House GOP invite China-linked ‘expert’ Hunter Biden to testify on cobalt mining in checkmate move

Hunter Biden’s supposed mining expertise may soon be put to the test if Rep. James Comer (R-KY) has his way.

The Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee penned a letter Friday to Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) requesting that the first son testifies during a committee hearing scheduled for Tuesday, April 5, Fox News reported.

“Dear Chairwoman Maloney,” the letter reads. “House Committee on Oversight and Reform Republicans request the attendance and testimony of Hunter Biden at the April 5, 2022, hearing entitled ‘It’s Electric: Developing the Postal Service Fleet of the Future.’ Mr. Biden is well positioned to inform the Committee about issues pertaining to African cobalt mines — a metal which is essential in the manufacturing of electric vehicles.”

The letter may have been written on April Fool’s Day, but it is clearly no joke.

Rep. Comer is poking at some nefarious connections in Hunter Biden’s business dealings with China –ties that go straight back to his father, President Joe Biden.

In a November 20, 2021, article titled “How Hunter Biden’s Firm Helped Secure Cobalt for the Chinese,” The New York Times reported that Hunter Biden was “part-owner of a venture involved in the $3.8 billion purchase by a Chinese conglomerate of one of the world’s largest cobalt deposits.”

“The metal is a key ingredient in batteries for electric vehicles,” The Times continued.

The article goes on to detail Hunter Biden’s involvement, along with two other Americans, in the 2013 founding with Chinese partners of Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company, more commonly known as “BHR.”

Biden and the other Americans owned 30 percent of BHR and all served on its board.

“The rest of the company is owned or controlled by Chinese investors that include the Bank of China, according to records filed with Chinese regulators,” The Times reported.

In 2016, the firm bought and then later sold a stake in CATL, a “fast-growing Chinese company that is now the world’s biggest maker of batteries for electric vehicles.”

Also in 2016, following the $2.65 billion acquisition of a cobalt and copper mine in Congo by Chinese mining company China Molybdenum, BHR, at China Molydbenum’s behest, bought out Lundin Mining of Canada, a minority shareholder in the mine.

“Records in Hong Kong show that the $1.4 billion BHR, through subsidiaries, paid to buy out Lundin came entirely from Chinese state-backed companies,” The Times reported.

As previously reported in BizPac Review, it was Hunter Biden’s Chinese BHR connections that “led to an introduction of Joe Biden by Hunter Biden to a BHR executive in December 2013, following a father and son flight to Beijing on Air Force Two.”

In a January article for the New York Post, Peter Schweizer, author of “Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win,” examined two of those Chinese BHR connections, including Chinese tycoon and “Super Chairman” Che Feng, who allegedly brought Hunter Biden together with large Chinese state-backed investment funds, which led to a $20 million BHR deal.

“This man was reportedly the director of the [Chinese] ministry’s No. 8 Bureau, which targeted foreigners with its intelligence apparatus — including reporters, diplomats, and businessmen,” Schweizer wrote of Che Feng. “It was also reported that he oversaw intelligence operations for North America.”

Another key figure in the BHR deal, Harvest Fund Management’s Zhao Xuejun (aka Henry Zhao), “is a communist party official,” according to Schweizer.

So to call Hunter Biden in to testify on the knowledge and expertise he had to have gleaned from his work with BHR is hardly insignificant, and Rep. Comer is not playing around.

“An attorney representing Mr. Biden in connection with the FBI’s investigation of his taxes and foreign dealing is copied on this correspondence for your convenience,” Comer’s letter reads. “Please confirm Mr. Biden’s invitation as soon as possible.”

Melissa Fine

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles