 2016 election. Angela Chao, who is chairman and chief executive of Foremost Group, according to her personal website, couldn’t be reached for comment. Efforts to reach CSSC and Bank of China were unsuccessful.
That’s cute. “What he claims is evidence.” “What he calls evidence.” The Journal did not contend that Schweizer fabricated any of the reports and records he cited.
Around the same time, Breitbart.com published a rundown of the book’s findings (“5 ‘Secret Empires’ Bombshell Revelations,” March 21, 2018).
The five bombshell revelations:
1. Biden’s son’s firm scored a $1.5 billion deal with the Bank of China 10 days after Joe Biden and his son flew to China aboard Air Force Two.
[Schweizer, in a radio interview:] “That’s the first of three major deals that the Chinese government does with people who are either the children—that is the sons—or close aides to Vice President Biden or Secretary of State John Kerry.”
2. The China-backed investment fund invested in dual-use military technology…. [Hunter Biden helped the Chinese government] take over a dual-use military technology-related company called Henniges.
3. The Obama Justice Department charged one of the companies with stealing U.S. nuclear secrets.
[Schweizer:] “They invest in this company in 2014. A year later, what happens? The FBI arrests and charges senior officials in this company with stealing nuclear secrets in the United States. Specifically, they’re trying to get access to something called the AP-1000 nuclear reactor that is very similar to the ones that we put on U.S. submarines. So again, you have the son of the vice president, a close aide to the secretary of state who are investing in a company that is trying to steal nuclear secrets in the United States.”
4. Mitch McConnell and his wife Elaine Chao received a $5 million to $25 million gift from a family member who sat on the board of a top Chinese government military contractor.
5. Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law sits on the board of the Chinese government’s Bank of China.
Elaine Chao (“one of the most interesting, inspiring and consequential leaders in our country,” according to elainchao.com) was Secretary of Transportation from 2017 to 2021—i.e., during the first Trump administration, including for several years after Schweizer published his book. During his second administration, perhaps Trump and his now less-establishmentarian lieutenants will be less likely to ignore such flagrant patterns of corruption.
So far, the punishment for eagerly falling sway to Chinese influence operations in exchange for mega-payoffs seems to be decrepitude and retirement for Mitch McConnell and Joe Biden; and, for Hunter Biden, belated and haphazard investigation plus sweeping presidential pardon.
