Photos Show Joe Biden Meeting Hunter's Business Partners
Then Vice President Joe Biden met his son Hunter’s foreign business partners during a 2013 overseas trip to China, newly released photographs show. The unearthed records also document Hunter meeting Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.
Obtained by America First Legal (AFL) via open records request, the photographs from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) appear to show Hunter introducing his father to several Chinese members of BHR Partners, a Chinese investment firm with ties to the country’s Communist government.
As the New York Post previously reported, Hunter “cofounded BHR Partners in 2013 within weeks of joining then-Vice President Joe Biden aboard Air Force Two on an official trip to Beijing.” The First Son reportedly “held a 10% stake in BHR Partners at least through part of his father’s first year as president and the terms of his divestment remain murky,” according to the outlet.
The pictures obtained by AFL appear to show Joe meeting BHR Partners CEO Jonathan Li and Director and Managing Partner Ming Xue. The released records also show Hunter meeting Xi and then Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao.
As noted by AFL, the pictures seemingly corroborate findings published by the House Oversight Committee in August showcasing the Bidens’ close connections with BHR officials.
The committee discovered that “Mr. Li sought — and received — access to Vice President Biden’s political power, including, for example, preferential access to then-U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus.” Prior testimony given by Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer and emails from Hunter’s laptop also show that Joe penned letters of recommendation for Li’s children, according to AFL.
Hunter’s congressional testimony indicates the Bidens financially benefited from his relationship with BHR. According to the First Son’s testimony, Li wired him $250,000 as a “loan” in 2019, which his financial backer Kevin Morris ultimately covered.
The photographs seemingly contradict prior claims from Joe, who has denied meeting with Hunter and his brother James’ business associates. “I did not interact with their partners,” the president told reporters earlier this year.
AFL’s attempts to acquire the records did not come without difficulty, however.
According to the legal group, NARA was originally slated to “release these photographs on October 23, 2024 — thirteen days before Election Day,” but delayed publication until after the election when “Biden and [Barack] Obama’s lawyers and representatives invoked an extension of 30 working days.” AFL further contended that the Biden administration is still prohibiting the “release of 182 of the 313 photographs that NARA processed.”
A Dec. 12, 2024, email sent to AFL by a NARA official reads, “182 photographs and 3 email messages in whole and 6 email messages in part have been exempted from release in compliance with restrictions of the [Presidential Records Act] and applicable FOIA exemptions, which specify what material may be released to the public.”
AFL’s publication of the records comes weeks after Joe issued a blanket pardon for Hunter, which covered “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.” As The Federalist’s Elle Purnell noted, “The pardon doesn’t just apply to the (comparatively) minor crimes the Special Counsel David Weiss reluctantly prosecuted, but the host of potential crimes, from money laundering to bribery to FARA violations, for which Hunter hasn’t been prosecuted.”
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood