FIRST ON FOX: Hunter Biden informed his business partners in late 2013 that a senior leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allegedly asked him to travel to China to discuss future “trade 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 one of his Chinese business partners, who he was accompanied by another partner, in the lobby of the hotel where they were staying.
During the China leg of the trip, Biden attended multiple events with his father, including a luncheon featuring some of China's most powerful CCP leaders. On December 5, Jonathan Li, the business partner Vice President Biden met, emailed Biden asking how his trip to China was going, prompting Biden to email him later that day telling him that everything “went very good”.
“Do you know former Hong Kong governor CH Troung (in Spanish?),” Biden asked. “He wants me to go to HK to visit to discuss business opportunities. He sat next to Dad during lunch with Premiere and hinted that we knew each other, but I don't remember.”
NEW TEXT MESSAGE ALLEGEDLY REVEALS HUNTER BIDEN'S PROPOSED MEETING WITH DAD, UNCLE AND CHINESE EXECUTIVE IN NEW YORK
Tung Chee-hwa, vice president of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. (YouTube/Screenshot)
“Very well, I can go with you to find out what you can do for us,” Li told Biden.
“Troung” refers to CH Tung, former Hong Kong governor and billionaire who served as vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) between 2005 and 2023, a former Biden business partner confirmed to Fox News Digital. The CPPCC is the “key mechanism for multi-party cooperation and political consultation” under the leadership of the CCP, according to the CPPCC website.
In December 2013, Hunter Biden asked his business partners if they knew CH Tung or Tung Chee-hwa, the former governor of Hong Kong and billionaire who served as vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. (FoxNews)
Fox News Digital could not confirm whether Biden accepted Tung's alleged offer to visit Hong Kong to discuss “business opportunities.”
Biden's email about Tung would not be the last time his name was mentioned in his emails. In July 2014, James Bulger, who goes by “Jimmy,” and served as president of Boston-based Thornton Group LLC, a company that joined forces with Hunter's now-defunct Rosemont Seneca to launch its joint venture with the Chinese investment firm Bohai. Capital to create BHR Partners: Emailed Biden to introduce Tung to his Chinese business partners.
In July 2014, Hunter Biden said he would be “happy” to help introduce BHR CEO Jonathan Li and BHR committee member Andy Lu to “Mr. Tung”, who refers to Tung Chee -hwa, vice president of the Chinese People's Political Consultation. Conference at that time. (FoxNews)
In the July 2014 email, Bulger asked Biden to introduce Li and Andy Lu, who was a BHR committee member, to “Mr. Tung” to discuss BHR's “investment goals” and “raising of funds,” alleging that Biden sat next to Tung at a 2013 dinner welcoming Vice President Biden in Beijing, according to previous reporting by Fox News Digital.
“I understand that during the trip to Beijing you took with your father, President Xi hosted a welcome dinner,” Bulger wrote. “[A]At that dinner, you were seated right next to Mr. Tung, so J and Andy think it would be very helpful if you could send a short email to Mr. Tung explaining that you are a partner and board member of BHR. and that I would appreciate Mr Tung meeting with his local partners to discuss the Fund.”
FLASHBACK: BIDEN MADE REVEALING COMMENT ON HIS NIECE'S OBAMA ADMINISTRATIVE ROLE WHILE PRAISE 'GROWING CHINA'
Corporate media organizations spent years dismissing negative information about Hunter Biden and his father, President Biden, right? (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for the US World Food Program)
“Please let me know if you can introduce these two to Mr. Tung via email. It is very important to our BHR initiative. [sic] right now,” Bulger stressed.
Biden responded that he was “happy” to comply with the request, but said he did not remember the names of the gentlemen who sat next to him at dinner.
“Happy to do this,” he wrote, “but I don't have Mr. Tung's email address and it's entirely possible that he sat next to me, but I can't remember the names of the two gentlemen to my left and right. Anyway, “I would suggest that the team draft an email in Mandarin and English for my approval as soon as possible.”
“Let me contact Lin and J will revert as soon as possible,” Bulger responded later that day.
Multiple inquiries from Fox News Digital to attorneys for Biden, Bulger, Li, Lu and Tung were previously unanswered about whether Biden ended up introducing Tung to his associates.
In addition to the 2013 dinner in Beijing, Tung was on the guest list of “expected attendees” for at least two state dinners at the White House during the Obama-Biden administration. Tung's biography on the Obama administration archives website for the January 2011 dinner says he was “vice chairman of the CPPCC, former chief executive of Hong Kong.”
In another press release for the September 2015 state dinner, Tung's biography lists him 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 on December 4, 2013 in Beijing. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
According to a 2018 report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a US government agency, the CPPCC is a “core part” of China's United Front system, working to “co-opt and neutralize sources of possible opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
According to a 2021 report by The Diplomat, the CPPCC is “designed to liaise with non-Communist Party members and ultimately see them work with the CCP to promote their interests.” While serving as vice chairman of the CPPCC, Tung also founded the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) in 2008.
Tung has many powerful contacts in Washington, DC, including President Biden's top climate diplomat, John Podesta. Fox News Digital previously reported that Podesta referred to Tung as his “friend” and received several phone calls from him between 2015 and 2016 while he served as chairman of Hillary Clinton's failed campaign.
In May 2013, Tung and Podesta spoke at a luncheon hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which featured China's ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai.
“However, for the past four years, the Center for American Progress and the US-China Exchange Foundation have co-sponsored a US-China Track II dialogue and we continue to host these dialogues annually,” Podesta said. “I have the utmost respect for CH Tung's tireless efforts to bring our two nations closer together. He is always looking ahead to anticipate emerging challenges in US-China relations and figure out what he 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' 2019 CAP Ideas Conference in Washington, DC, on May 22, 2019. (Photo by Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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Fox News Digital also previously reported that Tung was instrumental in CUSEF's attack on historically black colleges and universities by visiting a black public relations consultant's office across from the White House in 2009 to learn more about black Americans.
“In 2009, the former chief executive of Hong Kong visited me in my office with his staff from the China-US Exchange Foundation and they wanted to know how we got a black president,” Julia Wilson told the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. students during a 2017 presentation. “They were saying, 'We don't know anything about black people. So can you write us a white paper and share it with us? How did black people get enough power to vote a black man into office?' So they really needed an overview of our history. Who are we, African Americans?
Tung's organization would pay more than $1 million to Wilson's company, Wilson Global Communications, between 2017 and December 2023.
Biden's lawyer Li and the White House did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
