#CEFC

[mel-rhodes-place]

GERMANY’S FAR RIGHT IS SURGING

Peter Fitzek is the self-proclaimed “King of Germany.”  (https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2018-08-09/ty-article-magazine/.premium/guns-anti-semitisms-and-fake-kings-germanys-dangerous-new-cult/0000017f-f7e9-ddde-abff-ffedb1fd0000) A Skynews report earlier this week profiled a town in Germany where thousands of “extremists” were gathering to give their allegiance to the new king of…

[colitcomedia]

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has committed an additional $120 million to the Victorian component of the VNI West transmission project, bolstering efforts to secure Australia’s energy future through renewable infrastructure development. This investment, provided via the Rewiring the Nation (RTN) program, will assist the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) advance the project, which is crucial to the nation’s clean energy transition and net zero goals.

[chinemagazine]

Quelle situation pour les entreprises étrangères en Chine ?

Webinaire : La CCIFC présentera les résultats d'un sondage sur la perception de la communauté d’affaires locale après 3 ans de politique zéro-covid

Après trois ans d’isolement et de politique « zéro-covid », les mesures de confinement ont pris fin en janvier dernier pour près d’1,4 milliard de Chinois. En seulement 10 jours, 9 millions de personnes ont été diagnostiquées positives, les autorités ayant opéré un virage à 180 degrés de leur politique sanitaire pour poursuivre une stratégie d’immunité collective. La fin des congés de la nouvelle…

[gradienty]

Foam Blue Ribbon (#cefced to #0262fc)

[simply-ivanka]

What Did the Biden Family’s Foreign Clients Get for their Money?

Hunter Biden pleads guilty to federal tax charges.

Wall Street Journal

By James Freeman

Hunter Biden has been convicted of federal crimes for not paying all the taxes he owed on his foreign income. But the most important question for Americans remains unanswered: What exactly did his overseas clients get in return for their money? His Thursday guilty plea on tax charges prevented testimony that may have gone some way toward providing an answer. This potential testimony may also explain why Hunter Biden waited until now to acknowledge his guilt.

The Journal’s Sara Randazzo, Ryan Barber and Annie Linskey report from Los Angeles:

Federal prosecutors signaled an aggressive strategy as the trial drew near, previewing an approach that would show how foreign interests paid the younger Biden to influence the U.S. government while his father was vice president during the Obama administration. Prosecutors said they planned to cast a light on a lucrative arrangement with a Romanian real-estate magnate who was facing a corruption investigation in his home country, along with his ties to the oil company CEFC China Energy and his tenure on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company. 

In court Thursday, [prosecutor Leo Wise] insisted on reading the entirety of the 56-page indictment into the record—over the objection of Biden’s lawyer—to establish the facts underlying the guilty plea. 

Alanna Durkin Richer reported last month for the Associated Press:

Hunter Biden’s lawyers say prosecutors are inappropriately trying to insert “politically-charged” allegations about his foreign business dealings into the upcoming federal tax trial against the president’s son.

Special counsel David Weiss’ team told the judge last week that they plan to call to the witness stand a business associate of Hunter Biden’s to testify about an arrangement with a Romanian businessman who was trying to “influence U.S. government policy” during Joe Biden’s term as vice president…

The Romanian businessman, Gabriel Popoviciu, wanted U.S. government agencies to probe a bribery investigation he was facing in his home country in the hopes that would end his legal trouble, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors say Hunter Biden agreed with his business associate to help Popoviciu fight the criminal charges against him. But prosecutors say they were concerned that “lobbying work might cause political ramifications” for Joe Biden, so the arrangement was structured in a way that “concealed the true nature of the work” for Popoviciu, prosecutors alleged…

In fact, Popoviciu and Hunter’s business associate agreed that they would be paid for their work to “attempt to influence U.S. government agencies to investigate the Romanian investigation,” prosecutors said. Hunter Biden’s business associate was paid more than $3 million, which was split with Hunter and another business partner, prosecutors say.

Ms. Richer also noted that Hunter Biden’s defense lawyers “slammed prosecutors for showcasing ‘these matters on the eve of Mr. Biden’s trial—when there is no mention of political influence in the 56-page Indictment.’ ” The A.P. story continued:

“The Special Counsel’s unnecessary change of tactic merely echoes the baseless and false allegations of foreign wrongdoing which have been touted by House Republicans to use Mr. Biden’s proper business activities in Romania and elsewhere to attack him and his father,” the defense wrote.

But the defense has now opted not to defend.

Of course Romania is not the only foreign jurisdiction that proved fruitful for the Biden family business. The majority staff of several House committees recently reported:

From 2014 to the present… Biden family members and their associates received over $27 million from foreign individuals or entities…

Witnesses acknowledged that Hunter Biden involved Vice President Biden in many of his business dealings with Russian, Romanian, Chinese, Kazakhstani, and Ukrainian individuals and companies.Then-Vice President Biden met or spoke with nearly every one of the Biden family’s foreign business associates, including those from Ukraine, China, Russia, and Kazakhstan.

And of course let’s not forget Hunter Biden’s own deposition on Capitol Hill. This column noted in March that mere minutes after making yet another broad claim of not involving his father in the business, Hunter Biden confirmed the story of travelling with then-Vice President Joe Biden on Air Force Two to China and introducing his father to Jonathan Li in the lobby of the Bidens’ hotel. The following excerpt from the deposition suggests that the timing could not have been better:

[Committee member or staff]: At the time that you did introduce your father to Jonathan Li, did you or any of your business associates have any potential business with Jonathan Li?

[Hunter Biden]: I was working with Jonathan on a potential that he had an idea for creating a private equity fund based in China to do cross-border investments.

Nice. But good luck explaining what value Hunter Biden might be able to add to such an enterprise. Years later, his Chinese associates still hadn’t come up with a story. In 2019 Cissy Zhou and Jun Mai reported in the South China Morning Post:

BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company has grabbed global media attention for its links with Hunter Biden, the son of former United States vice-president Joe Biden, after US President Donald Trump fired a barrage of corruption allegations at him and requested China investigate the Bidens’ financial activities in the country.

The company has repeatedly declined to elaborate on the younger Biden’s role at the firm when contacted by the South China Morning Post via phone, mail and visits to the office. But Jonathan Li Xiangsheng, the firm’s chief executive and Hunter Biden’s partner, has said the company was working on an explanation about the American’s role.

Li refused to comment on the younger Biden when reached by the Post on Monday.

A recent visit to the firm’s registered address in Beijing found a small, plainly decorated office, where a receptionist said she had never seen Hunter Biden.

Is there anything Joe Biden said about the family business in 2020 that has turned out to be true?

Meanwhile as Vice President Kamala Harris seeks a promotion, perhaps she ought to disclose if she ever questioned anyone or learned anything about the Biden family business and its implications for American foreign policy. One would guess she was at least curious. Did she ever talk to anyone about the ethical standards for Hunter Biden’s art sales, which turned out to be a sham while she was serving alongside Joe Biden?

Vice President Harris is not just a lawyer but a former prosecutor and a former state attorney general, for goodness sake. Wasn’t she the least bit concerned?

***

Spokespeople for both the president and the vice president say that they won’t be pardoning Hunter Biden. But then why is Hunter Biden’s lawyer still making what seems like a political argument rather than a legal one?

Jack Morphet and Priscilla DeGregory report for the New York Post on comments from defense lawyer Abbe Lowell:

“Hunter decided to enter his plea to protect those he loves from unnecessary hurt and cruel humiliation,” Lowell said.

“This plea prevents that kind of show trial that would not have provided all the facts or served any real point in justice. He will now move on to the sentencing phase, while keeping open the options to raise the many clear issues with this case on appeal.”

He’s going to appeal a case in which he just pleaded guilty to all the charges? Sounds like an argument built for the White House briefing room, not a courtroom.

***

James Freeman is the co-author of “The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival” and also the co-author of “Borrowed Time: Two Centuries of Booms, Busts and Bailouts at Citi.”

[contemplatingoutlander]

Surprise, surprise! Another GOP "star witness" against the Bidens also has lots of ties to Russia.

One central issue in the Bobulinski timeline—his long-standing connections to a sanctioned Russian oligarch behind state-controlled energy company Rosneft—appears far more close and complex than he has suggested, including in his House testimony. Bobulinski was a partner with Hunter Biden and a small circle of other associates in a proposed 2017 investment deal involving their startup entity, called “SinoHawk,” and privately owned Chinese energy firm CEFC. In 2020, Bobulinski went public with claims that the finances involved not just Hunter Biden, but his father Joe Biden, who was out of office at the time of the negotiations. Republicans have pointed to Bobulinski’s claims as evidence of potential wrongdoing, and his allegations have fueled unproven but widespread speculation about a bribery scandal—even though many of these claims have been debunked, and years of GOP investigations have turned up no evidence of impeachable offenses. But as the inquiry has unspooled the details surrounding the proposal, Bobulinski’s own connections to Russia have come into clearer focus.

[darkeagleruins]

They used the murder of elementary school children to partner with China.

These people have no conscience.

Be prepared for everything.

[realtalkingpoints]

If companies or individuals connected to foreign governments have been quietly funneling money to the Biden family, those foreign governments hold all the cards.  They would almost certainly have records of the transactions and could use the release of those records as leverage over our president. 

From the piece:

Johnson told The Washington Times the records show the Biden family involved with the now-defunct CEFC China Energy, which had connections to the Chinese Communist Party.  

The firm gave $1 million to Hudson West III, which was a joint venture owned by Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong, who is a business associate of CEFC’s founder and chairman, Ye Jianming, reportedly according to the bank records.

"In my mind, it's the Chinese government telling Joe Biden, 'We got the goods on you, buddy. And we’re willing to dish it up,'" Johnson said.

[ionlypostmymeemocs]

Guess who made a Amedeus (Pimp Medic) on Chai!!!!!

🎉💬 Chat on Chai! 🥳🎉

Start a chat with Pimp Medic(Amedeus/TF2 Medic OC) on Chai! https://chai.ml/chat/share/_bot_881105f6-cefc-4ee3-9edc-527620b59721

[cultml]

Biden "Business" Associate Rob Walker: The Deal With the Chinese Government Front Company, CEFC, Began While Biden Was Still Vice President, With Payment Delayed Until He Left Office; Also Reveals Biden Met with the Head of the ChiCom Front Group

[gradienty]

Fog Foam (#e6d7fe to #cefced)

[simply-ivanka]

Let's not forget that Joe Biden is corrupt to the core! this gets forgotten in the cesspool of mainstream media and the thirst for breaking news! The sooner America rids itself of Biden and the members of the Biden Administration, the better!

______________________________________________________________

What Did the Biden Family’s Foreign Clients Get for their Money?

Hunter Biden pleads guilty to federal tax charges.

Wall Street Journal

By James Freeman

Hunter Biden has been convicted of federal crimes for not paying all the taxes he owed on his foreign income. But the most important question for Americans remains unanswered: What exactly did his overseas clients get in return for their money? His Thursday guilty plea on tax charges prevented testimony that may have gone some way toward providing an answer. This potential testimony may also explain why Hunter Biden waited until now to acknowledge his guilt.

The Journal’s Sara Randazzo, Ryan Barber and Annie Linskey report from Los Angeles:

Federal prosecutors signaled an aggressive strategy as the trial drew near, previewing an approach that would show how foreign interests paid the younger Biden to influence the U.S. government while his father was vice president during the Obama administration. Prosecutors said they planned to cast a light on a lucrative arrangement with a Romanian real-estate magnate who was facing a corruption investigation in his home country, along with his ties to the oil company CEFC China Energy and his tenure on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company.

In court Thursday, [prosecutor Leo Wise] insisted on reading the entirety of the 56-page indictment into the record—over the objection of Biden’s lawyer—to establish the facts underlying the guilty plea.

Alanna Durkin Richer reported last month for the Associated Press:

Hunter Biden’s lawyers say prosecutors are inappropriately trying to insert “politically-charged” allegations about his foreign business dealings into the upcoming federal tax trial against the president’s son.

Special counsel David Weiss’ team told the judge last week that they plan to call to the witness stand a business associate of Hunter Biden’s to testify about an arrangement with a Romanian businessman who was trying to “influence U.S. government policy” during Joe Biden’s term as vice president…

The Romanian businessman, Gabriel Popoviciu, wanted U.S. government agencies to probe a bribery investigation he was facing in his home country in the hopes that would end his legal trouble, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors say Hunter Biden agreed with his business associate to help Popoviciu fight the criminal charges against him. But prosecutors say they were concerned that “lobbying work might cause political ramifications” for Joe Biden, so the arrangement was structured in a way that “concealed the true nature of the work” for Popoviciu, prosecutors alleged…

In fact, Popoviciu and Hunter’s business associate agreed that they would be paid for their work to “attempt to influence U.S. government agencies to investigate the Romanian investigation,” prosecutors said. Hunter Biden’s business associate was paid more than $3 million, which was split with Hunter and another business partner, prosecutors say.

Ms. Richer also noted that Hunter Biden’s defense lawyers “slammed prosecutors for showcasing ‘these matters on the eve of Mr. Biden’s trial—when there is no mention of political influence in the 56-page Indictment.’ ” The A.P. story continued:

“The Special Counsel’s unnecessary change of tactic merely echoes the baseless and false allegations of foreign wrongdoing which have been touted by House Republicans to use Mr. Biden’s proper business activities in Romania and elsewhere to attack him and his father,” the defense wrote.

But the defense has now opted not to defend.

Of course Romania is not the only foreign jurisdiction that proved fruitful for the Biden family business. The majority staff of several House committees recently reported:

From 2014 to the present… Biden family members and their associates received over $27 million from foreign individuals or entities…

Witnesses acknowledged that Hunter Biden involved Vice President Biden in many of his business dealings with Russian, Romanian, Chinese, Kazakhstani, and Ukrainian individuals and companies.Then-Vice President Biden met or spoke with nearly every one of the Biden family’s foreign business associates, including those from Ukraine, China, Russia, and Kazakhstan.

And of course let’s not forget Hunter Biden’s own deposition on Capitol Hill. This column noted in March that mere minutes after making yet another broad claim of not involving his father in the business, Hunter Biden confirmed the story of travelling with then-Vice President Joe Biden on Air Force Two to China and introducing his father to Jonathan Li in the lobby of the Bidens’ hotel. The following excerpt from the deposition suggests that the timing could not have been better:

[Committee member or staff]: At the time that you did introduce your father to Jonathan Li, did you or any of your business associates have any potential business with Jonathan Li?

[Hunter Biden]: I was working with Jonathan on a potential that he had an idea for creating a private equity fund based in China to do cross-border investments.

Nice. But good luck explaining what value Hunter Biden might be able to add to such an enterprise. Years later, his Chinese associates still hadn’t come up with a story. In 2019 Cissy Zhou and Jun Mai reported in the South China Morning Post:

BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company has grabbed global media attention for its links with Hunter Biden, the son of former United States vice-president Joe Biden, after US President Donald Trump fired a barrage of corruption allegations at him and requested China investigate the Bidens’ financial activities in the country.

The company has repeatedly declined to elaborate on the younger Biden’s role at the firm when contacted by the South China Morning Post via phone, mail and visits to the office. But Jonathan Li Xiangsheng, the firm’s chief executive and Hunter Biden’s partner, has said the company was working on an explanation about the American’s role.

Li refused to comment on the younger Biden when reached by the Post on Monday.

A recent visit to the firm’s registered address in Beijing found a small, plainly decorated office, where a receptionist said she had never seen Hunter Biden.

Is there anything Joe Biden said about the family business in 2020 that has turned out to be true?

Meanwhile as Vice President Kamala Harris seeks a promotion, perhaps she ought to disclose if she ever questioned anyone or learned anything about the Biden family business and its implications for American foreign policy. One would guess she was at least curious. Did she ever talk to anyone about the ethical standards for Hunter Biden’s art sales, which turned out to be a sham while she was serving alongside Joe Biden?

Vice President Harris is not just a lawyer but a former prosecutor and a former state attorney general, for goodness sake. Wasn’t she the least bit concerned?

***

Spokespeople for both the president and the vice president say that they won’t be pardoning Hunter Biden. But then why is Hunter Biden’s lawyer still making what seems like a political argument rather than a legal one?

Jack Morphet and Priscilla DeGregory report for the New York Post on comments from defense lawyer Abbe Lowell:

“Hunter decided to enter his plea to protect those he loves from unnecessary hurt and cruel humiliation,” Lowell said.

“This plea prevents that kind of show trial that would not have provided all the facts or served any real point in justice. He will now move on to the sentencing phase, while keeping open the options to raise the many clear issues with this case on appeal.”

He’s going to appeal a case in which he just pleaded guilty to all the charges? Sounds like an argument built for the White House briefing room, not a courtroom.

***

James Freeman is the co-author of “The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival” and also the co-author of “Borrowed Time: Two Centuries of Booms, Busts and Bailouts at Citi.”

[rainuponme]

Yet another year...

December was one filled with tears upon tears as I was confronted with three big things that broke my heart--friendships, my mother, and the way I view myself. These were things that have circled within me for a long time but I was unaware of them until recently.

I realised how I often looked at my friendships through the lens of loss, which triggers my flight response. There is often a tussle between wanting to withdraw from my friends and wanting to remain, knowing that my flight is an unhealthy one. But out of fear of more heartbreak, withdrawing is the easier way out. It was also through conversations with a few friends that I realised that I viewed myself as unimportant in the lives of my friends and, therefore, I'm always trying to earn my place in their lives as they moved through the seasons while preparing myself to be phased out eventually. This, too, is linked to my incredibly low view of self, where I believe that my friends can and will easily find other friends who are better and can journey with them through their life changes better. What can a single woman like me offer as different friends move into marriage and parenthood?

I remember crying as I realised, with greater awareness, how lowly I viewed myself and wondered why I was treating myself this way. I live believing that I am of little worth and importance, nothing much compared to others around me, undesirable and unlikeable. Why am I like this? Why do I feel so much? Why am I not more of this and less of that? Why am I not like the other person? In these questions I am reminded of what Jovian said to me in cell one night about my work, which I believe is more than just about my work, "You already know all the answers, Minn. What you need to do is to embrace and accept yourself." Ironically, it was my prayer this year to view myself soberly--neither elevating nor condescending myself out of insecurity. Yet here I am, doing the very thing I prayed not to do. But out of His love for me, He shows me that the way I view myself is not sober. It is not right either. Where is He in all of this? My prayer then, for 2024, would be to love Him more, and hopefully in this deeper love, I would learn to accept and embrace who He created - me.

While 2023 was a year of dreams coming true for me, I realised that the joy from this was shortlived. My tendency to focus on my shortcomings and insecurities robbed me of my joy. A part of me thought that with such breakthroughs, my life would completely change. But while some things have changed, many things have remained the same. The painful relationship with my mother remains. It was, yet another year, of struggling with hurts from my mother, new and old. When I came back from Taiwan, I looked around and realised that so many things stayed the same as they were. I wanted to escape from this life, escape from my mother, from my responsibilities, from my pain, from my shortcomings. I wanted out but I'm still stuck here, with all sorts of mess within and without.

This morning, the sermon from CEFC struck me hard. Into His hands I surrendered my life afresh. If there is anything I want, it would be to move where He leads. While I may still be stuck here, it shall be here that He meets me and moves me. There He shall be with me. I don't know what the new year would hold and I am greatly afraid, but into His hand I shall put mine, taking one step at a time, because if 2023 was a year of anything, it was a year of His faithfulness.

[myangelgarden]

DEVELOPING: Congressional investigators have learned that Biden kept a personal diary that includes entries detailing his Beijing meetings as Veep and spans critical periods covering the removal and storage of classified papers and his meeting with Tony Bobulinki re the CEFC deal. I don't listen to this gov't. They've Waged War against the Constitution.