First appeared on FOX: In late 2013, Hunter Biden told business associates that a top official in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had asked him to go to China to discuss future “business opportunities.”
In December 2013, Biden accompanied his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on a six-day trip to Asia that included China, South Korea and Japan. While in Beijing, Biden introduced his father to a Chinese business associate who was accompanied by another associate in the hotel lobby.
During his visit to China, Biden and his father attended several events, including a luncheon attended by some of China’s most influential Communist Party officials. On December 5, Jonathan Li, a business partner who was introduced to Vice President Biden, emailed Biden to ask about the status of his visit to China. Biden responded later that day by email that “everything was going well.”
“Do you know Mr. C.H. Chung, the former governor of Hong Kong?” Biden asked. “He would like me to come to Hong Kong to discuss business opportunities. At the lunch with the premier, he sat next to my father and implied that we knew each other, although I don’t remember him.”
New text messages allegedly reveal Hunter Biden proposed meeting with his father, uncle and Chinese executives in New York
Tung Chee-hua, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. (YouTube/Screenshot)
“Very well, let me go with you and see what he can do for us,” Lee told Biden.
“Tuong” refers to CH Tung, the former Hong Kong governor and billionaire who served as vice-chair of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from 2005 to 2023, a former business associate of Biden confirmed to Fox News Digital. According to the CPPCC’s website, the CPPCC is “an important mechanism for multi-party cooperation and political consultation” under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
In December 2013, Hunter Biden asked a business associate if he knew Tung Chee-hwa, the billionaire former governor of Hong Kong and vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. (Fox News)
Fox News Digital was unable to confirm whether Biden had accepted Tung’s offer to visit Hong Kong to discuss “business opportunities.”
Biden’s email about Tong wouldn’t be the last time Tong’s name appeared in his emails. In July 2014, James “Jimmy” Bulger, who was chairman of Boston-based Thornton Group LLC — a firm that partnered with Hunter’s now-disbanded Rosemont Seneca and formed a joint venture with Chinese investment firm Bohai Capital to form BHR Partners — emailed Biden about introducing Chinese business contacts to Tong.
In July 2014, Hunter Biden said he would be “happy” to help introduce BHR CEO Jonathan Li and BHR commissioner Andy Lu to “Dong,” a reference to Tung Jianhua, who was then vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. (Fox News)
Previous reporting from Fox News Digital alleges that a July 2014 email showed Bulger asking Biden to introduce Li and Andy Lu, who were BHR committee members, to “Dong” to discuss “BHR’s investment objectives” and “fundraising,” and that Biden sat next to Dong at a dinner welcoming Vice President Biden to Beijing in 2013.
“I understand that President Xi Jinping hosted a welcome dinner for you when you visited Beijing with your father,” Bulger wrote.[A]You were sitting right next to Mr. Tung at the dinner, so J and Andy think it would be very helpful if you could send a quick email to Mr. Tung informing him that you are a Partner and Director at BHR, and that we would appreciate him meeting with your local partner to discuss the fund.”
Flashback: Biden praises ‘rising China’ while revealing niece’s role in Obama administration
For years, major media organizations have denied negative information about Hunter Biden and his father, President Biden. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images, World Food Programme USA)
“Please let me know if you can introduce these two people to Mr Tung via email, as this is very important for our BHR initiative. [sic] At this point,” Bulger emphasized.
Biden responded that he was “pleased” to comply with the request, but said he could not remember the name of the man who was sitting next to him at the dinner.
“I would be happy to do that,” he wrote. “However, I do not have Mr. Dong’s email address, and although it is quite possible that he sat next to me, I cannot recall the names of the two gentlemen who sat to my left and right. In any case, I would suggest that your team draft an email in both Chinese and English to get my approval as soon as possible.”
“I will contact Lynn and J. We will get back to you as soon as possible,” Bulger wrote back later that day.
Fox News Digital has previously reached out multiple times to Biden’s lawyers Bulger, Lee, Lu and Tong about whether Biden had introduced Tong to his associates, but has not received a response.
In addition to the 2013 Beijing dinner, Tung was on the “prospective attendees” list for at least two other state dinners held at the White House under the Obama-Biden administration. A biography of Tung on the Obama administration’s archive website for the January 2011 dinner lists him as “Vice Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and former Chief Executive of Hong Kong.”
Another press release about a state dinner in September 2015 listed Dong’s biography as “Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) shakes hands with then-Vice President Joe Biden inside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on December 4, 2013. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
According to a 2018 report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a U.S. government agency, the Political Consultative Conference is the “core” of China’s united front system and functions to “coopt and neutralize potential opposition to the policies and authority of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
The CPPCC “aims to connect non-Communist Party members and ultimately encourage them to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party to advance its interests,” according to a 2021 report by The Diplomat. Dong also founded the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) in 2008 while he was vice chairman of the CPPCC.
Tun has many powerful connections in Washington, D.C., including President Biden’s top climate change diplomat, John Podesta. Fox News Digital previously reported that Podesta called Tun a “friend” and received several calls from Tun between 2015 and 2016, when he was chairman of Hillary Clinton’s failed campaign.
In May 2013, Dong and Podesta spoke at a luncheon hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which was also attended by China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai.
“But for the past four years, the Center for American Progress and the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation have co-hosted the U.S.-China Track II Dialogue and will continue to host the dialogue annually,” Podesta said. “I appreciate C.H. Tong’s tireless work to bring our two countries closer together. He is always looking ahead, anticipating emerging challenges in U.S.-China relations and figuring out what we can do to make those challenges more manageable.”
John Podesta, founder and director of the Center for American Progress, speaks at the Center for American Progress CAP 2019 Ideas Conference in Washington, DC on May 22, 2019. (Photo by Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Click here to get the FOX News app
Fox News Digital previously reported that Tung played a key role in helping CUSEF target Historically Black Colleges and Universities by visiting a Black public affairs consultant’s office across the street from the White House in 2009 to learn more about Black Americans.
“In 2009, the former chief executive of Hong Kong came to my office with staff from the China-US Exchange Foundation and wanted to know how we got a black president,” Julia Wilson told students at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff during a presentation in 2017. “They said, ‘We don’t know anything about black people, so why don’t you write a white paper and show us? How did black people get so much power that they could put black people in office?’ So they really wanted an overview of our history. Who are we? Who are African-Americans?”
Tan’s organisation will pay more than $1 million to Wilson’s company, Wilson Global Communications, between 2017 and December 2023.
Biden’s lawyer, Lee, and the White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
