Riding the Dragon (2020) - full transcript
Uncover the secret world of Joe Biden and his family's relationship to China and the sinister business deals that enriched them at America's expense.
the challenge of the
chinese communist party and the threat
that it poses to the united states and
our allies
is a critical importance to us right now
i think in the
long term in terms of american security
policy
china is going to be a much more
powerful country than russia
there's no country that presents a
broader
more comprehensive threat to america's
innovation to our economic security and
to our democratic ideas than china does
i believe we've got to live in reality
communist china
it wants to control the entire world
including americans
let's be clear the chinese communist
party is a marxist
limitless organization the party general
secretary
xi jinping sees himself as joseph
stalin's successor
china's a longer term threat and we need
to you need to be very clear-eyed about
what they are and what they are
they're not our partner here they're
never going to be our partner
under the existing leadership team under
president xi's rule the chinese
communist party
is heading even faster and further in
the wrong direction
more internal repression more predatory
economic practices
more heavy-handedness and most
concerning for me a more aggressive
military posture
for china success is a zero-sum game
china is going to eat our lunch
come on man i mean
i you know they're not bad folks folks
but guess what
they're not a they're not competition
for us
on the surface that's a really puzzling
thing to say
joe biden saying china is not really a
threat
china is america's chief rival on the
global stage
and nobody should know that better than
joe biden
i mean during the obama biden
administration
actually recalibrated foreign policy to
contain
china it was called the pivot
china has never loomed larger in our
lives
think about the economy trade
espionage now coveted 19.
china has said openly that they want to
supplant us
as the world's superpower but joe biden
talks about china differently
china is not our enemy not a problem
what are we worried about
come on man he doesn't see them as a
threat
and i believe then what i believe now
that a rising china
is a positive positive development
he welcomes the rise as a global power
why exactly perhaps it's personal
perhaps it's about his family perhaps
it's about the money
so
december 2013 vice president joe biden
is arriving in beijing
for a series of sensitive meetings with
chinese officials
the chinese give him the red carpet
treatment
literally but also along for the trip
joe biden's son hunter white
during the visit joe biden meets with
chinese vice premier lee
and with president xi
a 2013 trip to china getting new
attention this morning not for what joe
biden did
but for who he brought with him and what
was hunter biden doing
we're not sure he doesn't appear in many
pictures
of the official festivities
but what we do know is this
10 days after father and son returned to
the united states
hunter biden's small investment firm
announced a 1 billion private equity
deal
with the chinese government and where
did the capital come from for this deal
from the chinese government itself
unknown to the press back then hunter
biden was forming a chinese private
equity fund
planning to raise money including from
chinese investors
years later hunter biden acknowledged
that during the trip
he met with a chinese banker which his
spokesperson describes as a social visit
not a business one
i believe then and i'm even more
convinced now that a rising china
is an incredibly positive development
for
not only china but the united states and
the rest of the world
hunter small firm got a deal that no one
else
had in china
not morgan stanley goldman sachs
deutsche bank or ubs
and are you vulnerable on this issue at
all because of your son's business
dealings in china
no i don't believe so at all my son's
business dealings
were not anything with everybody that
he's talking about not even remotely
number
one
what's interesting is hunter biden had
no real background in china
in finance or private equity in fact
hunter had what might be called a spotty
resume
a couple of youthful jobs owing directly
to his father's influence
he was once made a director of amtrak
based on the fact that he'd ridden on
trains
he'd been addicted to crack cocaine
had an unsettled domestic life and a
brief attempt at a naval career ended
with a discharge over drug use
so why did the chinese pick him
spring 2017.
patrick hoe a chinese businessman was
arrested by the fbi
on bribery charges
he worked for a chinese energy company
with close ties to the chinese military
while in fbi custody home made two phone
calls
one of those strangely is to james biden
joe biden's brother
why did this man call the brother of the
vice president
he was looking for hunter
this is the remarkable and largely
hidden story
of the secret financial relationship
between the biden family
and the chinese government
it's a relationship that grew while joe
biden
was vice president of the united states
and shortly after he was appointed the
point person
on u.s policy towards china
our investigation is based on corporate
records
financial documents legal briefings
and court papers
it's the story of the second most
powerful man
in the world at the time and how his
family was striking deals with america's
chief rival on the global stage the
people's
republic of china
and it's a story that has been largely
never told
a rising china is a positive development
not only for the people of china but for
the united states and the world as a
whole
january 2009
joe biden is inaugurated vice president
of the united states
hi joseph robinette biden jr do solemnly
swear
it was a remarkable moment for biden who
had spent more than 35 years
in the united states senate
born to a family of modest means in
scranton pennsylvania
he would become known as lunch bucket
joe
he joined the political world early and
won election to the united states senate
at the ripe age of 29. he was sworn into
office just six weeks after reaching
the constitutionally required age of 30.
from its earliest days biden's political
career
was not just about joe but about the
larger biden family
politics was a family business when joe
did well the family did well
joe's sister valerie biden became a
political consultant
who was hired by joe's many campaigns
brothers frank and james became involved
in securing government contracts
and deals overseas with foreign
governments
joe's son hunter became a washington
lobbyist
representing clients from delaware
the state that his father represented in
the u.s
senate
when joe biden was elevated to the vice
presidency
the family's ambitions grew accordingly
now the world was a business opportunity
and the biden family was looking for
deals
including with foreign governments
just months after joe biden was
inaugurated vice president
his son hunter biden formed a company
called
rosemont seneca partners
his partners had useful connections one
was christopher hines
the stepson of senator john kerry a
powerful u.s senator
who would later become secretary of
state
the other partner was devin archer a
friend of heinz
rosemont is the name of the heinz
family's 90-acre
estate outside of fox chapel
pennsylvania
rosemont seneca the new investment firm
opened an office in georgetown
just two miles from the white house
outside of fox chapel pennsylvania
one of hunter biden's big scores was a
controversial deal he landed
in the troubled nation of ukraine in
00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:20,639
the ukrainian government fell
and joe biden became america's point man
for the troubled country
weeks later hunter biden was hired by a
corrupt ukrainian energy company called
verism
which paid hunter at a rate of 1 million
dollars a year this despite the fact
that he had no experience in energy
or in ukraine
if your last name wasn't biden do you
think he would have been asked to be on
the board of burisma
i don't know i don't know probably not
hunter landed on the barisma board as
did his partner
devin archer
hunter's ventures in ukraine would later
pose troubling questions of conflict of
interest
for his father joe support
rosemont was landing deals around the
world
but the big prize was china with its
booming economy
and staggering growth it's also an
economy where relationships are
key
especially with the chinese government
and i'd love now to raise our glass and
a toast
to many more generations of friendship
and peace
hunter biden began meeting with chinese
government officials
at the highest levels of power
he had no background in china little
background in finance
hunter's previous job had been as a
lobbyist
for an online gambling company located
in europe but now
doors were opening to hunter in china
often hunter's meetings coincided almost
directly
with his father's high level diplomacy
with chinese leaders
in april 2010 for example vice president
joe biden met with a chinese president
at the nuclear security summit in
washington dc
but at virtually the same time halfway
around the world
hunter biden was in china meeting with
government officials looking for
financial deals
who exactly was hunter biden meeting
with
only some of the most powerful finance
officials
in china hunter spent two days
meeting with the top executives from
china's sovereign wealth fund
social security fund and largest banks
hunter even posed with them for a series
of pictures
so how did hunter get these meetings
one chinese website's account of the
meeting touted the chinese officials
extended their warm welcome
to hunter biden quote second son
of the now vice president joe biden
in other words hunter got these meetings
because of who his father was
vice president of the united states
i don't think that there's a lot of
things that would happen in my life that
that if my last name wasn't fine
vice president joe biden with one eye
towards a possible 2016 bid
is getting the chance to flex his
international muscle power in
asia
that brings us back to 2013 when joe
biden arrived in beijing
with a full agenda among the highly
sensitive issues to press with his hosts
chinese cyber attacks the theft of
american intellectual property
trade issues national security
china's claims over the south china sea
hunter biden was also on board he joined
his father the next morning for a
meeting
with the u.s china business council and
then joe biden was
off to a meeting with vice president lee
just where hunter biden spent the rest
of his time on the trip
remains largely a mystery
but we do know this hunter later
admitted
that he introduced his father to a
chinese official
on this trip who was involved with
hunter's budding business ventures
and we know that ten days after the trip
hunter's one billion dollar deal with
the chinese government
was finalized
hunter and his chinese partners
established a private investment fund
they would call bohai harvest
the chinese government provided the
money
hunter was given a seat on the bohai
harvest board of directors
and a 10 equity stake in the new company
devin archer his business partner was
appointed vice chairman
the new firm enjoyed an unusual and
special status
in china operating through the shanghai
free trade zone
no other investment fund in the world
had a deal
like biden's firm
not ubs not goldman sachs
not morgan stanley no one
in short the son of the vice president
of the united states
with little investment experience no
experience in china
got a deal in the people's republic of
china
that no one else had and he got that
deal
shortly after his father was appointed
point person
on u.s policy towards china
but this isn't just another story about
a politician's kid
getting rich hunter's new firm
bow high harvest began making investment
deals
around the world that would serve the
strategic
interests of the chinese government
and that's what makes this deal so
troubling
that's a bold thing to say but it's true
this new firm started making investment
deals
that would serve the strategic interests
of the chinese
military
in 2015 hunter biden's bohai harvest
joined forces
with the chinese military contractor
avic
to buy american parts manufacturer
penegus
henegas's technology is considered dual
use
meaning it can be used for commercial
and
military purposes
and deals like these require approval of
the highest levels
of the federal government
hunter biden's partner in the hennegus
deal the chinese aviation giant
avik was notorious for its history of
stealing us
military technologies to build their own
fighter jets
and drones but in september 2015
avic bought 51 percent of hennigus
and hunter biden's boa harvest bought
the other
49 percent
and yes the obama administration did
indeed
approve it
hunter's firm bojai harvest also
invested in military surveillance
technology
that the chinese government would use to
monitor and control
the population in their own country
the company was called face plus
plus there are a number of american
investors that also stand to profit
from this mass surveillance that are
also invested in face plus plus
one of whom is hunter biden the son of
former vice president joe biden
bow high harvest also helped china in
its competition
with the united states over so-called
rare earth
minerals a chinese government-run firm
called china molybdenum produces rare
earth minerals around the world
competing with western firms for mining
access
and the company does not hide the fact
that its work has direct
military applications the company's 2015
annual report for example declares that
molybdenum
is used to produce sensitive military
technologies
what's fascinating is that while hunter
biden and his firm were helping
beijing in the race to acquire rare
earth minerals
his father's administration was actually
fighting them
in 2012 president obama announced that
the united states was filing a complaint
with the world trade organization
because china was trying to control
the global market
in 2014 the world trade organization
agreed
that china was trying to do so
yet two years later hunter's firm joined
with china
molybdenum and announced that together
they were buying more than half
of one of the largest copper mines in
the world
and so while the obama administration
was competing with
china in the race for rare earth
minerals
hunter biden and his firm were actually
helping beijing
win that race
but there was an even more troubling
deal
in december 2014 hunter's firm became an
anchor
investor in a company called china
general
nuclear or cgn
cgn had been wholly owned by the chinese
government
but it was now selling off a minority
state
to a favored investor hunter biden
presumably didn't realize
that when his company was investing in
cgn they were investing in a company
that was under
fbi investigation for stealing u.s
nuclear secrets
in fact less than 18 months after
hunter's chinese firm invested in china
general
a nuclear engineer named alan ho and the
company
were charged by the u.s justice
department with stealing
nuclear secrets from the united states
according to the fbi ho had been working
under the direction
of china general to steal american
nuclear secrets
since 1998.
it's not clear whether the fbi or the
obama justice department
knew that joe biden's family was
actually involved
with cgn
but what is clear is that china has been
trying to steal american nuclear secrets
for a long time
is it really that crazy to think that by
partnering with the son of the vice
president
they were trying to buy them too and
make no mistake
these firms hunter was dealing with are
directly tied to the chinese
military in june 2020 the u.s department
of defense released a list of companies
doing business in the united states
that were known to be connected to the
chinese military
on that list avik and
cgn but the bidens weren't done
cutting deals in china
joe doing diplomacy with a chinese
government and hunter kept
finding himself in the middle of more
business acquisitions
also with the chinese government
a confident china was on the march
asserting its power
and flexing its muscles
china had promised the world that it
wasn't going to militarize
the area but they went ahead and did so
anyway
the chinese aggression was aimed at
america too
china's military has attacked major u.s
companies
in a computer war that kills american
jobs more than 21 million americans had
personal information
stolen from government files in a data
breach that was six times as large as
originally disclosed
the information was hacked from the
office of personnel management
or opm which said today it is highly
likely
that anyone who went through background
checks to apply for a government
position since
2000 was affected
think about that the chinese government
had hacked an american government
website
and taken information from millions of
american government workers
highly sensitive private information it
was a crime
taken very seriously by our federal
government
and what was hunter biden doing he was
looking for more commercial deals
with the chinese another one of hunter
biden's businesses
was called rosemont realty
co-founded with devin archer who is the
chairman of the firm
just like his investment firm hunter
biden had no background
in commercial real estate but that
didn't stop him
from getting a seat at some of the
biggest tables
around the world who was rosemont realty
negotiating with
that would be a company called gemini a
former subsidiary of a chinese
state-owned company
with close ties to the chinese military
rosemont realty certainly played up the
biden connection
in the material they provided to
possible investors
in a company prospectus from rosemont
marked
confidential they noted that it was a
key consideration
that hunter biden son of vice president
biden
is on the advisory board
in august 2015 an eye-popping
multi-billion dollar deal
was announced
the chinese company gemini was buying a
00:31:40,799 --> 00:31:47,840
stake in hunter biden's company rosemont
so who exactly is this second chinese
business partner
of the biden family gemini's parent
company
sino ocean land
is actually run out of the headquarters
of the china
overseas shipping company costco
which is called the fifth arm of the
chinese navy
so you have two big deals between the
biden family
and the chinese government or chinese
government-linked firms
in the years following joe biden's
appointment
as the point person on u.s policy
towards china
but there was still more business to be
done
hunter and his business partner devin
archer began working with yet another
firm
this one called burnham asset management
out of an office in new york city they
work to line up more deals with chinese
companies many of them mysterious and
with murky ties
to the chinese government
one of the companies was called kirin
global enterprise limited
a mysterious investment vehicle run by
larry lee and guo jinfang
very little is known about kirin other
than the fact that they
invest heavily in mainland chinese
infrastructure
another chinese firm bidens wanted to
partner with is called
harvest global investments
which is linked to the chinese
government
how much money did the biden family make
from these deals
how deep do their ties to the chinese
government run
we can't know for sure but consider this
in 2017 a chinese executive was arrested
by the fbi in new york
on charges of money laundering and
violating
the foreign corrupt practices act
patrick hoe
was an assistant to a chinese oil tycoon
who ran cefc china energy
which had strong ties to the chinese
military
when hoe was arrested one of the first
calls he made
was to james biden joe's brother
when asked by the new york times about
the call
james biden says that ho was actually
calling to get hunter biden's
phone number
patrick hoe was charged and convicted
and went to jail
for those charges why exactly was he
calling hunter biden
what sort of help was he expecting
we don't know the answers to those
questions but what we do know is that
the bidens have cultivated
very close relationships with members of
the chinese elite
and some of those relationships would be
very hard
to defend
say
so what do we know we
know that the biden family has a series
of lucrative deals
with the chinese government
we know that these deals came despite
a lack of experience by the bidens in
the areas they covered
we know that they happened while joe
biden was steering
u.s foreign policy towards china
we also know that these deals didn't
just
make the biden's money they had
potentially dangerous consequences
for our national security
we know that hunter biden's firm backed
by the chinese government
invested in a company that was actively
stealing
nuclear secrets from the united states
we know that china has been consistent
in their efforts to acquire u.s
technology and that their spies have
been caught trying to steal
our military technology
we know that hunter biden's firm bought
a company that provides dual use
technologies
for the chinese military
we know that global powers have tried to
stop
china from monopolizing the world's
mineral resources
and we know that hunter biden's firm
bought a company
that actually helped china in its
competition
with the united states for mineral
resources
and we also know this that biden
investment firm that helped china gain
access to dual use technology that
invested in chinese surveillance
technology
and helped china in its quest to control
the world's strategic metals
hunter biden was forced by political
pressure to resign from that firm's
board of directors
in late 2019 but hunter quietly
maintains an ownership stake in the firm
a stake worth millions of dollars and
stands to be worth
even more as its china partnership
prospers
why did you leave the board in april
it's a five-year term
and you chose not to choose why i think
it's pretty obvious
so why does this matter because we need
to know who our leaders
are doing business with who is making
them wealthy
who might they be beholden to it's the
oldest story in politics
we need to follow the money
a rising china is a wash in money
the money trail stretches all across the
globe
and some of those trails lead straight
to one of america's most prominent
political families headed by a man
who calls himself lunch bucket joe
chyna is going to eat our lunch come on
man
do
come on man
chinese communist party and the threat
that it poses to the united states and
our allies
is a critical importance to us right now
i think in the
long term in terms of american security
policy
china is going to be a much more
powerful country than russia
there's no country that presents a
broader
more comprehensive threat to america's
innovation to our economic security and
to our democratic ideas than china does
i believe we've got to live in reality
communist china
it wants to control the entire world
including americans
let's be clear the chinese communist
party is a marxist
limitless organization the party general
secretary
xi jinping sees himself as joseph
stalin's successor
china's a longer term threat and we need
to you need to be very clear-eyed about
what they are and what they are
they're not our partner here they're
never going to be our partner
under the existing leadership team under
president xi's rule the chinese
communist party
is heading even faster and further in
the wrong direction
more internal repression more predatory
economic practices
more heavy-handedness and most
concerning for me a more aggressive
military posture
for china success is a zero-sum game
china is going to eat our lunch
come on man i mean
i you know they're not bad folks folks
but guess what
they're not a they're not competition
for us
on the surface that's a really puzzling
thing to say
joe biden saying china is not really a
threat
china is america's chief rival on the
global stage
and nobody should know that better than
joe biden
i mean during the obama biden
administration
actually recalibrated foreign policy to
contain
china it was called the pivot
china has never loomed larger in our
lives
think about the economy trade
espionage now coveted 19.
china has said openly that they want to
supplant us
as the world's superpower but joe biden
talks about china differently
china is not our enemy not a problem
what are we worried about
come on man he doesn't see them as a
threat
and i believe then what i believe now
that a rising china
is a positive positive development
he welcomes the rise as a global power
why exactly perhaps it's personal
perhaps it's about his family perhaps
it's about the money
so
december 2013 vice president joe biden
is arriving in beijing
for a series of sensitive meetings with
chinese officials
the chinese give him the red carpet
treatment
literally but also along for the trip
joe biden's son hunter white
during the visit joe biden meets with
chinese vice premier lee
and with president xi
a 2013 trip to china getting new
attention this morning not for what joe
biden did
but for who he brought with him and what
was hunter biden doing
we're not sure he doesn't appear in many
pictures
of the official festivities
but what we do know is this
10 days after father and son returned to
the united states
hunter biden's small investment firm
announced a 1 billion private equity
deal
with the chinese government and where
did the capital come from for this deal
from the chinese government itself
unknown to the press back then hunter
biden was forming a chinese private
equity fund
planning to raise money including from
chinese investors
years later hunter biden acknowledged
that during the trip
he met with a chinese banker which his
spokesperson describes as a social visit
not a business one
i believe then and i'm even more
convinced now that a rising china
is an incredibly positive development
for
not only china but the united states and
the rest of the world
hunter small firm got a deal that no one
else
had in china
not morgan stanley goldman sachs
deutsche bank or ubs
and are you vulnerable on this issue at
all because of your son's business
dealings in china
no i don't believe so at all my son's
business dealings
were not anything with everybody that
he's talking about not even remotely
number
one
what's interesting is hunter biden had
no real background in china
in finance or private equity in fact
hunter had what might be called a spotty
resume
a couple of youthful jobs owing directly
to his father's influence
he was once made a director of amtrak
based on the fact that he'd ridden on
trains
he'd been addicted to crack cocaine
had an unsettled domestic life and a
brief attempt at a naval career ended
with a discharge over drug use
so why did the chinese pick him
spring 2017.
patrick hoe a chinese businessman was
arrested by the fbi
on bribery charges
he worked for a chinese energy company
with close ties to the chinese military
while in fbi custody home made two phone
calls
one of those strangely is to james biden
joe biden's brother
why did this man call the brother of the
vice president
he was looking for hunter
this is the remarkable and largely
hidden story
of the secret financial relationship
between the biden family
and the chinese government
it's a relationship that grew while joe
biden
was vice president of the united states
and shortly after he was appointed the
point person
on u.s policy towards china
our investigation is based on corporate
records
financial documents legal briefings
and court papers
it's the story of the second most
powerful man
in the world at the time and how his
family was striking deals with america's
chief rival on the global stage the
people's
republic of china
and it's a story that has been largely
never told
a rising china is a positive development
not only for the people of china but for
the united states and the world as a
whole
january 2009
joe biden is inaugurated vice president
of the united states
hi joseph robinette biden jr do solemnly
swear
it was a remarkable moment for biden who
had spent more than 35 years
in the united states senate
born to a family of modest means in
scranton pennsylvania
he would become known as lunch bucket
joe
he joined the political world early and
won election to the united states senate
at the ripe age of 29. he was sworn into
office just six weeks after reaching
the constitutionally required age of 30.
from its earliest days biden's political
career
was not just about joe but about the
larger biden family
politics was a family business when joe
did well the family did well
joe's sister valerie biden became a
political consultant
who was hired by joe's many campaigns
brothers frank and james became involved
in securing government contracts
and deals overseas with foreign
governments
joe's son hunter became a washington
lobbyist
representing clients from delaware
the state that his father represented in
the u.s
senate
when joe biden was elevated to the vice
presidency
the family's ambitions grew accordingly
now the world was a business opportunity
and the biden family was looking for
deals
including with foreign governments
just months after joe biden was
inaugurated vice president
his son hunter biden formed a company
called
rosemont seneca partners
his partners had useful connections one
was christopher hines
the stepson of senator john kerry a
powerful u.s senator
who would later become secretary of
state
the other partner was devin archer a
friend of heinz
rosemont is the name of the heinz
family's 90-acre
estate outside of fox chapel
pennsylvania
rosemont seneca the new investment firm
opened an office in georgetown
just two miles from the white house
outside of fox chapel pennsylvania
one of hunter biden's big scores was a
controversial deal he landed
in the troubled nation of ukraine in
00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:20,639
the ukrainian government fell
and joe biden became america's point man
for the troubled country
weeks later hunter biden was hired by a
corrupt ukrainian energy company called
verism
which paid hunter at a rate of 1 million
dollars a year this despite the fact
that he had no experience in energy
or in ukraine
if your last name wasn't biden do you
think he would have been asked to be on
the board of burisma
i don't know i don't know probably not
hunter landed on the barisma board as
did his partner
devin archer
hunter's ventures in ukraine would later
pose troubling questions of conflict of
interest
for his father joe support
rosemont was landing deals around the
world
but the big prize was china with its
booming economy
and staggering growth it's also an
economy where relationships are
key
especially with the chinese government
and i'd love now to raise our glass and
a toast
to many more generations of friendship
and peace
hunter biden began meeting with chinese
government officials
at the highest levels of power
he had no background in china little
background in finance
hunter's previous job had been as a
lobbyist
for an online gambling company located
in europe but now
doors were opening to hunter in china
often hunter's meetings coincided almost
directly
with his father's high level diplomacy
with chinese leaders
in april 2010 for example vice president
joe biden met with a chinese president
at the nuclear security summit in
washington dc
but at virtually the same time halfway
around the world
hunter biden was in china meeting with
government officials looking for
financial deals
who exactly was hunter biden meeting
with
only some of the most powerful finance
officials
in china hunter spent two days
meeting with the top executives from
china's sovereign wealth fund
social security fund and largest banks
hunter even posed with them for a series
of pictures
so how did hunter get these meetings
one chinese website's account of the
meeting touted the chinese officials
extended their warm welcome
to hunter biden quote second son
of the now vice president joe biden
in other words hunter got these meetings
because of who his father was
vice president of the united states
i don't think that there's a lot of
things that would happen in my life that
that if my last name wasn't fine
vice president joe biden with one eye
towards a possible 2016 bid
is getting the chance to flex his
international muscle power in
asia
that brings us back to 2013 when joe
biden arrived in beijing
with a full agenda among the highly
sensitive issues to press with his hosts
chinese cyber attacks the theft of
american intellectual property
trade issues national security
china's claims over the south china sea
hunter biden was also on board he joined
his father the next morning for a
meeting
with the u.s china business council and
then joe biden was
off to a meeting with vice president lee
just where hunter biden spent the rest
of his time on the trip
remains largely a mystery
but we do know this hunter later
admitted
that he introduced his father to a
chinese official
on this trip who was involved with
hunter's budding business ventures
and we know that ten days after the trip
hunter's one billion dollar deal with
the chinese government
was finalized
hunter and his chinese partners
established a private investment fund
they would call bohai harvest
the chinese government provided the
money
hunter was given a seat on the bohai
harvest board of directors
and a 10 equity stake in the new company
devin archer his business partner was
appointed vice chairman
the new firm enjoyed an unusual and
special status
in china operating through the shanghai
free trade zone
no other investment fund in the world
had a deal
like biden's firm
not ubs not goldman sachs
not morgan stanley no one
in short the son of the vice president
of the united states
with little investment experience no
experience in china
got a deal in the people's republic of
china
that no one else had and he got that
deal
shortly after his father was appointed
point person
on u.s policy towards china
but this isn't just another story about
a politician's kid
getting rich hunter's new firm
bow high harvest began making investment
deals
around the world that would serve the
strategic
interests of the chinese government
and that's what makes this deal so
troubling
that's a bold thing to say but it's true
this new firm started making investment
deals
that would serve the strategic interests
of the chinese
military
in 2015 hunter biden's bohai harvest
joined forces
with the chinese military contractor
avic
to buy american parts manufacturer
penegus
henegas's technology is considered dual
use
meaning it can be used for commercial
and
military purposes
and deals like these require approval of
the highest levels
of the federal government
hunter biden's partner in the hennegus
deal the chinese aviation giant
avik was notorious for its history of
stealing us
military technologies to build their own
fighter jets
and drones but in september 2015
avic bought 51 percent of hennigus
and hunter biden's boa harvest bought
the other
49 percent
and yes the obama administration did
indeed
approve it
hunter's firm bojai harvest also
invested in military surveillance
technology
that the chinese government would use to
monitor and control
the population in their own country
the company was called face plus
plus there are a number of american
investors that also stand to profit
from this mass surveillance that are
also invested in face plus plus
one of whom is hunter biden the son of
former vice president joe biden
bow high harvest also helped china in
its competition
with the united states over so-called
rare earth
minerals a chinese government-run firm
called china molybdenum produces rare
earth minerals around the world
competing with western firms for mining
access
and the company does not hide the fact
that its work has direct
military applications the company's 2015
annual report for example declares that
molybdenum
is used to produce sensitive military
technologies
what's fascinating is that while hunter
biden and his firm were helping
beijing in the race to acquire rare
earth minerals
his father's administration was actually
fighting them
in 2012 president obama announced that
the united states was filing a complaint
with the world trade organization
because china was trying to control
the global market
in 2014 the world trade organization
agreed
that china was trying to do so
yet two years later hunter's firm joined
with china
molybdenum and announced that together
they were buying more than half
of one of the largest copper mines in
the world
and so while the obama administration
was competing with
china in the race for rare earth
minerals
hunter biden and his firm were actually
helping beijing
win that race
but there was an even more troubling
deal
in december 2014 hunter's firm became an
anchor
investor in a company called china
general
nuclear or cgn
cgn had been wholly owned by the chinese
government
but it was now selling off a minority
state
to a favored investor hunter biden
presumably didn't realize
that when his company was investing in
cgn they were investing in a company
that was under
fbi investigation for stealing u.s
nuclear secrets
in fact less than 18 months after
hunter's chinese firm invested in china
general
a nuclear engineer named alan ho and the
company
were charged by the u.s justice
department with stealing
nuclear secrets from the united states
according to the fbi ho had been working
under the direction
of china general to steal american
nuclear secrets
since 1998.
it's not clear whether the fbi or the
obama justice department
knew that joe biden's family was
actually involved
with cgn
but what is clear is that china has been
trying to steal american nuclear secrets
for a long time
is it really that crazy to think that by
partnering with the son of the vice
president
they were trying to buy them too and
make no mistake
these firms hunter was dealing with are
directly tied to the chinese
military in june 2020 the u.s department
of defense released a list of companies
doing business in the united states
that were known to be connected to the
chinese military
on that list avik and
cgn but the bidens weren't done
cutting deals in china
joe doing diplomacy with a chinese
government and hunter kept
finding himself in the middle of more
business acquisitions
also with the chinese government
a confident china was on the march
asserting its power
and flexing its muscles
china had promised the world that it
wasn't going to militarize
the area but they went ahead and did so
anyway
the chinese aggression was aimed at
america too
china's military has attacked major u.s
companies
in a computer war that kills american
jobs more than 21 million americans had
personal information
stolen from government files in a data
breach that was six times as large as
originally disclosed
the information was hacked from the
office of personnel management
or opm which said today it is highly
likely
that anyone who went through background
checks to apply for a government
position since
2000 was affected
think about that the chinese government
had hacked an american government
website
and taken information from millions of
american government workers
highly sensitive private information it
was a crime
taken very seriously by our federal
government
and what was hunter biden doing he was
looking for more commercial deals
with the chinese another one of hunter
biden's businesses
was called rosemont realty
co-founded with devin archer who is the
chairman of the firm
just like his investment firm hunter
biden had no background
in commercial real estate but that
didn't stop him
from getting a seat at some of the
biggest tables
around the world who was rosemont realty
negotiating with
that would be a company called gemini a
former subsidiary of a chinese
state-owned company
with close ties to the chinese military
rosemont realty certainly played up the
biden connection
in the material they provided to
possible investors
in a company prospectus from rosemont
marked
confidential they noted that it was a
key consideration
that hunter biden son of vice president
biden
is on the advisory board
in august 2015 an eye-popping
multi-billion dollar deal
was announced
the chinese company gemini was buying a
00:31:40,799 --> 00:31:47,840
stake in hunter biden's company rosemont
so who exactly is this second chinese
business partner
of the biden family gemini's parent
company
sino ocean land
is actually run out of the headquarters
of the china
overseas shipping company costco
which is called the fifth arm of the
chinese navy
so you have two big deals between the
biden family
and the chinese government or chinese
government-linked firms
in the years following joe biden's
appointment
as the point person on u.s policy
towards china
but there was still more business to be
done
hunter and his business partner devin
archer began working with yet another
firm
this one called burnham asset management
out of an office in new york city they
work to line up more deals with chinese
companies many of them mysterious and
with murky ties
to the chinese government
one of the companies was called kirin
global enterprise limited
a mysterious investment vehicle run by
larry lee and guo jinfang
very little is known about kirin other
than the fact that they
invest heavily in mainland chinese
infrastructure
another chinese firm bidens wanted to
partner with is called
harvest global investments
which is linked to the chinese
government
how much money did the biden family make
from these deals
how deep do their ties to the chinese
government run
we can't know for sure but consider this
in 2017 a chinese executive was arrested
by the fbi in new york
on charges of money laundering and
violating
the foreign corrupt practices act
patrick hoe
was an assistant to a chinese oil tycoon
who ran cefc china energy
which had strong ties to the chinese
military
when hoe was arrested one of the first
calls he made
was to james biden joe's brother
when asked by the new york times about
the call
james biden says that ho was actually
calling to get hunter biden's
phone number
patrick hoe was charged and convicted
and went to jail
for those charges why exactly was he
calling hunter biden
what sort of help was he expecting
we don't know the answers to those
questions but what we do know is that
the bidens have cultivated
very close relationships with members of
the chinese elite
and some of those relationships would be
very hard
to defend
say
so what do we know we
know that the biden family has a series
of lucrative deals
with the chinese government
we know that these deals came despite
a lack of experience by the bidens in
the areas they covered
we know that they happened while joe
biden was steering
u.s foreign policy towards china
we also know that these deals didn't
just
make the biden's money they had
potentially dangerous consequences
for our national security
we know that hunter biden's firm backed
by the chinese government
invested in a company that was actively
stealing
nuclear secrets from the united states
we know that china has been consistent
in their efforts to acquire u.s
technology and that their spies have
been caught trying to steal
our military technology
we know that hunter biden's firm bought
a company that provides dual use
technologies
for the chinese military
we know that global powers have tried to
stop
china from monopolizing the world's
mineral resources
and we know that hunter biden's firm
bought a company
that actually helped china in its
competition
with the united states for mineral
resources
and we also know this that biden
investment firm that helped china gain
access to dual use technology that
invested in chinese surveillance
technology
and helped china in its quest to control
the world's strategic metals
hunter biden was forced by political
pressure to resign from that firm's
board of directors
in late 2019 but hunter quietly
maintains an ownership stake in the firm
a stake worth millions of dollars and
stands to be worth
even more as its china partnership
prospers
why did you leave the board in april
it's a five-year term
and you chose not to choose why i think
it's pretty obvious
so why does this matter because we need
to know who our leaders
are doing business with who is making
them wealthy
who might they be beholden to it's the
oldest story in politics
we need to follow the money
a rising china is a wash in money
the money trail stretches all across the
globe
and some of those trails lead straight
to one of america's most prominent
political families headed by a man
who calls himself lunch bucket joe
chyna is going to eat our lunch come on
man
do
come on man