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<\/a>Hunter Biden acknowledged<\/strong>\u00a0today that\u00a0he has been notified<\/a>\u00a0of an active criminal investigation into his tax affairs by the U.S. Attorney for Delaware. Among the numerous prongs of the inquiry,\u00a0CNN<\/a><\/em>\u00a0reports<\/a>, investigators are examining \u201cwhether Hunter Biden and his associates violated tax and money laundering laws in business dealings in foreign countries, principally China.\u201d<\/p>\n Documents relating to Hunter Biden\u2019s exploitation of his father\u2019s name to enrich himself and other relatives through deals with China were\u00a0among the cache<\/a>\u00a0published in the week before the election by\u00a0The New York Post<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 revelations\u00a0censored by Twitter and Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0steadfastly ignored<\/a>\u00a0by most mainstream news outlets. That concerted repression effort by media outlets and Silicon Valley left it to right-wing outlet such as\u00a0Fox News<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Daily Caller<\/a><\/em>\u00a0to report, which in turn meant that millions of Americans were kept in the dark before voting.<\/p>\n But the just-revealed federal criminal investigation in Delaware is focused on exactly the questions which corporate media outlets refused to examine for fear that doing so would help Trump: namely, whether Hunter Biden engaged in illicit behavior in China and what impact that might have on his father\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n The allegations at the heart of this investigation compel an examination of a fascinating and at-times disturbing speech\u00a0<\/strong>at a major financial event held last week\u00a0in Shanghai<\/a>. In that speech, a Chinese scholar of political science and international finance, Di Donghseng, insisted that Beijing will have far more influence in Washington under a Biden administration than it did with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n The reason, Di said, is that China\u2019s ability to get its way in Washington has long depended upon its numerous powerful Wall Street allies. But those allies, he said, had difficulty controlling Trump, but will exert virtually unfettered power over Biden. That China cultivated extensive financial ties to Hunter Biden, Di explained, will be crucial for bolstering Beijing\u2019s influence even further.<\/p>\n Di, who in addition to\u00a0his teaching positions<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0also<\/a>\u00a0Vice Dean of Beijing\u2019s Renmin University\u2019s School of International Relations, delivered his remarks alongside three other Chinese banking and development experts. Di\u2019s speech at the event, entitled \u201cWill China’s Opening up of its Financial Sector Attract Wall Street?,\u201d was\u00a0translated and posted<\/a>\u00a0by Jennifer Zeng, a Chinese Communist Party critic who left China years ago, citing religious persecution, and now lives in the U.S. A source fluent in Mandarin confirmed the accuracy of the translation.<\/p>\n The centerpiece of Di\u2019s speech was the history he set forth of how Beijing has long successfully managed to protect its interests in the halls of American power: namely, by relying on \u201cfriends\u201d in Wall Street and other U.S. ruling class sectors \u2014 which worked efficiently until the Trump presidency.<\/p>\n Referring to the Trump-era trade war between the two countries, Di posed this question: \u201cWhy did China and the U.S. use to be able to settle all kinds of issues between 1992 [when Clinton became President] and 2016 [when Obama\u2019s left office]?\u201d He then provided this answer:<\/p>\n No matter what kind of crises we encountered \u2014 be it the Yinhe incident [when the U.S.\u00a0interdicted a Chinese ship<\/a>\u00a0in the mistaken belief it carried chemical weapons for Iran], the bombing of the embassy [the\u00a01992 bombing by the U.S.<\/a>\u00a0of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade], or the crashing of the plane [the\u00a02001 crashing of a U.S. military spy plane<\/a>\u00a0into a Chinese fighter jet] \u2014 things were all solved in no time, like a couple do with their quarrels starting at the bedhead but ending at the bed end. We fixed everything in two months. What is the reason? I’m going to throw out something maybe a little bit explosive here.<\/p>\n It’s just because we have people at the top. We have our old friends who are at the top of America’s core inner circle of power and influence.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Who are these \u201cold friends\u201d of China\u2019s \u201cwho are at the top of America\u2019s core inner circle of power and influence\u201d and have ensured that, in his words, \u201cfor the past 30 years, 40 years, we have been utilizing the core power of the United States\u201d? Di provided the answer: Wall Street, with whom the Chinese Community Party and Chinese industry maintain a close, multi-pronged and inter-dependent relationship.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the 1970s, Wall Street had a very strong influence on the domestic and foreign affairs of the United States,\u201d Di observed. Thus, \u201cwe had a channel to rely on.\u201d<\/p>\n To illustrate the point of how helpful Wall Street has been to Chinese interests in the U.S., Di recounted a colorful story, albeit one fused with anti-Semitic tropes, of his unsuccessful efforts in 2015 to secure the preferred venue in Washington for the debut of President Xi Jinping\u2019s book about China. No matter how much he cajoled the owner of the iconic D.C. bookstore Politics and Prose, or what he offered him, Di was told it was unavailable, already promised to a different author. So he conveyed his failure to Party leadership.<\/p>\n But at the last minute, Di recounts, he was told that venue had suddenly changed its mind and agreed to host Xi\u2019s book event. This was the work, he said, of someone to whom Party leaders introduced him: \u201cShe is from a famous, leading global financial institution on Wall Street,\u201d Di said, \u201cthe president of the Asia region of a top-level financial institution,\u201d who speaks perfect Mandarin and has a sprawling home in Beijing.<\/p>\n The point \u2014 that China\u2019s close relationship with Wall Street has given it very powerful friends in the U.S. \u2014 was so clear that it sufficed for him to coyly laugh with the audience: \u201cDo you understand what I mean? If you do, put your hands together!\u201d They knowingly applauded.<\/p>\n All of that provoked an obvious question: why did this close relationship with Wall Street not enable China to exert the same influence during the Trump years, including avoiding a costly trade war? Di explained that \u2014 aside from Wall Street\u2019s reduced standing due to the 2008 financial crisis \u2014 everything changed when Trump ascended to the presidency; specifically, Wall Street could not control him the way it had previous presidents because of Trump\u2019s prior conflicts with Wall Street:<\/p>\n But the problem is that after 2008, the status of Wall Street has declined, and more importantly, after 2016, Wall Street can\u2019t fix Trump. It’s very awkward. Why? Trump had a previous soft default issue with Wall Street, so there was a conflict between them, but I won’t go into details, I may not have enough time.<\/p>\n So during the US-China trade war, [Wall Street] tried to help, and I know that my friends on the US side told me that they tried to help, but they couldn’t do much.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But as Di shifted to his discussion of the new incoming administration, his tone palpably changed, becoming far more animated, excited and optimistic. That\u2019s because a Biden presidency means a restoration of the old order, where Wall Street exerts great influence with the White House and can thus do China\u2019s bidding: \u201cBut now we’re seeing Biden was elected, the traditional elite, the political elite, the establishment, they’re very close to Wall Street, so you see that, right?\u201d<\/p>\n And Di specifically referenced the work Beijing did to cultivate Hunter:<\/p>\n Trump has been saying that Biden’s son has some sort of global foundation. Have you noticed that?<\/p>\n Who helped [Biden’s son] build the foundations? Got it? There are a lot of deals inside all these.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The excerpts of Di\u2019s speech can be seen below, and the translated transcript of it\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The claims in his speech can be seen in a new light given today\u2019s revelations that the U.S. Attorney has resumed its active criminal investigation into Hunter Biden\u2019s business dealings in China and whether he accounted to the I.R.S. for the income (CNN\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>Shimon Prokupecz\u00a0says that<\/a>\u00a0\u201cat least one of the matters investigators have examined is a 2017 gift of a 2.8-carat diamond that Hunter Biden received from CEFC [China Energy\u2019]’s founder and former chairman Ye Jianming after a Miami business meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n The pronouncements of this University Professor<\/strong>\u00a0and administrator should not be taken as gospel, but there is substantial independent confirmation for much of what he claimed. That is even more true after today\u2019s news about Hunter Biden.<\/p>\n That Hunter Biden received large sums of money from Chinese entities is not in dispute. A\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0from the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs earlier this year, while finding no wrongdoing by Joe Biden,\u00a0documented<\/a>\u00a0millions in cash flow between Hunter and his relatives and Chinese interests.<\/p>\n Nor can it be reasonably disputed that Wall Street exerts significant influence in Democratic Party politics generally and in the world of Joe Biden specifically. Citing data from the Center for Responsive Politics, CNBC\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0in the weeks before the election:<\/p>\n People in the securities and investment industry will finish the 2020 election cycle contributing over $74 million to back Joe Biden\u2019s candidacy for president, a much larger sum than what President Donald Trump raised from Wall Street.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n They added: \u201cBiden also received a ton of financial support from leaders on Wall Street in the\u00a0third quarter.<\/a>\u201d At the same time,\u00a0said\u00a0<\/a>CNN<\/a><\/em>, \u201cprofessionals on Wall Street are shunning Trump and funneling staggering amounts of money to his opponent.\u201d Wall Street executives, CNBC reported,\u00a0specially celebrated<\/a>\u00a0Biden\u2019s choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate, noting that her own short-lived presidential campaign was deluged with \u201ccontributions from executives in a wide range of industries, including film, TV, real estate and finance.\u201d<\/p>\n Moreover, Biden\u2019s top appointees thus far overwhelmingly have\u00a0massive ties to Wall Street and the industries<\/a>\u00a0which spend the most to control the U.S. government. As but one egregious example, Pine Island Investment Corp. \u2014 an investment firm in which key Biden appointees including Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief nominee Gen. Lloyd Austin have been centrally involved \u2014 \u201cis seeing a surge in support from Wall Street players after pitching access to investors.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior to the formal selection of Blinken and Austin for key Cabinet posts,\u00a0The Daily Poster\u00a0<\/em>reported that<\/a>\u00a0\u201ctwo former government officials who may now run President-elect Joe Biden\u2019s national security team have been partners at a private equity firm now promising investors big profits off government business because of its ties to those officials.\u201d\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0last week said<\/a>\u00a0\u201cthe Biden team\u2019s links to these entities are presenting the incoming administration with its first test of transparency and ethics\u201d and that Pine Island is an example \u201cof how former officials leverage their expertise, connections and access on behalf of corporations and other interests, without in some cases disclosing details about their work, including the names of the clients or what they are paid.\u201d<\/p>\n That China and Wall Street have an extremely close relationship has been documented for years.\u00a0Financial Times<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 under the headline \u201cBeijing and Wall Street deepen ties despite geopolitical rivalry\u201d \u2014 last month\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cWall Street groups including BlackRock, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase have each been given approval to expand their businesses in China over recent months.\u201d<\/p>\n A\u00a0major\u00a0<\/a>Wall Street Journal\u00a0<\/a><\/em>story<\/a>\u00a0from last week, bearing the headline \u201cChina Has One Powerful Friend Left in the U.S.: Wall Street,\u201d echoed Di\u2019s speech by noting that \u201cChinese leaders have time and again turned to Wall Street for assistance in periods of trouble.\u201d That\u00a0WSJ\u00a0<\/em>article particularly emphasized the growing ties between China and the asset-manager giant BlackRock, a firm that already has\u00a0outsized influence in the Biden administration<\/a>. And Michael Bloomberg\u2019s ties to China have been so crucial that he has\u00a0regularly heaped praise<\/a>\u00a0on Beijing even when doing so was politically deleterious.<\/p>\n Even the smaller details of Di\u2019s speech \u2014 including his anecdote about the book event he tried to arrange for Xi \u2014 check out. Contemporaneous news accounts show that exactly the book event he described\u00a0was held<\/a>\u00a0at Politics and Prose in 2015, just as he recalled.<\/p>\n None of this means that Trump was some sort of stalwart enemy of Wall Street. From massive corporate tax cuts to rollbacks of regulations in numerous industries and many of their own in key positions, the financial sector benefited in all sorts of ways from the Trump presidency.<\/p>\n But all of their behavior indicates that they view a Biden\/Harris administration as far more beneficial to their interests, and far more susceptible to their control. And that, in turn, makes Beijing far more confident that they will wield significantly more influence in Washington than they could over the last four years.<\/p>\n That confidence is due, says Professor Di, to Beijing\u2019s close ties to a newly empowered Wall Street as well as their efforts to cultivate Hunter Biden, efforts we are likely to learn much more about now that Hunter\u2019s activities in China are under active criminal investigation in Delaware. We should and could have learned about these transactions prior to the election had the bulk of the media not corruptly decided to ignore any incriminating reporting on Biden, but learning about them now is, one might say, a case of better late than never.<\/p>\n UPDATE, Dec. 10, 2020<\/strong><\/em>:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>The originally posted video of the Di speech is now unavailable on YouTube (see below). Here is the relevant excerpt of it still online:<\/em><\/p>\n
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