A former Biden family business associate said President Biden’s son referenced Chinese President Xi Jinping’s desire for a partnership between the Biden family and a Chinese energy company in 2017.
The reference surfaced in an electronic message retained by Tony Bobulinski, one of three witnesses who testified Tuesday at a House hearing investigating Mr. Biden’s involvement in his family’s business deals.
The message from Hunter Biden, sent months after Mr. Biden’s term as vice president ended, indicated the Chinese “wanted to do business with the Bidens [and] to be my partners, to be partners with the Bidens.”
Hunter Biden said in the message that CEFC Executive Director Jianjun Zang made a reference to Mr. Xi approving the Bidens’ partnership with CEFC.
“Both coming to be my partner, to be partners with the Bidens, [Zang] has implied that the ‘number one’ has made it clear and available to him,” Hunter Biden wrote in a message.
Mr. Bobulinski said the “number one” is a reference to Xi Jinping.
“That’s the number one that Hunter was referencing in that message,” Mr. Bobulinski told lawmakers.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, said although Mr. Biden had exited public office at that time, he had declared his plans to run for president in 2020.
“So here are the Bidens doing business in China in 2017. When everybody knew he was planning to be President of the United States,” Ms. Greene said.
Mr. Bobulinski testified he sat down twice with Mr. Biden to discuss business deals with CEFC, which ultimately paid the family more than $9 million.
Mr. Biden denies he was involved in any of the deals.
Democrats accused Mr. Bobulinski of lying and grilled their witness, Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani who he said hired him to dig up dirt on Mr. Biden.
Mr. Parnas, who served prison time for fraud, told lawmakers President Trump while in office was aware of the dirt-digging scheme and that none of the efforts turned up anything incriminating on Mr. Biden.
Democrats said the evidence suggests they should impeach Mr. Trump a third time.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.