Top Biden Allies Worked for Group With Close Ties to Chinese Communist Party
Experts worry National Committee on U.S.-China Relations could impact Biden administration policy
Top Biden allies including former Treasury secretary Jacob Lew and National Security Council official Kurt Campbell have done work for a nonprofit funded by companies like Facebook and Disney that is known for working closely with Chinese officials and Communist Party front groups.
Campbell, whom President Joe Biden tapped to run Asia policy at the National Security Council,
was a director at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations through May 2020. Lew, who served as Treasury secretary during the Obama-Biden administration, took over in January as chairman of the National Committee, which bills itself as an educational nonprofit that seeks open dialogue between Beijing and Washington. Lew, an
early endorser of Biden's presidential campaign,
reportedly met with Biden's team in 2020 to discuss economic policy.
One intelligence analyst who studies China's influence efforts in the West said that the National Committee's "soft-on-China" position helps open Chinese markets to the National Committee's corporate donors, a group of more than 50 companies that includes firms like BlackRock, Blackstone, Citigroup, and Mastercard. The National Committee is also likely to have access to the Biden administration, where it could advocate for closer economic ties to China.
"The National Committee is more that of a business league for U.S. companies in China [and] PRC companies in the U.S.," said Anders Corr, an intelligence analyst and editor of the
Journal of Political Risk.
Top Biden Allies Worked for Group With Close Ties to Chinese Communist Party - Washington Free Beacon