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Hunter Biden’s business dealings with a Chinese firm continue to be a source of controversy. On April 29, the Daily Caller revealed that the president’s son “continues to hold a minority stake in a Chinese private equity firm,” defying President Biden’s promise that his family would divest from foreign business interests.
According to the article, President Biden’s son holds a 10% stake in BHR Partners through his company, Skaneateles LLC. The Caller explained that they obtained the information from “Qixinbao and Baidu, two independent services that provide business records on Chinese corporations based on China’s National Credit Information Publicity System.”
BHR Partners, a Chinese firm, is directly linked to the China’s central bank.
In 2019, during his campaign, Biden promised that his family would be out of potentially damaging international business.
“No one in my family will have an office in the White House, will sit in on meetings as if they are a cabinet member, will, in fact, have any business relationship with anyone that relates to a foreign corporation or a foreign country,” Biden said.
In February 2021, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki commented that the president’s son was looking for ways to divest his stake from the Chinese firm. But that was three months ago.
Why is Chinese firm BHR Partners so controversial?
Peter Schweizer, author of the best-seller Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends wrote in a 2019 article for the New York Post several facts about Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China, including relations with BHR.
“In December 2013, Hunter landed in Beijing aboard Air Force Two, accompanying his father on an official visit to China. Less than two weeks later, Hunter’s company, Rosemont Seneca, became a partner in a new investment company backed by the state-owned Bank of China. Christening the new firm Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), the partners set out to raise $1 billion for the new fund.”
The Biden family denied that the visit to Beijing by then-Vice President Biden was related to his son’s business dealings. “However, a BHR representative told The New Yorker earlier this year that Hunter used the opportunity to introduce his father to Chinese private equity executive Jonathan Li, who became CEO of BHR after the deal’s conclusion,” Schweizer explained.
The history of BHR Partners within a few years of founding is remarkable. The firm raised millions in funding and became a major investment opportunity in the Asian giant.
However, beyond the economic success in a short time, this Chinese firm, of which Hunter Biden is still part, was not exempt from controversy:
Other controversial issues involving the Chinese firm, Peter Schweizer explains in the Post, are that “in December 2014, BHR became an “anchor investor” in the IPO of China General Nuclear Power Company (CGN), a state-owned nuclear company involved in the development of nuclear reactors.”
“Not only is CGN a strategically important company in China, it was also facing legal scrutiny in the United States. In 2016, CGN was charged with espionage by the Justice Department for stealing US nuclear secrets.”
From this stems the concern that more than 100 days after President Biden took office, Hunter still did not disassociate himself from the Chinese firm.
Hunter Biden admitted in December that the FBI is investigating his foreign business dealings and various tax matters. The business dealings of the president’s son long ago became a controversial political issue that continues to affect the Biden family’s image, especially among conservatives.
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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