Bank of China loaned $211 million to [redacted] for His real estate in 2012, loan comes due in 2022: why He’s the one who is “soft on China” because of his business dealings.

sleeping panda by Cimberley courtesy of pixabay.com

Politico reported today (April 24) that the Bank of China bankrolled a nearly $1 billion refinancing deal on a property in which [redacted] has a 30% stake– one of His most expensive pieces of real estate– in 2012, via a $211 million, ten-year loan that formed part of the package.  Sadly for Him, He is only a minority stakeholder in this real estate– so he has no control over the policies there and can’t put His name on the buildings.

Since He has been criticized for his weak, late response to the coronavirus crisis earlier this year, He has gone negative on China.  At first, he was full of praise for Xi Jinping, the head of the Chinese state.  Now he is blaming them for “covering up” the spread of the virus from its epicenter in Wuhan province.  In point of fact, by early January the Chinese government was allowing its scientists to report on key facts about the virus: its complete genetic sequence, a critical bit of information that informed efforts to create tests for, and drugs against, the virus.  Without actually saying so, the Chinese admitted that there was human-to-human spread.  The Chinese warned the rest of the world that the virus would be highly contagious.

There were things the Chinese government did that could be seen as a “cover-up”: they wouldn’t allow foreign experts from WHO into the country for several weeks.  They implicitly concealed the probable spread of the virus to four times the number of people who were officially reported.  They have taken other steps that, in retrospect, appear to be counter-propaganda: after American sources claimed that the virus was either deliberately or accidentally released from a major virology lab in Hubei, Wuhan, a Chinese government source put out a theory that American soldiers had delivered the virus to Wuhan in late 2019 during a military exercise.

There has been, to be sure, a major propaganda war between the US and China, with the new virus a focal point for attacks from both sides.  For example, I recently received in the mail a “newspaper” (unsolicited) from an American organization that was at least five double-sided, newspaper-sized pages with a layout closely resembling a conventional newspaper.  The entire “news” content of the paper consisted of scurrilous attacks on China, starting with the assertion that “the Chinese Communist Party” was responsible for deliberately infecting US citizens and sending them back here to spread the virus.  The content went downhill from there, and every single article consisted of a propaganda attack on China, particularly the Chinese Communist Party.  There were no ads except for offers to subscribe.  I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to find that the Americans (at least the Republican Party) are spending good money to spread disinformation among the credulous rural voters in Devin Nunes’ (the “farmer”) congressional district.

This paper is produced by the “Epoch Times”, which claims to be a non-profit organization and uses this claim to get a discount on postage.  The whole back page consisted of an ad offering a subscription and a request to share “CCPVirusTruth.com” “with at least 5 friends”.  In large print, scare headlines announced that this paper is “A Factual and Honest Newspaper” and “LIES KILL, TRUTH SAVES”– “HELP ALL AMERICANS SEE THROUGH THE CCP’s COVERUP”.  The headline on the front read, “How the Chinese Communist Party Endangered the World”.  Every single article in this already yellowing paper repeated another aspect of the propaganda claims central to Fox “News” and [redacted]’s attacks on China.

One article went so far as to claim that “21 million fewer Cellphone Users in China May Suggest a High Death Toll”.  The implication that over 20 million people in China have died from the novel coronavirus is staggering, not to mention incredible.

This type of propaganda is paid for by secret donations to Political Action Committees (PACs) tied to the Republican Party by like-minded individuals.  It is only one example of the monies spent to distract from, distort, and deny the facts on the ground.  These are attempts to instill fear and anger in the hearts of naive rural people.

Certainly the novel coronavirus originated in Wuhan, certainly local Communist Party officials initially attempted to cover up the existence of a new form of viral pneumonia.  But the authorities completely reversed themselves when higher-ups realized that a truly dangerous situation was at hand.  At first, a doctor was called into a police station and admonished for reporting (by the pre-authorized mechanism for reporting new diseases) cases of viral pneumonia that didn’t fit established patterns.

Two weeks later, his punishment was reversed and a formal apology was made to his family (after he died of the virus he warned about).  The complete genetic sequence of the virus’ RNA was published in record time by the virological institute that is the subject of negative propaganda now.  Its work was entirely confirmed by multiple outside labs in many other countries, and now forms the basis for many other sequences that show how the virus spread and mutated through-out the world.

The Republicans can complain that the Chinese government didn’t do a lot of things that would have been helpful to obtain complete transparency.  But if their critics had not piled on with false conspiracy theories and anti-Asian ethnic slurs, perhaps they would not have felt so much pressure to counter with conspiracy theories of their own.  At a time like this, when all of humankind is threatened by a new enemy, attacks against the very people who were trying their best to contain its spread are not helpful.

A final word about [redacted] and his obligations to a Chinese state bank: he has no business attacking Biden for being “soft on China” or claiming that his son Hunter profited from his connections to his father.  The connections turned out to be a bust for Hunter Biden.  He didn’t make any money from the failed deal with Chinese individuals who had business connections with the Chinese government.  All he made was a headache for his father, who did not personally intervene to help him and is now being pilloried for having the same name as his son.  That won’t stop the Republicans, of course.  They are out to throw as much mud as they can against the wall in the hopes that some of it will stick.

Now is a perilous time for [redacted].  Objective citizens (independent voters, not registered with either major party) can see that He continues to fail in His response to the crisis, and they are reacting with disgust.  His only plan is to double down on His attacks against American liberty and equality. He is increasing, quietly (while our attention is diverted by the crisis) His pernicious attempts to create more pollution and more global warming by repealing laws that were supposed to help reduce pollution and encourage our transition from fossil fuels to solar and wind energy.

You can expect to see more destruction of American institutions between now and the time Biden’s Democratic administration takes over in January 2021.  His minions will continue to subvert the Voice of America by trying to install a head who will create a propaganda arm of his re-election campaign.  He will continue to destroy protections for minority groups like LGBTQA people, full citizens who don’t deserve to be discriminated against by bigoted individuals.  He will continue to hollow out our international obligations like the support of WHO and foreign aid to countries seriously affected by the new virus.  In short, he will keep up the work he started in January 2017: an attempt to make America safe for plutocrats and billionaires, and dangerous for the lower 99% of our population.