RED-HANDED: $6 Million Biden Family Deal Was with Ye Jianming Who Had Ties to a Spy-Linked ‘United Front’ Group

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JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images, CEFC; BNN Edit

A Chinese global energy company linked to a Chinese intelligence operation sent close to $6 million to Hunter Biden in 2017, according to the explosive new book Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win by Peter Schweizer.

The firm, now-defunct, was led by Ye Jianming, a wealthy and connected Chinese businessman who was chairman and majority owner of the global energy company, CEFC China Energy.

Biden had developed a close working relationship with Ye “on a number of fronts.”

Their relationship began around the end of 2015, when Joe Biden was still vice president. Associates of Ye and Biden, including the then-Serbian foreign minister, brokered the connection between the two men, Biden and Ye.

Hunter Biden would tell his then-partner Tony Bobulinski in text messages dated October 14, 2017, that he spoke with Ye on a “regular basis” and that they had a once-a-week call. Biden would also become Ye’s personal counsel in the U.S. — essentially an employee and representative for the Chinese global energy chairman in the U.S.

“In brief, Hunter Biden was now the U.S. representative for an intelligence- and military-linked Chinese company that was supporting voices calling for an aggressive military posture against the United States and its allies,” Schweizer writes.

Ye had a number of ties to Chinese military intelligence. CEFC was housed in a complex in Shanghai’s French concession section, an area “primarily controlled by China’s military.” One of Ye’s early business partners with the granddaughter of one of the founders of China’s military, Marshall Ye Jianying.

Ye had also built his business by acquiring assets from a former People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officer closely linked with Chinese military intelligence, Lai Changxing. Ye was also the deputy secretary-general of either the China Association for International Friendly Contract (CAIFC) or its Shanghai branch from 2003 to 2005. CAIFC is funded by Chinese PLA intelligence.

In addition, there were Chinese military officers affiliated with Ye’s company who also had ties to the PLA National Defense university. CEFC also funded a related non-profit think tank called the China Energy Fund Committee, whose analysts would advocate for using military force in the South China Sea. Another CEFC subsidiary called for Taiwan’s reunification with mainland China.

Schweizer writes:

Ye was at the center of Beijing’s economic strategy. His firm, CEFC, saw itself as playing an important and central role in advancing China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which was designed to expand Chinese economic and political influence worldwide. Accordingly, CEFC was also an oil supplier to the People’s Liberation Army.

Hunter Biden worked with Ye and his associates with the hopes of developing CEFC into a global energy company with vast energy holdings in countries like Oman, Romania, Colombia, and Luxemburg.

But CEFC also had ambitions in the U.S. — which provided the opportunity for the $6 million payment.

CEFC had plans to invest in U.S. infrastructure and set up two entities to make that happen — Hudson West IV and SinoHawk. Hunter Biden and his uncle James Biden was involved in running those efforts. Hunter Biden hired Tony Bobulinski, an experienced financial manager.

In 2017, Hunter Biden made plans to house his businesses, one of his father’s offices for the Biden Foundation, and CEFC together in an office space in Washington. For his “new office mates,” Hunter listed: “Joe Biden Jill Biden Jim Biden Gongwen Dong (Chairman Ye CEFC emissary).”

Hunter wrote in an email on September 21, 2017: “I would like the office sign to reflect the following The Biden Foundation Hudson West (CEFC U.S.). The lease will remain under my company’s name Rosemont Seneca.”

Dong not only had notable ties to those embedded in Chinese intelligence and foreign influence operations, according to Schweizer, but he also was the chief financial officer at the Beijing-based Radiance Property Holdings — which was tied to the Chinese government’s “united front” foreign influence operations.

The firm — now called Radiance Holdings — is controlled and run by Lam Ting Keung, a businessman with deep connections to “united front” groups linked to Chinese intelligence. Lam was also a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a high-ranking Communist Party advisory body that is also a central component of the Chinese government’s united front efforts.

Schweizer writes: “According to a U.S. federal government commission, united front organizations often serve as covers for Chinese intelligence operations.”

“The money soon began to flow,” Schweizer writes. Over 2017, CEFC sent Hunter Biden close to $6 million.

James and Sara Biden arrive at the White House to attend the State Dinner for South Korea, on October 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Furthermore, by July 2017, CEFC began making interest-free, forgivable loans to the Biden family. CEFC executive Zhao Running wrote that $5 million was intended as money lent to “the BD family,” not just Hunter Biden.

“This $5 million loan to the BD [Biden] family is interest free,” Zhao wrote.

Schweizer notes that “interest-free loans provide tremendous leverage because the lender can demand its money back if it is displeased by any action.”

In August 2017, CEFC Infrastructure Investment LLC sent Hunter Biden’s law firm, Owasco, $100.000. Four days later, the firm wired $5 million to another entity controlled by Ye, which then started sending regular payment to Owasco. Biden then transferred $1.4 million of that money to a firm called Lion Hall Group, which was controlled by his uncle James Biden and his wife, Sara Biden.

On September 8, 2017, Hunter Biden and Dong applied for a line of credit, making James and Sara authorized users for credit cards on the account. They then bought $100,000 in luxury items.

When the CEFC infrastructure fund known as Hudson West later folded, a Chinese assistant to Hunter Biden wrote him, “Whatever money from Hudson West, please take them, take as much as possible or figure out a way to spend them for your own benefits … just take it and keep as much as possible.”

Red-Handed was published by Harper-Collins. Schweizer is the president of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Institute (GAI) and a senior contributor to Breitbart News.

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