Hunter Biden's Company Partnered With Chinese Military to Acquire American Stealth Tech, Assisted By The Big Guy and John Kerry

Red State ^ | 10/24/2020 | Jennifer Van Laar

[SeekAndFind]

FILE - In this Sept. 2, 2015, file photo, an F-35 jet arrives at its new operational base at Hill Air Force Base, in northern Utah. The top U.S. diplomat overseeing arms sales said Monday, Feb. 5, 2018, she would be promoting American weaponry at the largest air show in Asia, where China’s military footprint and political influence are surging. A large U.S. delegation at the Singapore Air Show is doing “everything we can” to encourage Southeast Asian governments to purchase U.S.-made arms like the F-35 fighter jet, Ambassador Tina Kaidanow told reporters in a telephone briefing. She repeatedly sought to dispel the notion that U.S. influence was in retreat. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

(This is the fourth in a series of articles exploring Hunter Biden and Chris Heinz’s business dealings with Chinese entities. Additional reporting and research have been provided by RedState’s Scott Hounsell.)

For the last 50 years, the United States military has enjoyed air superiority over essentially every other nation on the planet. In addition to good-old American ingenuity and freedom to create, this superiority was created and is maintained by the government’s support of ongoing research and development to maintain that superiority. The research and development process for new fighter jets can take decades, as with the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). China has always lagged significantly behind the United States in this department, but they’ve recently made major strides.

A significant factor in China’s progress comes as a result of the 2015 acquisition of Henniges Automotive, a Michigan company whose anti-vibration technology is used on the F-35 (stealth) fighter, by Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), the state-owned entity that produces fighter jets for the Chinese military.

Guess whose company partnered with AVIC in that acquisition? That’s right – Hunter Biden and Chris Heinz’s BHR.

As a refresher: BHR is a Chinese venture capital firm in which Rosemont Seneca Thornton (the Biden/Heinz/Archer/Bulger partnership) owned a 30 percent stake, and which is majority-owned and controlled by the state-owned Bank of China. (Hunter Biden still owns 10 percent through his Skaneateles, LLC entity.)

For the 2015 transaction a wholly-owned subsidiary of AVIC, AVIC Auto, partnered with BHR to acquire Henniges, with AVIC Auto owning 51 percent and BHR owning 49 percent – meaning that the Chinese government-owned military manufacturer ended up with controlling interest of Henniges.

The Chinese government and military have attempted for decades to catch up to the aforementioned US military superiority, by any means necessary. At the time of the sale, US government officials – and the public, through Edward Snowden – were aware that China had hacked “terabytes” of data, including F-35 technology, and made use of it in their J-20 fighter. By acquiring Henniges and their anti-vibration technology, AVIC could put that technology directly to use in the Chinese military jets.

In a press release announcing the deal Daen Lu, described as chairman of Henniges Automotive, said (emphasis added):

“This acquisition represents a long-term, strategic investment by AVIC Auto to sustain and grow the Henniges business, while keeping the successful leadership, culture, benefits and contracts associated with the company intact. We are excited about this acquisition, and look forward to the addition of their significant expertise and the benefits it will bring to both of our companies.”

Yes, we’re sure AVIC looked forward to the significant expertise Henniger brought to the table. And who is Daen Lu? A Bloomberg profile describes him as both the Chairman of the Board of Henniges Automotive and as Chairman of AVIC Capital Co., LTD. So, was he on the board of Henniges before the acquisition, or was he inserted by AVIC?

BHR’s press release shares similar sentiments. In a March 2016 interview BHR CEO Jonathan Li characterized the Henniges transaction as BHR’s “typical business model”:

Henniges [an automotive equipment manufacturer acquired last year] is our typical business model. We set up a joint venture with AVIC – they own 51% and we own 49% – and did the acquisition together. AVIC has industry experience, operations in China, and it knew Henniges well. As a financial investor, we use our international network and our professionalism. While the AVIC is very experienced in international acquisitions, some Chinese companies don’t have the same cross-border experience and so may appreciate what we can offer in this domain.

Xin Wang, a US-educated Canadian attorney who serves as BHR’s Managing Partner, said that by BHR serving as a conduit for the SOE they “can facilitate the transaction.”

Just by virtue of being an SOE there is the perception – rightly or wrongly – that there will be some cross-cultural issues. Having us and our global resources there as a financial investor, and serving as a conduit, can facilitate the transaction.

A look at the research and development timelines of the F-35 and the J-31 illustrates the advantage that both hacking and the strategic acquisition of Henniges have given the Chinese.

When the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) was originally contracted in 1996, the United States was looking to develop a next-generation fighter that would allow for the US to phase out aircraft like the F-16 and the F-18, which were already 20 to 25 years old at the time JSF development started. Production on the F-35 began in 2006. It first flew in 2015, and the fighter also entered service in the US military in 2015. So, 19 years from first development to production.

Military aviation experts have noted that the latest Chinese fighter, the J-31, is strikingly similar to the F-35 – likely because the Chinese had the benefit of hacked data and their acquisition of Henniges’ anti-vibration technology.

AVIC’s J-31 (or FC-31 for international sales) started development in 2009, two years after China’s hack of Lockheed. Production began in 2015, and the first flight was in 2019. China did in nine years what took the United States 19. China estimates that the J-31 will be combat-ready by 2022.

AVIC President Lin Zuoming says the company is looking to sell the FC-31 to “air forces that are unable to buy the F-35”:

“The next-generation air forces that are unable to buy the F-35 have no way to build themselves up. We don’t believe the situation should be that way. The world should be balanced. Good things shouldn’t all be pushed to one party.”

Who are those next-generation air forces? Iran and Pakistan, for starters.

It gets better. Or worse, to be accurate. As Breitbart reported:

AVIC entities have been sanctioned by the United States on five separate occasions since 1993 and the addition to the watch list–a major red flag—occurred less than a year-and-a-half before they co-purchased Henniges.

There are safeguards in place to prevent US technology with potential military applications from getting into the wrong hands, primarily the Treasury Department-administered Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS):

“CFIUS is an interagency committee authorized to review certain transactions involving foreign investment in the United States and certain real estate transactions by foreign persons, in order to determine the effect of such transactions on the national security of the United States.”

The CFIUS review committee is comprised of multiple Cabinet members, including the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Homeland Security, and more. After a 45-day review, there is a potential 45-day investigation period and then a potential 15-day presidential review period.

So, in order for this transaction to be approved, BHR and AVIC (both majority-owned Chinese entities) would have had to send in reams of paperwork and likely would have met with representatives of the Treasury Department, at a minimum. The approval process should have taken into consideration the history of both BHR and AVIC, and could have gone up to President Obama for final approval. There’s no way to know whether it did or not since those records aren’t public. But Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has questions about it, and wants to see the threat assessment prepared in the case.

The fact that this purchase was allowed to occur is mind-blowing. How did AVIC, an entity on the watch list and known to have stolen tech from the F-35 to put into their J/FC-31, obtain authorization by the US government to buy a company that created tech for the F-35 to make it more invisible to radar?

The names Biden and Kerry figure prominently. From a Breitbart report:

Internal BHR documents show exactly how the Chinese military contractor was able to disguise its ownership via shell corporations and formed a joint-venture with the son of the vice president to facilitate the Chinese takeover of an American dual-use technology supplier.

Additional documents suggest that Hunter Biden’s Chinese-backed venture funneled money to an entity controlled by Vanessa Kerry, the daughter of then-Secretary of State John Kerry, just one month before CFIUS approved the takeover. At the time, Secretary Kerry played a lead role on the Obama-Biden CFIUS committee.

In addition, the Obama administration had systematically weakened the CFIUS review process and ignored Department of Defense objections to technology partnerships with China since 2009; their specific actions will be detailed in a future installment in this series.

This goes beyond influence peddling. This is a selling-out of national interests and security for a buck, and Hunter Biden was not only complicit in the deal but instrumental in it. You also would have to assume that Jack Lew’s Treasury Department approved this purchase of Hunter’s firm’s doing, absent the knowledge of Joe Biden? That’s extremely difficult to believe.

[ClearCase_guy]

None (in the media) dare call it treason.

[Equine1952]

The beat goes on. Bill Clinton sold Multiple Rentry Vehicle Technology to China. This treasonous crap has been around for awhile.

[Irenic]

This is what chaps my butt the most.

[Gay State Conservative]

Just think...under Attorney General Occasional Cortex we'll hear a giant Officer Barbrady:

"OK,nothing to see here...move along!

[Liaison]

Remember if we have the tech and they have the same. MAD will occur. and we will not attack each other.... right. Show me the money.

[adorno]

If any of this is true, it is treason, and if Hunter’s father is involved, it also means that Obama was involved.

So, if true, all of them need to be prosecuted for treason, and put away for life (whatever life remains of Joe Biden), or capital punishment. Putting the entire country at risk for a relatively few dollars, is the kind of stuff that requires major investigations, including those on top of the military and in congress and especially in the White House.

Hunter Biden may have done the country a favor, by unintentionally shedding light on the highest form of treason that this country could ever have suffered.

[simpson96]

Welcome to the party, John Kerry!

[LegendHasIt]

I’m as shocked as you guys are....

Well, actually, I am a little surprised....

That Hillary didn’t beat them to it and sell the secrets herself.

[prophetic]

"That Hillary didn’t beat them to it and sell the secrets herself."

Just a fyi, Hillary deliberately had that server setup that way AND left vulnerable so that the Chinese could hack and download everything off it. Its as it she had left FTP server running for them.

[Rurudyne]

Clinton: nuke and missile tech

Obama got rich in office for some reason too.

[fortes fortuna juvat]

Americans have learned more about corruption in the Federal Government from a computer repair man than they have from the FBI!

[Rurudyne]

30 pieces of Chinese silver and pallets of Muslim cash.

[boxlunch]

Im sure she did. What do you think Benghazi and all the color revolutions were about? She was just sneakier and wasn’t caught (yet).

[SmokingJoe]

And the hits against Biden just keep coming. Buh bye ByeDone.

[Gasshog]

So for that anti-vibration gizmo lemme guess, Hunter got a few mill, a bag of Toot and a hareem of young lovelies armed with vibrators!!

So what did Ketchup Boy Jr, make off with?

[AnthonySoprano]

‘

[AnthonySoprano]

[AnthonySoprano]

[deks]

Stolen F-35 Secrets Now Showing Up in China’s Stealth Fighter

3/13/2014 — Bill Gertz

A cyber espionage operation by China seven years ago produced sensitive technology and aircraft secrets that were incorporated into the latest version of China’s new J-20 stealth fighter jet, according to U.S. officials and private defense analysts.

The Chinese cyber spying against the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II took place in 2007 under what U.S. intelligence agencies codenamed Operation Byzantine Hades, a large-scale, multi-year cyber program that targeted governments and industry.

Defense officials said the stolen data was obtained by a Chinese military unit called a Technical Reconnaissance Bureau in the Chengdu province. The data was then passed to the state-run Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC).

An AVIC subsidiary, the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, used the stolen data in building the J-20, said defense and intelligence officials familiar with reports of the illicit tech transfer.

Pentagon technology security officials in 2011 opposed a joint venture between General Electric and AVIC over concerns that U.S. fighter jet technology would be diverted to AVIC’s military aircraft programs.

**The Obama administration ignored the concerns and instead has since promoted the systematic loosening of technology controls on transfers to China.**

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3132837/posts