Funding agency of former Obama-Biden officers hosted a number of CCP-tied firms at 2015 luncheon

EXCLUSIVE: A Washington, D.C.-based funding agency with deep ties to the Chinese language Communist Social gathering (CCP), led and suggested by former Obama-Biden officers, urged a number of CCP-linked firms to put money into the U.S. throughout a U.S. government-sponsored luncheon in 2015, calling it “good for American employees.”

Gary Locke, who served as U.S. ambassador to China from 2011 to 2014 below President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, served as an advisory board member of Harves Funding Group when it hosted a luncheon in Washington in March 2015, based on a press launch on the agency’s now-defunct web site.

“You all know the benefits of investing in America. I don’t have to repeat that. You already know that as a result of that’s why you’re right here,” Locke advised a room of greater than 120 Chinese language enterprise leaders on the time, based on a YouTube video of the occasion.

“As your firms develop in prosperity, lots of you wish to go international and as you have a look at going international we would like you to think about investing in America,” he mentioned. “However to essentially achieve success in the US, that key to success is basically having the best set of advisers and consultants. … And naturally Harves Funding Group is a kind of consultants.”

HUNTER BIDEN, AN OBAMA AMBASSADOR AND CHINESE BUSINESSMEN: A ‘VERY GOOD RELATIONSHIP’

BEIJING, CHINA – DECEMBER 05: U.S Vice President Joe Biden (L) shake arms with U.S. ambassador to China Gary Locke (R) throughout his enterprise chief breakfast on the The St. Regis Beijing resort on December 5, 2013 in Beijing, China. U.S Vice President Joe Biden can pay an official go to to China from December 4 to five.  

“All of us stand prepared that can assist you achieve success in America as a result of that we all know your success just isn’t solely good in your homeowners and your shareholders, but in addition good for American employees and people are the win-win alternatives that we search,” he added. “We want you the very, easiest of luck. We want you nice success investing in America.”

The 2015 luncheon was a part of the SelectUSA Funding Summit held by the U.S. Division of Commerce’s Worldwide Commerce Administration aimed to spice up international investments within the U.S.

Chinese language firms that attended the Harves Funding Group luncheon included Alibaba, Shandong Yuhuang Chemical, Hangzhou Wahaha Group, Wanda Group, and others, based on the group’s press launch, all of which have well-documented ties to the CCP.

Alibaba, a Chinese language agency that reportedly helped create surveillance expertise used towards Uyghur Muslims, is one in every of China’s largest expertise companies that actively works to advance the pursuits of the CCP.

The chairman of Shandong Yuhuang Chemical, Wang Jinshu was elected because the consultant of the 18th Nationwide Congress of the Communist Social gathering of China in 2012, based on the firm’s web site.

Zong Qinghou, the founder and CEO of Hangzhou Wahaha Group, Chinese language main delicate drink maker, can also be a CCP member.

JOE BIDEN MET WITH AT LEAST 14 OF HUNTER’S BUSINESS ASSOCIATES WHILE VICE PRESIDENT

The chairman of Wanda Group, Wang Jianlin, is a CCP member, and served within the seventeenth Nationwide Congress of the Communist Social gathering of China. He’s additionally a longtime member of the Chinese language Individuals’s Political Consultative Convention (CPPCC), which has been described by the U.S. authorities as a “central half” of China’s united entrance system working to advance the CCP’s pursuits.

CHENGDU, CHINA – JUNE 26: Wang Jianlin, Chairman of the Dalian Wanda Group, makes speech on the opening ceremony of 2019 Sichuan Entrepreneurs Growth Convention on June 26, 2019 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province of China.  (Picture by Wang Huan/Visible China Group by way of Getty Photos)

Locke, who additionally served because the secretary of Commerce below Obama from 2009 to 2011, advised Fox Information Digital that he gave the welcoming remarks on the 2015 luncheon and was below the impression that it was “organized or co-organized by the Commerce Division, or on the suggestion of the Commerce Division.”

Locke, the present president of Bellevue Faculty in Washington state, who campaigned for President Biden in 2020, mentioned he had no information of who was invited to the luncheon, and he had no say within the invitation course of. He mentioned he was invited to offer the speech by Harves Funding Group President Rick Wade, who beforehand served within the Obama administration as Locke’s senior adviser on the Commerce Division and  served as a “liaison to China non-public sector companions, U.S. Embassy in China in addition to different excessive rating authorities officers” at scandal-plagued GreenTech Automotive, based on his Linkedin profile.

“Because the quotes from the Harves press launch point out, I’ve lengthy promoted funding within the U.S.—be it from China or Europe—that end in creating jobs for American employees, particularly in manufacturing, after which exporting these made-in-USA items to different nations,” Locke advised Fox Information Digital. “That’s what I did as Commerce Secretary, Ambassador to China, and as a non-public citizen. We had a motto at Commerce: ‘The extra firms in America export their made-in-USA merchandise, the extra they produce; the extra they produce, the extra employees they want; and which means extra jobs for the American folks.’”

“In selling funding into the U.S., I at all times talked about the necessity to safe approval from the U.S. authorities to make sure there have been no considerations relating to our nationwide safety,” he continued. “That’s the CIFIUS course of, a evaluate by varied federal companies, together with the Commerce Division and protection companies, to make sure our nationwide safety was protected. Whereas I used to be Commerce Secretary and Ambassador, a number of investments by Chinese language firms weren’t allowed.”

Locke additionally gave a shout-out to Francis “Fran” Individual, who was in attendance on the luncheon, calling him one in every of his “buddies” and a “nice buddy of commerce with China.” Individual served within the Obama administration as an adviser to then-Vice President Biden and a particular assistant to Obama from 2009 till the summer time of 2014, months earlier than he grew to become an govt at Harves. Politico reported on his departure from the White Home by quoting then-second woman Jill Biden saying, “Fran has been like a son to Joe and me … Fran could also be leaving the workplace, however he’ll at all times be part of our household.”

Locke advised Fox Information Digital in a Tuesday e-mail that he “met Mr. Individual just a few instances throughout my time with the federal authorities” and that he did “not know of his involvement with Harves.”

Fran Individual, a former adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, unsuccessfully is ran for Congress in South Carolina’s fifth Congressional District in 2016. (Fran Individual/YouTube screenshot)

In the meantime, Wade, who now serves as senior vice chairman of strategic alliances and outreach on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was quoted within the press launch for the luncheon as saying the aim of the occasion was “about folks getting to grasp one another higher and establishing belief.”

Wade didn’t reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.

Vinai Thummalapallya, the previous govt director of SelectUSA on the Commerce Division, additionally spoke on the 2015 occasion, based on the press launch and the YouTube video of the occasion. Thummalapallya was later appointed by President Biden in 2021 to function deputy director and chief working officer of the U.S. Commerce and Growth Company.

“The businesses who’re attending the convention this yr have dedicated $13 billion in investments which were publicly introduced throughout the final 12 months,” Thummalapally was quoted as saying on the luncheon. “We calculated the anticipated job creation from that funding can be 37,000 US jobs.”

Doug Parker, chairman and chief govt officer of American Airways Group Inc., left, speaks to Rick Wade, vice chairman of strategic alliances and outreach on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Aviation Summit in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, March 5, 2020. Photographer: Zach Gibson/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos

Thummalapallya, who beforehand served as U.S. Ambassador to Belize below Obama from 2009 to 2013, blogged in regards to the occasion on the Obama White Home web site however made no point out of China or Chinese language firms.

Matthew McGuire, who was a senior adviser on the U.S. Division of the Treasury on the time of the occasion, was additionally in attendance, based on the press launch. McGuire can also be a former director on the Commerce Division and later served as the chief director of World Financial institution Group after being nominated by Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2015.

Thummalapallya, McGuire, SelectUSA and the Commerce Division didn’t reply to Fox Information Digital’s requests for remark.

HUNTER BIDEN’S FOREIGN BUSINESS DEALINGS: 4 COUNTRIES WITH FINANCIAL LINKS TO PRESIDENT’S SON

Fox Information Digital has extensively reported on Harves Funding Group and different Washington, D.C.-based Harves associates and their ties to the CCP. Bo Zhang, the founder and CEO of the Harves Funding Group, amongst different U.S. based mostly Harves associates, was being “groomed to take over his household’s dynasty” in China, based on an e-mail Individual wrote to Hunter Biden in 2015, inviting him to China.

“Bo Zhang and his household would host us. They’re an ideal household with nice respect and relationships in China. Bo graduated from American Univ and is in his late 20’s, and his mother and father personal Harves Century Group of Shenyang – which is a high tier non-public chinese language actual property improvement agency,” Individual wrote. “His mother is definitely the Chairman of the corporate, which is exclusive in China. They’re very non-public, and wouldn’t inform anybody about you coming. Bo’s father-in-law is definitely the Governor of Hainan (Chinese language Hawaii), which he doesn’t promote in any respect.”

“I’d like so that you can get to know Bo. He’s an excellent man – he’s been groomed to take over his household’s dynasty, however he’s very humble. He’ll do nice issues at some point, however he wants good folks round him. He and his spouse dwell in DC, and expect a toddler,” Individual continued. “He’s constructing an enormous home in McLean, and plans on working and residing within the US. This isn’t a few partnership, or promoting you on something. We simply wish to develop that relationship, and there will probably be loads of massive issues that come down the highway that we are able to work on.”

Fran Individual, a former adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, unsuccessfully is ran for Congress in South Carolina’s fifth Congressional District in 2016. (Fran Individual/YouTube screenshot)

Zhang’s father-in-law, who’s referenced within the e-mail, is Liu Cigui, who was later elected because the Communist Social gathering secretary of the Hainan province in 2017. He’s thought-about a “loyalist” of Chinese language President Xi Jinping. 

One other Zhang connection to the CCP was revealed in a December 2013 Overseas Brokers Registration Act (FARA) submitting with the Justice Division, which listed Zhang because the “international principal.” The submitting famous his relationship with Chinese language authorities official Liu Guoqiang, who was the vice chairman of the Liaoning Committee of the Chinese language Individuals’s Political Consultative Convention (CPPCC), which is a “key half” of China’s “United Entrance” work, The Diplomat reported a pair years in the past.

Fox Information Digital reported in April that Individual visited the Obama-Biden White Home a minimum of seven instances between 2015 and 2016 after he left the White Home to work for Harves. Individual and Bo Zhang additionally each attended a White Home vacation reception in December 2015. Individual beforehand advised Fox Information Digital that these “visits had been private in nature, visiting with outdated colleagues and buddies whom I served with throughout my six years working there, and utterly unrelated to my work with Harves Leisure which was creating experiences and sights with iconic manufacturers throughout the sports activities and leisure business.”

Bo Zhang, pictured right here, met with Hunter Biden and Eric Schwerin a number of instances whereas his enterprise accomplice, Fran Individual, was working for Congress in 2016. (Harves Funding Group/ YouTube Screenshot)

HUNTER BIDEN, CHINA, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS: MYSTERY SWIRLS AROUND PENN BIDEN CENTER

As just lately as March 2017, Hunter Biden’s now-defunct non-public fairness agency Rosemont Seneca Advisors held a 5% stake in Harves Amusement Parks and possession in Harves Sports activities and Leisure, each of which fall below the D.C.-based Harves Group. Individual beforehand claimed that “Hunter Biden, Rosemont Seneca Advisors or any affiliate or affiliate have by no means held any fairness in any Harves affiliated firm,” regardless of a number of emails from Hunter and his enterprise accomplice Eric Schwerin contradicting this declare. 

Individual and Zhang didn’t reply to Fox Information Digital’s requests for remark.

Fox Information Digital reported in August that Hunter was actively working behind the scenes in 2016 to solicit donations for Individual’s failed congressional marketing campaign whereas additionally introducing him and Zhang to enterprise colleagues by way of e-mail, together with DuPont govt George Duko.

President Biden maintains that he has no information of his son’s enterprise dealings. Hunter, who’s below federal investigation, has denied any wrongdoing.

Members of the Home Committee on Oversight and Reform beforehand advised Fox Information Digital that they deliberate to analyze Hunter’s enterprise offers with Harves Group and his relationship with Individual. 

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