Hunter Biden said he would be ‘happy’ to introduce business partner to top Chinese official: emails
Hunter Biden told a business partner that he’d be “happy” to introduce their associates to a Chinese Communist Party official after being told he sat next to the man during a 2013 dinner in Beijing honoring his dad.
The request came from James “Jimmy” Bulger –namesake nephew of the late Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger and a former partner with Hunter Biden in a Chinese investment firm funded by the government-controlled Bank of China — emails from the first son’s infamous laptop show.
The revelation of the planned sit-down involving Hong Kong shipping billionaire Tung Chee-hwa came amid renewed scrutiny of Hunter Biden’s controversial overseas business dealings, which Republicans in Congress have vowed to investigate if they regain control in the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
In a July 22, 2014, email, first reported by Fox News, Bulger sought to arrange a meeting between Tung — the first chief executive of Hong Kong after the island reverted to Chinese control in 1997 — and two executives of the BHR Partners company, CEO Jonathan Li and committee member Andy Lu.
Tung has been vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee since 2005, according to its website.
The CPPCC is the “highest-ranking entity” that oversees the Chinese government’s “United Front” strategy to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party,” according to a 2018 report by the Congressional US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
In his message, Bulger told Hunter Biden that Li and Lu were “very keen to meet Mr Tung and discuss BHR investment targets as well as fundraising,” adding, “Both of our guys over there believe Mr Tung can be very helpful right now.”
Bulger also brought up a dinner that Hunter Biden attended when he joined his dad, then vice president, on a official, six-day trip to Asia in December 2013.
“It is my understanding that during the trip to Beijing that you made with your father, President Xi [Jinping of China] hosted a welcome dinner,” Bulger wrote.
“[A]t that dinner, you were seated right next to Mr Tung, therefore J and Andy believe it would be very helpful if you could please send a brief email to Mr Tung laying out that you are a partner and Board Member of BHR and that You would be grateful to Mr Tung if he could meet your local partners to discuss the Fund.”
Hunter Biden wrote back the same day, “Happy to do this but I have no email address for Mr. Tung and he very well may have sat next to me but I don’t recall the two gentlemen’s names to my left and right.”
“Regardless, I would suggest the team draft an email in Mandarin and English for my approval ASAP,” he added.
Bulger responded that he’d take care of that “ASAP.”
It’s unclear if the meeting between Tung and the BHR execs took place or whether Tung actually sat next to Hunter Biden during the 2013 dinner.
Hunter Biden resigned from the board of BHR Equity Investment Fund Management Co., a subsidiary of BHR Partners, in October 2019, during his father’s successful campaign for the White House, but kept a 10% ownership take in the company.
After the White House repeatedly refused to say whether Hunter Biden still maintained the holding, a lawyer for the first son told the New York Times in November that he “no longer holds any interest, directly or indirectly, in either BHR or Skaneateles,” the company through which he invested in BHR.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.
Bulger, Li, Lu and Tung also didn’t responded to inquiries, according to Fox News.