Riding the Dragon

the challenge of the

chinese communist party and the threat

that it poses to the united states and

our allies

is a critical importance to us right now

i think in the

long term in terms of american security

policy

china is going to be a much more

powerful country than russia

there's no country that presents a

broader

more comprehensive threat to america's

innovation to our economic security and

to our democratic ideas than china does

i believe we've got to live in reality

communist china

it wants to control the entire world

including americans

let's be clear the chinese communist

party is a marxist

limitless organization the party general

secretary

xi jinping sees himself as joseph

stalin's successor

china's a longer term threat and we need

to you need to be very clear-eyed about

what they are and what they are

they're not our partner here they're

never going to be our partner

under the existing leadership team under

president xi's rule the chinese

communist party

is heading even faster and further in

the wrong direction

more internal repression more predatory

economic practices

more heavy-handedness and most

concerning for me a more aggressive

military posture

for china success is a zero-sum game

china is going to eat our lunch

come on man i mean

i you know they're not bad folks folks

but guess what

they're not a they're not competition

for us

on the surface that's a really puzzling

thing to say

joe biden saying china is not really a

threat

china is america's chief rival on the

global stage

and nobody should know that better than

joe biden

i mean during the obama biden

administration

actually recalibrated foreign policy to

contain

china it was called the pivot

china has never loomed larger in our

lives

think about the economy trade

espionage now coveted 19.

china has said openly that they want to

supplant us

as the world's superpower but joe biden

talks about china differently

china is not our enemy not a problem

what are we worried about

come on man he doesn't see them as a

threat

and i believe then what i believe now

that a rising china

is a positive positive development

he welcomes the rise as a global power

why exactly perhaps it's personal

perhaps it's about his family perhaps

it's about the money

so

december 2013 vice president joe biden

is arriving in beijing

for a series of sensitive meetings with

chinese officials

the chinese give him the red carpet

treatment

literally but also along for the trip

joe biden's son hunter white

during the visit joe biden meets with

chinese vice premier lee

and with president xi

a 2013 trip to china getting new

attention this morning not for what joe

biden did

but for who he brought with him and what

was hunter biden doing

we're not sure he doesn't appear in many

pictures

of the official festivities

but what we do know is this

10 days after father and son returned to

the united states

hunter biden's small investment firm

announced a 1 billion private equity

deal

with the chinese government and where

did the capital come from for this deal

from the chinese government itself

unknown to the press back then hunter

biden was forming a chinese private

equity fund

planning to raise money including from

chinese investors

years later hunter biden acknowledged

that during the trip

he met with a chinese banker which his

spokesperson describes as a social visit

not a business one

i believe then and i'm even more

convinced now that a rising china

is an incredibly positive development

for

not only china but the united states and

the rest of the world

hunter small firm got a deal that no one

else

had in china

not morgan stanley goldman sachs

deutsche bank or ubs

and are you vulnerable on this issue at

all because of your son's business

dealings in china

no i don't believe so at all my son's

business dealings

were not anything with everybody that

he's talking about not even remotely

number

one

what's interesting is hunter biden had

no real background in china

in finance or private equity in fact

hunter had what might be called a spotty

resume

a couple of youthful jobs owing directly

to his father's influence

he was once made a director of amtrak

based on the fact that he'd ridden on

trains

he'd been addicted to crack cocaine

had an unsettled domestic life and a

brief attempt at a naval career ended

with a discharge over drug use

so why did the chinese pick him

spring 2017.

patrick hoe a chinese businessman was

arrested by the fbi

on bribery charges

he worked for a chinese energy company

with close ties to the chinese military

while in fbi custody home made two phone

calls

one of those strangely is to james biden

joe biden's brother

why did this man call the brother of the

vice president

he was looking for hunter

this is the remarkable and largely

hidden story

of the secret financial relationship

between the biden family

and the chinese government

it's a relationship that grew while joe

biden

was vice president of the united states

and shortly after he was appointed the

point person

on u.s policy towards china

our investigation is based on corporate

records

financial documents legal briefings

and court papers

it's the story of the second most

powerful man

in the world at the time and how his

family was striking deals with america's

chief rival on the global stage the

people's

republic of china

and it's a story that has been largely

never told

a rising china is a positive development

not only for the people of china but for

the united states and the world as a

whole

january 2009

joe biden is inaugurated vice president

of the united states

hi joseph robinette biden jr do solemnly

swear

it was a remarkable moment for biden who