Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Beijing's military hacked U.S. nuclear firm before Hunter Biden aided Chinese bid to acquire it
Just the News ^ | March 14, 2024 | Steven Richards & John Solomon

Posted on 03/16/2024 6:40:42 AM PDT by Twotone

U.S. officials were acutely aware that Beijing was trying to obtain America's premiere nuclear reactor technology, including through illicit hacking, months before Hunter Biden and his business partners sought to arrange a quiet sale of an iconic U.S. reactor company to a Chinese firm, according to court records and national security experts.

Hunter Biden's unsuccessful efforts to help CEFC China Energy acquire Westinghouse, one of America's most famous electricity and appliance brands, and its state-the-art AP1000 nuclear reactor began in early 2016 while Joe Biden was still a sitting vice president, memos published Wednesday by Just the News show.

Just 20 months earlier, his father's Justice Department charged five members of a Chinese military hacking unit for breaching the company’s computer systems in search of intellectual property and internal strategy communications, according to a copy of the indictment.

In May 2014, the five operatives of the People’s Liberation Army’s Unit 61398 were charged with hacking into the systems of six U.S.-based companies across different industrial sectors, including Westinghouse Electric Co., SolarWorld, United States Steel Corp., and a union. The attorney general at the time, Eric Holder, called the breach a classic case of "economic espionage."

One operative gained access to Westinghouse’s computers in 2010 and “stole proprietary and confidential technical and design specifications related to pipes, pipe supports, and pipe routing” pertaining to the company’s advanced AP1000 nuclear reactor design, according to an indictment filed by the Department of Justice.

“Among other things, such specifications would enable a competitor to build a plant similar to the AP1000 without incurring significant research and development costs associated with designing similar pipes, pipe supports, and pipe routing systems,” the indictment reads.

National security experts said Thursday they were floored that the son of a sitting vice president would be involved in trying to help a Chinese firm get a leg up on the United States in the race for nuclear energy and that Hunter Biden's involvement with CEFC almost certainly would have been detected by U.S. intelligence and prompted concern.

Documents previously released by Congress in the Biden impeachment inquiry show the Biden family appeared to be acutely aware that CEFC was tied directly to the communist government in China.

While there is no evidence at the moment that Hunter Biden was aware of or involved in the hacking efforts by the Chinese, Hunter Biden wrote in one text message in 2017 that he believed one of the CEFC officials he worked with, Patrick Ho, was the "f---ing spy chief" of China (Ho was lated indicted in the U.S. and charged with corruption) while Joe Biden's brother James told the FBI he believed CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming had a relationship with China's communist president.

"It's beyond outrageous that Hunter Biden would be involved in any such deal with Communist China while his father is the sitting vice president," former Trump-era Deputy National Security Advisor Victoria Coates told the "Just the News, No Noise" television show. "I mean just the glaring conflicts of interest are hard to wrap your brain around. But particularly with Westinghouse."

Coates said the Trump administration worked hard to protect Westinghouse from financial troubles because it was one of America's and the West's "most important private sector partners and assets" left standing after the Obama administration ceded large parts of the global nuclear industry to Russia during a failed reset with Moscow a decade ago. Westinghouse's reactor tech and its maintenance capabilities were deemed key, she said.

Had Hunter Biden and his partners succeeded in helping China grab control of Westinghouse, "all of that would have gone to China," Coates said. "We would have had China in the nuclear plants of our sensitive allies, with their hands all over that technology. And that just is intolerable, but it tells you everything you need to know about the Bidens and their views of American national security."

Fred Fleitz, a former CIA officer and NSC chief of staff, told Just the News that U.S. intelligence almost certainly detected Hunter Biden's dealings with China and most likely would have warned his father.

"I think it's likely he (Joe Biden) got defensive briefings," Fleitz told the "John Solomon Reports" podcast. "And I think he probably received information in the Presidential Daily Brief when he was vice president that had profiles of some of these characters and analyses of things that they were up to. But it didn't seem to stop them."

"It seems that the Biden family was prepared to sell anything wasn't nailed down to advance themselves to make money," he added. "I don't think this was a conspiracy to help the Chinese Communist Party. I think this was pure greed, by the Biden family. I think Joe Biden knew about it."

China's interest in Westinghouse grew as Russia's hold on nuclear energy markets grew.

At the time of the hacks, Westinghouse was exploring ways to expand into the Chinese nuclear market while its profit margins at home suffered. Between 2007 and 2010, Westinghouse signed several agreements with the State Nuclear Power Technology Corp (SNPTC) of China to transfer technology and technical know-how to help the Chinese enterprise develop its own reactor.

However, Westinghouse negotiated to limit SNPTC’s ability to export the technology, components and materials, outside of China to prevent competition with its own offerings abroad. Additional negotiations on technology transfer issues between Westinghouse and its Chinese counterpart continued until 2013, according to the DOJ indictment.

The Chinese military hacking efforts paralleled attempts by another Chinese state-owned enterprise to develop an home-made reactor. In April 2016, China General Nuclear Power Corp. was charged by U.S authorities for an effort to obtain nuclear reactor plans to aid its design of a Chinese reactor, the Hualong One. Both attempts represent actions by the Chinese government to pursue nuclear technology independence, a key goal of the Chinese regime.

Remarkably, that same year Hunter Biden and his associates—James Gilliar and Rob Walker—would convey a wide-ranging proposal to CEFC China Energy for the purchase of Westinghouse, which would present an opportunity for the Chinese energy conglomerate to dominate both the Chinese and global nuclear energy market, according to the documents published Wednesday by Just the News.

In a report prepared by Gilliar and sent to CEFC, the team would tout a major benefit of a Westinghouse acquisition: the American company’s intellectual property and the license for the advanced AP1000 reactor—the very same reactor designs the Chinese military hackers pursued about six years earlier.

Gilliar and his team saw an opportunity for CEFC to fill an important role in the Chinese domestic nuclear market and around the world through the acquisition, and in the process, liberate China from its dependence on foreign nuclear technology, Just the News reported Wednesday.

“[If] CEFC owned Westinghouse, it would mean that every export of product in the future from Chinese EPC companies or manufacturers would have to go through CEFC,” Gilliar concluded, according to a cover letter sent to CEFC.

Ultimately, a CEFC plan to acquire Westinghouse was not consummated. Yet, China did ultimately achieve its goals of a civilian nuclear sector less reliant on foreign technologies and expertise and without onerous export restrictions.

By 2020, of the 12 nuclear reactors under construction in China, none were based on American designs—including Westinghouse’s AP1000. Instead, all 12 projects had adopted the Hualong One, the design developed by the China National Nuclear Corporation and the China General Nuclear Power Group—the latter being the same company indicted in the U.S. for industrial espionage.

“More power plants will choose Hualong One in the future because it’s China’s independently developed technology and it’s as good as AP1000,” Wang Yingsu, secretary general of the nuclear power branch of the China Electric Power Promotion Council told the South China Morning Post in 2020.

“AP1000 is Westinghouse’s technology and we might be controlled by them if we want to build the reactors, sell and export to other countries,” he added.


TOPICS: China; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bidenfamily; cefc; china; hunterbiden; hunterslaptop; nucleartechnology; rosenbergs; treason; westinghouse

1 posted on 03/16/2024 6:40:42 AM PDT by Twotone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Twotone

the Rosenbergs were executed for doing this ...


2 posted on 03/16/2024 6:46:06 AM PDT by catnipman (A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone
"...Hunter Biden and his business partners sought to arrange a quiet sale of an iconic U.S. reactor company to a Chinese firm..."

TREASON!

Find a grove of tall trees and 'decorate' them...



3 posted on 03/16/2024 6:47:09 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

This is the kind of factoid that gives one a powerful sense of the level of treasonous depravity characteristic of the Biden crime family.


4 posted on 03/16/2024 6:47:29 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

Hunter probably sold them the User Names and Passwords


5 posted on 03/16/2024 6:48:30 AM PDT by butlerweave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

“Due diligence.”


6 posted on 03/16/2024 6:50:09 AM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

Ping


7 posted on 03/16/2024 6:57:19 AM PDT by SomeCallMeTim (C)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

Unpossible! Its not like there were Chinese spies sleeping with congressmen or anything! /s


8 posted on 03/16/2024 7:04:22 AM PDT by Bob434
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

James Biden, the younger brother of Joe Biden, recently told the FBI
<><>the Biden family, including himself and Hunter Biden
<><>unsuccessfully tried to help a Chinese company buy U.S. energy assets
<><>including a liquid natural gas port in Louisiana
<><>the Bidens believed the company was tied to Communist Chinese Pres Xi.


Cong Scott had the documents proof that, “its even worse than he thought,”
<><>that the Biden’s would go that far
<><>the Bidens would help the Chinese acquire US energy assets,
<><>the Bidens would give an adversary the ability to control the energy supply inside the US
<><>China controlling the flow of US energy to American citizens and American industry?
<><>how much more of a traitor could you be to do such a thing?


9 posted on 03/16/2024 7:08:11 AM PDT by Liz (This then is how we should pray: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: catnipman

Indeed

Biden impeachment inquiry show the Biden family appeared to be acutely aware that CEFC was tied directly to the communist government in China.


10 posted on 03/16/2024 7:14:24 AM PDT by Vaduz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Vaduz

Thought it was Gateway.


11 posted on 03/16/2024 7:41:57 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Bob434
Unpossible! Its not like there were Chinese spies sleeping with congressmen or anything! /s

Right! The fact that the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee also had a Chinese spy as her personal driver isn't at all suspicious, either. Apparently, it's commonplace.

12 posted on 03/16/2024 9:23:07 AM PDT by Charles Martel (Progressives are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: DIRTYSECRET

Yes


13 posted on 03/16/2024 10:37:47 AM PDT by Vaduz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Charles Martel

Yep- totally not dangerous at all


14 posted on 03/16/2024 11:40:16 AM PDT by Bob434
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Twotone
Another hacking story:

I had to find a new supplier for my diabetic testing supplies, and had to call Medicare.gov the other day, in order to find out what diabetic testing meters they would approve, so my new Endocrinologist could write a script for one. A rep from Medicare advised me that they have no such list, and couldn't help me with that. The reason they don't have a list, is because all their claims are handled by a third party company, so they don't have access to the list of approved meters. Then she went on to tell me that the third party company that processes the claims had just been hacked, and they were having problems getting claims approved. She gave me a phone number to provide Rite-Aid, so they could call to get approval for the meter. The pharmacist at Rite-Aid already knew about the hack, and provided me with a new meter, and testing supplies without prior approval, and said that eventually, it would all be worked out by the insurance companies. When that will be, God only knows.

15 posted on 03/16/2024 11:57:29 AM PDT by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson