Key Takeaways:
- US President Joe Biden is involved in a fresh corruption scandal
- His think-tank. the Penn Biden Center, received millions of dollars from unknown Chinese donors
- Several classified documents were found at the said think-tank. Did the Chinese get them in return for the donations?
YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — US President Joe Biden is not new to controversies. While his long political career has been full of them, he has had his fair share of troubles since taking office in 2021. New reports now indicate that the Chinese donors could be involved in the recent scandal involving classified documents at the Penn Biden Center.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Biden Center for Diplomacy received millions in donations from foreigners. According to local media reports, anonymous Chinese donors were among them.
Since Biden became President, the center has received over $50 million in foreign funding. This amount includes some $14 million from unknown sources in China and Hong Kong. In June 2022, someone from the Cayman Islands donated $1 million to the establishment. This came as funding for the Penn Wharton China program.
According to the US Department of Education, the Penn Biden Center also received $2.4 million from contributors in Saudi Arabia.
The University of Pennsylvania, where Joe Biden served as an honorary professor until 2019, also received $61 million from Chinese donors between 2017 and 2020. However, such gifts have increased significantly since Biden’s election.
Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of the United States requires colleges to report all gifts and contracts from foreign sources that exceed $250,000. However, reports suggest that the University of Pennsylvania did not comply with this federal law.
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Who in China gave all those money to the Biden Center?
Since news broke about the millions in donations coming from China, several organizations and political opponents have demanded an explanation. Citing national security risks, they demand an explanation from the authorities and the university regarding the matter.
Some are worried that there is a link between the classified documents found at the university and the donations from China.
“UPenn (University of Pennsylvania) houses The Biden Center Did Chinese agents PAY to get access to classified documents there,”
Benny Johnson, Political columnist and the host of The Benny Show asked.
Another point of worry for many is if the donations affected policy and impacted the integrity of not only the think tank but also the university at large.
Interestingly, under the Biden administration, the Department of Education has refused to make public the names of foreign donors. This was not the case under the previous administration, which used to publish this information in an online database.
“The Department of Education’s policy of hiding the identities of foreign entities showering our universities with billions of dollars is promoting a toxic brew of dark money and corruption,”
Free Beacon quoted Tom Anderson, director of National Legal and Policy Center’s Government Integrity Project, saying.
The Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee has also demanded information from the University of Pennsylvania about these foreign donations, including the names of donors.
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Who had access to the classified documents?
The fact that so many classified documents ended up at the Penn Biden Center has become a cause of much worry. Since President Joe Biden claimed ignorance, authorities now wonder who took them there.
Republican Congressman James Comer has asked for a list of people who had access to the Penn Biden Center. He also heads the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. These include all Penn Biden Center employees and people with keycard access to the think tank’s office. Moreover, the representative has also asked for a log of visitors who met with Joe Biden there.
“It is imperative to understand whether any Biden family members or associates gained access to the classified documents while stored at the Penn Biden Center,”
Rep. Comer wrote in a letter to the University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill.
Carter and his colleagues are also probing Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and his link to China.
In a recent revelation, authorities investigating his laptop found that he had access to his father’s car Corvette, which was kept in a “locked garage” alongside classified documents from his time as vice president.
He is said to have made millions working with questionable Chinese business people. Republicans are worried that some of the funds could have come through the sale of classified documents.
“The American people deserve to know whether the Chinese Communist Party, through Chinese companies, influenced potential Biden administration policies with large, anonymous donations to UPenn and the Penn Biden Center,”
James Comer wrote in the said letter.
What did China get in return for its donations to the Biden Center?
Neither the Communist Party of China nor the corrupt Chinese industrialists are big education advocates.
It would be foolish to presume that the Chinese want to empower Americans, so they have started financing their educational institutions. If they have sent the money, they are getting a return on their investment.
Some people have already begun investigating if there is a link between the Chinese donations and Joe Biden’s energy policies. According to reports, China has greatly benefited from the US administration’s anti-fossil fuel energy policies, which have left Americans with higher energy costs. As a result, the country’s economy has also taken a hit.
Moreover, NLPC Chairman Peter Flaherty has accused the University of Pennsylvania of pro-China activities thanks to the donations.
“It looks like the Chinese have got back their money’s worth. 150 U-Pen professors wrote a letter to Merrick Garland (US Attorney General) last year, saying that the China initiative, was racist,”
he said.
Flaherty explained that the China initiative is a law enforcement effort to route out Chinese espionage efforts on American campuses.
It seems the Biden administration’s alleged romance with China is going to be the cause of much political debate in the USA. But will the law enforcement authorities discharge their duties with integrity during the investigation? Time will tell.
