{"id":42281,"date":"2022-02-10T12:21:11","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T17:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/?p=42281"},"modified":"2023-12-14T12:13:47","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T17:13:47","slug":"red-handed-explains-why-americas-elite-rolls-out-the-red-carpet-for-red-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2022\/02\/10\/red-handed-explains-why-americas-elite-rolls-out-the-red-carpet-for-red-china\/","title":{"rendered":"“Red Handed” Explains Why America\u2019s Elite Rolls Out the Red Carpet for Red China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exposing the relationships between America\u2019s elites and the Chinese Communist Party, Peter Schweizer\u2019s Red Handed<\/em> is a must-read for anyone seeking answers as to why so many of our country\u2019s political leaders and industry titans have turned a blind-eye to China\u2019s human rights abuses, economic espionage, and authoritarian regime. \"\"<\/p>\n

Well-researched and thoughtfully laid-out, Schweizer wastes no time before diving into one of Washington, DC\u2019s greatest sources of controversy: Hunter Biden. Although ignored by the \u201cmainstream\u201d media, it\u2019s no secret that President Biden\u2019s son Hunter has engaged in questionable business dealings with foreign entities that place not only himself, but his leader of the free world father, in a compromised position when it comes to issues of foreign policy and diplomacy.<\/p>\n

When it comes to China in particular, Schweizer\u2019s research tells us, \u201cThe Biden family received some $31 million from Chinese businessmen with very close ties to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence during and after Joe Biden\u2019s tenure as vice president.\u201d Schweizer goes on to warn that \u201csome of those financial relationships remain intact,\u201d calling into question the President\u2019s ability to put American interests first when it comes to Beijing.<\/p>\n

Arming his readers with the sordid details of Hunter\u2019s Chinese investments, Schweizer\u2019s Red Handed <\/em>is replete with examples of how Hunter\u2019s business dealings with influential leaders and individuals within the Chinese Communist Party and intelligence community have benefitted not only himself, but more importantly, his father. \u201c[T]his is a story about not just Hunter Biden, but Joe Biden himself,\u201d Schweizer tells readers. \u201cTo some degree, for the period our research covers, Hunter Biden and Joe Biden had intertwined finances. Hunter Biden privately complained to family members about paying his father\u2019s bills.\u201d Schweizer further notes that \u201ccorrespondence confirms that the vice president of the United States, signified by the initials \u2018JRB\u2019 for Joseph Robinette Biden, was mentioned in emails discussing payments or financial opportunities.\u201d Indeed, Schweizer describes many emails between Hunter and his business partners about paying the bills of then Vice President Joe Biden, including for a private phone line for his father and contractors making renovations to Joe Biden\u2019s Delaware home.\u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

The same year Joe Biden became Vice President, Hunter Biden opened a series of businesses, including Rosemont Seneca. As Schweizer tells readers, \u201cFewer than twelve months after opening Rosemont Seneca, Hunter Biden and [his business partner] were in China with access to those of great financial (and political) influence.\u201d And by April 2010, \u201cthey met with high-ranking senior Chinese officials, including the head of private equity for the Chinese government\u2019s China Investment Corporation.\u201d Connecting the dots for readers, Schweizer explains the importance of the timing of Hunter\u2019s meetings: \u201cHunter\u2019s meeting in China occurred just before Vice President Biden met with Chinese President Hu Jintao during the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. Joe Biden would emerge as the point person on Obama administration policy on China\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

The April 2010 meeting was only the first of many and would lead to a series of Chinese investments and business deals that would amass serious wealth for Hunter (and potentially for his father, given the evidence of intertwined funds between the two). One of the companies that Hunter registered in Beijing with Chinese business partners was an investment firm that began buying and investing in strategically important U.S. and Chinese companies. One of these investments was in the China General Nuclear Power Corporation. As Schweizer tells readers, \u201c[t]he FBI would later expose that firm as a conduit for nuclear espionage in the West.\u201d He goes on to state that the company and one of its engineers \u201cwere charged by the Obama Justice Department with stealing nuclear secrets from the United States\u2014actions prosecutors said could cause \u2018significant damage to our national security.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At best, Schweizer\u2019s revelations about Hunter\u2019s dealings call into question President Biden\u2019s partiality and loyalty when it comes to U.S. foreign policy toward China. At worst, these relationships warrant serious investigation and consideration as to whether Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) and other laws were properly followed by Hunter and his colleagues.<\/p>\n

Red Handed <\/em>takes readers from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to the halls of Congress to further expose the connections between Beijing and Washington, DC\u2019s political class. From California\u2019s Democrat elites House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Dianne Feinstein, to long-time Senate Republican Party leader Mitch McConnell, Schweizer is non-partisan in laying out all the ways in which Capitol Hill may be compromised when it comes to meaningfully challenging the human rights abuses and economic espionage committed by the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n

As Schweizer explains, the Senator and former Chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein, has deep ties to Beijing dating back to her time as San Francisco Mayor in the late 1970s. Her contacts include Jiang Zemin, who developed a relationship with Feinstein when he was Mayor of Shanghai, which became San Francisco\u2019s \u201csister city.\u201d Jiang and Feinstein remained close as they ascended in their respective country\u2019s political spheres, with Jiang eventually becoming the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of China.<\/p>\n

Feinstein\u2019s Husband, Richard Blum, is just as engrained in the Chinese business world as his wife is in Chinese politics. As explained in Red Handed<\/em>, \u201cHe became one of the earliest American investors in China. In the 1980s, he was vice chairman and director of a company called Shanghai Pacific Partners. That firm created a joint venture with a Chinese government bank called Shanghai Investment and Trust Company. Together they constructed a $30 million complex in [Shanghai].\u201d In the years to come, Blum would go on to launch additional firms and invest in several state-owned and Chinese government-linked firms.<\/p>\n

\"\"Schweizer goes on to lay out how Feinstein and her husband\u2019s Chinese relationships\u2014and ability to amass considerable wealth by virtue of such relationships\u2014has affected her ability to act with impartiality when it comes to China\u2019s abuses. As just one example, \u201cIn 1994, while the U.S. Senate was considering rescinding most-favored-nation (MFN) trade status with China because of human rights violations in the wake of Tiananmen Square, she argued vigorously against it. Doing so, she said, would only \u2018inflame Beijing\u2019s insecurities.\u2019\u201d Feinstein\u2019s friend Jiang Zemin was Mayor of Shanghai during the massacre and was President of the People\u2019s Republic of China when Feinstein was opposing rescission of China\u2019s MFN status. Schweizer points out that as Feinstein was making those comments, her husband was also raising tens of millions of dollars for one of his firm\u2019s Asian affiliates.<\/p>\n

Given the California Senator\u2019s continued defense of Beijing (Schweizer includes many other examples), it\u2019s no wonder the Chinese have found willing partners in Silicon Valley. From entertaining examples, such as Mark Zuckerberg asking Chinese President Xi Jinping to give his child a Chinese name (spoiler alert: Xi declined), to more serious instances, such as Microsoft\u2019s Bing search engine suppressing images of the Tiananmen Square massacre on the anniversary of the tragedy, Red Handed <\/em>also demonstrates how America\u2019s tech industry has kowtowed to the point of proactively aiding the Chinese Communist Party in its quest to displace American technological and military superiority.<\/p>\n

For instance, Schweizer educates readers on Google\u2019s efforts to effectively aid China in furthering its \u201cnational \"\"\u00a0 priority\u201d of surpassing the United States when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI). \u201cIn 2017, Google announced the opening of an AI research facility in Beijing\u2026supported by several hundred China-based engineers.\u201d The announcement just happened to be around the time the Chinese Communist Party laid out its AI development plan. As Schweizer tells readers, Google\u2019s Chinese activity has garnered attention at the highest levels of the U.S. military: \u201cThe work that Google is doing in China is indirectly benefiting the Chinese military\u2026Frankly, \u2018indirect\u2019 may not be a full characterization of the way it really is, it is more of a direct benefit to the Chinese military,\u201d Marine General James Dunford, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, relayed to a U.S. Senate Committee. \u201cThe technology that has developed in the civil world transfers to the military world\u2026It\u2019s a direct pipeline,\u201d said former Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, dispelling any claims Google and other tech companies may have that their business ventures are only civilian in nature and not a boon to the Chinese military.<\/p>\n

Another example Schweizer lays out is the \u201ccourtship of Beijing\u201d by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Upon learning that Twitter was banned in China, Dorsey\u2019s solution, Schweizer tells readers, was to \u201cpropose a censored form of Twitter that would conform with the \u2018local laws\u2019 of authoritarian governments.\u201d In spite of its so-called commitment to free speech, Twitter\u2019s acquiescence to the demands of Beijing has resulted in Twitter removing the accounts of several Chinese dissidents while leaving up tweets wherein Chinese party officials accused the U.S. military of being behind COVID-19. As Schweizer informs readers, Twitter even failed to remove tweets by Chinese officials denying human rights abuses against Uighurs and promoted tweets by government-run outlets furthering the Chinese propaganda.<\/p>\n

Moving from the West Coast to the East Coast, Red Handed <\/em>further demonstrates how the obsession by America\u2019s elites to help China compete with the United States extends from California\u2019s Silicon Valley to New York\u2019s Wall Street. Indeed, Schweizer exposes how the big Wall Street firms are quick to bring the children of Chinese Communist Party officials into their companies. \u201cIt was reported that in 2013 Goldman [Sachs] had more than two dozen sons and daughters of high-ranking officials at the firm, including the grandson of [former Chinese President] Jiang Zemin\u2026.\u201d Merrill Lynch, as Schweizer notes, \u201cmanaged to snag the son-in-law of the second-highest-ranking Communist Party official at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schweizer pays particular attention to the relationship that BlackRock, the biggest asset manager in the world, and its CEO Larry Fink has fostered with Beijing. Schweizer lays out several instances where Fink has (alarmingly) praised the Communist Party regime. \u201cI would qualify the Chinese leadership as one of the best leadership teams in the world,\u201d Fink told the Australian Financial Review <\/em>of the Xi Jinping Administration. Schweizer further educates readers that in 2019, Fink reportedly told officials in Beijing that \u201cBlackRock should be a Chinese company in China,\u201d and has also reportedly declared \u201cWe firmly believe China will be one of the biggest opportunities for BlackRock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Importantly, Schweizer points out the astonishing fact of Fink\u2019s relentless push for a woke leftwing agenda when it comes to American companies, even while he turns a blind-eye to the Chinese government\u2019s atrocities and Uighur genocide. \u201cWhile Fink has pushed for better governance of companies in the United States and the Western world, he has done the opposite in China. Indeed, in China, Fink has used BlackRock\u2019s muscle to help the Communist Party consolidate control over companies,\u201d Schweizer explains. As he points out, although BlackRock has been quick to argue for corporate responsibility in the U.S. when it comes to issues such as firearms, it has no problem owning shares in companies directly linked to the Chinese People\u2019s Liberation Army and those that directly support China\u2019s military-civil fusion strategy. And despite China being the greatest contributor to greenhouse-gas emissions in the world, Fink has not held Chinese companies to any carbon emission reduction standards at all\u2014let alone the ones he is attempting to foist onto U.S. companies.<\/p>\n

Schweizer relays a concerning account of how, in 2017, the Chinese Communist Party pushed companies listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange to amend their corporate charters to make clear that the corporate boards would be required to seek advice from Communist Party committees in Beijing. This move would have even required corporate executives to serve as heads of internal Communist Party committees in their companies. Rather than pushing back against Beijing\u2019s power grab, as Schweizer points out fellow investment firm Vanguard did, BlackRock voted in favor of the measure, no doubt in an attempt to gain greater access to the Chinese market and further line their pocketbooks.<\/p>\n

Even liberal magnate George Soros, perhaps surprisingly, believes BlackRock\u2019s foray into China has left the U.S. vulnerable. As Schweizer tells readers, \u201cGeorge Soros has called out BlackRock for its financial efforts in China, declaring that it is on the \u2018wrong side\u2019 of the struggle between Beijing and the West, and noted that BlackRock\u2019s efforts \u2018will damage the national security interests of the U.S. and other democracies.\u2019\u201d Now while this may be the epitome of the old adage about the \u201cpot calling the kettle black,\u201d it doesn\u2019t make the sentiment any less true\u2014and even adds to the alarm.<\/p>\n

Schweizer continues his book by heading from Wall Street back down to Washington, DC, discussing the revolving\"\" door between foreign diplomats and their host governments. From Henry Kissinger to Madeleine Albright, to Condoleezza Rice, Red Handed <\/em>lays out the many ways in which former U.S. Secretaries of State have been cashing in on their ties with Beijing forged at taxpayer expense. For instance, as Schweizer points out, \u201cAlbright was an essential player in the effort to bring China into the WTO.\u201d Naively believing that permitting the Chinese Communist Party to enter the WTO would result in China \u201cfree[ing] itself from the \u2018House that Mao Built,\u2019 including state-run enterprises, central planning institutes, massive agricultural communes, and parasitic bureaucracies\u201d as well as \u201cmore institutions and associations free from Communist Party control,\u201d Schweizer concludes that Albright couldn\u2019t have been more wrong. Albright\u2019s miscalculation, however, did not stop her from opening a \u201cstrategic consulting\u201d practice to profit from her time as the nation\u2019s top diplomat. Her practice eventually grew into the Albright Stonebridge Group (ASG), whose largest practice area was, you guessed it, China. And leading its ASG China operation is none other than a former senior Chinese official who spent twenty years in the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.<\/p>\n

Next Schweizer reveals that no discussion of Chinese relations would be complete without an examination of the \u201cThe Bush and Trudeau Dynasties.\u201d Red Handed <\/em>explains that the Bush family\u2019s ties to Beijing date back to 1974, when George H.W. Bush was appointed chief of the U.S. Liaison Office to the People\u2019s Republic of China, which served as the United States\u2019 top representative to China before full diplomatic relations existed between the two countries. After serving 14 months in that role, Bush left to head the Central Intelligence Agency and would eventually become Vice President of the United States in 1981. During that time, Bush\u2019s brother, Prescott, would begin engaging in a series of trips and business dealings in China, including one that included the creation of an international satellite communications network in China.<\/p>\n

\"\"This would become incredibly important, as Schweizer tells readers, given Bush would later be faced with a decision as President to lift sanctions on the export of civilian satellite technologies to China. Prescott Bush happened to be making $250,000 per year as a consultant for the company financing the business building the Chinese-desired satellites. As you may have guessed, President Bush eventually granted the waiver while denying that it had anything to do with Prescott\u2019s business dealings. Prescott would go on to help start the U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce to \u201clobby for deeper commercial ties\u201d between the countries. History would repeat itself when it comes to the Bushes, as Schweizer goes on to divulge the ways in which President George W. Bush\u2019s brother, Neil, engaged in a series of Chinese business dealings during his presidency.<\/p>\n

Last but not least, Red Handed <\/em>explores the relationships between China and America\u2019s system of higher education. As Schweizer explains, \u201c[e]ntire institutions of higher learning in the United States are being influenced by the flow of money from China via large gifts from wealthy alumni linked to the mainland\u2019s power structure.\u201d Indeed, \"\"Schweizer recounts the story of how Alibaba cofounder and Yale graduate, Joe Tsai, donated $30 million to the China Center at Yale Law School, rebranding it the Paul Tsai China Center. Federal law requires American universities to disclose foreign donations to the Department of Education. Given there is no record of any donation from Tsai\u2019s single U.S.-based foundation to Yale, the Education Department launched an investigation into Tsai\u2019s gifts and foreign gifts Yale received from 2014 to 2017. As Schweizer informs readers, \u201cWhat officials discovered was that Yale\u2014over and above the Tsai donations\u2014was not listing hundreds of millions of dollars of overseas gifts they had received, many of them from mainland China.\u201d It\u2019s no wonder that Yale and so many of America\u2019s universities have such a pro-Beijing tone, refusing to criticize the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s human rights abuses and failing to notice the economic espionage occurring in their own laboratories.<\/p>\n

Rounding out his book, Schweizer concludes Red Handed <\/em>by proffering several much-needed suggestions for lawmakers to consider. These include passing laws on the following:<\/p>\n