White House won’t say if Biden family’s China biz is security issue

WASHINGTON — White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan refused to comment Friday about whether the Biden family’s business ventures in China posed a “national security issue,” as Republicans allege.

“Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are currently investigating the Biden family’s ties to foreign entities. They have specifically pointed to Hunter Biden’s financial ties to China,” began Daily Caller reporter Diana Glebova ahead of a Camp David summit with President Biden and the leaders of Japan and South Korea.

“Does the administration view this investigation as legitimate? And is the administration concerned that Hunter Biden’s ties to China pose a national security issue?”

“I don’t have any comment on that,” Sullivan replied.

President Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were expected to focus largely on China during their Friday trilateral at the forested presidential retreat in western Maryland.

House Republicans accuse the president of abusing his prior position as vice president to advance his family’s business interests in countries where he led the Obama administration’s foreign policy, such as China, Russia and Ukraine.

The first family has had at least two major business relationships in China and Joe Biden allegedly was involved in both of them.

“We’re concerned that the president is compromised because of the millions of dollars that his family has received,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told CNN last week.

Former President Donald Trump, who is seeking a rematch against Biden in next year’s election despite facing four criminal trials, claimed in a video published Tuesday that Biden “was bribed and now he’s being blackmailed.”

“He’s petrified of China because they know exactly how much money has been given to him and they know exactly where it is. China has paid him a fortune,” claimed the 77-year-old, blasting Biden for failing to do more to investigate the origins of COVID-19, which killed more than 1 million Americans after possibly leaking from a Chinese lab — a theory backed by the FBI and Energy Department.

“Just think of what China has gotten for all that money. Biden shut down my administration’s initiative targeting Chinese spies in the United States,” Trump said. “He let China off the hook for COVID. He shut down the investigation into the origins of the China virus.”

Trump added, “He did nothing as China began setting up bases in Cuba, taking over South America and threatening Taiwan. They even took over the Panama Canal,” he added, referring to a series of Chinese investments in the formerly US-controlled canal zone.

The Chinese spy base in Cuba was set up in 2019 during Trump’s presidency, the Biden administration said.

“Russia and China are even doing military exercises near the Aleutian Islands right off the coast of Alaska and Biden sits back and his hands and does nothing,” Trump added.

Other Republicans have faulted Biden’s response to largely China-sourced fentanyl, which has caused a surge in US overdose deaths as the highly potent compound is increasingly mixed into non-opioid drugs and counterfeit prescriptions, causing unwitting users to die.

“Over the past few months, [Biden] sent three members of his administration to make nice with China and got nothing done on fentanyl.” Republican presidential candidate and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said earlier this month, referring to recent visits by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry.

Fentanyl killed an estimated nearly 76,000 Americans in 2022 — an all-time record — after killing about 72,000 in 2021.

The death toll from fentanyl under Biden is up dramatically.

During 2020, Trump’s final full year in office, roughly 58,000 Americans died from fentanyl, though that figure was up significantly from more than 37,000 in 2019 and about 32,000 in 2018.

Republicans also faulted Biden’s handling of a Chinese spy balloon that Biden ordered shot down in February off South Carolina’s coast after it traversed the continental US.

“When you look at the Biden balloon that came across the country for a week … how much has that been influenced by the Biden family’s corrupt business deals?” asked Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) at the time.

Biden has steadfastly denied any knowledge of or involvement in his son Hunter and brother James Biden’s foreign business dealings — despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

Biden claimed “that’s not true” in March when asked about three relatives — Hunter, James and daughter-in-law Hallie — receiving $1 million from a Chinese energy company in early 2017, according to subpoenaed bank records released by the Oversight Committee.

The president grumbled, “Give me a break, man,” in February when asked if his ability to manage the US-China relationship was “compromised.”

First son Hunter Biden co-founded investment fund BHR Partners with Chinese state-owned entities in 2013 — just 12 days after Hunter joined VP Biden aboard Air Force Two for an official trip to Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Hunter introduced his dad to BHR CEO Jonathan Li during the trip to China’s capital and Joe Biden later wrote college recommendation letters for Li’s children. 

Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer told the Oversight Committee in a July 31 interview that Joe Biden had coffee with Li during the 2013 trip — rather than a mere handshake as previously reported — and that Hunter put his father on speakerphone with Li during a subsequent business trip to Beijing.

Hunter Biden held a 10% stake in BHR through at least part of his father’s first year in office, and the status of his alleged divestment in late 2021 remains unclear — with the White House refusing to provide any transparency following an assertion by Hunter’s legal team that he no longer holds the shares.

Purported leaked BHR documents suggest Hunter’s “sugar brother” Kevin Morris, a wealthy Hollywood lawyer whom he met at a 2019 fundraiser, may have assumed control of the stake.

First brother James Biden and first son Hunter later launched a second business venture in China with another government-linked company, CEFC China Energy, which formed part of Beijing’s foreign-influence “Belt and Road” campaign.

Months after leaving office as vice president, Joe Biden allegedly met twice with his son and brother’s CEFC partners and was referred to as the “big guy” penciled in for a 10% cut in a May 2017 email about CEFC.

Two of Hunter Biden’s former associates in the venture, Tony Bobulinski and James Gilliar, identified the president as the “big guy.”

Bobulinski alleges that he discussed the CEFC deal with Joe Biden, and an October 2017 email from Hunter Biden’s laptop identifies Joe Biden as a participant in a call about CEFC’s attempt to purchase US natural gas. 

The CEFC relationship appears to have started around 2015 when Hunter connected with Vuk Jeremic, a former foreign minister of Serbia and president of the United Nations General Assembly who was running for UN secretary-general, while his dad was vice president.

IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who investigated Hunter for three and five years, respectively, said in recent congressional testimony that Justice Department officials blocked them from investigating Joe Biden’s role in business dealings, despite communications directly mentioning him.

Shapley provided the panel with a July 30, 2017, WhatsApp message in which Hunter wrote that he was “sitting here with my father” and threatened retribution if a deal was aborted, immediately preceding the transfer of $5.1 million from CEFC China Energy to Biden-linked accounts — on top of more than $1 million transferred earlier in the year.

Hunter also received a 3.16-carat diamond from CEFC founder Ye Jianming in 2017.

Hunter Biden wrote in emails retrieved from his former laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to Joe Biden, and the House Oversight Committee in May identified nine Biden family members who allegedly received foreign revenue.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) this month called on President Biden to “give us his bank records” to show he wasn’t involved and said Republicans are moving closer to launching an impeachment inquiry.