President Donald Trump told reporters on the White House lawn on Thursday that Ukraine and China should both be investigating 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, over their actions while Biden served as vice president in the Obama administration.
“If they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said when he was asked what he wanted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to do about Biden and his son. “They should investigate the Bidens. Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.”
Trump’s call for China to investigate Biden for corruption stems comes as NBC News reported this week on a 2013 vice presidential trip to China on which Hunter accompanied his dad.
“At the time, it seemed mildly noteworthy, but not particularly unusual: Then-Vice President Joe Biden, traveling to China on an official visit, had brought his son Hunter Biden along,” NBC News reported. “And when the two appeared in public together in Beijing during the 2013 trip, there were all the typical trappings of a mini-family vacation tacked on to a business trip.”
“What wasn’t known then was that as he accompanied his father to China, Hunter Biden was forming a Chinese private equity fund that associates said at the time was planning to raise big money, including from China. Hunter Biden has acknowledged meeting with Jonathan Li, a Chinese banker and his partner in the fund during the trip, although his spokesman says it was a social visit,” NBC News continued. “The Chinese business license that brought the new fund into existence was issued by Shanghai authorities 10 days after the trip, with Hunter Biden a member of the board. Seeking to expand his corruption accusations beyond Ukraine, Trump has accused Hunter Biden of using his trip on Air Force Two to procure $1.5 billion from China for his fund, calling it ‘a horrible thing.'”
NBC: Joe Biden’s son met with Chinese banker while joining then-VP’s official 2013 trip to China pic.twitter.com/3gLcBOTBmK
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 2, 2019
Investigative reporter and Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer said this week that Biden’s son needs to testify in front of the Senate about his business dealings in Ukraine and China.
“What I’ve called for simply is for the Senate to call former second son Hunter Biden to come and testify and people look into this,” Schweizer said. “We’re talking about large deals and large sums of money … it involves countries like China, which [is] America’s chief rival on the global stage.”
“In the case of the Ukraine, the very energy company that was paying Hunter Biden millions of dollars was under investigation in the Ukraine for corruption,” Schweizer continued. “Ukrainian officials have claimed that Joe Biden pressured them to suspend or end that investigation. That’s in fact what the Ukraine did.”
“[Schweizer] provided an overview of Hunter Biden’s alleged business dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma and the Chinese government in a recent New York Post op-ed that details payments of more than $3 million to Hunter Biden’s company during a 14-month period when his father was the point person on Ukraine policy for the Obama administration,” The Hill reported. “Schweizer’s op-ed also details Hunter Biden’s alleged dealings with China, noting how the former second son accompanied his father on an official trip to Beijing in 2013 only to then have his company ink a $1 billion private equity deal with the Chinese government two weeks later.”
