Hunter Biden holds a stake in a Chinese surveillance company that is under U.S. sanctions for human-rights violations, complicating his father Joe Biden's campaign promise to crack down on American businesses with financial ties to China's humanitarian abuses.
Bohai Harvest RST Shanghai Equity, an investment firm that Hunter Biden owns a stake in, initially invested in Megvii, a sanctioned Chinese tech company that specializes in facial recognition software, in 2017, according to the company's website.
Ethics watchdogs have raised questions about Hunter Biden's lucrative positions with Ukrainian energy company Burisma while Joe Biden was overseeing Ukraine policy as vice president.
In July, Biden vowed that he would "Prohibit U.S. companies from abetting repression and supporting the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance state." Last week, the Biden campaign called China's assault on the Uighurs "Genocide" and called on President Donald Trump to "Take action."
Hunter Biden stepped down from the board of Bohai Harvest RST, which he co-owned, earlier this year, but he still owns a 10 percent stake in the investment firm through his U.S.-based limited liability company Skaneateles LLC, according to corporate records from China's official company database.
While Hunter Biden has no legal obligation to divest from the entity, human-rights activists said foreign investors are essentially aiding Chinese persecution of the minority Uighur population by financing companies that have been implicated in human-rights abuses.
Chinese surveillance and facial recognition companies play a key role in the government's oppression of ethnic minorities, according to Peter Irwin, senior program officer with the Uyghur Human Rights Project.
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Hunter Biden Holds Stake in Chinese Company Sanctioned for Human Rights Abuses
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