The University of Pennsylvania received more than $54 million in anonymous donations from China between 2014 and 2019, reports Fox News, with most of the donations arriving after the university announced the creation of an academic center named after President Joe Biden.
The creation of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement was announced in 2017, shortly after Biden’s term as vice president ended. The center, located in Washington, DC, opened roughly one year later with Secretary of State Antony Blinken serving as managing director.
The school received $15.8 million from China in 2018 alone, including a single donation totaling $14.5 million, though officials claim no money from China ever went to the Penn Biden Center. In 2020, the university invited Huang Ping, Consul-General of the Peoples Republic of China in New York, to speak at an annual research symposium.
Last week, a Virginia-based ethics watchdog organization asked US Attorney for the District of Delaware David C. Weiss to investigate the Chinese donations to Pennsylvania University as part of his federal tax probe of Hunter Biden (Joe Biden’s son); specifically, to determine whether the Penn Biden Center engaged in political activities on behalf of certain Ukrainian and Chinese companies in which Hunter held stake.
“We’ve asked…Weiss to pursue the larger network of individuals and institutions who benefited from millions doled out by foreign interests connected to Hunter Biden’s work in China and Ukraine,” said Tom Anderson, an executive with the National Legal and Policy Center.
In its 12-page complaint, the NLPC cited a text message* suggesting CEFC (a state-run Chinese energy company) sought to lobby American politicians without registering under the Foreign Agent Registration Act.
“All gifts over $250,000 must disclose foreign ownership,” explains Fox News contributor Alexandria Hoff, “and if it was earmarked to promote Chinese interests then the donations would trigger registration as a foreign agent. The NLPC wants to see these transactions included in the federal tax probe of Hunter Biden.”
Additional documentation provided by Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) confirmed CEFC paid $100,000 to Wells Fargo Clearing Services with “further credit” going towards Hunter Biden’s firm Owasco.
“CEFC operated under the guise of a private company but was for all intents and purposes an arm of the Chinese government,” argues Grassley. “Hunter Biden…served as the perfect vehicle by which the communist Chinese government could gain inroads here in the United States through CEFC and its affiliates.”
*The text message referenced above was found on a laptop Hunter left behind at a repair shop in Delaware in April 2019. Information found on the laptop shed light on several of Hunter’s questionably legal business dealings. News stories regarding the laptop and its contents were censored by several major media outlets in an attempt to preserve then-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s reputation. Some politicians were even locked out of their Twitter accounts for sharing the information.
Last month, The Washington Post and The New York Times confirmed that the laptop was real and that Hunter and James Biden (Joe Biden’s brother) did indeed profit from their interactions with a Chinese energy conglomerate.
“I think the reason [media outlets are finally talking about this] is that there is a real chance that the President’s son could be indicted in Delaware and that possibility has really forced the hand of the mainstream media,” says Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley. “They have been burying this story for almost two years.”
Prosecutors are actively seeking grand jury testimony and President Biden could soon find himself involved in the investigation.
Sources:
$54M in Chinese gifts donated to UPenn, home of Biden Center
Hunter Biden federal probe should include Penn Biden Center anonymous donations: watchdog group