Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night. During her speech, Bondi suggested that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden traveled to China with his father on Air Force Two during the Obama administration and used his time there to secure a business deal with Chinese bankers. Bondi stated:
“Fact: Joe Biden flew to China on Air Force Two with Hunter along for the ride. They said he was just there as a family member, but we know that’s untrue. In Beijing, Hunter didn’t just go sightseeing. He had meetings with his Chinese bank partners. Hunter even arranged for his dad to meet with one of the partners. Ten days later, those Chinese Communist bankers approved millions to go to Hunter’s firm, and those bankers work for the Chinese Communist Party, which oppresses their people, cheated American workers for decades and covered up a deadly virus. To this day, Hunter controls a 10% stake in that firm.”
At the time, it seemed mildly noteworthy, but not particularly unusual: then-Vice President Joe Biden, traveling to China on an official visit, had brought his son Hunter Biden along.
And when the two appeared in public together in Beijing during the 2013 trip, there were all the typical trappings of a mini-family vacation tacked on to a business trip.
With granddaughter Finnegan in tow, the Biden men sipped tea in a Confucian-style teahouse, leafed through books at local shops and treated themselves to mid-afternoon ice cream.
Video of Hunter and Joe as they arrive in China below:
This video did not receive any media coverage so far even if the importance of this video about the current elections is huge.
Almost six years later, Biden’s trip to Beijing is coming under new scrutiny amid revelations about President Donald Trump’s efforts to dig up information to corroborate his unproven corruption allegations regarding Biden and his son’s work in Ukraine.
In 2013, I was one of four reporters who traveled aboard Air Force Two with Biden and his son to China, a visit that was sandwiched between stops in Japan and South Korea. When we got on the plane on a bright Sunday afternoon at Joint Base Andrews, the Bidens were already on board, having just flown in from a family Thanksgiving gathering in Nantucket. Biden often took family members and especially his grandchildren on his foreign trips, so their presence didn’t raise eyebrows.
What wasn’t known then was that as he accompanied his father to China, Hunter Biden was forming a Chinese private equity fund that associates said at the time was planning to raise big money, including from China. Hunter Biden has acknowledged meeting with Jonathan Li, a Chinese banker and his partner in the fund during the trip, although his spokesman says it was a social visit.
The Chinese business license that brought the new fund into existence was issued by Shanghai authorities 10 days after the trip, with Hunter Biden a member of the board.
Seeking to expand his corruption accusations beyond Ukraine, Trump has accused Hunter Biden of using his trip on Air Force Two to procure $1.5 billion from China for his fund, calling it “a horrible thing.”
Hunter Biden’s spokesman, George Mesires, said that Hunter Biden wasn’t initially an “owner” of the company and has never gotten paid for serving on the board. He said Hunter Biden didn’t acquire an equity interest in the fund until 2017, after his father had left office.
“The Washington Post Fact Checker has dismantled this conspiracy theory,” said Andrew Bates, spokesman for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. “Donald Trump’s degradation of his office is unacceptable.” The Post’s fact-check traced the origins of the $1.5 billion figure to a 2018 book published by conservative author Peter Schweizer.
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