Records show that the Biden family was not the only powerful Democratic family connected that had a financial relationship with Chinese energy company CEFC. The Clinton family, through the Clinton Foundation, accepted a donation of between $50,001 to $100,000 from the company in 2015.
A New York Times article from 2018 outlined how the head of CEFC, Ye Juanming, had his sights set on gain influence in Washington D.C. for quite some time.
“Ye Jianming, a fast-rising Chinese oil tycoon, ventured to places only the most politically connected Chinese companies dared to go. But what he wanted was access to the corridors of power in Washington — and he set out to get it. Soon, he was meeting with the family of Joseph R. Biden Jr., who was then the vice president,” the article reads.
The article goes on to note that there were some members of Washington’s power structure that resisted Ye’s overtures, however.
“Ye Jianming’s early efforts to break into the Washington power broker scene didn’t always pan out. Five years ago, CEFC approached Bobby Ray Inman, a retired admiral and national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, about setting up a joint venture, Mr. Inman said in an interview. The company promised it would pay him $1 million a year, without specifying what business they would go into. He turned down the offer. Later, Mr. Inman said, CEFC officials called him and said they were considering acquiring oil fields in Syria. Could he help them persuade the American military not to bomb them? Again, he said no.”
CEFC Energy went bankrupt earlier this year and it’s chairman, Ye Juanming, who has ties to the Chinese military and intelligence service, hasn’t been since being taken into custody by Chinese authorities in early 2018.
Read more here.
Photo by Slgckgc