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[Pre-order a copy of Daniel Greenfield’s first book, Domestic Enemies, by clicking here. Orders will begin shipping on April 30th.]
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” Hunter Biden threatened in a WhatsApp message to a CEFC associate.
If his demands were not met, the future president’s son warned, “I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.”
Hunter would later claim that Joe Biden wasn’t actually there and he had been drunk or high.
Whatever the truth, next month a CEFC affiliate sent $5 million, half of the $10 million Hunter had demanded, to a joint company set up by Hunter and a CEFC figure, $400,000 was then transferred to a shell company, $150,000 was diverted to a company controlled by Joe Biden’s brother James, $50,000 of which was diverted to a personal checking account and $40,000 of which was sent as a personal check to Joe Biden for a “loan repayment.”
But one unanswered question is why CEFC China Energy would have been intimidated by Biden’s threats at all. In July 2017, Joe Biden was out of the White House and while he was a potential presidential candidate, that was still years away.
Why did CEFC feel nervous enough to cut the Bidens a very sizable check in 2017?
The answer may lie with a March 2017 deal in which CEFC had tried to acquire a stake in the Cowen Group: a somewhat obscure investment bank based out of New York City. The deal would have had to win the approval of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) and under the Trump administration, China’s investments were not winning approval.
CEFC’s 19.9% stake in the Cowen Group came at the same time as CFIUS was scrutinizing attempted Chinese purchases of MoneyGram, Genworth Financial and Lattice Semiconductor. These various deals fell apart or, as in CEFC’s case, were shut down by CFIUS. By August, CEFC had cut their check to the Bidens, but by September were forced to refile their proposal, and by November had announced that CFIUS process was just too onerous to continue.
The timeline raises the distinct possibility that CEFC was protecting its Cowen Group investment while trying to avoid any problems during the CFIUS process. While CFIUS is led by the heads of departments such as the Treasury Department and the Department of Defense, CEFC might have reasonably believed that the former VP could cause problems.
Or it may have been working on a Plan B to wait and refile under a future Biden administration.
But an underlying question is what did CEFC, a Chinese energy company, want with a New York investment bank? The answer may be that some Chinese companies looking to expand into the United States had found it easier to buy into existing American investment companies.
The huge investments in Morgan Stanley and Blackstone by the China Investment Corporation, the Communist country’s largest sovereign wealth fund, helped open the door to a generation of deals. Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, a Chinese backed fund, had struggled and failed to acquire Lattice, a tech company with potential military applications.
What was CEFC after? The Bidens were looking for energy investments in the U.S. for CEFC. A year earlier, CEFC had tried to buy into Putin’s Rosneft and into the Czech Republic. CEFC’s ties to the Communist regime would have made a deal for any major asset of strategic importance in the energy sector a challenging matter to get past CFIUS review, but by acquiring a stake in an existing American financial institution, CEFC may have hoped to bypass it.
Cowen would have served as a front group for CEFC and its backers in the Communist system.
Two years before Hunter’s late night rant and the $5 million check, the “Made in China 2025” strategy to build up the Communist dictatorship’s domestic industries through “mergers, equity investment and venture capital investment overseas” had already been announced.
This would and indeed did bypass CFIUS on some occasions especially when the companies involved were more obscure. And a former VP and even his addict son could however have blown the whistle and spoiled the first step of a potential process for buying a strategic asset.
The Cowen Group deal did not evade CFIUS scrutiny and the prolonged review process scuttled the deal, but by then the Bidens had gotten paid and that was what mattered.
What was China getting from the Bidens? Among other things it may have been silence.
Hunter Biden and his business partners might have understood CEFC’s plans and while they were between presidencies, they had more than enough connections in D.C. to make the Cowen deal and whatever goals it was meant to achieve into enough of an issue that would have doomed it.
Once Hunter had sent his WhatsApp message, his Chinese business partners would have seen it as a threat from Joe Biden, and would have intended the money as a bribe for the future president.
While CEFC was raiding America, it believed it was paying off the former vice president.
Earlier in 2017, Biden business partners had tried to solicit Joe Biden to attend a CEFC meeting because the “B family” needed a “top person at same level as chairman, who would like to access China or money”. That was followed by a warning, “Don’t mention Joe being involved, it’s only when u are face to face, I know u know that but they are paranoid.” While Biden never showed up to that meeting, his name kept showing up in business dealings involving CEFC later that year.
A year after the infamous “sitting here with my father” message, the New York Times finally ran a story discussing Hunter’s CEFC dealings. Joe Biden then left a message for his son, “I thought the article released online, it’s going to be printed tomorrow in the Times, was good.”
“I think you’re clear,” he added.
Sword of the Spirit says
“Did China Bribe Biden?” Does a bear get in your frigerator.
Algorithmic Analyst says
That’s a good analogy. The bear gets a small amount of food, but trashes the refrigerator and the kitchen and makes a big mess in the process.
Mickorn says
“whatever the truth”… “the answer may lie”…”might have understood”…”the answer may be”…”the timeline raises the distinct possibility”….
Nothing but baseless speculation dressed up as investigative journalism. Lap it up, lemmings!
Old Airborne Dog says
“Nothing but baseless speculation dressed up as investigative journalism. Lap it up, lemmings!”
Would that be a Soviet Democrat attempting to remind us of the “investigative journalism” that pushed the “Russia Dossier” that Clinton dreamed up and Clinton/Obama/the DNC paid for? The supposed “US intelligence agency evidence” that Trump conspired with Russia to steal the election.
The Soviet Democrat’s Marxist Useful Idiot lemmings lapped that one up for YEARS! Many will still swear on Marx’s grave that it’s all true…
Or the “investigative journalism” that assured the Soviet Democrats’ Marxist Useful Idiot lemmings that the laptop belonging to The Family Bagman Formerly Known As The Crackhead Kid was ‘merely Russian election disinformation’?
Like the “Russia Dossier”, the Soviet Democrats’ Marxist Useful Idiot lemmings lapped that up as they headed to the polls…
Should the lemmings that are the Soviet Democrats’ Marxist Useful Idiots be given any credibility whatsoever of having even a child’s ability to recognize actual journalism when it’s right in front of them?
dani says
whoever is paying you to make a fool of yourself with your mindless drivel, is getting a raw deal.
Algorithmic Analyst says
ChiComs are always looking to cheat.
Kynarion Hellenis says
It is the way of all of humanity, with the exception of western nations. And we, too, are going the same way. We must re-establish our founding principles, together with the Christian laws and culture that enabled it, Our western way of life is exceedingly rare. Our very existence means we must wake up to this reality and defend it by any means necessary.
Mandy123 says
So it seems that China is going to take over the US without a fight but by purchasing our farmland and laundering money through banks that can be purchased .by them.
Mo de Profit says
They also do it through Amazon etc. Companies appear to be local but when you examine them they are all Chinese.
Algorithmic Analyst says
And their customer service is terrible 🙂
Kynarion Hellenis says
And stealing our technology, and using it against us.
Mo de Profit says
Why don’t the environmentalists complain about Chinese junk polluting the whole world?
In the eighties I was given a second hand Black and Decker drill, it still works today.
I purchased a new battery operated Black and Decker drill a couple of years ago and it is falling apart already.
Guess which one is made in China?
Kynarion Hellenis says
What if DJT and his sons had committed the same atrocities?
Walter Sieruk says
Joe Biden received many “gifts” . Bribes, in the form of money and other things from Red China’s President Xi Jinping and other higher up of the China’s Communist party
About such corrupt activities, the Bible reads ” The wicked accept bribes in secret to pervert the course of justice.” Proverbs 17:23. [N. I. V.]
Umuatbkidding says
OR the Chinese spy ballon’s crossing America. I think last month March 2024 another one was spotted
OR the Chinese now have our Naval intelligence base Bahrain
Gosh so many choices. It’s like Christmas for the Chinese.
RS says
China is controlling this administration. The Elites put money and wealth over their own country and the American people.