What Was Hunter Biden Up To on a 2013 Trip to China?

Claims by Pam Bondi that he met with ‘Chinese bank partners’ are partially true.

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Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night. During her speech, Bondi suggested that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden traveled to China with his father on Air Force Two during the Obama administration and used his time there to secure a business deal with Chinese bankers. Bondi stated:

“Fact: Joe Biden flew to China on Air Force Two with Hunter along for the ride. They said he was just there as a family member, but we know that’s untrue. In Beijing, Hunter didn’t just go sightseeing. He had meetings with his Chinese bank partners. Hunter even arranged for his dad to meet with one of the partners. Ten days later, those Chinese Communist bankers approved millions to go to Hunter’s firm, and those bankers work for the Chinese Communist Party, which oppresses their people, cheated American workers for decades and covered up a deadly virus. To this day, Hunter controls a 10% stake in that firm.”

The claim contains several elements  of truth—Hunter Biden and his daughter did indeed join the vice president on a trip to China in December 2013. While he was in China, Hunter Biden met with one of his business partners, a Chinese banker named Jonathan Li, in what Biden and Li both claim was a social visit. Li and Hunter Biden were both involved in Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Co., or BHR Partners, a private investment firm founded in 2013. No specifics about the meeting have come out, leaving Biden and Li’s statements as the only insight into what occurred in the meeting. Their accounts, of course, cannot be verified. The New Yorker also reported that Hunter arranged for his father to shake hands with Li in the lobby of the hotel in which they were staying. 

It is in her claims about Hunter Biden meeting with “Chinese Communist bankers” that Bondi errs. Biden’s meeting with Li is verifiable, but there is no evidence that Hunter Biden met with other “Chinese bank partners.” Twelve days after Hunter Biden arrived in China, BHR Partners was officially registered. BHR claims that the timing was merely a coincidence and that the firm had applied to register the business a month before the Bidens visited China. There’s no evidence that the registration, or any resulting funds, came as a result of any activities Biden undertook while on the trip.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Earl King

    Joe Biden tenure is marked by very away deals, largely involving his son and brother. Hunter has a tough past and I'm not going to shit on his drug use and likely family dynamics that make success the old fashion way but Joe's decisions are very odd. Hunter had no business being a director a Amtrak. His brother benefited from govt. contract and contacts in Costa Rica and Iraq. Both Ukraine and China show a complete lack of understanding and conflict of interests. On average, this is what white privilege with access to the rich and powerful looks like. Joe no doubt has the best of intentions to help out others...but he used his position and contacts to help his family. If not illegal, it is swampy and shows a lack of awareness. He no doubt did what every politician does when he pushed thru Bankruptcy changes to help MBNA a Banking firm in his home state of Delaware. They paid him back by giving his kid a Board seat. Is it just fatherly love? Likely...and no different that Trump has done with his kids. To my knowledge Trumps kids work in the family business....which is a whole lot different than using you access to to make quid pro quo deals for your kids and relatives. Trump should have never brought Ivanka and Jared in to the Govt. While Jerad's contribution to Criminal Justice Reform and the Middle East Peace Initiative was positive and Ivanka's ability to get paid family leave thru Congress was also been positive....their roles should have been as a part of a Kitchen Cabinet....not paid official advisors. It ruined their post administration lives but I have no doubt they'll be financially fine.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Earl King

      Sorry, a misstatement. Ivanka and Jared do not accept a Govt. salary. But there will be benefits to working in the White House after they leave but with terrible social consequences

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  2. Avatar photo
    Mike B

    The Fact Checks are one of my favorite parts of The Dispatch. They (and The Dispatch in general) are an invaluable resource when seemingly every other media outlet is a partisan spin machine for one side or the other.

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  3. Tim Johnson

    Not hearing much hay being made about Hunter. Perhaps Trump campaign concerned it will turn the limelight on his offspring?

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    1. Avatar photo
      rlritt

      Yes, Ivanka who gets salary for her work on the White House also has a thriving business. She also does business in China.

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  4. Joe1776

    $425k? That’s quite a bit of cash to through at a Chinese investment. He must have been very certain it would turn out favorably.

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      tallcupofcoffee

      I don't quite follow where your logic is going. Are you implying that magnitude of investment is proportional to ill intent?

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      1. Joe1776

        I'm simply wondering out loud about a few things.

        Is Hunter biden so wealthy that $425K is something you can easilly invest in a Chinese investment?

        I mean Chinese investments seem inherently risky because you never know if the communist government will simply take over the corp or items you are investing in. Of course if you do know the government won't do that then, how does Hunter know this when other people don't?

        If he is so wealthy that $425k is chump change he can stand to lose on risky investments then how did he get so wealthy?



        If you know the answers to these questions let me know.

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        1. Tim Johnson

          Man, there go conservatives again, implying that wealthy people attained their wealth nefariously!

          'then how did he get so wealthy?'

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          1. Joe1776

            I don't mean to imply that necessarily. But I do wonder. Sure he may have married someone who is super wealthy or whatever. I don't know. I do wonder when we see all these public servants from both sides suddenly extremely wealthy beyond what their government pay would suggest.

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          rlritt

          How do you know its a risky investment? Business people borrow money at a low interest rate and invest in a company if they feel the rate of return will be more than the cost of the interest paid on the loan. It's a fairly common business practice. Or he could have gotten out of other investments in order to have cash to make this new investments. There are a lot of ways in which to invest money. None of illegal or sinister. Its how the financial world works.

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          1. Joe1776

            I explained why I think investing in Chinese companies is risky. Of course if you have an in with the government that reason wouldn't apply and it would be a very safe investment indeed.

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  5. Avatar photo
    Victor Clairmont

    It's feeding grounds for conspiraciessssss!

    But yeah, Hunter Biden is....not the best look for his dad at the moment.

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    1. Avatar photo
      JohnF

      The article really doesn't go into the details of the actual deal. Hunter owns a share in a partnership that is a participant in a joint venture that owns a 30% stake in the management company that manages a couple of billion dollars in investments from Chinese banks. Those banks expect to get their money back, along with an annual return. The management company earns an annual fee based on a small percentage of the total assets as well as a percentage of the profits. Most of their revenues will be paid out to their fund managers and executives. The remainder (if there is anything left) will be paid out to the owners.

      Assuming a best-case scenario, Hunter is a 50% owner in a 50% joint partnership that holds a 30% stake in the management company. That would provide him with a 7.5% share of the net profits of the management company (which will only earn a small percentage from the funds being administered).

      However, if you read right-wing media reports, you would believe that Hunter flew to China with Joe Biden and left with a briefcase full of $2B in cash. These reports were so compelling that Donald Trump publicly asked the Chinese Government to investigate an American.

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      1. Avatar photo
        rlritt

        I know. Its as if he's the first American to invest China. We have Joe Biden's financial records, which would show us any connection he might have with China or his son. What we don't have is Trump's financial records. Maybe he invested money in China or borrowed money from Russian banks. If I were a Republican with any integrity, I would want to see Trump's records.

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        1. Joe1776

          Joe Biden's tax returns will show what the tax returns show. I have no reason to think they were wrongly recorded but you don't have to record connections you have in china in tax returns. And Joe Biden's tax returns would not show show anything about his son's finances.

          Wait, you are not still listed as a dependent on your parents tax return are you?

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